“The Legend of Boggy Creek,”
Texarkana resident Charles B. Pierce’s 1972 docudrama about the storied Fouke Monster, is set for a 4K restoration, the Texarkana Gazette reports.

Advertisement

The film will premiere June 14, 2019, at Texarkana’s Perot Theatre, with the original oil-on-canvas poster art that, the Facebook event notes, “is the later inspiration for Star Wars’ Chewbacca.” Pierce’s daughter, Pamula Pierce Barcelou, who owns the film rights and collected supplementary archival negatives and prints from a Technicolor office in Burbank, Calif., collaborated with New York’s George Eastman Museum on the restoration.

“I saw it up on the big screen for the first time in 45 years and it made me cry,” Barcelou told the Gazette in August. “The Legend of Boggy Creek” features interviews from witnesses in Fouke, Ark., who say they encountered the shaggy ape-like creature, said to have attacked livestock and emanated a terrible stench.

Advertisement

It’s cult classic material, honorably lambasted by the astute cast of “Mystery Science Theater 3000” and cited as a prototype for a long succession of “mockumentary” films — a style Pierce refined with his 1976 picture, “The Town That Dreaded Sundown.”

Help to Keep Great Journalism Alive in Arkansas

Join the fight for truth and become a subscriber of the Arkansas Times. We've been battling powerful forces for 50 years through our tough, determined, and feisty journalism. With over 63,000 Facebook followers, 58,000 Twitter followers, 35,000 Arkansas blog followers, and 70,000 daily email blasts, our readers value great journalism. But we need your help to do even more. By subscribing and supporting our efforts, you'll not only have access to all of our articles, but you'll also be helping us hire more writers to expand our coverage. Together, we can continue to hold the powerful accountable and bring important stories to light. Subscribe now or donate for as little as $1 and be a part of the Arkansas Times community.

Previous article Arkansas “Cabbage Patch Riots” at center of new HBO series Next article Ten out at Secretary of State’s office