Despite being the most well-known cryptid, Bigfoot (or Sasquatch, yeti, skunk ape, et al.) has surprisingly few horror movies dedicated to it – and even fewer that are worth seeking out. After the infamous Patterson–Gimlin film purportedly captured footage of the creature in 1967, a spate of Bigfoot movies surfaced in the ’70s.
Although not the first, 1972’s The Legend of Boggy Creek is generally considered the best and most influential of the era. I was of that mindset before discovering 1976’s Creature from Black Lake via Synapse Films’ upcoming Blu-ray. While it’s certainly indebted to Boggy Creek for paving the way, Black Lake eschews the docudrama setup in favor of a traditional film narrative.
Shot on location in the Shreveport, LA area, the film follows University of Chicago students Pahoo (Dennis Fimple, who horror fans will know as Grandpa Hugo from House of 1000 Corpses) and Rives (John David Carson, Empire of the Ants) on a school-funded expedition down south in an effort to prove the existence of the legendary bipedal primate.
They encounter several colorful locals, including Jack Elam (Once Upon a Time in the West) as the town drunk who claims to have survived an encounter with Bigfoot (played by Roy Tatum), Dub Taylor (Bonnie and Clyde) as a hunter with a grudge against the creature, and Bill Thurman (The Last Picture Show) as the small town’s good ‘ol boy sheriff. Like Jaws before it, bit parts are populated with real locals for verisimilitude.
Viewers hoping for a creature feature romp are likely to be disappointed by what director Joy N. Houck Jr. and writer Jim McCullough Jr. (Mountaintop Motel Massacre) have to offer, but those on the hunt for Bigfoot could do a lot worse than Creature from Black Lake. Leisurely paced but never dull, the 95-minute runtime plays like a hangout movie that’s interrupted by a beast in the finale.
Fimple and Carson act as the heart of the film. Their characters’ friendship is wholesome, and it’s fun to watch them as a couple of city slickers out of their element. Save for the violence in the finale, it’s practically a family-friendly monster movie. (As it is, it earned a PG rating.) Eccentricities like Pahoo’s aversion to chicken add a texture to the tapestry.
The great Dean Cundey (Halloween, Jurassic Park, Back to the Future) serves as director of photography. Even this early in his career – although he already had a handful of other low budget indies under his belt at this point – it can’t be overstated how much his anamorphic cinematography elevates both the production value and the atmosphere.
Other Black Lake crew members who would go on to successful careers in their fields include editor Robert Gordon (Toy Story, The Return of the Living Dead) and production sound mixer Thomas Causey (Halloween, The Thing, Jurassic Park III).
Synapse has restored Creature from Black Lake in 4K from the original 35mm camera negative with DTS-HD MA 2.0 original mono sound. The Blu-ray includes a film historian commentary by Michael Gingold and Chris Poggiali, a new interview with Cundey, the theatrical trailer, and a radio spot. Not only is Cundey’s cinematography properly showcased at long last, so too is the hidden gem of a movie as a whole.
Synapse’s brand new Blu-ray will be released on December 13, 2022.
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