Fortean Rewatch: The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972)
“If you’re ever driving down in our country along about sundown, keep an eye on the dark woods as you cross the Sulphur River Bottoms. You may catch a glimpse of a huge, hairy creature watching you from the shadows.”
This quote sent shivers down the spines of many drive in movie goers and inspired a whole generation of children to pursue the man like beast known as Sasquatch. The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972) holds a spot near and dear to many people, especially in cryptozoology. While it may be written off by some as just another B-movie, Boggy Creek was and still is a trend setter, as it took its subject matter seriously and approached it from the still new docudrama style.
The Legend of Boggy Creek was crafted from the vision of Charles Bryant Pierce an American director, screenwriter and actor. Pierce is mostly known nowadays for The Legend of Boggy Creek, but his filmography extends to several other projects as well, including The Legend of Boggy Creek 2: The Legend Continues. The 1971 film, Dirty Harry, starring Clint Eastwood featuring the infamous line “Go ahead. Make my day” is credited to Pierce. Not to mention the drive in craze that spawned movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Walking Tall (1973) and Macon County Line (1974), that resulted from the popularity of Boggy Creek.
It began While Pierce was living in Texarkana, who was inspired by the sensational reports of the so called “Fouke Monster” just down the road. He approached his then employer Ledwell & Son Enterprises, who had already produced several commercials for, to see if they would back the project and although it took some convincing, they eventually gave him the money to produce the picture.
At first the people of Fouke were resistant to the idea of someone retelling their experiences on film, but one local, J.E. “Smokey” Crabtree, was willing to share his son’s encounter and, through some convincing on Pierce’s end, acted as tour guide of Fouke and Mercer Bayou. This allowed Pierce to get into remote areas of the swamp to film some of its iconic scenery. Smokey even convinced other locals to appear in the picture. For those who still didn’t want to be in the film, Pierce had another method for getting actors to play their parts and it involved hanging out at gas stations.
From an interview with Fangoria, Pierce recalls “When someone pulled in, we’d say, ‘Now she’d be a good Peggy Sue.’ And we’d walk out there to the gas pumps and say, ‘Ma’am, we’re shootin’ a little movie. Would you like to be in it?’
She’d say, ‘Well, what do I have to do?’ And I’d say, ‘Oh, you just run across this field out here.”
As more local people joined the project, some people were even eager to get a chance to act in the film. The local police force even assisted in the making of the film by providing vehicles and roadblocks. For a film crew, Pierce relied on volunteers, mostly highschool kids from Texarkana and locals of Fouke. The score for the film was actually crafted by Pierce himself, although it is credited to Chuck Bryant (a play on his own name). While cheesy and out of place in a monster flick, this viewer enjoyed the score a great deal (and am currently awaiting a vinyl release).
It would be hard to discuss Boggy Creek without talking about the monster. Seen usually at a distance, this human shaped beast is quite terrifying. While not scary in the modern sense, there is still something eerie about seeing the silhouette a large, man like being in the woods. Boggy Creek wisely hides the costume with dark lighting, so it mostly only appears a silhouette. Its a style that isn’t used very often, perhaps the most famous example of suggesting a monster rather than blatantly showing it would be Jaws (1975), which Boggy Creek precedes by 3 years.
As for the costume itself, it was really quite genius. Pierce recalls “Once we got to the ending, I knew we had to do something for some kind of payoff. So we ordered a gorilla suit from some costume house in Los Angeles, and I went down to the five-and-dime store and bought a bunch of old wigs, and we cut ‘em into pieces and sewed ‘em all over the top of the gorilla’s head, and that was it.”
The Legend of Boggy Creek was well received, but once Pierce struck a deal with Regional distributor Howco International, the film really took off. In its entire run the film grossed more than $25 million dollars. And the resulting popularity of Fouke had people rushing in droves to catch a glimpse or catch the monster. A 45-RPM record was release featuring a song called “The Fouke Monster” by Billy Cole and the Fouke Monsters.
In the end, Boggy Creek is not remembered for its monster make up or its fantastic score or for the actors within it, but rather the relatability. This wasn’t a flashy Hollywood monster movie, this was a movie about real people, encountering something real. It takes its subject matter seriously, while it may bend the truth for dramatic effect, the core of it is in tact. It is a product of its time, a 1970s B-movie, but timeless in its approach to the subject, of the people who live in Fouke and of its monster, which why The Legend of Boggy Creek is able to remain in the cryptozoological zeitgeist.
To purchase your copy of The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972) visit: www.legendofboggycreek.com
Sources:
The Beast of Boggy Creek: The True Story of the Fouke Monster by Lyle Blackburn
www.IMDb.com
The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972)
