After his fiancée is taken by something in the night, Tyler Laird, an ex-soldier with nothing to lose, ventures back into the woods of the Pacific Northwest to find answers about her disappearance. When his car is brutally attacked and disabled by some kind of massive creature, Tyler is discovered by a mysterious hunter named Eli who might hold the answers to which Tyler seeks. Together the two struggle to survive while being hunted by a creature of legendary notoriety: Bigfoot.

I’m not a fan of Bigfoot films. Okay, when I was a kid I enjoyed Harry and the Hendersons. But, generally I have not found them to be for me. I went into Big Legend expecting to not like it and the best I was hoping for was that it would inspire me with clever ways to tear it down. Now having watched the film I can say that I didn’t hate it. However, I can really decide how I felt about it other than I didn’t hate it.

Ex-soldier Tyler Laird (Kevin Makely) has taken his girlfriend Natalie (Summer Spiro) on a special camping trip. Special because he intends to propose. She accepts and happily puts on his ring. That happiness fades when strange noises outside their tent makes Natalie concerned. Figuring it’s probably a bear prowling around, Tyler goes out to check. After discovering an odd tower of stacked rocks, he hears Natalie scream as something has grabbed hold of the tent, dragging it away with Natalie still inside.

One year later, after completing time in a psychiatric ward, Tyler is encouraged by his mother (Adrienne Barbeau) to head back to the woods and find out what happened to Natalie. After his truck is attacked by the same creature he suspects took Natalie, he is befriended by a hunter named Eli (Todd A Robinson) who is looking for the very same monster.

Writer/Director Justin Lee, clearly takes a lot of inspiration from Jaws. Tyler is Chief Brody and Eli is Matt Hooper and their relationship as they are on the hunt is very similar. For most of the film, the creature is barely seen as we only catch slight glimpses of it. However, its presence is felt throughout. These similarities to Jaws definitively increased my opinion of the film. Particularly because it felt more that Lee was paying tribute to Jaws rather than simply ripping it off.

In addition to Jaws, Lee also seems to have oddly found inspiration from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The end of the film features a Samuel L Jackson-esque cameo from Lance Henricksen as Jackson Wells. Wells is there to recruit Tyler for a team he is putting together to fight monsters.

Generally these kinds of lower budgeted monster movies are pretty weak on writing and performances but overall that’s not the case here. The writing is pretty solid and the performances of the central characters are also pretty strong. Additionally, the creature work in Big Legend is really very well done outside of one scene where it ducks behind a tree. This was the only moment where it felt just like a guy in suit that was trying to get out of the shot.

I started off this review by stating that I really wasn’t sure how I felt about Big Legend. But as I have reflected back on the film I think I can safely say that I was impressed by it. I would also say I think I genuinely liked it. The film teases that Tyler Laird and Jack Wells will return in The Monster Chronicles and I think I will join them.