Review of The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972) by James T — 15 May 2009

Although I only recently heard of this film it's actually well known. It's a documentary horror film based on the sightings of the Arkansas sasquatch known as the â??Fouke Monsterâ??. It starts off as a documentary when it interviews real people who claim to have seen the monster on real locations.

Then it becomes fictional when the hunt for the monster begins and the monster starts attacking people. But it keeps its documentary style throughout. As you can see by the tagline the movie claims to be real and it even has a notice at the opening credits stating that it's all real even though only the begging is the only real documentary part.

The film became a huge hit with drive in cinemas, remains an American cult favourite to this day and has two sequels.

There is lots of footage of the Boggy Creek swamp, forests and wildlife, a lot of which is put to folk music. You never get to see the monster clearly. It is always hidden behind vegetation or shadows appearing as a silhouette for most of the film. The most you ever see of it is its arm or some fur. But that's all right as it's probably better to keep the creature hidden so it can appear as mysterious rather than show how fake it is by putting it out in the open. It also reflects those blurry pieces of footage from alleged Bigfoot sightings which supports the documentary style of the film.

When not showing you the local fauna and flora they interview and show the local people, some of which are actors and some of which aren't. I found it difficult to understand some of the people with their thick southern states accents at first but it wasn't to hard and I got used to it. Those were probably the real locals.

The Legend of Boggy Creek is incredibly simply done film, but that's part of the attraction I guess. It of a super low budget and the monster is obviously a guy in an ape suite. You could probably make something like this yourself nowadays. The acting is bad which makes it all the more amusing, especially when the monster attacks and everyone starts to panic.

So Boggy Creek was a fair bit of fun and it's interesting to see a famous drive in original from that era. But it is very dated and long winded at some parts. Just try not to take it too seriously and you have a good chance in enjoying this low budget classic.