70's American Horror Part Two

THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK
(1972)
Dir - Charles B. Pierce
Overall: WOOF

As the debut from Charles B. Pierce, The Legend of Boggy Creek was one of the first faux-documentary/Big Foot themed horror films of any kind and it reeks of everything zero experience movie making does.  Atrocious pacing, atrocious performances from an entire cast of non-actors, atrocious music, (including songs written and sung by Pierce himself), and atrocious tone issues.  Minutes that seem like centuries paddle on with soft, harmonica-fueled folk music or Disney-esque, public domain scores with our non-threatening narrator talking over shot after shot of creeks, streams, woods, forest critters and the like.  Then there are horrid reenactments which contain acting that makes Plan 9 from Outer Space look like The Godfather and it just goes on and on and on and on and fucking on.  At one point we listen to an entire song about Travis Crabtree as he strolls around, doin' campin' stuffs in the woods, followed by another eternity where we meet some other hillbilly who has lived in the woods alone for twenty odd years and tells his life story only for us to learn that in fact no, he has never seen the Fouke Monster the whole film is about.  Talk about exciting stuff.

DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK
(1973)
Dir - John Newland
Overall: MEH

One of the several "Dont's" to come out of the 1970s, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark was a made-for-TV movie directed by John Newland, a veteran of the small screen both on and behind the camera.  It has endured well with a cult audience that includes Guilermo del Toro who co-wrote and produced the 2011 remake with Katie Holmes.  The film's basic premise is very chilling, but under the conditions here, it just does not come off that strong.  First off, Kim Darby, (from True Grit fame), is a piece of wood in the lead and easily one of the least convincing or exciting potential scream queens of all time.  Her and on-screen husband Jim Hutton, (who does a fairly better job), exude hardly any chemistry and basically come off as roommates, but then again maybe that was the point considering the film's couple-in-tension framework.  The whispering things to be afraid of in the dark who start their friendly chatter within the first few seconds of the film mostly look and sound silly, though they could have looked and sounded a lot more silly.  Finally, though it is only seventy-four minutes long, it is sluggish to the point of being Xanax in movie form.  

BURNT OFFERINGS
(1976)
Dir - Dan Curtis
Overall: GOOD

Dan Curtis of Dark Shadows and Trilogy of Terror fame wrote and directed this haunted house movie based off Robert Marasco's novel of the same name.  A cast of familiars including Karen Black, Oliver Reed, Bette Davis, (all a hundred and seventy-four years of her), and a cameo by Burgess Meredith for the most part do splendid work.  Reed in particular is excellent, his usual overreaching at times suitable for such a film.  Karen Black, (besides being easily the most unattractive leading lady in film history, pour gal), is a little B-movie-esque at times, but nothing too distracting.  This is the kind of slow moving, glaringly soft-lighted 70s offering that spends nearly all its time letting the cast go slightly and then majorly mad, only busting out the creepy from time to time and subtly at first.  The chauffeur that continually torments Oliver Reed's Benjamin Rolf, (played by usual western, "hey that ugly, creepy looking guy" character actor Anthony James), is especially menacing when he shows up.  The ending here plot-wise was as predictable as Bette Davis was old, but it still manages to deliver with a rather gruesome set piece.  As far as mildly spooky, supernatural-based, psychological horror is concerned, there is plenty here to recommend.