If I had to be the total opposite of objective – even more opposite than, say, subjective – I would be just prejudiced and grant impeccable ratings to ALL films directed by Charles B. Pierce. I adore this man and his lovable low-budgeted filming style. His films "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" and "The Evictors" rank highly amongst my favorite 70's flicks because they're extremely atmospheric and creepy. That's also why I was looking forward to "The Legend of Boggy Creek" so much! This is supposed to be a semi-documentary slash horror film with a slow brooding atmosphere and loads of beautiful environmental footage. Right up Mr. Pierce's alley, in other words. "The Legend of Boggy Creek" is also a sort of pioneer, as it single-handedly started a short but nevertheless vivid trend in exploitation/drive-in cinema, namely the bigfoot- sasquatch-abominable snowman hype! Since this movie was such an unexpectedly large success at the drive-in theaters (the 7th highest grossing film of 1972!), there suddenly came dozen of similar flicks with bloodthirsty swamp monsters. If it weren't for good old Boggy, there never would have been a "Creature from the Black Lake", "Snowbeast", "Shriek of the Mutilated", "Night of the Demon", "Sasquatch" and so on.
The narrator is proud to welcome us to Fouke; a cozy small Arkansas town close to Louisiana and Texas. Fouke is a great place to live until the sun goes down. The narrator is born and raised in Fouke, and he first heard the screams of the monster when he was seven years old. The nearby Boggy Creek is reputedly the turf of a big hairy monster that all the Fouke inhabitants know about. The documentary approach works reasonably effective, but gets dull rather fast. The narrator often emphasizes that the "the monster is lurking " or that "the monster is always there ", but nothing actually happens. After a while, you subconsciously begin to finish the narrator's sentences like " but it never moves a damn muscle!". Here's what "The Legend of Boggy Creek" has got plenty of: footage of trees, flying ducks, still lakes, relaxing country music, eagles, tortoises, boy scouts picnicking, pitiable old hermits murmuring about their connection with the swamps and detailed shots of a isolated tool shed in the woods. Once every twenty minutes or so, there's the occasional distant shot of a guy in a secondhand gorilla suit that may or not be the Fouke Monster. My money's on "may not be". The closest we get to witnessing a bigfoot attack is when some girl sees something through the window and instantaneously goes into shock. The next thing the narrator says is that the animal smashed some flowerpots before wandering off. He did what? Smashed flowerpots?!? Oh the horror, the awful awful horror!
I still like Charles B. Pierce and his repertoire, but I do very much wonder how come this film could possibly have been so popular amongst the drive-in theater crowds? Absolutely nothing happens here? Perhaps it's just that. Nothing even remotely exciting happens during "The Legend of Boggy Creek", so they could fully focus on making out in the backseat.
The narrator is proud to welcome us to Fouke; a cozy small Arkansas town close to Louisiana and Texas. Fouke is a great place to live until the sun goes down. The narrator is born and raised in Fouke, and he first heard the screams of the monster when he was seven years old. The nearby Boggy Creek is reputedly the turf of a big hairy monster that all the Fouke inhabitants know about. The documentary approach works reasonably effective, but gets dull rather fast. The narrator often emphasizes that the "the monster is lurking " or that "the monster is always there ", but nothing actually happens. After a while, you subconsciously begin to finish the narrator's sentences like " but it never moves a damn muscle!". Here's what "The Legend of Boggy Creek" has got plenty of: footage of trees, flying ducks, still lakes, relaxing country music, eagles, tortoises, boy scouts picnicking, pitiable old hermits murmuring about their connection with the swamps and detailed shots of a isolated tool shed in the woods. Once every twenty minutes or so, there's the occasional distant shot of a guy in a secondhand gorilla suit that may or not be the Fouke Monster. My money's on "may not be". The closest we get to witnessing a bigfoot attack is when some girl sees something through the window and instantaneously goes into shock. The next thing the narrator says is that the animal smashed some flowerpots before wandering off. He did what? Smashed flowerpots?!? Oh the horror, the awful awful horror!
I still like Charles B. Pierce and his repertoire, but I do very much wonder how come this film could possibly have been so popular amongst the drive-in theater crowds? Absolutely nothing happens here? Perhaps it's just that. Nothing even remotely exciting happens during "The Legend of Boggy Creek", so they could fully focus on making out in the backseat.