Movie: (1985) A smug professor and his students camp out in the rural Arkansas swamp, in hopes of finding a Bigfoot-like creature.
First shown: May 9, 1999
Opening: Crow and Mike’s Cub Scout meeting is crashed by Servo the Brownie
Intro: Now Servo’s a Flemish glass blower; Pearl has a potato-powered evil plan
Host segment 1: M&tB’s flashbacks get fuzzier and fuzzier
Host segment 2: Pearl cooks up a monster legend, complete with haunting, evocative folk song
Host segment 3: Tom takes up whittling in a big way
End: Crow’s tends to his fires; Pearl’s legend biz gets kicked in the ankle
Stinger: “I saw the little creature.” “Nooo!!”
(339 votes, average: 4.59 out of 5)
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• In some episodes, the riffers need a little extra something from the movie to take their riffing from good to great. This is one of those episodes. It starts out as only okay. They keep up with the action with some funny stuff, but it really didn’t have me rolling. But when mountain man Crenshaw arrives, they really have something to work with and they take full advantage of it. The movie itself is stupid but at least it’s watchable. The host segments are mostly good fun. So all in all this one comes out a winner.
• Bill’s thoughts are here.
• References are here.
• This episode was on Rhino’s Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 5.
• Mike gets the title of the movie wrong in his intro on the DVD version (as he did with his “The Touch of Satan” intro).
• It’s fun to hear Kevin and Bill harmonizing as the sing “On the Wings of a Dove.”
• Gypsy is acting weird again. Did Joel completely fix her?
• The whole IMF accreditation thing was created because the suits at the channel were pushing for a “story arc.” So I only give the Brains partial blame on this. But I have to say that with this episode (or maybe the previous one?) the IMF stuff really starts to feel very invention exchangey. Not sure whether that’s a good thing or not.
• Segment one is a clever idea, one of those segments that practically writes itself in response to something really stupid in the movie.
• Segment 2 is saved by Bill, whose delivery is pitch perfect.
• That’s Kevin’s wife Kathleen’s guitar in that segment. She gets a credit at the end.
• An “s-bomb” got missed by Sci-Fi censors, and Rhino left it in.
• Movie observations: What was that whole “let’s play this out” business when the girls returned to the camp? They walk in and you expect something to happen, but they just say hi and go on with the movie. Play WHAT out?? Also, during the yucky outhouse flashback, I need to point out: If you can hose somebody off, that means you have plumbing. If you have plumbing, why are you using an outhouse?
• I have to say that I don’t really feel the white-hot rage Bill feels toward Old Man Pearce. Yeah, his character is a bit of a jerk, but I just don’t find him that despicable. He’s certainly not the movie’s bad guy. In fact, one of the biggest structural flaws of this movie is that there are no real antagonists (except, perhaps, for the derisive locals).
• Segment 3 is also a lot of fun, a good example of a sketch where they take a simple idea and take it to the extreme.
• Riff that’s a bit of stretch: One of the girls is “Mark Knopfler” because she’s wearing a headband. Sheesh.
• We get another fire aboard the SOL. And not the last one this season.
• That’s Brad Keeley as a tourist kid, in a bit that really goes nowhere.
• Again, no cast and crew round up: nobody involved in this movie worked on any other MSTed movie.
• CreditsWatch: Directed by Kevin. For interns Erin F. Erskine and Josh Huschke, who started at the beginning of the season, this was their last show until they were called back for one more a few weeks later.
• Fave riff: “Why don’t you take the skin chair?” Honorable mention: “There’s a red scarf floating in the air!…oh, it’s her.”
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Gee, I used the number 100 on what turned out to be comment #100. If this were the AV Club, there would now follow a long, tedious discussion about whether or not I was deliberately trying for a “hundredsie,” and whether or not I deserved a fiery rain of “cancerAIDS.”
Mighty Jack (#95): “By the time we got to Nashville it seemed there were Waffle Houses on every corner! […] We now ‘got’ the joke and Boggy found a special place in our hearts and souls.”
Sounds like a topic for a Weekend Discussion (if it hasn’t been done already, and I missed it): Delayed-Action Riffs. That is, riffs that sort of went over your head when you first heard them, but which made you laugh later on when you encountered the reference.
