The Legend of Boggy Creek is the first and probably the best known of the 1970's "hairy wild man" movies. It was imitated - in both style and substance - by The Legend of Bigfoot in 1975 and the (much better) Sasquatch: The Legend of Bigfoot in 1977. It also spun off a series of sequels, which honestly seems hard to believe.
I'm sure I saw this movie on the couch at my Gram's house. I didn't remember much about it and had gotten some it mixed up with the previously mentioned Bigfoot movies. I DID remember the theme song, however. Something like that stays with you.
The Medium
Streaming on Shudder. This was the poorest quality film I've seen on Shudder so far, and when I saw the Cheezy Flicks logo as it started up I knew what I was in for. This is the same outfit that released a terrible quality version of Day of the Triffids. It's dark and blurry with terrible sound. It's also full-frame - but I dont' know if I should blame Cheezy Flicks for that or not. I'm sure it was better quality on TV in the 1970's. I wish I could say the quality added to the charm...
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| This is actually higher quality than what I got from Cheezy Flicks. |
The Movie
The Legend of Boggy Creek presents itself as a documentary about the "Fouke Monster" - a man-like creature that has supposedly been seen in and around the southwestern corner of Arkansas for decades. Through interviews and re-enactments, the film details encounters with and attacks by the creature over the course of several years. I don't think it's giving too much away to say the monster is said to still stalk the "creeks" and swamps of Arkansas "to this day."
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| Also back yards, apparently. |
I THINK The Legend of Boggy Creek is SUPPOSED to be scary. Certainly some of the scenes are constructed and shot in such a way that I think - in slightly more capable hands - you might achieve some modicum of suspense. Particularly a later sequence involving two families being harassed by the creature over a couple of nights. Unfortunately for the film (and me) the film is shot in such a slow, almost dispassionate way, that anything resembling tension is quickly undone by bad framing, acting, pacing, focus or sound. Often all of it at once.
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| I'm glad to see someone's scared. |
And the weird, folksy way the narrator sets up each scene put me in mind less of horror movies and more of the old Disney True Life Adventures. Especially when describing some patriarch of the backwoods (with his missing toes and tree of bottles) or the endless sequences of the swamp - including poorly though out rack-focus shots. Hell, the narrator seems more excited about the inevitable manhunt because it includes "famous dogs from nearby states" than he does about the monster itself. (You know you're in a rural area if you gotta import celebrity dogs for your manhunts.)
Then there's the theme song. A twangy, folksy tune that reminds me, somehow, of songs from Rankin and Bass' The Hobbit animated film. Here's a sample stanza:
" Here the sulfur river flows,
Rising when the storm cloud blows.
And this is where the creature goes,
Safe within a world he knows."
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| "We hates the song... we HATES IT!!" |
And we get to hear that song TWICE over the course of the film. As risible as that song is, it's nothing compared to the song dedicated to the 'swamp sage,' Travis Crabtree (he of the bottle tree).
"Hey Travis Crabtree,
Wait a minute for me.
Let’s go back in the bottoms,
Back where the fish are bitin’,
Where all the world’s invitin’,
And nobody sees the flowers bloom but me."
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| "Hey don't bogart that spliff, Travis Crabtree..." |
The Bottom Line
Somehow The Legend of Boggy Creek became a major success and spawned no less than three follow up films (including one in 2011). This was Charles B. Pierce's first foray into movie making and he'd go on to make the much better The Town That Dreaded Sundown. If you can only watch one docudrama about hairy cryptids, I'd suggest my personal favorite - Sasquatch: The Legend of Bigfoot.
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