"Blair Witch" Director's Bigfoot Flick "Exists" and It's Almost Here!

The long wait for Eduardo Sanchez's bigfoot movie "Exists" is almost over. It will be screening this weekend, June 28, 2014, in Frederick, Maryland. Check out this great interview with Sanchez about the film.

So why a Bigfoot movie?

Bigfoot scared the crap out of me when I was a kid. I was always kind of looking for a good, scary Bigfoot movie that delivers, but I was disappointed. There are some good Bigfoot movies out there, but nothing that I thought brought the creature to life the way I saw it in my head. I wrote this $80 million Bigfoot movie, and no one was going finance that. Then I wrote a lower budget one. Then I wrote a really cheap Bigfoot movie, and that’s what “Exists” is. It’s cheap in the standards of most Hollywood movies, but it’s not a cheap film. The thing that I’m excited about for “Exists” is the creature looks really good; it’s kind of the main mission I had when I was making the movie.

“Blair Witch” was also a low-budget film. Do enjoy doing these lower budgeted movies?

Yeah, I do. Not that I don’t want to do bigger budget movies, but I think that there’s a certain freedom (with low-budget films). There’s a little less pressure and it’s more challenging; you have to be more inventive. The problem with lower budgets is you can’t pay yourself very much, you can’t pay the people that are helping you what they’re worth, so you have to work everything for when the movie comes out and hope it makes profits. That’s the only disadvantage, but it’s definitely more of a family feeling.

So what do you believe when it comes to Bigfoot? It seems like a part of you is definitely suspicious.

As a kid, I really did believe in it, but it gets to the point, you’re like ‘Well, if it was out there, they would have found bones or some sort of proof,’ especially in the United States. But there are still some really isolated places in the world, so I’m still hoping that there’s something. But the thing I love about it is even though you sit there and you’re like, ‘Where the hell’s it going to live, how the hell’s nobody been able to capture one, all the footage is blurry and far away and out of focus,’ but then you have all these really credible eye-witnesses from people that I know. The guy that was doing the stunt coordination for “Exists” pulled me aside and said he saw Bigfoot with his wife years ago in Minnesota. So there’s things like that — and I run into that all the time.

I’ve heard you aren’t the biggest horror fan, and yet here comes another horror film. Do you enjoy this genre? What else would you like to do?

When I was growing up, I never thought I’d be doing horror movies. I love Bigfoot, and I love aliens and I love Loch Ness Monster — I love all the mysterious stuff — and I love horror as far as movies are concerned. I just love movies. I love every genre. Once “Blair Witch” blew up and became our calling card, it’s very hard to get out of that. But it’s a good place to be stuck, because you can do a lot in horror; there are all kinds of sub-genres. You can do monsters, you can do aliens, comedies, action, straight drama. Eventually I’d like to do a straight action movie, maybe a comedy, but I’m pretty happy where I am.”

For the rest of the interview, click here.