[DVD Review (R1)] THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK
Charles B. Pierce’s The Legend of Boggy Creek has always had this mythical status applied to it in my head over the years. Regular Off The Shelf readers, specifically those who dug into the Old Childhood Favourites section, will recall I spoke of a childhood friend who used to sell VHS tapes in the school playground for like 20p or something. The Legend of Boggy Creek was one that was passed around and spoken of as “real” and “terrifying” and… I never got to see it. It was impossible to get a hold of over the years since then and this, plus the testimonies of my school friends, just built and built in my head over the years.
Then a few years back, Neil Marshall (director of Dog Soldiers and The Descent) spoke to Total Film about the films that “influenced” him as a director. The Legend of Boggy Creek was one he paid mention to. That just added to my desire to see it.
Finally, approximately seventeen years on from when I first heard of it, I got to sit down with ‘Jimm’ and watch it as a double-bill with Pierce’s other cult film, The Town That Dreaded Sundown. Whilst inwardly questioning whether it would be at all possible for this film to live up to the hype in my mind, I came to realise that this flick is G-rated. (That’s the equivilent of a U-certificate here in the UK) So just how friggin’ scary and “terrifying” could this flick actually be?
Now I’m not going to be able to do justice to the following anecdote properly, so I hope he pops into the talkbacks and explains it a lot better himself, but ‘Jimm’ has always talked up how great it would be to see a Terence Malick horror movie. The way ‘Jimm’ explains it, it makes the prospect thoroughly enticing. After all, if anyone could return the horror genre to its atmospheric, tension-soaked roots without falling back on masked-slashers and gore-for-gores-sake, whilst evolving into a thing of beauty then it would be Terence Malick.
Well… if Terence Malick DID make a horror movie then I would imagine that it would probably be something akin to The Legend of Boggy Creek. Okay, it’s horrendously performed (not helped by the fact that allegedly ‘real witnesses’ play themselves), clunky and really rather amateurish. Yes, there is an almost blatant level of awfulness to scenes where naff country ballads are sung over the top of montages of the barely glimpsed “monster” wandering lonely through Boogy Creek… But, I liked The Legend of Boggy Creek a great deal!
The film is a 1972 docudrama about a Sasquatch-type creature that terrorised the small town of Fouke, Arkansas for several years. Many of the people who claim to have experienced these events actually play themselves here, in a film which went on to become a minor drive-in hit, grossing over $20 million domestically and appearing repeatedly on many late-night horror TV slots throughout the rest of the 70s, and spawning two sequels (one abandoned into the great “lost movies” vault and the other voted as one of the worst movies ever made) and a remake, which – whilst researching this review – I managed to find little to no information about. In addition, the IMDB tells us that the film’s visual style is cited as the inspiration for the look and pacing of The Blair Witch Project.
There’s something very much etheral and beautiful about the way The Legend of Boggy Creek is shot. You can grumble about the ‘clearly-a-man-in-a-gorilla-suit’ aspect of the creature, but the way it is filmed and composed within certain shots does indeed bring about a surprisingly tense viewing experience. As much as ‘Jimm’ and I joked about the wasted opportunities by not having shots of the monster taking a smoke break or doing back-stroke in the creek when he thinks no one is looking, there is still something inherently scary about an unknown entity of any kind appearing within the composition of a standard shot. This is a G-rated/U-certificated movie but I’m telling you that, especially in its finale, this is the most INTENSE G-rated/U-certificated movie I’ve seen.
Obviously I expected, with the power of time and rumour on my side, for this to be a phenomenally terrifying film. Which, of course, it is not. But, for all it’s cheapness and shoddy production values, it is a very well made fake documentary with a really assured vibe going for it.
It’s a cult gem and whilst it isn’t exactly a straight, out-and-out horror, it is very much a real curio! For all its flaws, it is a cult gem well worth giving 90 minutes of your time to if the opportunity ever presents itself!
4 Responses to “[DVD Review (R1)] THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK”
I dunno, I don’t think I can say much more that you already have. I just like the idea of a Terrence Malick horror movie. I guess, more specifically, a Terrence Malick monster movie. I think it’d really work – his exploration of Nature and moral subtlety (ambivalence?) seem ideally suited for some variation of Godzilla or something similar. As you say, there are moments in this film that really touch on that; it’s just a dark hairy shape moving through reeds and foliage but it’s inordinately spooky. I think the amateurish moments in this film might even intensify this feeling in a way. I guess that’s true of a lot of exploitation/b-movies; it’s the rough edges that make them so appealing.
You don’t mention the sound design in your review. The use of near silence and field recordings – bird calls and such is quite deft and the creatures scream is an neat little effect; I couldn’t really make out it’s source at all, sort of human, sort of bestial, quite artificial… very odd but definitely effective. This is of course undermined by that bizarre John Denver-esque ballad, sung from the monster’s perspective which is trite and saccharine in the extreme.
There’s a lot to love about The Legend of Boggy Creek. I was impressed by the winding and curlicued narrative, the way all the reminiscences and stories don’t really add up, the way it seems to hop forward and back in time between recollection and hearsay… Structurally it really seemed to know what it was doing in a way that other aspects of the production didn’t; for my money it’s superior to The Town That Dreaded Sundown, because it maintains a consistent tone throughout but as a double bill the two work really nicely together – just enough similarity; just enough difference.
& Dude, why do you insist on calling it “… Boogy Creek”?
Ha Ha! No wonder I had so much trouble finding a copy over all these years. I couldn’t even get the title right – even when the poster art was staring me in the face whilst I wrote the review! It’s been updated now though fella! Cheers :blush:
I am indeed kicking myself for not mentioning the sound design. I totally agree with you on all the points you made regarding it. Especially the sound of the “beast” itself and how effectively it was carried off. More than anything though I’m pissed off for not remembering to cover the subtle non-linear aspect of it, as you pointed out, because that was a discussion we had that did in fact stick with me. But clearly not long enough ha ha.
Terence Malick’s CLOVERFIELD? Man, I’d give a nut to see that! Well… maybe not a nut, per se, but perhaps a toe?!?
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