“Creature from Black Lake” gets my vote as the single most amiable and entertaining Bigfoot fright film to ever amble onto the big screen. John David Carson and the ever-daffy Dennis (“Truck Stop Women,” “House of 1,000 Corpses”) Fimple display a breezy, relaxed, wholly personable chemistry as two eager beaver college anthropology students who visit a Louisiana stick burg to find out if stories concerning Mr. Size 25 Shoes have any basis in fact.
Zestfully directed by Do-It-Yourself regional indie filmmaker Joy Houck, Jr. and cleverly written by Jim McCollough, Jr. (who co-stars as a wily country boy who befriends our heroes), this fine feature boasts an endearingly playful sense of good-natured humor, likable characters, a strong spooky atmosphere, and a tasty, picturesque evocation of the Creole State’s lush, marshy bayou. Furthermore, the stellar, spot-on, spirited tearin’-apart-the-scenery performances by dependable seasoned hambones Jack Elam and Dub Taylor add a substantial energy boost to the proceedings. Taylor essays his standard role of a crusty, hot-tempered hillbilly grandpappy with his trademark testy aplomb (“Dadgum it!”), but Elam steals the the entire show with his growly, eye-rolling portrayal of ornery ol’ swamp cuss trapper Joe Canton (Elam’s “nothin'” story in particular is an absolute corker). Stocky, stony-faced cracker character actor Bill Thurman brings his usual low-key charm and unaffected acting style to the role of a sheriff named after then First Brother Billy Carter. Morgan Fairchild’s comely sister Catherine McClenny has a sassy small part as a feisty greasy spoon waitress.
In a nifty homage to “The Legend of Boggy Creek” Fimple has the holy living hell scared out of him when a guy catches him off guard while he’s urinating behind a bush. The unusually adroit and sporadically expansive widescreen cinematography was done by a fledging Dean Cundey, who eventually established himself as a top director of photography with his groundbreaking gliding camera-work for “Halloween.” Jamie Mendoza-Nava’s score deftly alternates between moody, menacing scareshow music and sprightly, s**t-kickin’ country bluegrass. The film concludes with a genuinely harrowing sequence in which Sasquatch (Roy Tatum in an up-to-snuff excess body hair outfit) stalks and attacks our protagonists. All in all, this dandy’s a complete winner.
