I stumbled across “The Legend of Boggy Creek” in the DVD bin of a local gas station (where I find all the best horror movies). It had a great cover, an interesting synopsis and I was pretty sure I’d heard of it at some point, so I threw down the $2.99 and went on my way. “Boggy Creek” certainly…um…surprised me. That’s one way to word it, anyhow. A beyond low budget made-for-TV docudrama from the 1970s, the movie is fascinating, eerie, painful and completely hilarious all at the same time. I hesitate to call it a “horror film” as it runs the gamut of pretty much every genre, whether it intended to or not.
A long time ago, reports of a bizarre, frightening, hairy creature lurking around the forests and creeks of Fouke, Arkansas began to flood local newspapers. Eyewitness reports of the “Fouke Monster” (as it was so creatively dubbed) spread like wildfire as the beast began to tread into populated areas more and more frequently. Then, as suddenly as it appeared, the Fouke Monster up and vanished without a trace. Director Charles B. Pierce revisits Fouke, detailing the history of the Fouke Monster phenomenon through a series of interviews and reenactments.
“Boggy Creek” is one of the most unusually executed horror films I’ve ever seen. This unusual approach both adds to its charm and its unintentional comedy factor. So what’s so unusual about it? Instead of casting real actors, nearly all the players in the film are the actual eyewitnesses and townsfolk of Fouke, Arkansas.
Yeah, that’s pretty unusual.
It shouldn’t take your imaginations long to ponder the results of this approach, but needless to say, this tactic doubles as “Boggy Creek’s” strongest and weakest aspect. To start with the positive, using the actual witnesses to relive their encounters with the monster lends a certain level of credibility to the film’s supposed “true story” tagline. The interview segments are probably where this shines best, as at the very least these rednecks aren’t encouraged to act. In one of the film’s most entertaining scenes, they interview a genuine crusty old shack-dwelling hermit who, when asked about the Fouke Monster, proceeds to ramble endlessly about bottles and his favorite bird. This scene alone has encouraged multiple viewings on my part.
Now for the obvious downside of casting local hillbillies in your movie: the acting in this movie borders on criminal. Granted, not all the cast members of the film were the actual eyewitnesses, but even the so-called “professionals” are indistinguishable from the toothless yokels. This is where the pain comes in, as you want the dramatizations to end twenty minutes before they began.
Due to having a budget that’s the lowest of the low, the horror effects are minimalist to the extreme. Maybe not “Blair Witch”-extreme, but pretty close. This actually works in the film’s favor, as it invokes a sort of primal fear we’ve all experienced at some point in our lives as we’ve walked alone through the woods. The Fouke Monster is seen only in glimpses at a distance as this large, lumbering hairy thing. As someone who used to camp quite frequently and take shortcuts through the woods late at night, it certainly struck a cord with me, reminding me of the various things I thought I saw out of the corner of my eye.
Alas, while the minimalist effects are done most wonderfully, at times “Boggy Creek” tries to bite off a bit more than it can chew. The climax of the film betrays the atmosphere of everything that came before it, dramatizing a supposed incident in which the Fouke Monster decided to invade a family’s house and attack everyone for no good reason. This essentially boils down to ten minutes of a hillbilly wrestling with another hillbilly inside a gorilla costume. Comedy Gold for sure, but I don’t think that was the intended result.
“The Legend of Boggy Creek” is a mixed bag. There are lots of great qualities to it and the film is very unique, and yet…moments like the aforementioned climax and a ridiculous musical number called “The Ballad of Travis Crabtree” will have you demanding the grease monkey at your local Shell station refund your $2.99 investment.
Grade: C (as in “Crabtree. Travis Crabtree. No one sees the flowers bloom but him. Or so the ballad goes.”)
A long time ago, reports of a bizarre, frightening, hairy creature lurking around the forests and creeks of Fouke, Arkansas began to flood local newspapers. Eyewitness reports of the “Fouke Monster” (as it was so creatively dubbed) spread like wildfire as the beast began to tread into populated areas more and more frequently. Then, as suddenly as it appeared, the Fouke Monster up and vanished without a trace. Director Charles B. Pierce revisits Fouke, detailing the history of the Fouke Monster phenomenon through a series of interviews and reenactments.
“Boggy Creek” is one of the most unusually executed horror films I’ve ever seen. This unusual approach both adds to its charm and its unintentional comedy factor. So what’s so unusual about it? Instead of casting real actors, nearly all the players in the film are the actual eyewitnesses and townsfolk of Fouke, Arkansas.
Yeah, that’s pretty unusual.
It shouldn’t take your imaginations long to ponder the results of this approach, but needless to say, this tactic doubles as “Boggy Creek’s” strongest and weakest aspect. To start with the positive, using the actual witnesses to relive their encounters with the monster lends a certain level of credibility to the film’s supposed “true story” tagline. The interview segments are probably where this shines best, as at the very least these rednecks aren’t encouraged to act. In one of the film’s most entertaining scenes, they interview a genuine crusty old shack-dwelling hermit who, when asked about the Fouke Monster, proceeds to ramble endlessly about bottles and his favorite bird. This scene alone has encouraged multiple viewings on my part.
Now for the obvious downside of casting local hillbillies in your movie: the acting in this movie borders on criminal. Granted, not all the cast members of the film were the actual eyewitnesses, but even the so-called “professionals” are indistinguishable from the toothless yokels. This is where the pain comes in, as you want the dramatizations to end twenty minutes before they began.
Due to having a budget that’s the lowest of the low, the horror effects are minimalist to the extreme. Maybe not “Blair Witch”-extreme, but pretty close. This actually works in the film’s favor, as it invokes a sort of primal fear we’ve all experienced at some point in our lives as we’ve walked alone through the woods. The Fouke Monster is seen only in glimpses at a distance as this large, lumbering hairy thing. As someone who used to camp quite frequently and take shortcuts through the woods late at night, it certainly struck a cord with me, reminding me of the various things I thought I saw out of the corner of my eye.
Alas, while the minimalist effects are done most wonderfully, at times “Boggy Creek” tries to bite off a bit more than it can chew. The climax of the film betrays the atmosphere of everything that came before it, dramatizing a supposed incident in which the Fouke Monster decided to invade a family’s house and attack everyone for no good reason. This essentially boils down to ten minutes of a hillbilly wrestling with another hillbilly inside a gorilla costume. Comedy Gold for sure, but I don’t think that was the intended result.
“The Legend of Boggy Creek” is a mixed bag. There are lots of great qualities to it and the film is very unique, and yet…moments like the aforementioned climax and a ridiculous musical number called “The Ballad of Travis Crabtree” will have you demanding the grease monkey at your local Shell station refund your $2.99 investment.
Grade: C (as in “Crabtree. Travis Crabtree. No one sees the flowers bloom but him. Or so the ballad goes.”)
2 comments:
It's about 3 hours from my house... I intend to pay a visit sometime in March. I'll tell the local yokels that you said "hi".
Please give a special shout-out to Old Smokey Crabtree...if he didn't die twenty years ago.
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