Upfront, I feel I need to say that I had never seen Cry Wilderness until it appeared in one of episodes of new MST3K. Regardless, I will be as objective as possible. I'm not one of those who thinks a movie is necessarily bad for appearing on MST3K. Some of the films on the show are actually very good and enjoyable on their own. Unfortunately, Cry Wilderness isn't one of them.

In short, Cry Wilderness is a mess of a movie. What little plot there is concerns an annoying little boy who receives a warning from Bigfoot that his father is in danger. This thin thread of a plot doesn't really hold the film together, however. The movie consists of a series of unrelated scenes haphazardly put together. The acting ranges from bad to downright atrocious. Continuity is non- existent. Characters go from one location to a completely different location in seconds. The mystical hokum of the old Native American and his band of animals is ridiculously presented. And Bigfoot is a disaster. The costume isn't even complete. On the positive side, there are some nice animal-in- nature type shots, but that's about it. Overall, a lowly 2/10 from me.

Little boy Paul (an earnest and engaging performance by Eric Foster) befriends a friendly Bigfoot (burly Tom Folkes in a goofy looking suit). Meanwhile, Paul's forest ranger dad Will (overplayed with eye-rolling panache by Maurice Grandmaison) and several others venture out into the woods to capture an escaped tiger. Man, does this flick register as a definite head-scratching oddity: Director/co-writer Jay Schlossberg-Cohen and co-writer Philip Yordan clumsily blend sappy sentiment, cutesy animal antics (a family of adorable comic relief raccoons rampaging in a kitchen needs to be seen in order to be believed), and standard, but pretty tense and absorbing trekking through the woods action adventure thrills into a truly baffling oddball affair. And if that isn't kooky enough, our beefy Sasquatch drinks Coca-Cola and enjoys listening to rock music. Moreover, the adult actors ham it up like nobody's business, with John Tallman as jolly Native American Jim, Griffin Casey as obnoxious musclehead big game hunter Morgan Hicks, and Navarre Perry as jerky teacher Mr. Douglas rating as the most flagrant histrionic offenders of the bunch. Naturally, there's also lots of footage of animals in the wilderness and, surprisingly, a good deal of tension as well. Joseph D. Urbancyk's slick cinematography makes the most out of the breathtaking sylvan scenery. Fritz Heede's mechanically bouncy synthesizer score adds to the overall loopiness. A real curio.

A Bigfoot-type creature befriends Paul, a young student. His father is a park ranger trying to capture an escaped tiger. Everyone in town is on edge and wants the tiger killed. David tries to keep Bigfoot a secret.

Maybe 3 is a little high to rate this film, but I don't feel right giving it a 1 or 2. Unlike some truly awful messes, it never suffers from the biggest sin a movie can make: boredom. The nonsense of the plot and background actually sort of helps. Coherent? No. But all the more entertaining.

What was most interesting to find out is that a couple of the actors involved have actually appeared in real, very successful films. How they were tricked into this (beyond the easy paycheck) is really beyond me.