Throwback Thursday: This Bigfoot Isn’t Blurry!

Texarkana, Texas

Just a stone’s throw away from Fouke, Arkansas is Texarkana, Texas. While that fact may not interest everyone, it definitely got the attention of Bigfoot fans earlier this month. On June 14th and 15th in Texarkana, The Legend of Boggy Creek was shown at the Perot Theatre, the same theater where the film premiered in 1972. Additional showings have been scheduled nationwide in select theaters. The film has been fully remastered using 4K technology by the George Eastman Museum of Rochester, New York and Audio Mechanics in Burbank, California.

Fans of creature features and cryptids alike have made the film a cult classic. It helped spawn the Bigfoot craze of the 1970’s and became a catalyst for the release of other Bigfoot related films such as Creature From Black Lake, Harry and the Hendersons, Willow Creek, and Abominable. It set the bar for docudramas and mockumentaries as well and is credited as a major influence in many found footage and documentary style films such as The Blair Witch Project.

The film primarily featured locals and witnesses in the area. It was produced and directed by Charles B. Pierce. Pierce was a set decorator, screenwriter, producer, director, actor and more and worked for many years in film and television. Some of his best known works include The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976, director and producer), Sudden Impact (1983, initial screenplay writer), and Fresno (1986 miniseries, Primetime Emmy nominee for set decoration).

I actually saw the film’s second sequel entitled Boggy Creek II: And The Legend Continues before seeing the original film and it’s first sequel, Return To Boggy Creek (1977). Pierce had nothing to do with Return, and ignored that film’s events when he made Boggy Creek II. Released in 1985, the film triggered dreams of capturing Bigfoot in my nine year old mind. I’m still a huge fan of cryptid films and cryptozoology in general because of the film and would love to see it remastered as well.

Hopefully I will get a chance to see The Legend of Boggy Creek in all of its remastered theatrical glory. I don’t know if it will be released in Louisiana. I hope that it at least has a showing in Shreveport, LA, where some of the film was shot. After a few more theatrical showings, a Blu-ray of the film will be made available. For more information on the film and a store featuring some pretty cool merchandise, visit the film’s official website. You can also sign up for their newsletter on the site.

Thank you for revisiting this cult classic with me. Let me know in the comments if you’re a fan of the film, a believer in Bigfoot, or even a skeptic.

Monster Mash!

Fenway Park And Beyond….

Godzilla: King of the Monsters has been out for almost two weeks now. It’s ticket sales haven’t been impressive and it has been slammed by critics, but the bottom line is this: If you watch a Godzilla movie hoping for anything other than massive monster fights, you’re watching it for the wrong reason.

KOTM is loud, has a thin plot that gives us little more than a reason for giant monsters to battle one another and a surprisingly solid cast of human characters that do little more than get knocked out of the way of the film’s real stars, the monsters. But you know what? That’s really all that it needs because this film is FUN.

After watching the film in the theater with my son, I remained seated as the credits rolled along and thought that I just saw a very good monster flick full of action and noise. Sure, the action was shot very close up and it was often hard to follow, but it was still enjoyable. I also remembered that there were a number of epic shots in the film that showcased not only the quality of the CGI, but the overall look and feel of the movie as a whole.

I walked out of the theater still believing that I saw an enjoyable (but not necessarily great) film. I hopped into my vehicle with my son and we actually sat there for a few minutes talking about our favorite parts of the movie. It was at this moment that I realized just how much I loved this film. The more we talked, the more I noticed how really cool Godzilla’s primary adversary was and just how much I wanted to see more of the character. I also discovered just how truly beautiful and epic Godzilla’s sidekick was and how amazingly silly the villain’s assistant happened to be in the film.

I also recalled just how dumb the plot was in the movie but how necessary it was to bring so many monsters onto the screen at one time. Ignore the film’s human-centered plot and focus on the monsters’ reasons for battling it out across the globe.

