Co-Ed Fever

Bill Nugent, an anthropology professor, is approached by Carla Thomas, a young woman whose father was murdered in the woods in Northern California. She suspects that his death was caused by a Bigfoot who, according to legend, resides in the woods in the region. Despite many disappearances and brutal murders–including the death of a young couple, the manual emasculation of a biker, and the butchering of two Girl Scouts–police have deemed the theory of a Bigfoot being responsible a hoax. Carla requests to accompany Bill along with four of his students—Roy, Pete, Gary, and Linda—on an expedition aiming to prove Bigfoot's existence. They embark by boat along a river and first camp on the property of an elderly man, Lou Carlson, who has claimed to have witnessed Bigfoot. Lou allows them to stay, but is evasive when they attempt to speak to him. When one of the students, Roy, bribes Lou with alcohol, Lou suggests they seek out Wanda, a recluse who resides deep in the woods and supposedly holds more information about Bigfoot. Meanwhile, a hunter camping nearby is attacked and impaled by the Bigfoot on a jagged branch. The next day, Nugent and his 5 companions visit the nearby town, where they glean from locals more information about Wanda: She is the daughter of a deranged preacher, Emmet McGinty, whose followers were rumored to engage in inbreeding, cannibalism, and human sacrifice. Emmet has since committed suicide. After learning of this, the group returns to the woods. After the group had fallen asleep that night, they were awoken by chanting. Bill and Roy follow the sound and stumble upon a Satanic sexual ritual involving Wanda around an effigy of Bigfoot; among the practitioners is a local sheriff. Bill interrupts the ritual by firing a gun, causing the cultists to scatter. In the morning, Bill and the others find their boat missing, with large footprints on the shore. After making plaster casts of the footprints, they push onward. That night, the Bigfoot attacks Linda and Gary while the two have sex, but they survive. The group eventually reaches Wanda's cabin, bribing her with candy, but she has a nervous breakdown when the Bigfoot is mentioned. That night, Pete is attacked by the Bigfoot, who causes him to shoot himself with his rifle. The others attempt to locate Pete but find he has disappeared. Bill decides to hypnotise Wanda the next day, causing her to recall her abusive childhood: As a teenager, the Bigfoot brutally raped Wanda, an event Emmet had witnessed in horror. Convinced the beast was a demon, Emmet attempted to induce an abortion by forcing Wanda to drink poison. Wanda eventually gave birth to the mutant half-human child, but Emmet killed it moments after its birth. In retaliation, Wanda killed her father, staging it to look like a suicide. Hoping to find evidence of Wanda's Bigfoot child, Bill explores a nearby cemetery and digs up the infant Bigfoot's skeletal remains. Bigfoot appears in the graveyard and abducts its dead spawn as Bill and the others barricade themselves in Wanda's cabin. Hours later, the Bigfoot hangs Pete's mutilated body on the porch before breaking into the home. Ignoring a dissonantly calm Wanda, the Bigfoot strangles Carla to death as the others shut themselves in the kitchen. The Bigfoot breaks into the kitchen, where he disembowels Gary. Roy attempts to stop him, but the Bigfoot smashes his head through the window and cuts his throat on the glass before impaling Linda with a pitchfork. Finally, the Bigfoot burns Bill's face on the hot stove, leaving him for dead. Sometime later, Bill lies helplessly in a hospital bed, having been found unconscious in the woods, his face burned. When detectives inquire about Carla and the four missing students, Bill recounts his version of events. Both the police and attending doctors receive his story with disbelief, and the hospital psychologist deems him criminally insane.