Boggy Creek

So, once again a bunch of teenagers goes to a lonely blockhouse in the forest, not scared by rumors that many people disappeared in this area or were even found dead. Then Bigfoot appears to terrify and kill them one by one. Sounds like the same old song, but 'Boggy Creek' differs somewhat from other movies of this type. Usually, cheap horror flicks disappoint on the acting and cinematography, but deliver the slashing and the blood. With 'Boggy Creek', it is just the other way around. Acting is decent, no horrible cliché types like the nerd with glasses. The characters are well developed with more background story than usual. The picture is not looking as cheap as it probably was; good job in all technical departments. The creatures are designed as hairy and ugly as they should be. The DOP used 'long' lenses to achieve blurred backgrounds a lot which is helping the eerie atmosphere, the editing is pretty fast and rhythmic in the right places, also the music is tasty and fits the environment. Obviously there were people at work who understood something about cinema techniques.

But unfortunately, they forgot about the horror along the way. The movie never really gets to a climax, and the few killings there are lack enthusiasm, like 'let's get it over with quickly'. All in all, it feels like somebody who was a melodrama expert was unwillingly assigned to do a horror picture, so the result is looking great for the budget, but lacks any impact. The characters become interesting, and then they don't do much. It's a pity, because the beginning was promising.

I couldn't wait for this movie to come out, due to the fact that it was filmed in Uncertain, Texas. Caddo Lake is a beautiful and mysterious place, and I'm personally familiar with almost every shooting location shown in this film, especially the lake scenes. This film seemed to have good intentions. The acting was better than expected; however, the storyline was somewhat of a disappointment. The premise of the film was good, but the sub-plots and relationships between the characters dragged on for way too long. If you're going to shoot a creature-feature … focus on your entrée, not the garnish. The creature effects were fairly decent for the budget. Even though this film is strictly for entertainment, I felt it shed a negative light on the locals, especially the folks at Crip's Camp. No need for a sequel. If you really want to be spooked, take a boat ride on Caddo Lake at night. Bring along some night vision or a thermal-imager … that's where the real action is.

**MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS**

What we have here is a little horror story filled with the usual clichés. While certain parts of it are fairly fun to watch, the good parts seem to be overshadowed by the overall cheesiness.

To be fair, the movie is fairly well produced and shot. But that's about all I can say in terms of what worked. As for the rest?

The soundtrack baffled me, as most of it was atmospheric "feel good music "that accompanies the protagonists excessive nostalgic episodes. The acting, while decent, was centered entirely around the weak character clichés. To put it bluntly, I spent more time living in dread of the potential dialogue than I did of the monster. Every time a character was ready to open their mouth I felt myself cringe.

I do approve of the monster though. The creators made the wise decision to use costuming rather than CGI, which is much more appropriate and doesn't kill the atmosphere by looking so cheap. While there is fairly little gore, what you do see is believable enough.

But the overreaching weakness of the film is the unlikeliness of the story. Teens traveling out in the woods, spending the night in cabins and tents, after HUNDREDS of corpses of men have been found ripped to shreds and young women are disappearing all over the place? No police notifications to vacate the area, stay inside homes, or always carry a loaded fire-arm for defense? Where are the investigators and news reporters?

Add to this the black screens with the words "Sunday" and "Monday" to give you a timeline, regardless of it's importance, and encyclopedic descriptions of the the monsters at the very beginning, and you get the feeling that the director was shooting for a mix of reality TV, documentary, slasher and drama. The lack of focus in the film leaves it wanting for any real effectiveness.

Final say, it was dry, but not terrible.

Lets face it...It does not seem possible to create a good sasquatch/bigfoot/skunk ape movie... Having said that...This movie has a good crack it and it doesn't deserve the poor ratings given by others.

Yes...it's cliched, yes it overdoes the melodrama a bit but id does pay some homage to the original Legend of Boggy Creek and also raises the bar well above Boggy Creek II: And The Legend Continues.

The acting is reasonable, the camera work is good, the creature is done well.

Compare this to something like 'Field Freak' and it's a genuine masterpiece...

Boggy Creek (2010)

* (out of 4)

Obnoxious horror film mixed with some really bad drama has Jennifer (Melissa Carnell) inheriting a cabin from her late father. The cabin, located in the swamps of Boggy Creek, apparently has all sorts of people and animals being mutilated. The locals believe it's a Bigfoot creature but Jennifer and her friends still decide to hang out at the cabin and sure enough the hairy fellow shows up.

BOGGY CREEK is yet another disappointing film in the ever-growing list of disappointing films that deal with the legendary monster. For the life of me I can't understand why such a well-known creature has gotten so many bad movies made of him. Perhaps the reason we can't locate a real one is because it's ashamed of all the bad movies out there? Probably not but this film really doesn't have anything fresh or original going for it and in the end it comes across as a real time-killer.

I think the biggest problem with the film is that it runs 87-minutes and about 75-minutes are nothing more than boring melodrama. There's a long-running and downright boring plot dealing with Jennifer and her troubled relationship to her mother. We get several flashback sequences that are just downright boring and there's never a single moment where you're caught up in the character's drama. Even worse is the fact that the other subplot dealing with a neighbor whose wife was killed by the creature and another guy who gets to have feelings for Jennifer never come to anything worth caring about.

I will say that the cast members do what they can with the material and while none of the performances are great, they're at least worthy enough to keep you entertained in the slightest way. Carnell is at least cute enough in the lead role and one wishes she had something better to do. BOGGY CREEK has some really bad looking editing, some poor cinematography and just nothing in it really comes together in the end. The biggest problem a low-budget film can have is it being boring and this one here just doesn't have any energy.