THE
LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK (1972)Director: Charles B. Pierce
Hen's Tooth Video
THE
LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK (1972)Based on incidents in and around the town of Fouke, Arkansas, LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK deals with a reported "Bigfoot" ape-like creature that many claimed to have actually witnessed. Using a documentary-type approach, first-time director (and Arkansas resident) Charles B. Pierce made it on a shoestring budget in the locations where these sitings supposedly took place and mainly used so-called eyewitnesses to recreate their beastly encounters for the cameras. The result was a drive-in hit that also spurred a Bigfoot craze that prevailed through the rest of the decade.
Pierce mixes staged interviews
of very hickish locals (who do things like shoot themselves in the foot 
during
a boating accident) and very boring nature footage of the titular swamp, reminiscent
of something you'd see in a Disney-produced live action sleep-inducer. There's
also narration from a guy who sounds like singer/actor Hoyt Axton, as well as
ridiculous hillbilly banjo music that effortlessly keeps us reminded that we're
in the Deep South.
As for the Bigfoot footage, well
that's done quite effectively, and if you watch this late at night with the
lights turned off, you might even get a few chills. Pierce cleverly shoots around
the extremities of an obvious Halloween gorilla costume (we never get a good
peek at it) and generates a definite sense of menace, as the creature confronts
the townsfolk 
outside
their mobile homes and tiny shack houses. The non-actors in the film are so
bad that they make it work and give it more of the docudrama feel, and they
have some incredible mugs to boot (one young mother looks like a goofier clone
of Velma from "Scooby Doo").
LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK so much
depends on suggested horror rather than anything graphic that it was actually
given a G-rating, allowing many children to see it during its original run (Pierce
is even able to innocently depict a guy on the crapper getting startled by the
creature!). Pierce would also go on to direct the similar but docu-styled horrors
of THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN. The film about a hooded serial killer in rural
1940s Arkansas was released by AIP, and Pierce would go on to make several less-than-memorable
historical films for the company with real stars such as Ben Johnson, Cornel
Wilde, Lee Majors and Dawn Wells from "Gilligan's Island." A sequel
to BOG
GY
CREEK came in the mid 80s, but the less said about that the better.
Hen's Tooth Video, a smaller outfit that has released several cult films to DVD, has now issued BOGGY CREEK, a title with affirmative cult status. Since the film was shot with 16mm cameras and blown up to 35mm, grain and rather dull colors are present in the transfer. That's acceptable. The main problem is that the film's Techniscope ratio has been chiseled down to a pan and scan format that can be very irritating. Hen's Tooth also didn't include a single extra (did they even approach Pierce to do a commentary?), and for the $20 retail tag, you'd think we could get a trailer or at least the absurd radio spots that hype the film as being a contender for Academy Award honors! (George R. Reis)