April 23: Regional Horror — A regional horror movie. Here’s a list if you need an idea.

Revenge of Bigfoot was also released as Rufus J. Pickle and the Indian and was produced by Harry Z. Thomason and Joe Glass from a screenplay by S. Dwayne Dailey and Rosemary Dailey. Thomason is credited as the director of the movie, but according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, Dwayne Dailey was the principal director with Thomason directing only the final scene.

This is partially a lost movie. Hackworth claimed that almost all copies of the film were seized by federal agents investigating a financier who was using stolen funds, and that those copies were subsequently destroyed. Then, one of the executive producers, James W. Hughes, found a copy and it was converted to videotape. Dailey’s son Cody, who is in this as Rusty, uploaded this version of the movie to YouTube.

There is also a rumor that the Attorney General of Arkansas at the time, Bill Clinton, was involved in this, and that’s why it was pulled. That makes no sense, as he wasn’t in power enough in 1979 to do that.

There was a budget, no matter how small, as Rory Calhoun was hired to star as Bob Spence, a local rancher. The Native American of the alternate title, Okinagan, is T. Dan Hopkins while Mike Hackworth is local small-minded man Rufus J. Pickle. Hackworth was also in another regional film made in the area, The Town That Dreaded Sundown.

Bigfoot appears to attack farms, but only Spence’s place remains unharmed. That’s because the magical Native American has created a talisman to keep him from harm.

Producer Harry Z. Thomason would go on to create Designing Women; he also made So Sad About Gloria, Encounter with the Unknown, The Great Lester Boggs and The Day It Came to Earth.

I love that even parts of this exist and I hope that more is found. When a Bigfoot is really a man in a monkey suit in a film intended for children, part of my heart comes back to feeling right.