Customer Reviews

Legend of Boggy Creek

5 star:		(55)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

I've had an interest in Bigfoot since I was a little kid, and BOGGY CREEK was one of the first experiences I'd had with Bigfoot Docudramas. There's a part in the movie where the narrator says "I was a boy when I first heard him scream. It scared me then, and it scares me now." Know what? It scared the bejeezus out of me too, and it still does! There's a lot of behind the scenes stuff about the making of BOGGY CREEK that makes me wonder about the integrity of its director, but personal politics aside, this is one fine example of why at 33 years of age I STILL won't go wandering around in the woods. Sure it's just a guy in a ratty monster suit, and the reenactments are sometimes on the cheezy side, but there's something about this movie that gets under your skin and stays there. If you like the Sasquatch like I like the Sasquatch, then throw away that godawful fourth-generation VHS copy and pick up this DVD. It's about as good as BOGGY CREEK is ever gonna look, and with it on disc you can jump right to your favorite scenes. Mine's the one where the monster grabs at the guy sitting on the toilet. :)

Okay, you can toss your bootlegs, the greatest Bigfoot Docu-drama of all time is -finally- available again, and in DVD for the first time (legit, anyhow.)

No, the print isn't fantastic, no it's not in widescreen, but it's THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK, people! C'mon! You get to hear a guy wonder if maybe an orangutan was in his sweet potato patch! You get to listen to another guy who got part of his foot shot off in a freak boating accident! You get to ponder why so many people in Arkansas seem to be named "Crabtree"!!

And that way cool SONG! How many other bigfoot movies have a love-theme for the MONSTER?!! (And there's another song about...another guy named "Crabtree", but hey...)

In all honesty, I'd have LOVED to have seen this restored and released in widescreen. However, I share the opinion that a widescreen print of the film may not -exist- now. At any rate, the DVD is head and shoulders above any VHS copy that's been released to date. Some of the colors come in like gangbusters at the least expected times, and you can actually see the grain on the tree bark in the darker scenes, so this is the best transfer this film has ever had, without doubt. My biggest complaint is that annoying little white speck about halfway up on the right side of the middle of the picture. What the heck IS that?

"The Legend of Boggy Creek" is one of my absolute -favorite- films from my childhood. It has withstood viewing after viewing, it doesn't get old, it's just it's own sorta good, clean FUN. There's never been anything like it, before or since.

Gotta love that song...

this new version of LEGEND OF.., WOW, what a difference from the initial crummy release of this movie on dvd. Make sure you get this one, the picture is a hundred times clearer, the sound is so much better, I felt transported back in time, like I was watching it on the big screen. The shots of the monster are super clear and I can't express enough how this clear version makes a huge Total different watching experience then the first dvd release of this classic. For those of you who have the crummy first release of the dvd, with the mysterios white dot in the right corner of the entire movie...guess what....it's gone!!!on this new clearer, so much clearer DVD!!!!

Fouke, Arkansas is a microscopic town located near Texarkana, by the Texas/Arkansas border. It's the kind of town you can drive through without even knowing you were there. People do it everyday. If they only knew what a mysterious place they were passing through, they might actually stop and look around for a while. Ya see, Fouke is said to be the home of "The Legend of Boggy Creek."

The legend is known as the Fouke Monster, a huge, hairy, three-toed, red-eyed, bigfoot-like creature, and it's said that he's been sighted in those parts for over a hundred years. It was his rash of bold appearances in the 70s, however, that inspired director Charles B. Pierce (the man behind "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" and "Boggy Creek 2: The Legend Continues") to make this B-movie that is, in fact, a legend in itself. The film is a docu-drama of sorts; a collection of reenactments of some of the more recent and horrific sightings of the creature as experienced by residents of the area. Like the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," or similar films like "Just Before Dawn" and "Encounter With the Unknown," "The Legend of Boggy Creek" is saturated with a highly effective, eerie atmosphere that is enhanced by the low budget, the creepy setting, the amateur acting from average looking people, and the otherworldly decade in which it was shot. The surreal music, which includes two original folk songs that greatly add to this bizarre viewing experience (one sung by the director, himself), combines with the swampy locale to transport the viewer to a dreamlike reality that can quickly turn into a nightmare at a moment's notice. The film may seem tame by today's standards, heck, during the day it's almost relaxing, but the knowledge that the stories are supposedly true can still provide the viewer with some decent creeps when seen in the proper atmosphere and setting. Despite the bookend tale of the film's narrator character, the whole thing comes off as very sincere and convincing.

For cryptozoology fans and 70's B-horror lovers alike, "The Legend of Boggy Creek" is a must for the home library. The DVD presents the film in fullscreen format, and the picture and sound quality are less than perfect, but completely watchable. The photo gallery and production notes are nothing more than stills from the film, and the only other extra is a Filmography for director Charles B. Pierce. Still, "The Legend of Boggy Creek" is an affordable American classic that every true film buff should own! Don't expect fantastic camera work, gripping character dialogue, or mind-blowing effects, but if you're interested in hearing some spooky tales of what might be lurking out in the woods and swamps by day, and occasionally coming by your house to pay you a visit at night, this one's for you!

