There are two ways to view this film. The first is as the result of a bet for director and writer Robert D Krzykowski to come up with something outlandish and present it as a serious drama, the second is that violence simply takes its toll of the best of us.

An elderly Calvin Barr, played by the superbly laconic Sam Elliott, reflects on a life far more interesting than his lonely existence in a small-town America suggests he ever experienced. His younger self is played by Aidan Turner of Poldark fame. Yes, he did kill Hitler, but no, it did not end the war. He also appears to have been cursed by a Rumanian gypsy simply for undertaking the task. It certainly cost him the love of his life. Perhaps a little surprisingly, Barr spends the next forty years or so regretting what he did.

Barr’s dreary life is interrupted by two government men, one from USA and one from Canada. There’s an infected Bigfoot on the loose north of the border and it turns out that Barr is the only man alive who is both immune to the virus and possesses the necessary skills to deal with the beast. Barr does not jump at the opportunity. It would be wrong to call him a pacifist, but he does have a very strong aversion to violence and does not relish being put in a position where it is the only answer to the problem. Of course, he kills the Bigfoot, it is in the title of the film.

The violence, when it occurs, is actually quite graphic. It is easy to imagine that a person could either become desensitised to it or deeply affected by it. Barr is definitely the latter.

There are several unanswered questions, such as what is in the box and why did his younger brother fake a burial? Everyday Barr goes to open the box but then decides not to, as if doing so would mark the end of his lonely life. The fake burial is not likely to stop the government coming looking for him should they so wish, he is still living in the same house in the same town and they know that he still lives.

It is a curious and yet engaging film. The death of Hitler is plausible if a little stretched. The Bigfoot idea seems a little too much of a fantasy, however. All the same, the young Calvin Barr who went to war was just a normal small-town American who came back a very different man. He let love escape him and became an introvert. The cost of his military success seems to have taken too much out of him. Certainly, he does not see himself as a hero. He is very good at violence but it has cost him everything that he ever wanted.