You know, I appreciate a good shot in the dark every once in a while. A filmmaker who just is willing to go completely outside of the box, building himself a new box, and doing his own thing. You need to understand that Sasquatch Sunset is not for everyone. It just isn’t. But, what it is, is certainly not derivative. It isn’t another superhero movie, or a sequel, or a remake. It’s not a prequel. It is an original work through and through, and there has to be something said for that. At the end of the day, this is a big swing. It wasn’t a home run, but a grand swing indeed.

Sasquatch Sunset is directed by the Zellner brothers, who have a very similar thought process as The Daniels. A big comparison, but I could totally see The Daniels making this film in a post-Swiss Army Man world, but a pre-EEAAO period. It might have been a little better, and a little more focused, but this feels on brand.

Basically, this is a dialogue free affair. For us blind folk, we have audio description, which is produced by deluxe, and narrated by William Michael Redman. It’s pretty much a lock for one of the top 10 audio description tracks of the year, because the entire film is audio description. I do like to see a film at the top that is able to blend heavy and difficult audio description with at least some dialogue, which is why my pick last year for the best ultimately was John Wick Chapter 4, but the value of the audio description for Sasquatch Sunset cannot be understated.

The movie is about a family of sasquatches, including heavily made up Riley Keogh and Jesse Eisenberg, who resemble some human traits, but also are decidedly very feral versions of us. They live in the wild, and this imagines what that would be like if sasquatches were real, and how they would exist. What would their family structure look like? How do they live? Do they hunt? Everything will be answered.

This is where the film gets a little into their own weeds, is that it can’t seem to break from the structure, but also can’t decide if it is a comedy or not. Some moments seem tailored to comedy, while others are moments you might find in sad nature documentaries. There’s some sex, nudity, pooping, and anything one could imagine from wild sasquatches. Some of it feels intentionally profound, as Riley Keogh’s Sasquatch sometimes just stares off like she’s pondering life, and other parts of it are less so, as one Sasquatch ogles her persistently visible breasts.

Redman’s audio description is so good. There’s plenty of room for detail, and the full advantage is taken. Even though there’s no dialogue, I understood this from beginning to end. This isn’t just a film I would give the grade of unwatchable to if I saw it without audio description simply because I felt like parts were missing, this film is textbook unwatchable for the blind and visually impaired without it. Don’t even bother. There’s nothing for you if you don’t get the audio description. I pulled it from VOD, but if you find it on a streaming service later somehow without it, I’m telling you not to bother.

It’s not boring, but I also can’t really say I actually enjoyed it. There’s too much push and pull in terms of comedy and drama, and it didn’t quite feel like a nature doc.

Final Grade: C