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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Underrated in every way. Best episode of Season 10.
Favorite riff… “Mike, his batch”. (Mike ducks)
Whenever I watch this episode, I think about how awful it would be to travel with Doc and his little crew. Sweaty, tight summer clothing–on EVERYone, even my respected professor and mentor. ‘Skeeters. Sleeping in a humid, musty, co-ed camper. Nuthin’ besides baloney to eat. Getting all muddy, while Doc and Tim enjoy “playing it out” because they’re, well, really bored I guess. And a rash caused by sweaty, tight summer clothing. Oh yeah, almost forgot Doc’s stories.
I rate this one pretty high (though not most favorite). It’s a lot of fun, and it’s nice we got a chance to hang with Mr. Crenshaw.
Between Tim the Enchanter, Timmy from South Park, and Tim in this episode, us Tims just can’t catch a break, pop culture-wise.
“Every night we had to tie Tim in the trees to keep him safe from the creature.”
“Don’t make me sic Tim on you!”
“I put Tim in front to absorb the first hail of bullets.”
“Tim’s a pretty strong blip on my gaydar!”
Anyway, other favorites:
“A COMPUTER performed an ILLEGAL OPERATION?” (that makes me nostalgic now…)
“Now for something more serious.” “A urine story.”
“I bet she doesn’t want us around here.” “I don’t want you around here.”
“Each key is individually miked for your convenience.”
Many thanks to Mike (Mock) Nelson, Kevin (Kovin) Murphy and Bill (Boll) Corbett for another great ep.
By coincidence, the podcast “Skeptoid” released an episode this very week on the Boggy Creek Monster. If you’re interested in the history of the actual legend, you can find it at skeptoid.com. Charles B. Pierce and his movies are mentioned.
One thing that I don’t think has been mentioned… Doc tells a story of a guy who, while, fixing a flat tire, encountered the creature. He “never regained consciousness.” So, uh… how did you know this story then?
So after deciding to keep the creature a secret Charles B. Pierce makes a movie about it? I’m getting mixed signals. And the way Dr. Peirce seemed just a little too interested in filming Tim shirtless made me a little uncomfortable.
I used to worry that my computer was going to be arrested when I was informed that it had performed an illegal operation.
Was I the only person who expected the inside of Crenshaw’s place to look like Ed Gein’s. What exactly did he possess that he thought our protagonists wanted to steal? His wardrobe?
I love this episode, but my favorite riff comes in the end during the credits, “Tim just kinda wondered off.”
One of the best episodes from this season and one of my favorites of the series. I liked the original Legend of Boggy Creek,although this movie is not the first sequel or very close to the original except for the boggy creek creature. What’s not to like with Tim, the two girls who should never been allowed out in the swamp and “old man Crenshaw” who looks like he’s about 35 years old. Some of the best riffing they did in the last years of the show.
#156 – EXACTLY what I’ve always wondered.
Question that bugs me: I don’t really understand the impetus that drives Doc and Co. on their little voyage. Who called Tim at the beginning of the movie, and what did this person say? Was it a swamp resident who wanted to report a Boggy Creek Legend sighting? If so, why was this report deemed trustworthy and compelling enough to elevate it about the status of “we’ll file this in the Blue Book”? Was it Old Man Crenshaw? Was it the creature himself? I mean, it MUST have been an important enough call to get Doc to drag himself away from a stadium full of insane hog callers. Oh, and also any classes he had to teach, and Boggy Creek articles he was writing, and the Boggy Creek chapter he was revising for inclusion in the fifth edition of the Handbook of Cryptozoology and Questionable Anthropology.
“I saw the little creature.”
This is another funny episode, although by comparison, it is maybe my least favorite out of the first six episodes of Season 10. The riffing is pretty good throughout and as noted by others it really picks up in the back-half of the movie (once Crenshaw shows up), but the Host Segments are only “okay-to-meh,” which diminish things slightly overall.
My favorite bit is from the Opening Segment, with Crow dressed as a Boy Scout. Him shouting, “Bobcats! Do or die!” is really great. The Intro is “meh” but Servo’s costume is nice (good work, prop team). HS#1 goes a long way for a little joke, HS#2 features some nice guitar skills from Brain Guy (not much else), and HS#3 is an okay idea that doesn’t really pay off in any big way (it’s maybe more clever than funny).
