Night Claws

 

If you check out Apex-Predator expect Cliché City. A Bigfoot is on the loose in the wilds of Mobile County, Alabama, and a number of individuals who encounter it become dismembered victims. The mayor wants the sheriff to find this thing before the big pumpkin festival, an anthropologist (and her assistant) are given government clearance to seek out the s’quatch, a trio of bounty hunters are out to get that monster for their own personal gain, and a mob of locals seem to be on the verge of descending into the wilderness to kill that thing before it harms their own. A “survivalist” tour guide and city slickers go into the woods to learn how to survive in the wild absent creature comforts (pun intended), and the s’quatch doesn’t waste much time trying to make mincemeat out of them. So this creature feature complies with the formula, including a man in a furry costume, prosthetic body parts that look as if bought from a novelty store, and kooky characters making up the locals of the setting. Guess what? The sheriff and his deputies (along with the anthropologist) are out to hunt the monster themselves as the mob is held at bay because they don’t want to be arrested. But despite the sheriff’s warning, two idiots with beer in the back of their truck plan to have a party in the woods…some more fodder for the beast.

 

If you enjoy lame Bigfoot movies with a costume creature that has a face made to imitate a type of ape, characters known to populate these films (the hunter out for a species certain to bring him notoriety, couple who make out at the opening of the film that are first in line to be clawed, the scientist who studies and searches for new beings, the law enforcement not quite ready for something this bloodthirsty and savage, partying kids not prepared for a monster to crash their shindig, and tourists at the wrong place at the wrong time), and no-budget gore effects that will tickle your funny bone more than repulse you, Apex-Predator is perhaps a fun waste of 80 minutes.

 

The end of this film becomes ridiculous in its unnecessary plot developments. There’s a sudden transformation where one of the characters just happens to be an actual hired assassin in the disguise of another profession, Frank Stallone appears as a father seeking vengeance for the murder of his son during a black ops situation, the sheriff is dispatched by someone he trusts (and it really didn’t even need to happen; she could have just knocked him out) as he is about to question the hunter, and a survivor just walks after his/her job is done into the wilderness seemingly forgetting that the Bigfoot is out there, and we see that there may be more than one. This is the kind of movie that has no reason to be so convoluted. This is a Bigfoot movie, and the added twists ultimately factor little that make the end results any more interesting. Stallone’s part—and actually the hunter’s—seemed stuck in the film just so someone with a name (even if of the C-level variety in actors) would be listed in the cast, and the encounter of mad father and the man responsible for his son's death seem meant for a completely different movie. The hunter and his prey never converge as the film seems to be building towards. There wasn’t the money in the budget, either, to really give us some bang for the buck in regards to limbs torn off or throats ripped out. The best we get are some mangled faces. Consider this on par with something like Creature with Sid Haig, except without the hot babes to ogle. You do have odd character moments like this asshole with an ax to grind and his bimbo wife who seems content with his thuggish need to fight people and a moment where he frees himself from being a kidnap victim only to turn his back on her despite how she aided him in disarming one of the hunters. The survivalist guide seems like a ready-made candidate for outwitting the s'quatch due to her training, yet she is removed from the film rather early.

Just so I wouldn't ruin the surprise (not that it will be all that awesome for viewers), I have added full view of the Bigfoot in the Image Gallery on my blog. So if you just don't want to bother with this film (it has like a 2/10 on imdb), you can go ahead and take a look at the thing.