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Film: The Skunk Ape Experiments: Issue #1
Year: 2022
Director: Stacy Brown Jr.
Starring: Joey Badia, Bill Brock and James Brost
Review:
This is the first episode of what looks to be a docuseries that I got the chance to see as a screener from Justin Cook. Looking over the press release, this is following the first three films of the liv-action, graphic-novel series that follows OutKast Paranormal. This is a rag-tag group of Florida Men, as they tackle experiments in hoping to find proof of a Florida Bigfoot aka Skunk Ape.
For a bit more background information on this group, there is Stacy Brown Jr. who has done The Skunk Ape Lives as well as ‘Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty’. He is also the director of this project. He is joined by Ryan ‘RPG” Golembeske of ‘Finding Bigfoot’ and the Travel Channel’s ‘Expedition Bigfoot’. They also have James Brost who is a paranormal researcher. They lead three different investigations that we get introduced to during this episode.
What I will say is that this intrigued me. I’m not sure if it fully worked for me like they wanted though. This runs 57 minutes and introduces us to the different things they want to explore. This includes a walk through the Myakka River State Park at night to flush out the Skunk Ape and get it on camera. Another one is interviewing a man who lives out here and claims to meet these creatures regularly. He even believes he can speak with them. The last one is going to Crowley Museum where they are performing different experiments take place. There are multiple things going on here for how short this is.
This leads me to my issue. I didn’t realize while watching this that it is just episode one of show. By the end, I was left wanting more and was confused as to why more wasn’t fleshed out. They are exploring some interesting things and this is different from other shows like this I’ve seen. That first and second story are things that I’ve seen before. I used to watch shows like this in college during my downtime. I’ve also gotten a taste of the last one, but they do some wild things like having RPG take hallucinogenic mushrooms and stare into a mirror. This experiment is to relay what he can see. It also seems like something that others have done as well, supposedly allowing those that do it to see into other dimensions.
To just get into the filmmaking aspects briefly, as I think this is well made. This is a documentary. I think it is shot well. There are some cheesy inserts, but I won’t hold that against this show. They also do re-enactments as well. This isn’t great, but it also doesn’t hurt the product either. I don’t necessarily believe everything that they do or what is being said, but they are taking it seriously which I appreciate.
What I will give credit here is for this group out there and making this reality television/docuseries. They have good personalities and I’d probably watch more episodes of this. The only downfall is that they might be doing a bit too much. Since this is a series, there is more time to flesh things out. There are interesting ideas that are introduced and have my attention for sure. It is funny as well that the press material is pushing the idea that they’re ‘Florida Men’, meaning that they’re crazy. This is a fast watch that I enjoyed my time with. Leaving me hanging at the end left me wanting more for sure.
My Rating: 6 out of 10