The Ending isn’t very good in my opinion, with Pearl’s cottage industry and souvenir shop revolving around the mysterious swamp-creature (Bobo). It’s not so much that it isn’t a funny skit (which it isn’t) but what bothers me the most is that it is a poorly blocked scene from a directing standpoint. Notice that when Pearl comes on to talk to the unfunny young boy wearing a Vikings jersey that she is standing with the back of her head to the camera. It makes a not very funny scene that much more difficult to watch, staring at the back of someone’s head like that. Sorry Kevin, this isn’t one of your better directorial moments or choices.
However, the jersey that the unfunny young boy is wearing DOES seem to be a Gary Anderson jersey, which is kinda funny in a football way, because Gary Anderson was a kicker. Admittedly a really good kicker, but still. . . nobody wears kicker jerseys. :-P
As for the movie itself, Boggy Creek II has some interesting moments mixed in amongst its mostly boring whole. As said, Crenshaw is quite the memorable character, as is shirtless Tim. Never tire of the jokes at his expense. Also, the monster costume used in the movie is actually more than decent. That close-up they do of its face doesn’t look goofy and almost looks believable (as far as movie monsters go). The worst portion of the movie has got to be when the girls get stuck in the mud while out in the Jeep. It’s just very pointless and goes nowhere, just further padding out an already heavily padded movie (what with the flashbacks and all…)
Overall, Boggy Creek II is not a very good movie. The only other Charles B. Pierce movie I’ve seen is The Town that Dreaded Sundown, which is much better in my opinion. It has an interesting structure and the bag-head killer strikes quite a presence. However, Pierce has a small role in TTTDS as a comedic relief police officer, all of which is neither comedic nor a relief. By comparison, Pierce gives a much better performance in Boggy Creek II, where at least he never dresses up like a woman. :beauty:
If you’re interested, you can check out my review (SHAMELESS PROMOTION!) of The Town that Dreaded Sundown over at my blog: http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-town-that-dreaded-sundown.html
–
RIFFS:
Mike: “I got nipple rub.”
Crow: “Jeez, do a push-up, kid.”
Crow: “Mike, his batch!”
Servo: “My flashback wasn’t color corrected when it came back from the lab, so it’s kind of dark.”
Mike: “Dr. Batch, this fall.”
Servo: “I was right tired from swinging my nightstick at suspected marijuana users all night.”
Crow: “Where’s the money you son of a bitch?!”
Crow: “Now this is the boat they should have taken over that mountain in Fitzcarraldo.”
Mike: “The Tiny Muddy.” –A river in Southern Illinois is called the Big Muddy, and that makes two episodes in a row with references to So.Ill.
Crow: “SNAP INTO A SLIM JIM!”
–
Boggy Creek II:…and the Legend Continues. . .
. . .I give it. . . 4 out of 5 little creatures.
This episode, like “Werewolf” or “Soultaker” is one I don’t think I’ll ever stop laughing at. Several folks have already mentioned the “I married her!” riff, but to me the thing that puts it over the top is the wheezy guffaw Servo caps it with.
As for the s-bomb, Mike gets away with an allusion to it during the deputy’s flashback:
Deputy: I headed round back of the she-ed…
Mike: Oh no, not another story about THAT!
Some others I like but haven’t been mentioned yet:
[Upon spotting surfboards at the beach]
Mike: Hey, you can’t surf in Arkansas! Foul!
[whittling guy says he’ll bring the boat around]
Crow: Just gotta build it first!
And one that I’ve started using whenever I encounter a plot thread that goes absolutely nowhere:
Servo: And our little plot cul-de-sac whimpers out like a small, dying RAT!!
For what it’s worth, my grandmother lived in a shack in rural Florida not unlike the various shacks featured in Boggy Creek II. She had running water from two taps, but no indoor toilet. The water came up from a well and flowed to a shallow drain field in her back yard. So yeah, you could have a hose and still need an outhouse.
I teach high school mythology a couple of hours away from where Boggy Creek was filmed. Sad to say, but most students have never heard of MST3K so at the end of the year I show this one ostensibly for its “mythological” link.
This one is a hit! Not only is it a “local” film for my kids but most of the riffs are humorously accessible and the host segments generally funny. I think Boggy Creek is a solid first episode viewing for those who have never watched MST3K.
