April 23: Regional Horror — A regional horror movie. Here’s a list if you need an idea.
Yes, there’s the 2011 direct-to-video film Boggy Creek and The Legacy of Boggy Creek, as well as this unofficial sequel. Still, the only real continuation of The Legend of Boggy Creek is Boggy Creek II: And the Legend Continues. And, wow, that movie isn’t good.
Throughout this movie, we’re told just how terrifying Boggy Creek is and if you don’t respect it, you’ll die. So why not allow children Evie-Jo (Dana Plato), her brother John-Paul (David Sobiesk) and their non-speaking friend T-Fish (Marcus Claudel) to get in a canoe and paddle down that creek? Sure, a hurricane is on the way and the monster that lives in the waters, Big Bay-Ty, only killed Evie-Jo and John-Paul’s father. How could anything bad happen?
A lot of this movie is about a fishing competition and Cat-Fish Kool-Aid, which allows our child heroes to win. And as for Big Bay-Ty, it turns out that he didn’t kill their dad after all. A snake did. And their mom is played by Dawn Wells, who at least didn’t get chased through the night by the Phantom Killer again this time in Arkansas.
I don’t know why so many regional horror movies decided to make Bigfoot movies for the kids, because even the idea of Bigfoot and that grainy Patterson–Gimlin footage made me terrified as a kid. Even more frightening is that these movies often use a gorilla costume for their monster.
Directed by Tom Moore, who also directed the much better movie “Mark of the Witch,” and co-written by John David Woody, this film didn’t involve Charles B. Pierce. I bet he sent a Bigfoot to everyone’s house.