Creature from Black Lake (1976)
[7]
Maybe I crave Bigfoot movies and the innocence of the 1970s so much that I give half-way decent ‘Squatch flicks more credit than I should, but I was impressed with Creature from Black Lake, a low-budget film with production values that exceeded my expectations. John David Carson and Dennis Fimple star as a pair of Chicago college students traveling to rural Arkansas to investigate several sightings of a hairy, humanoid creature terrorizing the area. The sheriff (Bill Thurman) warns them not to get the community worked up (giving the film shades of Jaws), but two colorful locals (Jack Elam and Dub Taylor) provide them with all the clues they’re looking for, leading the students straight to a deadly encounter with the monster.
As Bigfoot movies go, the creature is brought to life in a more than convincing manner. While it’s clearly just a ‘man in a suit’, it’s seen in sparing, judiciously edited footage to great effect. The film may disappoint some viewers looking for non-stop monster attacks. The creature is relegated to a few flashbacks until the final act, when it launches a full-on attack against our protagonists at their camp site.
Die hard fans of monster movies might be disappointed with what comparatively little screen time the monster gets here, but it’s only because writer Jim McCullough, Jr., has the drive-in theater audacity to spend time on character development. I fully expected rote, stock characters in a movie like this, but half-way into the movie, I actually started to like Carson and Fimple. What’s more, I really liked the characters played by Elam and Taylor, two well established character actors who bring their A-game, even in an exploitation movie. Even the pesky Sheriff turns out to be somewhat likable in the end. The film becomes more of a ‘hang out’ movie than I expected, and as it turns out, it’s pretty fun to hang out with two young guys asking hillbillies about Bigfoot in the swamps of Arkansas.
Another big plus in this movie is the beautiful widescreen photography by Dean Cundey, who would shortly become one of Hollywood’s top cinematographers after working on Halloween just two years later. Director Joy Houck, Jr., also distinguishes the film with better-than-average staging and atmosphere.
Creature from Black Lake has modest aims, financed by a chain of drive-in theaters to fill their growing number of screens. Somehow, this would-be cash grab was placed in the hands of people who cared enough to deliver more than the minimum requirements. It’s very well done. And it’s also a delightful time capsule experience, transporting me back to the ’70s in the best way possible. There’s even a folk song over the end credits. Ah, yesterday.