After arriving at our home, I laid down in bed to go to sleep. I caught myself smiling as I revisited certain moments, monsters, and characters in the film. I love this film and if you appreciate noisy monster movies with paper thin plots, you’ll love this one, too. Go see Godzilla: King of the Monsters in the theater. The ending promises bigger things to come and be sure to stay until all of the credits have rolled.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters stars Vera Farmiga (The Conjuring, The Manchurian Candidate), Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights, Super 8), Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai, Inception), Zhang Ziyi (Memoirs of a Geisha, The Cloverfield Paradox), and Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things, Intruders) as well as Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah.

As always, thank you for reading my post. See you again real soon. I plan on taking a look back on a legendary monster flick celebrating almost fifty years with a remastered limited release in a couple of days.

Slow Burner

Brightburn, KS

I saw Brightburn a couple of weekends ago. It has a very small cast, a very simple plot, and does a decent job of telling its story. The basic premise of the film is that young Brandon Breyer has been the perfect child for his parents, Tori and Kyle, but after hitting twelve years of age, things change….a lot.

Brandon begins to develop powers very similar to a superhero that we all know and love. That hero is Superman. Just like Superman, Brandon (Jackson A. Dunn) fell to our planet in a spaceship as an infant. The Breyers, desperate for a child of their own but apparently unable to conceive, take in Brandon as their own. Kyle (David Denman) hides the spaceship in the family barn and he and his wife raise Brandon in a normal, human home. Brandon learns that he has super strength, super speed, heat vision, the ability to fly, possibly super hearing, and he only has one weakness that will remain nameless.

Unlike Superman, Brandon is compelled to use his powers for evil. He wants to control everything and everyone. There is a reason for all of this that I won’t go into, but it possibly sets up a potential sequel if it is decided that one will be made. Brandon terrorizes the locals and people start to die and/or go missing but Tori (Elizabeth Banks) refuses to believe that her son is the culprit in all of the chaos.

Despite not wanting to believe it, Kyle realizes that Brandon truly is a disturbed individual. As he slowly uncovers the magnitude of Brandon’s powers, he decides that something has to be done. Does Kyle stop Brandon? Does Tori realize that her son is pure evil? Does a Lex Luthor type show up to save the day? You’ll have to watch Brightburn to find out.

The film is pretty enjoyable. There are plenty of things about it that could have been done differently or perhaps better, but it was a satisfying film to watch. The ending leaves things wide open for a sequel and I do hope that one is made as I believe that this film set the table for better things in the future.

The cast did a fine job. Not one person in the bunch gave a bad performance. Dunn was solid as Brandon as he slowly spiraled into an evil abyss, and Banks was very convincing as a mother who believes that her son isn’t capable of doing bad things. Denman was solid as an awkward father learning as he goes with a son going through some major changes. Other members of the cast included Matt Jones and Meredith Hagner as Brandon’s uncle and aunt, Becky Wahlstrom as Erica, the mother of Caitlyn (Emmie Hunter), a young girl that Brandon is attracted to, and Gregory Alan Williams as the local sheriff trying to solve the murders and mysteries in his town.

Elizabeth Banks stars in Sony PIctures’ BRIGHTBURN.

My only complaint with this film is one of the same complaints that I have with Superman flicks: Brandon is too overpowered and lacks a real adversary in the movie. That’s why I’m hoping that a real challenge shows up in a sequel. Other than that, the movie was pretty good. It moved slowly, featured a decent amount of scares (most of the jump variety), and even a bit of suspense. It had some pretty harsh moments that earned its R rating, but cleaning up a bit of the gore and language, this film could have passed for a PG-13 flick. It was written by Brian and Mark Gunn and produced by James Gunn.

To be completely honest, I would only go check this out in theaters if you wanted to see it based on the trailers. I don’t believe that your average moviegoer (especially those that cut their teeth on the PG-13 fare of Marvel) will be interested in this film, as it focuses on horror more than action, and DC fans might be turned off by the fact that it’s simply Superman’s story with an evil twist. Horror fans may not care for the supervillain angle, but this movie is definitely more in their wheelhouse than in comic fan’s.

As always, thanks for reading. I plan on reviewing Godzilla: King of the Monsters in a few days. I saw it over the weekend and really enjoyed it.