Sidenote: after viewing Boggy Creek, a few of my students took a summer pilgrimage to the Monster Mart Convenience Store and Grocery in Fouke, Arkansas. I’ve never been, but they tell me it’s quite a kick and while they don’t have plastic pith helmets they DO have a website – foukemonstermart dot net.
People are still reporting sightings of this thing. I just ran across this website:
http://www.foukemonster.net/sightings.htm
I love when the hillbilly in the store says the thing about putting on a monkey suit and Kevin Murphy riffs “Well its too late now Earl, He standin’ right there!” and then Charles Pierce says “I believe there is a creature” and then the camera shows that one hillbilly sitting at the table and Bill Corbett says “There it is!!”…..That bit gets me every time!
the thing with the water hose is that maybe they just had spring water but no indoor plumbing. a friend of mine’s Aunt didn’t get indoor plumbing until the her husband died (my friend’s Uncle) and she used the life insurance money to get indoor plumbing (they had a farm and they used an outhouse)
Outhouse Scenario –
I really like this episode. Sampo rightly points out that the gross scene where they have both an outhouse and running water seems implausible. I, myself, actually briefly lived with that very situation. I had a well with a demand pump providing running water, but no septic tank system installed after building my current home. I was waiting on a county permit. There was already a serviceable outhouse which served until the wastewater system could be completed. The truly unexplainable facet of Boggy’s outhouse scene was that the poor guy could accidentally step into his poop house hole and end up thigh deep in excrement! The pit under my outhouse was seven feet deep. Was his actually some kind of homemade portapotty with an above ground holding tank that was completely full?
Well, Mark Knopfler = headband actually was a thing.
Although he wore a kinda narrow elastic one like this
https://tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.qbSIblN9YQIs3vZp0BpdXgHaE7&w=286&h=187&c=7&o=5&pid=1.7
so maybe it would have been more appropriate in an Old Man Crenshaw context.
Okay, I will acknowledge that it is possible to have running water AND no septic system. Just struck me as odd, is all.
And, sorry about the late posting today. The last few days have been rugged.
One of my favorites.
Another not funny Mike episode. Who watches these? Nobody!
Huh?
Obviously the REST OF US watched it. Are we a bunch of nobodies?
Besides, if YOU didn’t watch it, how do you know it wasn’t funny?
Are you nobody too?
In preparing my commentary for this episode, I realized that I’ve gotten a lot more bitter in nearly eight years. So it goes.
BTW I get to say the things that I say here because I’m from AND in Arkansas and, regrettably, personal responsibilities require me to stay there. :-| Shrug. There are worse places to be trapped in. I suppose.
Before anyone asks: I don’t hate the South, I’m just sick to death of being in it to the point that I occasionally long for death itself as a welcome release. There IS a difference.
ANYWAY…
Okay, first off, was “the little creature” interpreted in some way other than as a euphemism for “pen|s”? Because that was all I took from it and I didn’t find it very funny.
Maybe they just presumed that Doc was literally describing something that had occurred within the scene. I mean, when your film includes an outhouse scene…
Isn’t that pretty much how the USA itself was colonized by the Europeans? ;-)
And yet it isn’t. ;-)
Uh, the inherent disadvantages of an outhouse are due to it in fact NOT being a toilet.
He was no Ed Wood or Coleman Francis, that’s for sure…
Yes, even he had sincerity going for him, I don’t hesitate to give him that much.
Charles Pierce made the first Boggy Creek film shooting in a faux documentary style with a cheap camera and using local people as unpaid talent. Some of those were my second cousins. He made enough box office to get the attention of Hollywood money and from that resulted our MST3K Boggy II.
Although I am very fond of this episode it bothers me that the citizens of Fouke, Arkansas were treated so poorly by it. Granted that the area has more than its share of southern bigotry and multigenerational ignorance, just like everywhere else there are good people with kind hearts. Example –
My great uncle Red heard that a neighbor had broken his leg and couldn’t plow his cornfields for the Spring crop. Early the next morning Red took his tractor out of the barn and plowed until after sundown to get those fields ready. He returned in the dark and drove into the barn, but didn’t come to supper. His wife found him still on his tractor in the barn dead from a heart attack. Everyone who knew Red knew that he died doing the two things he loved; farming and helping people. I apologize if this went on a bit long.
