Documentary filmmaker Seth Breedlove's "On the Trail of Bigfoot" will be screened at the Canton Palace Theatre on Friday.

CANTON The last great mystery.

Bigfoot ... Sasquatch ... wild man ... wood ape ... forest giant.

Seth Breedlove, a prolific indie-style filmmaker and documentarian in the genre of the bizarre and unexplained, doggedly pursues an answer to the riddle of whether such an undiscovered creature exists in his latest and perhaps most ambitious project to date, "On the Trail of Bigfoot."

Portions of the episodic film will premiere at 8 p.m. Friday at the Canton Palace Theatre. Admission is $5. Doors open at 7:30 p.m for the two-hour viewing.

Narratively, the project is both immersive and intriguing. Visually, the cinematography is sweeping and gorgeous, capturing the scope and beauty of remote and uncharted wilderness. And the six-part miniseries is exhaustively researched and often scholarly when meticulously explaining the history of creature sightings dating to early settlers and Native Americans.

"On the Trail of Bigfoot" echoes Breedlove's past films, telling a story that never loses focus of the people whose lives are swallowed up in the pursuit of a bipedal cryptid.

Over the course of a year he embarked on a sprawling cinematic odyssey, from Tuscarawas County to the Pacific Northwest to the Ouachita Mountains in Southeastern Oklahoma to the Ohio-Kentucky border.

The subject matter obviously isn't new or unexplored. But his clear-eyed approach and distinctive style are refreshing and serve as a palate cleanser of sorts for a topic so easily mocked and spoofed. No reckless sensationalism, no agenda hellbent on proving the creature's existence regardless of evidence to the contrary.

Deep into the wilderness

The Bolivar native first delved into the subject with his inaugural 2015 documentary, "Minerva Monster," chronicling the sightings of a thick-haired creature in Stark County in the late 1970s.

What's new is the insertion of Breedlove's own experience and perspective.

During the thread of films, he admits to his own mounting frustration with a subject reliant almost exclusively on eyewitness accounts. So Breedlove advances his quest, deciding he must journey to an area where the creature is most likely to reside, shadowing a band of Sasquatch sleuths (the North American Wood Ape Conservancy) on a stakeout in an isolated swath of Oklahoma.

Filming takes viewers deep into the wilderness. Twigs snap underfoot. Leaves canvas the terrain. Verdant forests sprawl into the distance. Mist clouds the panoramic landscape. Breedlove accomplishes this on a roughly $5,000 budget, writing, directing, narrating and editing the series while co-producing it with his wife, Adrienne, as part of the Wadsworth-based Small Town Monsters production company.

Special effects and vivid renderings are used sparingly to add a haunting element without being campy. Enhancing the visuals is an intensely moody, atmospheric soundtrack by Brandon Dalo.

Approaching the subject with journalistic neutrality, steadfast objectivity and insatiable curiosity, Breedlove doesn't personally shy away from the question of whether Bigfoot is real. He's not a believer. He's not a disbeliever. He's a skeptic who takes eyewitness accounts and the research of investigators seriously.

And he asks obvious questions that other Bigfoot-focused films may dodge or ignore: How can a creature standing between 7 and 10 foot tall and weighing 300 to 600 pounds elude tangible detection for decades? How can this supposed creature be reported in every state despite varying habitats, climate and topography? And why isn't there a dead body?

In his broader examination of the subject, fringe theories are acknowledged but not embraced. Bigfoot traveling to Earth on a UFO. Sasquatch and the paranormal. Bigfoot stepping out of an interdimensional portal. And for viewers who are equally skeptical and value critical thinking it's a welcomed, levelheaded approach.

Strange occurrences

Midway through the series, after years of eyewitness interviews and research in the field, Breedlove becomes conflicted on whether Bigfoot is a realistic possibility. So he joins the wood ape conservancy investigators on the expedition to an area cloaked in mystique and simply known as Area X.

A narrow and primitive nine-mile road on the side of a mountain leads to what NAWAC considers to be ground zero for an unknown primate. Rattlesnakes, bears, mountain lions and black widows inhabit the secluded zone. Investigators scour the terrain and call out at night in hopes of evoking a beastly response. Their stated goal is to kill a wood ape for scientific study and affirmation.

A primate isn't shot but an armed camouflaged member of the group shares a testimonial of what he says was a tense staredown with one shielded behind trees.

More strange occurrences defy explanation. Audio recordings of mysterious sounds howled out from pitch-black woods. Glowing or self-illuminated eyes peering from coal-like darkness.

Breedlove isn't instantly converted from grounded skeptic to ardent believer. But he's accepting of the notion the creature is more than myth.

"I'd come to think that maybe there is nothing to this phenomenon," he says flatly in the concluding episode, "but here in the darkened forests of North America, something is not quite as it should be — these creatures that are scoffed at by science and being parodied in popular culture are being seen by hundreds of people, and here on the edges of a vanishing wilderness, human beings are encountering a thing that does not fit within the parameters of man's knowledge."

"On the Trail of Bigfoot" is informative, serious-minded and compelling. Through intimate camerawork the viewer joins the hunt. There are moments of suspense reminiscent of a page-turning novel. There are moments when a viewer may ponder whether a hoax could have been perpetrated on Breedlove during the most riveting highlights of the films. There are moments when the viewer may be surprised at the high quality and precise execution of a low-budget series devoted to Bigfoot.

Breedlove certainly doesn't settle the question of whether Sasquatch is real or not. That is a daunting, likely unachievable task. Unless one believes the lack of a Bigfoot corpse and convincing YouTube video have already put the issue to rest.

Others believe the answer, the truth is still out there, waiting to be discovered. As Breedlove says in his steady, efficient narration: Just beyond the tree line, just behind the shadows...

Reach Ed at 330-580-8315 and ed.balint@cantonrep.com

On Twitter @ebalintREP