THE BEAST OF BOGGY CREEK: The True Story of the Fouke Monster (14 page)

Admittedly,
The Legend of Boggy Creek
appears “dated” by today’s standards, but it’s not hard to imagine the impact it had in the drive-in back in the day. It was still a time of relative innocence, despite the on-going Vietnam war, so adults and kids alike were still susceptible to its scares. Sure, the lumbering gorilla-faced beast is less than convincing, but the story comes off as genuine. To anyone who had spent a little time driving around America’s backroads, the possibility that something unknown might be lurking out there was a truly frightening notion… and to the locals, perhaps a frighteningly
real
notion.

Since it’s a movie, people tend to think that much of the content was outright made-up or highly exaggerated by Pierce, but this is not the case. After extensive research, I have been able to correlate most of the scenes to something that was either reported in the newspaper or circulated by word of mouth. Of course some scenes were embellished for dramatic purposes—it is entertainment, after all—but nearly everything was based on real life reports.

The film opens with a sweeping view of the dreary, yet beautiful, Sulphur River Bottoms, an uninhabited area that’s certainly large enough for a monster to hide. Replete with soaring birds, diving turtles, and a few beaver shots, the initial feel is more wildlife education than horror movie. But the mood is soon shattered by the wailing scream of a monster. As the scream fades, a young boy is shown running through tall grass; the boy, now grown to adulthood, provides commentary on his actions and motivation. Arriving at Willie Smith’s gas station, he pleads with three old-timers to come look into “a hairy monster” his mother had seen in the woods near their farm. The men laugh it off, but after Smith mentions that this is not the first time the boy had come up there to make his plea, an immediate feeling of unease curls up in one’s belly.

This scene was based on an incident that occurred in the 1960s in which a mother sent her seven-year-old boy on a two and a half mile run to the town of Fouke where he informed the landlord that they had seen a large hairy creature approach their home. Pierce does well to introduce the young boy (played by his son Chuck Pierce) in this way, so that later as the adult narrator he can reflect back on the story of the monster.

The next sequences provide an overview of Fouke and the surrounding area along with an introduction to J. E. “Smokey” Crabtree, who only appears briefly in the movie despite his considerable contribution. We are also introduced to Smokey’s real life son, Travis. After the Crabtree meet n’ greet, the intensity ramps up with the first creature encounter. In stereotypical Southern fashion, Willie Smith, portrayed in the movie as a doubting old-timer, unloads a double-barrel blast of buckshot at the monster who has come prowling around his house. The narrator concludes with haunting smugness: “Now he believes.”

Next we are treated to more alleged real-life incidents acted out in pseudo-documentary style. These include the haunting encounters experienced by James and Fred Crabtree and Mary Beth Searcy in the Jonesville area prior to the 1970s flap. These were depicted accurately in the movie, including the events at the Searcy house in which she claimed that the monster stalked around their yard one evening after dark.

Another scene portrays what I believe to be a combination of two sightings, those reported by L ynn Crabtree and Kenneth Dyas in the mid-1960s. In both cases, the teenagers were out hunting when they came upon the Fouke Monster. Pierce did not attach a name to the boy in his film, presumably because he was not granted permission. It is well known that Lynn Crabtree did not want to participate in the movie, nor lend his name, and I must assume that Kenneth Dyas felt the same way. In cases like this, Pierce filmed a slightly modified reenactment without using names. Nonetheless, the story is fairly consistent with these boys’ reports.

During these sequences Pierce demonstrates a masterful command of suspense, effectively juxtaposing claustrophobic scenes of frightened victims huddled in their houses with glimpses of the huge creature creeping out of the woods. Overall, Pierce does a commendable job of upholding the monster’s integrity by showing him at a distance, behind trees, or in dark lighting; this proves to be a wise choice given the few times it is shown up close. Granted the creature FX do not come close to the eerie figure seen in the world-famous Patterson-Gimlin film shot a few years prior (in 1967), but compared to other Bigfoot-themed movies of that era, the monster of Boggy Creek is by far the most effective.

The next part of the film dramatizes Fouke’s growing concern over the monster. After hearing of so many encounters, some of them described as threatening, the town decides to organize an all-out search. In this scene, a group of hunters and law officials set out on foot and horseback, accompanied by world-class tracking dogs, in an attempt to flush out the solitary brute. This is based on actual events in which local citizens and law enforcement officials organized searches. In fact, the dogs used in this scene were some of the same ones used in the actual hunts. In the movie, much to the dismay of their owners, the dogs refused to follow the rancid scent of the creature and instead tucked their tails and whined. This sequence has so much of a live news report feel that at times it’s hard to remember that it’s only an embellished recreation.

Pierce demonstrates to Fouke resident and actor, Willie Smith,
how he wants to reenact the scene where Smith fired on the
creature from the porch of his home.
(Courtesy of the Texarkana Gazette)

Descending darkness ends the search and segways into what is arguably the film’s only major stumble. The narrator, theorizing that the monster is hurt, informs us that it retreated into the woods for a period of eight years. This time lapse is conveyed by more grand nature shots accompanied by a ballad that serves as the movie’s main theme. The song melody has a down-home feel consistent with the rural setting, and it’s catchy, but its overly sympathetic tone and lyrics seem out of place in a monster flick. Sadly, it breaks the mood and now dates the film.

