topsfrombottom

The Legend of Boggy Creek - like so many 'cult classics' - is a great example of how a film can carry a low critical rating and still be awesome.

I remember seeing this film in Roger's Theater in the (then little) town of Poplar Bluff, Missouri - the nearest town to where I grew up, in very wooded, lakeside, Wappapello. So, I actually DID live in the same sort of woodsy, lakeside spookiness setting the film. Where I grew up, the word 'neighbor' meant the 'nearest house' and often you couldn't see their lights - or they may even be a nervous flashlight-trek through the pitch-black woods and along lonely, moonlit, gravel roads - and if the Fouke Monster happened to be tearing you apart out behind your place, they MIGHT hear your loudest screams. Probably not - and definitely not, if he got INSIDE.

My pal and I got brought into town by my Grandma and dropped off outside the Roger's that night. Having been lured-in by the short, terrifying trailers on TV, we anxiously bought our tickets and headed for the center-front seats, shoving and prodding each other over our mutual certainty that the other would get a scare that would make him pee his pants.

I can still remember ourselves - along with many others - cringing and ducking through several parts of this movie. As far as me and Bruce were concerned, to our eleven-year-old brains, the (then novel) documentary-like presentation and 'I-Sweah-Befo'-Gawd-Awmitey' testimony just seemed ALL too plausible - and real. We both KNEW people like those!

Leaving the theater in shudders from flashes of snarling memories - and a new and real dread of returning to the remoteness of where we both lived - we climbed into the big, crimson-velor back seat my Grandma's Delta 88, wordless and white. To us, that Fouke Monster was REAL - and not only that, but it - or one just like it - could easily be living in the endless woods behind our very own houses!

This film is a treasure for several reasons, not the least of which is the nostalgia it will hold for those of us to who got to see it at that perfect, naive age when it hits a kid exactly the way it was intended to - it's the perfect 'scary movie' for preteen sleepovers.

I can watch it now and roll my eyes, of course, but, when I reminisce back to that darkened, all-enveloping theater, so many of us gasping, crying out, grabbing our armrests and jumping in unison - and the nighttime nervousness for a week, afterward... it still makes me smile. :}

Not bad. This movie wins more than it loses for me - but then, I ended up watching it mostly for the CGI and action sequences - since all the sappy dialog and touchy-feely stuff was a bit o.t.t and overdone for my tastes, thus, my rating's propped-up by the peerless effects work. Method Studios hit it out of the park. Sadly, I watched this from closeup on my half-decent Samsung monitor in a darkened room and was STILL really impressed - I can imagine what seeing this on some big-a$$ed flat panel or theater would be like, lol. Heck, in fact there were a couple of times I caught myself crunching down with the people on the screen as the world and structures around them began being pulled apart.

The tornadic, wind, electrical, fire, and sound effects were all breathtaking. Best storm effects out there; if it was an element, it was in this movie and in it big. Again, Method knows their stuff.

I should, however, also note that pretty much ANY fan of AMC's 'The Walking Dead' will be momentarily yanked from the film's current situation EVERY, SINGLE TIME Ms Sarah Wayne appears. Sorry - most of us will forevermore only be able to see Her as 'Lori'.

There was a fair amount of silliness straight from the Implausibility Generator, but I ignored it and instead just drank in the marvelous effects it wrought. And you should, too. Watch this one with the lights and distractions down, the phones or speakers up and a bowl of popcorn handy.

-- Oh; and yeah, there IS a cow. --

The wait was long; but I'd have waited twice as long and STILL not felt in any way cheated! WHAT a masterpiece! From the very first scene until the post-credits-teaser, I couldn't take my eyes or mind off the screen.

For this, particular series', I always wait to watch until my DVR has it and when I can set aside some Dead Time to watch without the hassle of sitting through commercials. MUCH better that way, imho.

This episode was - hands down - the best thing I've seen on television this year. I must be very careful, lest I spoil, but suffice it to say that your emotions will be pinged around like a pinball the entire ride, and will run the range from stark, seat-gripping apprehension through visceral disgust to - well, YOU'LL see.

It was, in a word, Perfection. Not a single thing to pick at. Not one.

This episode deserves every award available.