Monday, March 08, 2010

Charles B. Pierce, R. I. P.

Charles B. Pierce | 'Boggy Creek' creator, 71 | Philadelphia Inquirer | 03/08/2010: "Charles B. Pierce, 71, an independent filmmaker whose inexpensively made documentary-style drama The Legend of Boggy Creek influenced the hit film The Blair Witch Project decades later, died Friday at a Dover, Tenn., nursing home. The cause of death was not given.

Born in Indiana, Mr. Pierce 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 said. 'With his model, many filmmakers became successful with the drive-in creature feature, so to speak.'"

Hat tip to Scott Cupp.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I loved that movie when I saw it as a kid.

Danny

Ed Gorman said...

I took my then seven year old son Joe to one of his movies which we liked but then the follow-up was so corny we were both laughing at it. He never quite rose to the level of dramatic success that Max "Jethro" Baer, Jr. did. with his one movie. I think Don Johnson was in it. He was probably like eighteen. But it worked, a damned good little B obviously made for under two hundred grand or thereabouts. Movies were more interesting then. These big budget behemoths bore my ass off. The stories tend to be snoozers.

Dan said...

Pierce's BOOTLEGGERS was rather well done

Todd Mason said...

Conversely, I saw the first BOGGY CREEK and felt utterly ripped off...I wanted scary, got hokey. The notion that somehow he invented the pseudo-documentary approach, even in low-budget horror, is Generous to say the least. But I'll believe he did better, as Dan notes. RIP.

Deb said...

"Boggy Creek II: Return to Boggy Creek" was one of Mystery Science Theater 3000's funniest episodes. When the credits were rolling, one of the bots commented, "Written, produced, and directed by Charles 'in way over his head' Pierce."

Fred Blosser said...

If he was the same Charles Pierce (IMDB says he was, but IMDB isn't always 100 percent reliable), he also made the worst Viking movie ever, THE NORSEMEN, and scripted the fourth Dirty Harry film.

Deb said...

Oh Fred, I remember THE NORSEMAN--starring Lee Majors as the only Viking in history to hot-comb his hair!

Doc Quatermass said...

Not long after wifey and I met in 1979 we stayed up one Friday late night and watched The Legend of Boggy Creek on late night TV. (Afterwards they ran Psycho and I had to go to work the next day but Maureen had never seen it so I told her she had to stay up and watch it while I went to bed. She never lets me forget that.) I highly recommend the Boggy Creek episode of The History Channel's Monster Quest series, Season 3, Episode 11: Swamp Stalker. It's a hoot. I bought TLoBC on DVD for a song several years back as a nostalgic lark but haven't gotten round to watching it yet.

Doc Quatermass said...

Ed, you're referring to Return to Macon County, the 1975 follow up to Max's Macon County Line which made him a millionare. MCL takes place in '54 while the sequel takes place in '58. I keep meaning to see if they're on DVD. Several years back I got nostalgic and rented all the old Walking Tall movies (as well as all but the one Phantasm movie that wasn't out on either VHS or DVD). It was a good time.