The two that stand out for me were laughing when I first heard the song “Don’t Walk Away, Renee,” and desperately trying to stifle my amusement when seeing “Hardcore” (“Turn it awwwwwf! Turn it off!”) in a rep theater.
Reply to #97:
We definitely drink more than our share of sweet iced tea but lemonade is a nice treat on especially hot days. Either way you should offer the drink and then the dip :lol: .
From Sampo’s Review:
” I had to note: If you can hose somebody off, that means you have plumbing. If you have plumbing, why are you using an outhouse?”
Could be several reasons. One: they might have a cistern and a limited water supply so’s they be usin’ dat outhouse to save water. Two: That dude looked like he could drop some major bombs, and considering his foot only went in a foot and a half, it looks like he did just that on many an occasion, but also consider the wife – she may have forced her husband to do his Sears Robucks Readin’ out there to save herself the trouble of having to deodorize the house time and time again…
I watched this episode for the first time literally the day before Charles B. Pierce died. It was weird, I watched it and the next day was looking online for some info on the movie and here the dude was freshly corpsed. Maybe he’d be glad to know that at least one person watched his masterwork in his last 24 hours.
Speaking of info on the movie, it looks like, according to IckyPedia, that the original made $20 Mil on a 100k Investment. They compare it to the Blair Witch Project, but considering that’s 70’s money, I’d think Boggy Cr. I was an even bigger success story. I’m surprised that it took 20 something years for another movie with that model to see the same kind of return, or maybe not. Probably just took that long for the collective conscience to forget the unique and original idea that movie had to make way for another “breakthrough” run away hit using the same exact concept. Speaking of BW, who else thinks the second movie was possibly the best example of Hollywood bastardization of a unique property that we’ve seen in the last 10 years?
To #98. Jimmy Clem has only 8 credits on IMDB. Most were movies with Charles B. Pierce. The last thing he did was Boggy Creek II.
More about the S-bomb: Now that I think of it, I’d forgotten that in between the broadcast and the DVD, there was the VHS release from BBI. I think this was where I first heard the S-bomb restored. If so, evidently BBI gave Rhino the VHS master for the DVD edition, rather than a broadcast master.
2 things:
1) Anyone notice the floating deer head had different antlers than the one in the water?
2) That CB Pierce’s voice is that of the radio announcer doing the game?
Jimmy Clem:
The Norseman-Olif
Grayeagle-Abe Stroud
Bootleggers-Big-un Woodall
The Evictors-Buckner
The Town That Dreaded Sundown- SergeantMal Griffin
Boggy Creek II-Crenshaw
Pity MST300 din’t do The Norseman (with Lee Majors :roll: ), with the various
inaccuracies and anachronisms.
“That dude looked like he could drop some major bombs………..”
REALLY, “J.Ho” !?! You just HAD to go there, DIDN’T YOU ?????
Thanks, SO MUCH, for the “visual”……… :shock:
What about the S bomb in Angel’s Revenge??
107 – MarkedMan: Actually, when I watch the scene I’m convinced it is EXACTLY the same deer, precisely because the antlers match. And they are unusual antlers — they are assymetrical, and therefore easy to compare.
Re: some earlier deer-related comments in this thread, what I see is plainly a live deer entering the water and dog-paddling across the river (or whatever it is). Then, just as clearly, I see the deer get jerked under by what, to me, looks like it must have had a rope tied to one ankle.
Pretty tough stuff just to make a dumb movie, but in that time and place I’m sure no one shed a tear for a deer.
IMO the head that floats up is a perfect match for the one on the swimming deer, and explains the headless deer found on the road later on. At least Pierce got the most use out of the poor thing.
This is a pretty good episode for me. “Hello, Tim.”
Tim’s chronic shirtlessness (to draw attention away from his underdeveloped camel toe?) deflects attention from his wooden delivery of the few lines. A few of the Tim gems that became watchwords around my house: “it’s under there…” “Git ‘im?” “I still don’t believe any car hit that deer.” “They prob’ly went into town to get something besides baloney to eat.” And of course the instant catch phrase — “No way.”
As far as the riffs, without question: “Gimme the money you sonuvabitch.”
Always enjoyed this, but wish, like other films they did, MST3K had shown the first movie also. I think it would have lead to better riffs.
This is a great 70s film, even if it was released in the 1980s.
The girls are all scripted right out of a “Three’s Company” show.
I remember the “S-Bomb” and looked at my wife with a “did you hear that?” expression.