Incidentally, a few years ago, I got a chance to see the first Boggy Creek film in a theater that shows vintage movies. It’s pretty different than the sequel featured on MST3K, more of a quasi-documentary than a straight narrative.
This is a very funny episode, IMHO. As with many of the best episodes, the movie is pretty goofy, and provides plenty of riffing fodder — scrawny Tim, “old man” Crenshaw, outhouse stories, rednecks, etc. The host segments are mixed bag. My favorite is the “hazy flashbacks” — the way Tom describes his flashback is particularly funny.
The whole “girls don’t know how to camp” bit, which was apparently supposed to be the movie’s running gag, is grating, and deserved to be riffed a bit more savagely. The scene in the mud, when the girls shriek at seeing the Creature, is so poorly shot that after numerous viewings I’ve still never detected any sign of it. And the “playing it out” nonsense seems almost to be missing a page of dialogue — one of the girls says, “We saw it”, Doc replies, “Saw what”, and then the girls jump straight to, “Why won’t you believe us?!”
You can’t possibly think that no mounted deer heads (of real deer) are to be found in Arkansas; I wouldn’t be surprised if Pierce provided that head himself, from his living room. In Arkansas, during deer season, college students (well, of at least one college) carry their hunting rifles to CLASS because they don’t want to take the chance that someone will steal them from their pickup trucks and the faculty didn’t care. Hunting is THAT big a deal. Or at least, that’s how it was twenty-five or so years ago.
A year or two before that, it wasn’t unheard of to force students to watch hunting safety films in high school, evidently taking it for granted that students would hunt and thus required such knowledge. A shame that so many schools can’t make the identical leap about sex. :-|
Did you know that if you carry a dead deer over your shoulder, not entirely unlike Hercules wearing the Nemean Lion as a hat, you risk being shot by someone who thinks YOU’RE a deer? I might never have learned that if I hadn’t been forced to watch a hunting safety film.
Man, these bushes are right on my bumper!
This one still holds up, and outshines the previous few “good, not great” episodes. A movie made just competently enough to let you think about the characters and storyline and realize how ridiculous/annoying they really are. Set pieces like the store, the outhouse flashback, and of course, Crenshaw’s place make this one a classic for me.
More fave riffs:
Yes, Charles B. ‘In Over His Head’ Pierce
‘It’s from this tributary that the creature got its name…’
His name is Tributary?
I’m gonna leave in the first quarter and beat the rush!
Well gee, now that they’re finally IN the mud I’m actually sort of ashamed. Is this really what I wanted?
So I gots ta wonder: why the “and” in the title? Why not just Boggy Creek II: The Legend Continues?
They were going to go with Boggy Creek II: The The Legend Continues, but apparently there was an editing change.
Perhaps the hospital had a telepath on staff.
Presumably the kickers wear them. :P
And if we’re all nobody, does that make us all figments of our nonexistent imaginations?
What?
Nobody called today.
She hung up when I asked her name.
Who watches? This is one of my favorite episodes. It’s worth watching just to see the scenes with “Old Man Crenshaw” one of the best odd characters in any MST3K movie.
“And then, you know what else? There was… um… a big, blue reindeer, and he was nice to me, and he gave me all the presents in the world…”
“Really Bobby?”
“Yeah, his name was Snow Head, and he lived in a big house with a million other reindeer where they ate cookies…”
“Uh-huh. What kind of cookies?”
“…Chocolate…”
PSA: The version of this episode sold on Amazon Video has audio issues. The sound has a muffled quality throughout that makes the riffs difficult to make out, and it kind of kills the whole experience. I can confirm that the problem isn’t present on the Vol. 5 DVD(s) nor on the downloadable version you can buy from Rifftrax, so bear that in mind if you haven’t bought the episode yet and you’re deciding which portal to purchase from. Hopefully Shout! can provide Amazon with a replacement file at some point since their source is obviously fine.
“I put Tim in front to absorb the first hail of bullets.”
This is one of my favorites, which is a description that’s apt for a lot of episodes this season. Really, when you subtract Hamlet (which is underrated but still undeniably slow as molasses), Season 10 is consistently strong, and Boggy Creek II continues what emerges as something of a theme this season: horror movies set in the south.
