The Legend of Boggy Creek

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The Legend of Boggy Creek is a 1972 documentary-style film dealing with an alleged creature known as the "Fouke Monster", a Bigfoot-like being seen in and around Fouke, Arkansas since the 1940s. The film mixes interviews with local residents who claim to have had encountered the creature with dramatic/fictitious reenactments of said encounters.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In the film, the creature is reportedly seen mainly by hunters and ranchers. It is over 6 feet tall with a slender build and long legs and arms. It is completely covered in hair and has three toes on its feet, as indicated by tracks seen in a creek bank. In one scene, a police officer states that it crossed a road in front of him at 30-35 mph, in another, the creature attacks some people in a house; they fire on it, but it sends one of them to the hospital. In another scene, hunters attempt to chase the creature with dogs, but the dogs refuse to go after it. In the end, the creature escapes all attempts to hunt it, and locals debate over whether it is dead, or still out there.

Charles B. Pierce, an ad salesman from Texarkana on the Arkansas/Texas border, borrowed $160,000 from a local trucking company, used an old movie camera, and hired locals, mainly high school and college students, to make the 87 minute long film in 1972. It generated $20 million in revenue, and is now on DVD.

[edit] Names

Fred Crabtree
James Crabtree
John P Hixon
John W Oates

[edit] Sequels

A sequel, Return to Boggy Creek, came out in 1977, but the original director Charles B. Pierce was not involved and the new film carries over none of the docudrama elements. It stars Dawn Wells of Gilligan's Island fame as a mother of three children (daughter played by Dana Plato) who get lost in the swamp with two other men until the "monster" comes to their aid.

A third film, this one involving Pierce, was made with the title The Barbaric Beast of Boggy Creek, Part II. This movie follows the adventures of a University of Arkansas professor and his students on their trip to Fouke, Arkansas to find and study the monster. A few scenes in the beginning of the movie were shot at the university, including an Arkansas Razorbacks football game. The movie was lampooned in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 under the title Boggy Creek II: The Legend Continues.