The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972)
Nomination Year: 2004
SYNOPSIS: A "True" Story. This film was actually recommended to me by one of our fans in an e-mail. It seems it enjoyed some fame when it was first released and claims to have sparked that spate of "reality-based" movies of the early '70's:
Those Mysterious Monsters,
The Search for Noah's Ark, etc., etc. As with a frightening number of our Smithee films, the reviews on the IMDb are filled with deluded souls claiming "This movie was so scary!" "This was great!" "A classic!" Uh, right. Maybe that was true back in '73 or whatever, but I doubt it even then. Today, at any rate, this is a truly horrendous effort. What is it? I can only describe it as a Suspense-Docu-Horror-Drama-Monster-MUSICAL about a Bigfoot-like creature that some backwoods yokels may or may not have seen near Fouke, Arkansas. It's got at least as much pointless, interminable nature footage as
The Prey, if you can believe it, and a couple goofy songs to boot. Many of the "dramatized" parts are played by the "interviewees" themselves, so it may not be fair to fault the acting. Or maybe it would.
Bryan Cassidy
Smithee Award Nominations
| Most Ludicrous Premise |
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Songs in the Key of Smithee I don't know exactly to convey the suddenness with which these two sappy songs abruptly materialized in the middle of an otherwise serious docu-monster-drama. The first one, which I call "Love Theme of Boggy Creek," tells us how the monster is simply misunderstood and is really only looking for love. The second, "Hey, Travis Crabtree," is about the intrepid young explorer and his pioneering spirit and how only he sees the flowers bloom for him. Travis Crabtree figures prominently in the middle of the film. He visits an old trapper and brings him tobaccy and other needed supplies. WHY Travis and the old trapper are in the film is another question--they never see the monster, interact with it, and even deny its existence. I guess they're there just to impress us with the hardiness and derring-do of the Fouke folk, willing to work and live in the shadow of the creature. But I'm probably reading too much into it. Most likely, the filmmaker just needed to fill time.
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| "Whoops!" |
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There's a Hole in the Soundtrack, Dear Liza, Dear Liza I know foleying was NOT a new science even back then, so they don't even have that excuse. The girl draws some water from the well and pours it into another container. The bucket-thumps and water-pours are all very late. I've heard of hard water, but never SLOW water.
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| "WHAT?!" |
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Scaredy Cat Loses His Ninth Life The woman looks out the window and sees a guy in a gorilla suit--excuse me, the Fouke Monster. They scream appropriately and cower in fear all night long. The next scene shows a real dead cat (clearly no ASPCA oversight here) and the narrator states matter-of-factly that their cat was found dead in the morning, without a scratch on it, frightened to death by the monster... No maybe, no speculation, it's stated as fact. (Later in the film, they show some bones and claim that the monster killed and ate these dogs. They probably weren't even dog bones.) Now most cats I know RUN when frightened, but I guess this one's terror was so great that it just keeled over on the spot.
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Charles B. Pierce
Gene Ross
