Boggy Creek II: And the Legend Continues

My review was written in December 1985 after a Times Square screening.

Charles B. Pierce's "Boggy Creek II", made in 1983, finally arrived in New York with the misleading retitle "The Barbaric Beast of Boggy Creek Part II". Pic is actually a very mild and folksy piece of regional filmmaking in which it is clear that the filmmaker (who doubles as his own leading man) really likes the creatures. Though labeled number 2, pic is actually the third trip to Boggy Creek, since Pierce's 1972 hit "The Legend of Bobby Creek" was followed in 1977 by a film aimed at the kiddies (and made not by Pierce but by Tom Moore) called "Return to Boggy Creek".

Pierce stars as Bryan Lockhart, a University of Arkansas professor of anthropology who is pulled away from a football game (where the Razorbacks are beating Tulsa) to investigate reports that the Boggy Creek creature is on the loose again. He quickly rounds up an expedition peopled by student Tim (Chuck Pierce, the director's son) and two pretty girls (Cindy Butler, Serene Hedin).

Quartet travels south to Texarkana to interview folks who've sighted the beast. Camping out, they set up a computerized system of sensors to track the nearly 400-pound creature's movements. Pierce includes fuzzy-focus flashbacks illustrating previous tales of this creature's contacts with humanity. Pic doesn't really pick up steam until the final reel when Jimmy Clem appears in a fine acting turn as a hermit who has captured the creature's offspring which he is holding as bait to attract the parent. Prof. Lockhart lets both creatures go, intoning the film's message that they're part of nature living in harmony and ought to be left alone to roam free.

The creature looks like a man in a gorilla suit and film is painfully short on thrills. This type of filmmaking went out with the wilderness adventures, whose heyday was a decade ago.

In the untouched primordial swamplands of rural Arkansas lurks a giant creature, 8 feet tall and covered with hair. It's either Slash, Rob Zombie or Bigfoot. No one is sure, for those who have seen it are not believed or have not lived to tell the tale. That doesn't stop smarmy Professor Lockhart from taking a couple of his prize students and a whiny girl with a bad perm down into the swamps to look for the monster.

This movie reeks like an outhouse in high summer...and, in fact, features an outhouse scene that we could all do without. The hillbilly's look frighteningly like the real thing and are a lot scarier than the Boggy Creek Creature. Cindy Butler whines and screams her way through the entire film, making you wish that Boggy would rip her head off. Charles Pierce as Lockhart is so annoyingly smug and condescending you'll be wishing he'd run afoul of the Deliverance cast. Serene Hedin as Tanya must have been wondering what the hell happened, going from the beautiful film "Windwalker" to this dung heap. Poorly acted, badly lit and simply boring. Stick with the MST3K version of this film.

My friend bought two DVDs for a pound (i.e. under $1 each) figuring that no matter how poor the films, the cases they came in would be worth the expenditure. That gives you some idea of what value the bottom end of UK retailing places on this...

If you look at the credits: Written by Charles B Pierce, Directed by Charles B Pierce, Starring Charles B Pierce, Chuck Pierce, Mack Pierce (who probably provided his own boat), Pam Pierce (who I think did the make-up too), Coke scrounged from (here) Jeep borrowed from (here), Computer borrowed from (here) etc. you get the impression this is a family "let's help Dad/Charles out here" movie on the tightest budget and a lot of goodwill.

The most frightening experience for Charles & the kids seemed to be an incident when a dog barked at them (a lot). Despite being armed Charles was unable to get a single shot in the noisy animal even at close range, utterly pathetic.

Think of people in monkey suits, literally. I found a slight tendency to smile when I saw a monkeyed-up kid 'attacking' someone, but the entire thing was very poor indeed. I can't remember why I forced myself to watch this, but force myself I did. Perhaps it was a desire to see the credits that kept me going?

Never, ever - life's too short.

Charles B. Pierce is a small time filmmaker who made a couple of films of note. One was The Town That Dreaded Sundown and the other was The Legend of Boggy Creek. He also made a sequel to Boggy Creek and then this one. So yes, he made three Boggy Creek films, but the third one is called the second one. This one would have the fortune or misfortune, of being featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000 and for good reason, it is kind of bad. Granted, it was more enjoyable than the second of the Boggy Creek films, which had a whole lot of nothing going on and the climax of the film was essentially the creature helping two kids out of the swamp. You never really got a good look at the creature in that one at all! Here, you see it from a distance right from the get go and you see it numerous times throughout. At least this time they were not afraid to show us the creature, who sadly is not quite as scary as Old Man Crenshaw!

The story has a professor at the University of Arkansas going into the swamps and muddy bottoms to try and track down the infamous Boggy Creek creature. He brings two of his students and a friend of the female student into the swamp to track down the creature. During the first portion of the film we are under constant assail from flashbacks! At one point, you get two nearly back to back. Then the girls go on a pointless misadventure, before the film reaches its climax at Old Man Crenshaw's place! They could have seriously made a film just featuring him as a berserk super hillbilly from hell that skins his victims alive and trying to mate with the females! Instead, we just get the Boggy Creek creature busting in and then leaving.

This film made a very funny episode of MST3K. It was really ripe for riffing and is funny throughout most of the episode. The only slow stretch was the two girls and their misadventure in the jeep as it just seems to go on forever. However, once they go to Crenshaw's place it picks up again. They make fun of the flashbacks in a funny bump segment and you can feel their pain as they watch the horrific tale of the man who was apparently a lawyer who cleans himself up with the Sears catalog.

So this film is pretty bad, but it does have a lot going on in it, unlike the second film that is not part two, even though it is! This one could have been better had they gone for an R rating as I would have loved to seen the frizzy haired girl go topless! However, I am guessing Charles B. Pierce would not have asked the girls to do that as I am betting he knew them quite well. His son is in the film too and there is a female Pierce in the film two. I think she is in the water at the beach as I know she was not one of the main girls. Pierce did show some flair in his earlier attempts at making films, but there is only so much one can do with what I am guessing is a very low budget. On the plus side, it did make for a very entertaining episode of MST3K!

A truly appalling attempt to cash in on the accidental success of "The Legend of Boggy Creek." Charles B. Pierce caught a lucky break and notoriety from the original but this movie just proves how lucky it was... Right bad movie at the right time.

The 'hero' of this movie is a creepy-as-hell, sexist pig of man with about as much charisma (and acting talent) as piece of wet toilet paper.

The girls are the typical 'pretty little dumb things' that look good in tight shorts and are expected to be sub-servient to our hero.

The plot, if that is what it is, is ridiculous... the scripting is puerile, the acting is at least on par with your typical D grade creature feature (bad but watchable).

Worth watching if you're into cult movie sequels and particularly worth watching if you love watching third rate unknown actors make fools of themselves...