Richard the Lion-footed (#113), re: the “S-bomb”:
You’re probably right. Here’s where I get to feel really stupid. You see, I didn’t watch and record the episode on the original broadcast, but in one of Sci-Fi’s later broadcasts. And somehow, it didn’t occur to me until now that Sci-Fi could have missed it the first time, but blanked it out later on.
Servo: “If they’re not actin’ casual, I’m gonna have to kill ’em.”
“What do the circles represent?”
Servo: Round things.
Five stars from me. One of my absolute favorites and always a treat to watch. It may be my inherent dislike of country music, but I also always get a great laugh out of the bluegrass/hillbilly instrumental music ending on the radio and Mike following up immediately with “That was Alan Jackson.”
I didn’t think this was such a bad movie, really. Amateurish and cheap and silly, yes, but not offensive (except perhaps for the poop scene) or boring. Tanya was a knockout (wow), the ape-man makeup was pretty solid, and I thought Jimmy Clem actually gave a very good performance as Crenshaw: convincing and unpredictable.
Somehow, filming at the sporting event had the odd effect of making the movie seem less low-budget. I don’t know exactly how, but it did. Felt splashy, made the characters seem like they lived in a larger world. Low-budget filmmakers should take note.
I enjoyed the episode.
I can’t believe I crammed my ass into those shorts.
I can’t believe that anyone else hasn’t mentioned this riff (although there was one allusion).
All-time favorite riff: Oh, a whole beach full of research assistants. We also use the We’re going camping, and you’re gonna watch riff often. I only get to see this once a year, due to my complete rotational viewing habit, but it is always a highlight. Five stars due to old man Crenshaw and the host segments (there’s a creature who lives in the swamp).
Well, in Doc Lockhart’s defense, if I found myself in late middle age in charge of studying a regional variation of the Sasquatch legend at an obscure university in Arkansas, I’d be a bit pissed off m’self.
FORTEAN TIMES did an article about the Boggy Creek monster and the original movie a couple years back. Apparently, it was a surprise hit, which probably explains Charles B. Pierce’s showboating: “I am a genius and this sequel will confirm my megastardom! I will star in it myself and make my son a teen idol!” And apparently there was no love lost between Pierce and ‘Smokey’ Crabtree, who’s the major source of the ‘real’ Boggy Creek stories. He’s written and self-published several books on the subject, and turned it into a bit of a cottage industry. Possibly, that’s where the idea of Crenshaw came from. Like Crenshaw, Crabtree was an old man who spent his entire life living in the bottom lands, hunting and catching his own food and managing as best he could. However, Crabtree was apparently nowhere near as scary-looking.
Oh, and my favorite part of the infamous ‘poop’ scene? Lockhart’s statement the guy was a LAWYER.
To remark about the statements dissing Cryptozoology, that’s kinda close-minded. Granted this movie doesn’t nessesarily portray it in the best light, it is a pretty serious field. Who else is gonna go on to do what a REAL scientist would-and should-do and see if these things really exist or not? The gorilla was thought to be myth once too after all.
Anyway I only have one thing to say; “WHERE’S THE MONEY YOU SUN OF A BITCH!?!?!?!?!?!?!”
@118: I wouldn’t call the U of A an obscure college. It’s not like it’s Castleton.
Almost forgot to add, my favorite riff of the episode has to be, “We’ve attached our egos to you!”
I always think of that line whenever I hear a heated sports argument.
Very strong episode. Favorite riffs: “Snap into a Slim Jim!” and “If they’re not acting casual, I’ll have to kill ’em.”
Favorite riff hands down:
“I made a pass at Crenshaw, okay?”
Honorable mention: when Lockhart asks the yokels if they’ve ever seen the Boggy Creek Creature, Tom replies for them: “I married her!”
I forgot to mention these riffs, both in regard to Dr. Batch.
Crow: “He needs a bra.”
Mike: “Is he wearing pantyhose?”
“Hey Legend, how’s the continuing going?”
Professor Lockhart does declare himself to be a professor of Anthropology in his narration as they start their journey, so it is stated why he’s doing this research. This is really one of my favorite movies, so many strong riffs, particularly in bashing Stick Boy Tim.
In no particular order:
I’m a dim-witted letch.
You need to work on your cameltoe, son.
My flashback wasn’t color corrected when it came back from the lab.
