To be honest when I first clicked on The Vice Guide to Bigfoot for The Chattanooga Film Festival, I thought it was an actual Vice film. A few minutes it became apparent, that was gladly not the case. Director Zach Lamplugh dialed in the tone in perfectly for the modern news organization, while also highlighting the absurdity in some of its more click-bait-esque tactics. Like most left leaning folks, I watch a bit of Viceland on HBO and that first 15 minutes had me in tears in the most “it’s funny, because it’s true” way.
As the film begins we are introduced to our hopeless millennial Vice reporter Brian Emond.He’s tired of doing the brand’s hipster-eqsue exposes on craft beer and urban camping and wants to break into investigative network journalism. Instead, he’s shipped off to the forests of the South Appalachian Foothills of Georgia to hunt for bigfoot, with his producer/cameraman Zach Lamplugh. After they meet up with their Cryptozoologist/YouTuber guide Jeffrey Stephenson, who’s flawlessly channeling a younger Seth Rogan, the trio heads off into the woods after the mythical Sasquatch. After having a brush with the big guy their first night camping Brian decides to take his assignment a bit more seriously, as he follows the guide further into the forest to see what he can uncover.
Thanks to the Paranormal Activity boom, I thought it was impossible to do anything interesting in low budget found footage sub-genre. But the parody angle here works flawlessly, and when the film decides to swing for the fences, it hits it out of the park. Aided by a bitingly hilarious script that is equal parts smart and irreverent The Vice Guide to Bigfoot tackles its narrative with a dangerous meta self-awareness that rings true in this day and age of the relentlessly hungry 24-hour news cycle. Thanks to Covid-19 and the current state of things, we all could use a good laugh well you don’t have to look any further than The Vice Guide to Bigfoot for just that.
