January 16

There are a ton of documentaries about the existence of or lack thereof of the legendary creature known as Bigfoot. I have seen several docs on the topic. Being a Bigfoot aficionado, I enjoy the docs and shows of the creature. So this Genre-ary, I found a doc on HBO MAX called Bigfoot: Fear in the Woods, a part of a doc series called Shock Docs, and I wanted to put it on the list.

I do believe in the existence of Bigfoot, but there are some way out there theories about the cryptid. Some of those theories were given some mention on this doc, but, the ideas that were more odd were not given much depth. The idea that Bigfoot is an alien from outer space or were violent cannibalistic animals that live in caves beneath the earth’s surface is mentioned, but there is not a ton of details presented to support such bizarre ideas.

However, there are some cool things in the doc that are much more possible. I did enjoy the discussion on the first plaster casts that were made in Bluff Creek, California by a man named Ray Wallace. Some of this section was a fascinating piece of this documentary.

Even more intriguing was the information about 300 elongated skulls that had been discovered in a grave in Paracus, Peru in 1928. It was initially believed that the skulls came from tribal head binding, but the absence of the sagittal suture, “a dense, fibrous connective tissue joint between the two parietal bones of the skull.” (Wikipedia), have made some wonder what the true nature of these skulls were. This whole section about the Peru skulls was very interesting and made some sense.

Of course, I do not know what the doc may have left out, detail wise, in order to make their narrative fit. Still, this was a neat concept that I had not heard of before.

In the end, this doc did not provide anything startlingly new or mind blowing, but it did keep the concept of Bigfoot alive and well, even if there is no true evidence that such a creature ever existed.