The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972)

A documentary-style drama about the "Fouke Monster", a Bigfoot-type creature that has been sighted in and around Fouke, Arkansas since the 1950s.

Director:

Charles B. Pierce

Writer:

Earl E. Smith (screenplay)

Stars:

Willie E. Smith, John P. Hixon, Vern Stierman

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Vern Stierman	...	Narrator (voice)
Chuck Pierce Jr.	...	Jim as Boy
William Stumpp	...	Jim as Adult
Willie E. Smith	...	Willie
Lloyd Bowen	...	Himself
B.R. Barrington	...	Himself
J.E. 'Smokey' Crabtree	...	Himself (as Smokey Crabtree)
Travis Crabtree	...	Himself
John P. Hixon	...	Himself
John W. Oates	...	Himself
Buddy Crabtree	...	James Crabtree
Jeff Crabtree	...	Fred Crabtree
Judy Haltom	...	Mary Beth Searcy
Mary B. Johnson	...	Sister
Louise Searcy	...	Herself

Storyline

A documentary-style drama which questions the existence of a monster in an Arkansas swamp. It is really more of a glimpse at lower-class swamp culture from the seventies, though, than a monster flick.

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Plot Keywords:

legend | giant creature | bigfoot | sasquatch | independent film | 

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Taglines:

The Monster Is Loose!

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Genres:

Documentary | Drama | Horror | Mystery

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Certificate:

G

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site us

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 August 1972 (USA)

Also Known As:

Tracking the Fouke Monster

Filming Locations:

USA

Box Office

Budget:

$100,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$20,000,000, 31 December 1973

Company Credits

Production Co:

P & L, Pamula Pierce Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min 87 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film began a trend of several so-called "drive-in" flicks that were presented as true stories (à la Walking Tall (1973), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Macon County Line (1974), Jackson County Jail (1976), and The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)) In each case, most, if not all, of what was portrayed on screen was outright fiction-- with the exception of "The Town That Dreaded Sundown", which was inspired by the Phantom Killer murders in Texarkana, TX, in 1946.

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Goofs

When Mr. Turner and the Ford brothers are on the porch shooting at the monster, Turner's flashlight alternates between a regular size flashlight and the large lantern flashlight the Constable gives them later.

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Alternate Versions

DVD by different companies has various running times: 85, 87, 90 minutes.

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Connections

Featured in The Cinema Snob: The Terror of Tiny Town (2012)

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Soundtracks

The Legend of Boggy Creek
Words and Music by Earl E. Smith
Sung by Chuck Bryant

User Reviews

Great Kid-hood Memories with this One :'}

The Legend of Boggy Creek - like so many 'cult classics' - is a great example of how a film can carry a low critical rating and still be awesome.

I remember seeing this film in Roger's Theater in the (then little) town of Poplar Bluff, Missouri - the nearest town to where I grew up, in very wooded, lakeside, Wappapello. So, I actually DID live in the same sort of woodsy, lakeside spookiness setting the film. Where I grew up, the word 'neighbor' meant the 'nearest house' and often you couldn't see their lights - or they may even be a nervous flashlight-trek through the pitch-black woods and along lonely, moonlit, gravel roads - and if the Fouke Monster happened to be tearing you apart out behind your place, they MIGHT hear your loudest screams. Probably not - and definitely not, if he got INSIDE.

My pal and I got brought into town by my Grandma and dropped off outside the Roger's that night. Having been lured-in by the short, terrifying trailers on TV, we anxiously bought our tickets and headed for the center-front seats, shoving and prodding each other over our mutual certainty that the other would get a scare that would make him pee his pants.

I can still remember ourselves - along with many others - cringing and ducking through several parts of this movie. As far as me and Bruce were concerned, to our eleven-year-old brains, the (then novel) documentary-like presentation and 'I-Sweah-Befo'-Gawd-Awmitey' testimony just seemed ALL too plausible - and real. We both KNEW people like those!

Leaving the theater in shudders from flashes of snarling memories - and a new and real dread of returning to the remoteness of where we both lived - we climbed into the big, crimson-velor back seat my Grandma's Delta 88, wordless and white. To us, that Fouke Monster was REAL - and not only that, but it - or one just like it - could easily be living in the endless woods behind our very own houses!

This film is a treasure for several reasons, not the least of which is the nostalgia it will hold for those of us to who got to see it at that perfect, naive age when it hits a kid exactly the way it was intended to - it's the perfect 'scary movie' for preteen sleepovers.

I can watch it now and roll my eyes, of course, but, when I reminisce back to that darkened, all-enveloping theater, so many of us gasping, crying out, grabbing our armrests and jumping in unison - and the nighttime nervousness for a week, afterward... it still makes me smile. :}