In Pierce’s defense, he needed some kind of interlude, and without a Hollywood budget he had to be resourceful. So he wrote the lyrics and sang the ballad himself! (The song is credited to “Chuck Bryant,” a play on his own first and middle names.) At least he’s in tune, right? When I spoke to his daughter, she assured me that her father lamented the fact that he did not have the money to invest in a better soundtrack. He just had to make do.

After a few verses, the movie snaps out of the love-in and returns to the tale, this time focusing on Travis Crabtree, who ventures off into the bottoms by himself on a trapping and fishing trip. Unfortunately, we are dealt another round of crooning at this point, a catchy-but-cheesy theme song that starts off “Hey Travis Crabtree / Wait a minute for me.” One can only imagine that the song has haunted Travis in real life far more than the creature ever did!

During this sequence Travis drops by to visit an interesting man by the name of Herb Jones. Jones, who played himself in the film, was a real man who spent more than 20 years living in a remote shack deep within the Mercer Bayou near a place called Little Mound. It was difficult to scratch out a solitary existence in the unforgiving swamp, but to make things even more challenging, Jones had an unfortunate accident that left him disabled. Jones had been fishing in his boat one day when he accidentally shot himself in the leg. The gun was propped up in the boat and when he pulled up to the bank to get out, the gun slipped down and went off. With no one around, Jones was forced to crawl for several miles through the inhospitable terrain before he finally reached help. It was a miracle that he survived. In the movie Jones states that he has never seen the so-called Fouke Monster and makes it clear that he does not believe in such a thing. Jones has since died and his shack has been reclaimed by the bayou, although it is still possible to find Little Mound if you happen to know where it is.

After the movie takes a small detour with Travis, the monster finally returns with a vengeance. This time it is seen running across the road at dusk, scaring cows, and rustling around chicken coops. The road scene, although portrayed by teenagers, is presumably based on the real-life report by Mr. and Mrs. D.C. Woods Jr.; they saw the monster run across the highway while returning from Shreveport one night in 1971. The livestock scenes were based on conjecture by a few locals that the creature had been responsible for the unexplained deaths of their animals.

The next scene highlights the discovery of a series of strange, three-toed footprints in a freshly plowed field. This was based on the 1971 event in which Mr. Kennedy discovered the tracks in Willie Smith’s soybean field near Boggy Creek. As in real life, local officials and wildlife experts are called in to investigate, but no one can determine what kind of animal (if it was animal) made the tracks.

Next, the creature frightens Bessie Smith and her children as it lurks on the edge of a field. This scene is based on an alleged sighting by Ms. Smith, although it is impossible to determine how accurately the encounter is portrayed. The following scene is short but no less effective, as it dramatizes the spooky eyewitness testimony of Charlie Walraven, who saw the creature one evening while driving near his home.

The monster’s rampage continues as it terrorizes some high school girls who are having a slumber party sans boyfriends and parents. This scene, which was portrayed fairly accurately, was based on an incident that occurred in 1971 while Chris Rowton and two friends were alone one night in a trailer home near Boggy Creek. They heard noises all night long as something stalked around on the porch. The girls never saw anything, but the following day they found “large greasy tracks” left by some unknown animal. This sequence ends with a freeze frame on one of the girls as she screams in terror, providing one of the most chilling visuals in the entire film.

Pierce then unfolds his version of the hair-raising events reported by the families of Don Ford and Charles Taylor (referred to as “Charles Turner” in the film). As with some of the previous scenes, the men are away at night, leaving the women home alone. As if able to sense this situation, the monster begins to stalk the porch each night and even tries his hand at doorknob turning. When the men return home late in the night, they are told of the horrifying events and proceed to borrow a shotgun from the landlord. When the monster returns and thrusts his hairy digits through a window, they rush outside and commence “ tah shootin’.” Feeling that they’ve successfully injured or at least run the beast off, they return to the house for some sleep. But when younger brother Bobby Ford decides it’s time to sit and contemplate the situation on the toilet—hey, if an ape-like monster came out of the woods, it would scare the crap out of you too!—the monster peers into the bathroom window as it returns for a final round. The ensuing confrontation culminates with Bobby being escorted by the police to a Texarkana hospital where he is treated for shock, just as he was in real life.

T he tale is finally wrapped up by the little boy from the first scene—now an adult—as he returns to the old house where he and his mother had seen the creature so many years ago. As he looks out across the high grass, he wonders if the creature is still out there. Pierce lets the monster howl one last time as the sun sets.

As the monster’s howl fades into the distance, we are left to consider these strange events. Although Pierce might have fudged a few facts, changed some names, and embellished the drama, it was all done in the service of entertainment, which is the prime objective of cinema.

Pierce takes the most liberties with the climactic tale of the Ford family, the longest scene in the movie. Though he sticks to the essentials of the report, he draws it out and adds details to create suspense. To set the story straight, I would like to present a firsthand account of the facts as told by Patricia Ford, wife of Don Ford. After a bit of digging, I located a letter she had written to the
Texarkana Gazette
after the movie’s release in an attempt to sort fact from fiction. Her complete account is as follows:

First off let me introduce myself. I am Mrs. Don Ford. But I’m writing this for three of us. Namely Don Ford, Bobby Ford and myself, Patricia C. Ford. I’m writing in regard to the article that was in the paper concerning Glen Carruth who played as Bobby Ford in “The Legend of Boggy Creek.” You are welcome to print this if you so desire because I’m going to tell you the true facts of the night the Fouke monster visited us. In the movie it was mostly fiction instead of facts.