Not that this movie is particularly horrific. Is there even one fatal encounter with the creature? The problem with Boggy Creek II isn’t so much that it’s incompetently made, but that it’s without payoff, so it just winds up being a slog. The most harrowing scene might ironically be the deleted encounter with the rabid dog (hence the Rabid Dog Provided By credit Crow makes light of). The riffing, on the other hand, never lets up. They really get a lot of mileage out of the professor’s default smugness, Tim’s serial shirtlessness, and of course the final reel’s rare gift of Old Man Crenshaw.
Strong episode for host segments as well. Mary Jo is wonderful in the intro. “Oh, and you better restore power to all the world’s capitals, and send them a note of apology and a box of steaks.” It might be the one time Pearl accomplishes something impressively destructive on a large scale, and she immediately reverses it, with great contrition, just because Bobo fails to deliver the potatoes. Servo’s evil turn as the CEO of WHITLtech is a classic, too. “Call the Pinkertons for me, will ya Mike, I’ve gotta go get the hose.”
When the heroes walk into the redneck convenience store, Servo marvels, “Even THIS place has a great web site.” It’s amazing how relevant that line was even back in 1999.
“There’s a tear in my beer ’cause I’m cryin’ for a deer…”
How were you able to see your own expression? ;-)
I didn’t just presume he was raised by his parents. Or, indeed, by human beings…
Hillbillies? Seriously? By southern standards, those are practically suburbanites…
Huh. Wonder what she wanted.
Of all the plot holes to fill, they picked the hose plot hole…
;-)
Are you implying there were other plot holes?
Uh, the practice of surfacing for air now and then? Works for dolphins…
Faulkner-esque? You have THAT low an opinion of Faulkner? Well, it’s all subjective.
The stench of a human being spoiled his appetite…
Well, not looking old doesn’t necessarily mean that one ISN’T old. Maybe he found the Sump Pump of Youth while he was at it. That or he owes his looks to good clean livin’…
Pretty much when any character opens his or her mouth? ;-)
Okay, I’m sorry, but stuff like that’s just not funny.
Actually, you’d get most of that traveling in the South with just about anybody…
Off-topic (there’s a topic? just one?), my “the REST OF US watched it” post has received 15 likes (thankya, thankya veramuch), one of which is my own. It seems safe to presume that Disqus didn’t offer a like, which means there are at least 16 of us in here.
In case anyone was wondering. ;-)
Here’s a snippet taken from my review site (http://www.magicmarkerweb.com/mst3kreview/) in which I try to determine which exact game we see footage of in the movie. It was a nice little 15-minute project with a very serendipitous ending!
“… So, I’m going to say the game footage is from September 22, 1984. Arkansas won 18-9. They went 7-4-1 that year, played Auburn in the Liberty Bowl, but lost by a score of 15-21 to Liberty Bowl MVP… Bo Jackson. Ain’t it a small world?”
Fictional Charles B. Pierce (who wasn’t Tim’s father) decided to keep it a secret.
Real Charles B. Pierce (who wasn’t a college instructor) made a movie about it.
Perhaps, since Ed Gein was from Wisconsin, not Arkansas.
An ignored corner of The Ed Gein Story is that Gein had a collection of “men’s adventure magazines” (with brandings and torture and Nazi torturers who branded and other such good clean fun), yet apparently (a) this was never pointed to as an alleged “cause” of his madness (paging Dr. Wertham…) and (b) far more egregiously, at no point during the investigation did anyone bother to CATALOG them (or if they did, well, that list has long since vanished). Seriously, who wouldn’t want to know the contents of Ed Gein’s magazine collection? Think how much that would ramp up those magazines’ prices on EBay…
Anything and everything he owned, I presume. I mean, “logically,” why else would someone go looking for his house if not to rob it? And did Crenshaw strike you as a particularly clear-headed fellow to begin with? ;-)
To attempt to answer Cornjob’s above question,
The word “revenooer” Crenshaw used when asking Doc about his identity is movie/tv code implying that Crenshaw was engaged in moonshining. In addition, earlier in the movie, the boat rental guy states “Everybody up and down the river knows Crenshaw”. This would explain how “everybody” knows a remotely located recluse. It fits the story anyway.
Thanks for all the feedback.
Wow, and it’s up to 21 as of now. Wow.