One of the most eerie and unsettling pieces of evidence wheeled out as proof that the cryptozoological marvel sasquatch or Bigfoot is totes real is the grainy movie that supposedly shows the big furry lunk stalking through some woods near California. Except it's a total fake, a forgery that's been debunked numerous times. The Patterson-Gimlin film was taken on October 20, 1967, and is quite clearly a dude in a suit. It inspired that hella creepy scene in Signs, the M Night Shylmalan movie where aliens invade Earth only to realise they're allergic to water (couldn't tell that from space huh), and in isolation it's still an effectively weird bit of filmmaking. As evidence of supernatural phenomena, though? Eh. It's a hoax. Roger Patterson died of cancer in 1972, whilst Robert Gimlin has mostly avoided publicly discussing the subject, but both maintained they totally met a real bigfoot. No less an expert on special make up effects than Stan Winston - known for his work on the first three Jurassic Park films and Predator - summed it up simply as "it's a guy in a bad fur suit, sorry!"
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