I saw this in the theatre/drive-in back in its initial release. Talk about obsession, after seeing this nightmarish screamfest, I made my folks pass through Fouke, Arkansas and I had them take a picture of me by the welcome to sign. We drove around that small town and the woods there are definetely SCARY!!! This movie is like Blairwitch in that there are no special effects, you dont get to see the creature that often and mostly you the viewer are put in the situation. Not recommended for young children!!!! Very atmospheric, real creeeeeeepy!!!

First off, let's deal with what's true and not true here. The first thing is the title, "The Legend of Boggy Creek".As anyone in that part of Arkansas can tell you, Boggy Creek had no more affinity with "The Monster" than any number of creeks or branches in the area. Nor was there any "legend" (explanatory backstory) applied to that creek (and no legend at all applied to the Big Hairy Monster...it was just around the county for no known reason). Charles Pierce, the producer , just simply took a fancy to the "wilderness"-sounding name of that one stream and hooked it up with "Legend" because it all went together for a "catchy" title that he thought would have box office appeal.

He was right. It did.

Nor was the "thing" known originally as the "Fouke Monster".
It's appearances had mostly been reported in a little community outside of Fouke called Jonesville, where area people referred to it as the "Jonesville Monster". In the early 70s, when there was a small flood of sightings out Jonesville way (particularly around the land holdings of an extended family named Crabtree),the local paper in Fouke began printing articles about the thing and these articles were picked up by news services. Because of the Fouke bylines in the press the "Jonesville" Monster soon got turned...against his will, no doubt...into the "Fouke" Monster.

And Charles Pierce saw the possibility of turning Mr. Monster a bright shade of "money green" in investment potential.

Factually, the "whatsit" never really did anything more than be seen by hunters (mostly assorted Crabtrees, as he showed a partiality towards their lands above others),harass dogs, get shot at, shot,stampede horses ( for "kicks"?), wander around screaming and screeching in the bottoms, and get spotted crossing the highway every now and then by motorists
and school bus drivers. Kinda scary? Yes, true enough...but apart
from an alledged hog snatching on one occasion...the thing never did anything aggressive that was known to anyone. "Ahhhh", you say," then what about the Searcy incident with the cat? And the attack on the two couples in the house?".

Well all that actually happened with Mary Beth Searcy and her family was that the thing seemingly came to the edge of the yard and watched them and she saw it through the window and was screamingly terrified by it. What did IT do? Nothing really. This is nothing more, really, than a little goose-pimpler of a story. Pierce "juices" the incident, however, with the inclusion of a purely fabricated fiction (Searcys say it never happened)about the family's new kitten being scared to death (literally) by the booger...with a freeze-frame in the movie of a dead cat's wide-eyed face. A clever touch, but misleading.

The big whoop-ti-do of the movie is, of course, the "night seige" of house of the two young couples, where the thing makes repeated appearances around the house and the home defenders have to rush out to defend themselves with shotguns. This sequence "makes' the movie, pretty much...and hangs a note of fear onto the image of the monster.

The truth, which the movie does NOT tell you, is much more prosaic. A local in the area had an old horse that was considered ornery and about half crazy. This horse was good about getting out of his pasture at night and running around the neighborhood raising a ruckus (snorts, squeals, etc.). He would get into people's flower beds and tear them up and do all sorts of things. Kept the neighbors complaining and irritated at his owner.

In any event, that basket-case horse got out that night and went on one of his rants over near the Ford place ( site of the "night attack"...where the young folks had to blast the Fouke Monster with a shotgun to save themselves). It became a known fact locally that the horse was out there that night...because they FOUND him there the next morning..fairly close to the house...dead of a shotgun blast.

But Charles Pierce (unlike Paul Harvey) is somewhat dishonestly disinclined to tell you "the rest of the story" in his movie. Heck, that would SPOIL the EFFECT!!! And might pull down the box office potential!

As a movie, "The Legend of Boggy Creek" is quite entertaining.The overall use of non-actors and real locations and the photography and editing make it look like a real documentary (as does the cooked up narration that makes it seem it is being told by some reflective local). And it IS at least a
documentary of sorts (all the Crabtree incidents are seemingly recounted pretty much as they occurred, and the same with Searcy except for the cat business). The "Night Seige" is largely true (except for the discovery of the dead horse), and DOES pretty accurately depict how adrenalin-pumping panic can work on the imagination at night. The people really were scared and really trying to defend thermselves from...something. It just appears from subsequent discovery that the "something' WASN'T the Fouke Monster. But presenting it as Pierce did, though, was GREAT cinema!!!

Was there/is there a "creature" there in Miller County? I'd say so. Such things are seen from the Florida Everglades on across the Gulf states to Texas ( The Big Thicket country is the "stomping ground" of "Ol' Mossyback the Wildman" and the Honey Island Swamp Monster in Louisiana MAY be kin). A big
something ran around South Carolina's coastal Fripp Island back in the 30s and 40s. Called "Old Salt", it ran through a Coast Guard barracks staffed with beach patrollers one night...in the front door, out the back...and had all those worthy gentlemen in agitated excitement. From Pennsylvania to West Virginia, on to Wyoming, Idaho, and the Pacific coast, the sightings have occurred.

