| Cry Wilderness | |
| Director: | Jay Schlossberg-Cohen |
| Producer: | Jay Schlossberg-Cohen |
| Starring: | Eric Foster Maurice Grandmaison John Tallman |
| Music: | Fritz Heede |
| Cinematography: | Joseph D. Urbanczyk |
| Studio: | Visto International Inc. |
| Distributor: | Visto International Inc. |
| Runtime: | 93 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Cry Wilderness is a 1987 family adventure film directed by Jay Schlossberg-Cohen.
Bigfoot (running away from those trying to kill him) befriends a young Californian boy named Paul whose park ranger father is tracking an escaped tiger.[1] [2]
Cry Wilderness was written by Philip Yordan with an estimated 100 writing credits in film since the 1940s, including 1945's Dillinger, the 1955 film noir classic The Big Combo, the 1962 film adaptation of The Day of the Triffids, and the 1964 Anthony Mann epic The Fall of the Roman Empire. In 1986, Yordan was hired by production company Visto International to make a Bigfoot movie, with the company having previously made a Sasquatch movie in 1978 that made a $4 million profit on a $150,000 budget. Writing the script became difficult for Yordan as he was told to cut out horror scenes and be restricted from adding any violence, profanity, or sex. These restrictions resulted in the script writer telling the distributor he would be writing a movie about nothing, to which the distributor acknowledged that is what they wanted.
Location shooting occurred at Balboa Park in San Diego, Mono Lake in Mono County, California and Devils Postpile National Monument in Madera County, California.[3] The museum scene in the film was shot in the Children's Museum of Utah.[4]
The 1988 edition of The Motion Picture Guide gave the film zero stars, describing it as "an inane and poorly made feature", criticizing its acting while Eric Harwood for Variety called it one of the worst movies ever made.[5] Dave DeNaui for The Bellingham Herald panned the film for its acting, story and dialogue, declaring the film to be "the worst film in five decades".[6]
The film was re-released on DVD in 2014 by Vinegar Syndrome alongside the 1970s documentary film In Search of Bigfoot.[7]
In 2017, the film was the subject of parody by Mystery Science Theater 3000, as the second episode of Season Eleven.[8] Emily St. James for Vox considered the movie to be "so preposterous" it didn't need to be riffed.[9] Paste's Jim Vorel, on the other hand, ranked it as the second best episode of season eleven, behind Wizards of the Lost Kingdom.[10]