Sawtooth Mountain (2026) Review – Misleading Slow-Burn Thriller

Welcome to Knockout Horror and to our review of Bigfoot themed horror, thriller Sawtooth Mountain (2026). You can find this movie completely free (with ads) on Tubi but if you are looking for Sasquatch style scares you might want to temper your expectations. Let’s take a look at why.

A Bit Misleading

We should probably get this out of the way with, straight off the bat. Sawtooth Mountain goes out of its way to market itself as a proper Bigfoot movie but that’s really not the case.

“Naturally, viewers going into this film expecting something of a creature feature are probably going to be quite disappointed.”

It’s set in the Pacific Northwest, a place famous for sightings, there’s the silhouette of a Sasquatch on the cover, and they explicitly refer to it as a “Bigfoot” movie on their social media posts. They also frame the trailer in such a way as to make it seem like a full blown ‘Squatch flick.

The truth is, it’s just a basic thriller with some Cryptid themed window dressing.

The story follows three college friends who head out to a holiday lodge that is marketed as a perfect Bigfoot spotting location. Run by two brothers of questionable character, their weekend turns into a nightmare after it becomes clear that everything isn’t quite as it seems.

Naturally, viewers going into this film expecting something of a creature feature are probably going to be quite disappointed. There’s almost nothing related to actual Bigfoot and the majority of the film plays out like your average young adult horror.

Director Matt Kincses is far more concerned with students partying and hanging out than he is with scaring the viewer. Indeed, it’s probably fair to say that the first 45 minutes or so of this movie are slow paced and really quite dull.

It’s fairly plodding

The lodge in question is owned and ran by a pair of “paranormal obsessed” brothers. They market the place as having a strong connection to Bigfoot sightings but visitors are far from enthusiastic. A barrage of poor reviews has lead them to consider drastic measures to “go viral” and encourage future customers.

“I was vaguely interested in where the story was going, purely to see whether it would ever fully transform into an actual Sasquatch movie. “

Don’t expect some carefully laid out con-job, though. This attempt to go viral is just about the most obvious thing you could possibly imagine and not at all compelling. It’s really just an excuse for escalation. It takes such a long time to get there, though.

The vast majority of the film consists of the students dancing awkwardly in their underwear, chatting shit, and cooking food while one of the brothers, Bobby (Landon Liboiron), attempts to navigate the bureaucracy of acquiring a loan to buy another paranormal hotspot.

Incidentally, Kincses seems to have a knack for getting his female stars to show their bums in weirdly out of place scenes; he did the exact same thing in the lacklustre Lost Vlog of Ruby Real.

Needless to say, it’s extremely slow and plodding. In some ways, I admire the restraint but those expecting leaps in storytelling and tension building are going to feel severely short changed. Sawtooth Mountain has to lay its cards out on the table so early in the film that it really struggles to maintain intrigue.

I wouldn’t say it is entirely awful, though. I was vaguely interested in where the story was going, purely to see whether it would ever fully transform into an actual Sasquatch movie.

A farcical final act

The final act really does descend into farce. Once the movie gives up the facade of being a Bigfoot flick, it turns into a full blown cat-and-mouse thriller. The way it gets there is utterly ridiculous, though.

The escalation from one moment to the next is hilariously over the top. One minute the students are enjoying their last night in the lodge, the next they are in a fight for their lives that extends over multiple days. All of it over something completely nonsensical.

It’s ludicrous and any element of tension is completely absent amidst an air of “what the hell just happened?”. Everyone involved makes the worst possible decision and then compounds the silliness by doubling down on said bad decisions.

It’s laughable! The script really takes a nose-dive from this point on, too. There’s a scene involving police officers later on where the dialogue is beyond stilted and awful. It feels weirdly tacked on and out of place.

The entire finale of the movie takes a turn towards the camp and it feels grossly at odds with what came before it. Sawtooth Mountain is a film with more than one identity crisis and I can’t help but feel like it should have probably leaned into the silliness from the get go or kept it severe and slow.

A few plus points

This isn’t a film completely devoid of positives, though.

“Sawtooth Mountain is a classic case of a poorly targeted film. It masquerades as a Bigfoot themed horror flick when, in reality, it’s a slow-burn thriller.”

The fact that Kincses seems to have grown as a director makes some of the shallowness of the story easier to tolerate. Scenery here is absolutely gorgeous and the shots are considered and fairly well thought out.

Pacing is obviously a big problem and the last 20 minutes of the movie fall off the edge of a cliff, but there are glimpses of promise scattered throughout. This feels like a higher budget production than it probably is and there is the skeleton of an interesting story somewhere in here.

There’s some okay acting, as well. Matreya Scarrwener, as Liv, is very natural and enthusiastic which helps to make up for some of the occasional lethargy from her costars. She even seems to enjoy dancing around in her underwear which goes some way to making that scene feel a little less ridiculous.

I spent the first half of the movie wondering where I had seen Landon Liboiron before, only to remember that he was the Edward Cullen-like werewolf dude in the awful The Howling: Reborn (2011) that we talked about in our list of recent werewolf themed horror.

He’s actually pretty good and seems the most experienced of the cast by a long way. The only actor who stands out in a bad way is Gabriel Carter who somehow manages to be the most wooden thing on screen in a movie set in a forest.

Sawtooth Mountain is a classic case of a poorly targeted film. It masquerades as a Bigfoot themed horror flick when, in reality, it’s a slow-burn thriller. Those of you who like the sound of that and want to support indie movies, give it a go. Everyone else will probably find themselves either miss-sold or simply disappointed.

Our Scoring Philosophy: A Fair Fight

Horror is a genre that thrives thanks to indie film makers and low budget creators. At Knockout Horror, we firmly believe that every movie that we review deserves a fair fight. That's why we grade on a curve. Our star ratings are all about context, judging a film on what it achieves with the resources it has.

A 4-star rating for a scrappy indie horror made for $10,000 is a testament to its ingenuity and raw power. A 4-star rating for a $100 million blockbuster means it delivered on its epic promises. We don't compare them side-by-side; we celebrate success in every weight class, from the back-alley brawler to the heavyweight champion. Please keep this in mind when considering star ratings.