As a kid, two types of monsters fascinated me: the fictitious creatures in black & white Universal horror movies, and the “other” ones such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, who were possibly not so fictitious. It was great reading about all those eyewitness accounts and staring at those blurry one-of-a-kind photos. These days, Bigfoot and Nessie have all but been exhausted as far as research subjects go, and it seems they were nothing more than myth. (Well, that or they’re dead and rotting). Enter “MonsterQuest,” a 13 episode documentary series from the History Channel for the true believer, packing a slew of all-new urban legends such as Russia’s Killer Apemen, The Real Hobbit, and Gigantic Killer Fish. The problem is that we live in an age where even the most insignificant events, never mind the image of a mythical creature, seem to be snapped by someone’s camera; when something happens, somebody is there to get a picture of it. When listening to a teenager swear she and her friends saw three Bigfoot-type creatures in the woods, I wonder why nobody whipped out a cell phone. Given the technology at everyone’s fingertips these days, if these creatures existed, they’d be found, and that’s a depressing statement from someone who was genuinely jazzed by this sort of fare as a kid. In all fairness, the Giant Squid episode delivers the goods; you may even recall it hitting the news some time ago. Other than that instance, “MonsterQuest” is light on evidence, but to be fair, it’s as well put together as most anything from the History Channel. If you’re just interested in the lore, it’s worth your time, and it would no doubt stimulate the mind of the 10-year old in your life who really wants to believe. If this doesn’t work some magic, there’s always “The Water Horse.”