My snap-towel manager…
Doc does a lot of watching.
We’d like to thank the Legend for allowing us to put a camera…
Now i’m lost, where the hell am i?
I culd go on all day, this movie is always one i can out in on a bad day, and cheer up quickly.
*put in on a bad day
“I wouldn’t call the U of A an obscure college. It’s not like it’s Castleton…”
.
Nice “Pixie”, nice………. :smile:
.
This, along with Girl in Gold Boots (didn’t get a chance to review that one), are my favorites of the season. Not quite classic eps but excellent all the same. Boggy does start slow and there are some, um, sloggy patches, but it’s one I like to go to for a good mood. The section with Crenshaw is indeed a highlight, though I like when Tanya and friend get stuck in the woods scene, too.
I think “playing it out” just meant Batch & Son were going to pretend they weren’t really worried about those “silly” girls and were just hanging around the camper waiting for them to get back…But why? To punish them for their indiscretion? Pierce was one weird filmmaker at times.
I am a big Pierce fan. I think the in over-his-head riff is very appropriate particularly if you’ve seen the Norseman, which I highly recommend. MST could have really done some good Pythonesque humor with all the old vikings imprisoned in the cave, and had a good time riffing on Lee Major,s viking’s country drawl.
Jimmy Clem fans will also appreciate seeing their hero get shot in the butt (okay, really back thigh, but it’s close) with arrows.
And: if you were a lawyer wouldn’t you be smart enough to take off your poopie pants before you were hosed down?
A
Loved this episode not only for the riffing, but it brings back memories of being
a kid in the mid 1970’s, and how quite a few movies were made at that time centered around supposedly real monsters such as Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster, Yeti, and the beloved Boggy Creek creature.
#33: The main thing I thought of after that little song was that if you’re driving around in the South, you won’t have time to down a belt of Wild Turkey before you pass a Waffle House.
Anyway, back when Chuck Pierce died all those weeks ago, I was able to say that the nature footage in this movie is actually pretty decent. It could easily have come from a low-budget PBS documentary. As for the episode, I really enjoy the riffing here. Crenshaw does seem like a gift to the Brains (a gag gift, but a gift nonetheless.) The best host seg has to be Brain Guy’s haunting folk song: 30 seconds of intro and about 6 seconds of song, followed by Bill’s abrupt “That’s it.”
This ep is definitely in my top 5. The convoluted backstory of the the film not being the official sequel to a film no one ever heard of anyway is hilarious enough, but then you get Tim, Crenshaw and the “Little Creature”!
Speaking of which I just love the banter M&TB create between Mama Creature and Little Creature during the end credits, “And then he gave me all the presents in the whole world…”
On a side note, in the “Outhouse Story” did anyone else think that the moo-moo lady looked like a female Joe Don Baker?
“What do you think, TIM?!”
My aunt had an outhouse and also running water. She and her family live on the side of a mountain in Kentucky, and they have a well, but not enough water pressure to make a toilet go. We visited for a few days, and you could do dishes or take a bath, but the toilet was out of doors. It was a really nice outhouse though… screen door, spare toilet paper, flowers on the windowsill, a real seat with lid, no spiders, and a coffee can with (what I think was) lime to sprinkle on your “deposit” to help break it down.
@SAVE FERRIS: Heh, thanks.
Way late, but I will say that this episode is responsible for my alias here.
instrumental music is very soothing and relaxing.;~-
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At first I didn’t think the flashback host segment was going anywhere. But Mike finishing it off by realizing he needed his contacts really made something out of nothing.
I enjoyed the whittling sketch too. Tom is right to exploit that gap in the market and his union busting techniques can’t possibly go wrong. He reminds me of the despotic Tom from a couple episodes ago. Let’s hope his employees don’t have any fire ants.
Overall this is a strange episode for me. It’s not at all a favorite yet I really enjoy it. I guess that makes it good not great.
Favorite Riffs:
The farmer finds the empty stall. Crow “The cows had a mutilation they had to go to.”
The farmer spots the profile of the creature.
Mike “Ted Nugent?
Tom “Slash?”
Crow “Rob Zombie?”
Mike “Cher?”
Tom “Yeah, Cher.”
Mike as the creature “Well I’ll be damned. Farmers do exit!”
Leslie screams. Crow “There’s a skid mark on the ceiling.”