People pay more attention to this enigma now, and for a lot of them this stems from seeing "Boggy Creek" on the silver screen years ago. It is an intriguing movie, cleverly assembled, and it can still raise the hackles a bit when you watch it. Definitely worth a look, for nostalgia value...and for for mental chew-food on what may or may not be out there in the "real" world.

I have recently started to revisit films I had seen as a kid, yet do not remember too well.
Forgotten classics I am anticipating in the mail include: Humungous, My Bloody Valentine, Prom Night, Zombie, The Gates of Hell, and eagerly waiting the re-release of Halloween 3 which I saw once as a child. Only to name a few. (I know some of you might not consider these "classics")
The first arrival was the DVD of "The Legend of Boggy Creek".
I grew up in a country house on the edge of some creepy woods in Kentucky. We had our own legend of the monster in the woods. Our monster would follow you in the woods as you walked down secluded roads that were surrounded on each side by forest. I recently revisited my childhood neighborhood and drove on that road where our beloved Bigfoot, or "White Thing" as he was named, dwelled in the woods.
All the locals still swear that he existed. Although sightings died awhile back. My distant relatives all had a story to share of their encounters. I remember a terrible thunder storm, and my father ran outside to see who was walking around our house looking in the windows. Defying his command to stay in the corner with my sister, I decided to get up and look out the window. I saw my father struggling with a figure, a man I could not make out, in the flashes of lightning. I know it was one of the most frightening things I can remember from my childhood. My father is long gone so I cannot really know what happened that night. But he would never speak of it. Could have been an intruder, and could have been our town legend too. My mother claims to have been grabbed by the creature once in the woods near the rail road tracks that ran through the woods.
Watching "Boggy Creek" took me back to those times as a child on that farm in the woods.
The film is a documentary based on fact, or supposed fact. It is set in the Arkansas swamps. The events are recreated by the town folk. Something is lurking in the woods in the little town of Fouke and scaring the locals, killing their animals, peeking thru their windows at night, pawing thru the windows at them, and howling in the woods. They believe it a bigfoot type creature. I am so glad I bought this movie. The only complaint I had was the cheap costume they used for the creature and the tedious folk song in the film. I can't help but to wonder if "The Blair Witch" was inspired from this film.
A definite great film, although cheesy in its own charming way. But creepy and moody.
It reminds me of my town as a child, and the creature that lurked in the woods.

I don't give this movie so high a rating because it is a piece of cinematic art. On the contrary, "The Legend of Boggy Creek" is a grade B movie at best. The four stars above are based on the fact that "The Legend of Boggy Creek" has stood the test of time for this viewer. I first saw this "docudrama" about the Fouke, Arkansas member of the bigfoot clan on TV as a kid. Repeated viewings over the years have not dulled the late night enchantment of that first time.

Produced in the early 1970's, "The Legend of Boggy Creek" is the documentary reminiscence of an unnamed and perhaps fictional narrator. The cast of unknowns and real people lend an air of credibility to the dramatizations of supposed actual encounters with the smelly, three toed, hairy hominid said to have stalked Boggy Creek. When it comes time to reveal the monster to the camera, the film makers were savvy enough to make most of his shots shadowy and/or distant. You know it is a man in a suit but you may find yourself wondering if there was (or is) an actual creature out there in the bottom lands of Arkansas.

If you have not already seen "The Legend of Boggy Creek" you may want to look for it on TV before buying. It may not hold the same charm for you that it does for me unless you are a fan of "psychotronic" film or, perhaps,a cryptozoologist.

Okay, you can toss your bootlegs, the greatest Bigfoot Docu-drama of all time is -finally- available again, and in DVD for the first time (legit, anyhow.)

No, the print isn't fantastic, no it's not in widescreen, but it's THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK, people! C'mon! You get to hear a guy wonder if maybe an orangutan was in his sweet potato patch! You get to listen to another guy who got part of his foot shot off in a freak boating accident! You get to ponder why so many people in Arkansas seem to be named "Crabtree"!!

And that way cool SONG! How many other bigfoot movies have a love-theme for the MONSTER?!! (And there's another song about...another guy named "Crabtree", but hey...)

In all honesty, I'd have LOVED to have seen this restored and released in widescreen. However, I share the opinion that a widescreen print of the film may not -exist- now. At any rate, the DVD is head and shoulders above any VHS copy that's been released to date. Some of the colors come in like gangbusters at the least expected times, and you can actually see the grain on the tree bark in the darker scenes, so this is the best transfer this film has ever had, without doubt. My biggest complaint is that annoying little white speck about halfway up on the right side of the middle of the picture. What the heck IS that?

"The Legend of Boggy Creek" is one of my absolute -favorite- films from my childhood. It has withstood viewing after viewing, it doesn't get old, it's just it's own sorta good, clean FUN. There's never been anything like it, before or since.

Gotta love that song...

this movie scared the pants off my brother and i when we were kids. it is just as fun as i remember. as an added bonus there are some of those old "lets go to the lobby" type intermission reels that are arguably the best part of this DVD