Legend of Boggy Creek’s Pierce Dies
Posted by: Loren Coleman on March 6th, 2010
Arkansas filmmaker Charles B. Pierce is pictured in this 1983 file photo by the Texarkana Gazette. Film posters of two of his films, Bootleggers and The Legend of Boggy Creek, can be seen on the wall behind him.
Charles B. Pierce (above) has been credited with bringing many Bigfoot researchers into the field, and I’ve discussed this in my book, Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in America and here at this blog often.
The AP is sadly reporting this breaking news:
Charles B. Pierce, an independent filmmaker whose inexpensively made documentary-style drama “The Legend of Boggy Creek” influenced the hit film “The Blair Witch Project” decades later, has died at age 71, on March 5, 2010.
Pierce, who grew up in Arkansas and made his films mostly in that state, died Friday at a Dover nursing home, according to Wayne Anglin of Anglin Funeral Home at Dover [Tennessee]. A cause of death could not be obtained.
Pierce was born in Hammond, Ind., but moved to southwest Arkansas with his family as a child, according to a daughter, Amanda “Amy” Squitiero. He grew up in Hampton, Ark., and as an adult lived in nearby Texarkana, where he ran an advertising agency. But it was his 1972 low-budget movie that gained him fame.
“He really did change the face of filmmaking,” Arkansas Film Commissioner Christopher Crane told the Texarkana Gazette. “With his model, many filmmakers became successful with the drive-in creature feature, so to speak.”
The director of the 1999 box-office docudrama “The Blair Witch Project,” Daniel Myrick, cited Pierce’s film as an influence in an interview with the Tulsa World.
“We just wanted to make a movie that tapped into the primal fear generated by the fact-or -fiction format, like ‘Legend of Boggy Creek,'” he told the newspaper in 1999. “That was one of my favorites; it freaked me out when I was a little kid. I was beside myself with fear for weeks after seeing that thing.”
“Boggy Creek” was based on a local legend of a Sasquatch-like creature in Fouke, a town southwest of Texarkana, where retailers still capitalize on the fame of what was called the Fouke Monster.
Squitiero said her father’s autobiographical notes indicate “Legend of Boggy Creek” was made for $160,000 but ultimately made $25 million after it became a cult hit.
Director and producer Harry Thomason, whose credits include the TV sitcom “Designing Women,” grew up next door to Pierce in Hampton.
“Charlie was one of the greatest storytellers in the world,” Thomason said. “He had remarkable success when you think of it.”
Thomason also praised “Bootleggers,” Pierce’s follow-up film, as “a very intelligent script with great acting.”
Pierce’s additional directing credits include “The Town That Dreaded Sundown,” “Winterhawk,” “The Winds of Autumn,” “Grayeagle,” “The Norseman,” “The Evictors” and “Sacred Ground.”
He was also a screenwriter for the 1983 film “Sudden Impact,” starring Clint Eastwood.
Thanks to Henry May for the news tip.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
hey everyone this so very sad to hear that charles b. pierce passed away 🙁 i will always remember him for his boggy creek movies indeed.
If you have not seen this movie, you can download it for free (and legally) at archive.org.
It’s sad to see Charles pass on. I spent a Saturday in a movie theater watching Boggy Creek over and over. It was manna for a crypto-starved teen. Not alot fo fancy effects, just good story telling. My prayers go out to his family.