About the whole garden-hose-and-outhouse thing. Many people that live off-grid collect rainwater in barrels. They set the barrel high enough to get some pretty good pressure from a hose connected to the barrel (for gardening and whatnot, some vacation cabins do the same thing). You don’t want to waste the water for something as trivial as flushing toilets, though.
Boggy Creek passes the Bechdel Test. Leslie and Tanya have multiple non-male conversations.
I realize that the average screenplay writer doesn’t know Jack about computers, but even this is ridiculous.
So was Bill actually playing the guitar in HS2?
That Crenshaw really is a disturbing sight.
I agree with Mike’s remarks in the DVD intro. The creature costume is actually pretty good, especially for an indy film.
@ #24: I must disagree. While not on quite the same level as John Agar’s characters in Revenge of the Creature and The Mole People, he still comes across as a smug dickweed. As for the lack of a Lum ‘n’ Abner riff, presumably the OTR riffs came from either Joel, Frank, or Trace.
@ #118 and #120: To further illustrate that University of Arkansas is not obscure, they have one of the more prominent NCAA basketball teams and won the national tournament in 1994.
Favorite riffs
Suddenly, flying low under the radar, two armed egrets.
Just resusitate the patient. I’ll be there at the half.
Can I borrow a cup of shirt?
My memory had cheesecloth over it at this point.
My flashback wasn’t color corrected when it came back from the lab, so it’s kind of dark.
Otis didn’t believe in flashlight batteries.
Doctor Batch! This fall.
Hey hotshot, you ever use a tranquilizer gun rectally before?
Suddenly, I was attacked by a Muppet.
We’d like to thank the Legend for allowing us to place a camera in his helmet.
I put Tim in front to absorb the first hail of bullets.
“What did the little one look like?”
Well the little one ended up with my features.
They were acting all casual. Now they’re all stiff and weird.
Thor has really hit the skids.
So the once great Monster Studies Department went under. Tanya and Leslie brought me up on charges, of course. Tim just wandered off and we haven’t seen him in years.
For some reason, one of the biggest laughs I get from this episode is “Just spreadin’ my filth.”
By far the best part of this movie is the 5 or so minutes at the beginning where they show off the swampland. Everything after that is just torture, and makes me never want to visit Arkansas.
“Tim’s a real strong blip on my gaydar.”
SNAP INTO A SLIM JIM!!
Easily my favorite line, and has me rolling every time.
I count this among my above average episodes overall, though there are a number of memorable lines, all of which have already been mentioned.
@96 – Ang – It’s also polite to offer lemonade to your company on a hot day and then you offer them a dip.
Now I just have a vision of Crenshaw sitting on his porch in a rocking chair… ‘You eyein my lemon drink, cous?’
@143 – Bruce Boxliker
That was hilarious! I was just reading through these at lunch and nearly laughed out loud about the lemon drink. That would be hard to explain to people at work – ha!
This is a 4-star episode for me, not terrible but not great or a top-ten either. Pretty good. Not sure what it says about me, but I enjoy white trash/cracker jokes whenever a movie is ripe for them, like “Blood Waters of Dr. Z” which I finally watched for the first time last night.
Love the low-res computer graphics in BC2aTLC, because I can remember when they seemed so modern and high-tech. This is a MST3K that starts off really slow but gets rolling later on and is worth sticking with for the laughs.
I never found Pierce to be arrogant. He’s just smarter than everyone else because he’s actually studied this creature for apparently a long time, and everyone else around him are so stupid. Tim doesn’t even know how to put on a shirt!
This has one of my alltime favorite lines
“should remain unspoilt.” – As blue smoke poured from my motor.
Another explanation for the hose, which comes from my personal experience in southern Arkansas, is that many rural people use pumps to pressurize water from a nearby pond or lake (of which there are many) for use in a hose… to do hose stuff. That couple lives in the marshlands around Texarkana, so they may even have their own well, which they wouldn’t want to contaminate with human waste. SO given that possibility and other suggestions posed by other comments, I’d say the issue is closed. You can have a hose AND no plumbing.
This is a fun episode, one that I enjoy more and more with repeated viewings, much like most of Season 10. I saw one of the Boggy Creek movies in the theater in the late 70s, so I have a personal attachment to this episode.
when is S*** said during the episode.
goalieboy82> see posts 38 & 39.