Big Legend

Big Legend

The field of cryptozoology has always fascinated me. I would watch shows like So Weird, The X-Files and Lost Tapes, learning about Bigfoot, and ordering every single Bigfoot movie I could find in Walmart or Best Buy. Bumble the Barbary ape is the only reason I would watch Reindeer movie by Rankin/Bass every Christmas, and recording it as a child would repeat it unfailingly. In other words, ostentatious claims don’t work well with me, I enjoy watching the latest evidence of the cryptozoology cult, and Justin Lee’s first Big Legend film makes an impression.

Justin Lee may be a newcomer in the industry, but his latest film, BIG LEGEND, a story which he also wrote, certainly doesn’t diminish the expectations of the future endeavors of this skilled director. It is part of the genre of Bigfoot’s legend, which seems over packed yet audiences expect more and more from it as the genre doesn’t get old. The film moves toward the Gifford Pinchot National Forest at Mount St. Helens and introduces a couple, Tyler and Natalie, who go on a camping trip that they intend to be the first of many romantic getaways.

Almost all of Tyler’s (Kevin Makely’s) ex-military ranger colleagues do not believe in a successful relationship with a woman, which makes Tyler’s wish to take Natalie (Summer Spiro) to the woods and return with an engagement ring quite puzzling. His life however takes a turn for the worst as he passes through significant trauma. After all, something did take Natalie, and even a year of extensive psychiatric therapy couldn’t cure Tyler’s mental sufferings.

More impressive is how the sound and the dialogue are woven throughout the film. In the end, the more films I consume, the more I am taught about the dynamics of sound, how it can make a film better, or make it completely wretched. In this case, the score by Jared Forman, the spoken parts, sounds (as well as silence in some cases), were very well constructed, applied and came over the scene; Some complete silence or a very soft ambient noise of the woods at the right moment put me in the edge and made me feel scared of what was thinking of hiding somewhere within the trees. Limited exposure of sound or dialogue can be daunting but effective, however, it is one of the most difficult things to achieve in a film since it is often abused.

In some instances, however, such as in John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place or Lynne Ramsey’s You Were Never Really Here (two films I personally consider masterpieces), it enhances the experience in a very captivating and quite original fashion and I think Justin Lee accomplishes that as well in BIG LEGEND. Also, for the last w appreciating anything in this film, I was quite impressed with practical effects used by Angela Bulmer; practical effects, as a rule, are better than CGI. I just love the nostalgia imbued in seeing a practical, tangible monster and BIG LEGEND delivered on that front as well.

BIG LEGEND is a mix between myth of cryptids, revenge, artsy adventure in search of the hidden treasure and has a satisfying conclusion, the type that gets you excited and makes you go “YAAASSSS!”. Justin Lee will not stop there, as he doesn’t have single plan of expanding the universe on BIG LEGEND simply because he has a mountain of ideas, thus the adventures can progress and I’m all up for it.

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