#21. Boggy Creek 2: And the Legend Continues
21. Boggy Creek 2: And The
Legend Continues (1983) - Season 10, episode 1006
"We're goin' campin'. And yer gonna watch."
Plot: An anthropology professor and his students track down the Arkansas equivalent of Bigfoot.
Famous for:
Showing WAY too much of various mens' crotches.
(as the camera is slowly pulling back): "Uh oh. Please don't be splayed."
"Ewwwwwwwwwwww!"
"You need to work on your camel toe, son."
My favorite riff: There are a LOT of great riffs in this episode, but the one that
always stands out to me is at the beginning of the movie, when the
professor and his sidekicks walk into an old country grocery store.
The first thing
we see when we enter the store is this ugly mint green helmet that's
hanging down from the ceiling. There's no reason for it to be
there. And because it's such an odd color, it completely stands out from
everything else in the store.
And of course, the MST3k guys
will never let us down, and never not comment on something strange going on in
the background like that.
Enjoy!
Professor Lockhart and Tim enter the store
Clerk: Can I help y'all?
Crow: Yes, do you sell turquoise plastic pith helmets?
Comments:
Boggy Creek 2 is one of those episodes that almost ALWAYS shows
up on any MST3k fan's list of best episodes. And I think it totally deserves it, too. It's really
funny, the riffing is great, and as I keep pointing out in these
recaps, the movie is also actually not that bad.
Boggy Creek 2 isn't a masterpiece of filmmaking or anything, but it's well made, it's in color, it's easy to watch,
and that helps soooo much when it comes to a lot of these
episodes. I'm pretty sure you could sit and watch this movie
unriffed and even though you wouldn't love it, you probably wouldn't
get bored by it or hate it either. It's actually kind of fun.
I should also point out that
a lot of the scenery in this movie is actually really pretty. Most of
Charles B. Pierce's movies were essentially love letters to his home
state of Arkansas, and this one is no exception. Some of the
nature shots he included are actually quite beautiful.
Narrator: These river bottoms are really a sight to behold.Crow (impressed, as if looking at a river bottom): Whoa!
"Is this a Bond film all of a sudden?"
When
Boggy Creek 2 is firing on all cylinders, it's easily one of the
funniest episodes that MST3k ever did. I fell in love with it the
first time I watched it, and it's one of those episodes that I try to
go back and rewatch as often as I can. If only because it is GUARANTEED
to get me into the giggle zone the minute Tim the research
assistant pops his shirt off, and he basically just keeps it off. For
the entire rest of the rest
of the movie, they guy just walks around with no shirt.
Skinny, shirtless Tim is such a fun punching
bag for Mike and the Bots. Most of the best riffs in the episode
are directed at him.
"Owwww, I got nipple rub."
"I put Tim in front, to absorb the first hail of bullets."
But again, here's the great thing about this episode. As fun as Tim is, it's not just all about Tim!
Aside from Tim the shirtless wonder
boy, you also have a slew of other goofy fun things (and characters) popping up
throughout the movie.
I mean, how can you forget Crenshaw? Who Mike famously describes as "half man, half pig."
.
"It's the Berserker residence!"
And
who can forget the scene where Doctor Lockhart pulls out his sad little 80s
computer, and he hooks it up to a SONAR detector. Because that's
exactly what people were doing with their computers back in 1982. They were hooking it up to SONAR.
In the words of Lucille Bluth, everyone in '82 was laughing and
sonaring and cornholing, and it was all just a great time to be alive.
"The Target website is boring."
"Boy, Tim's a real strong blip on my gaydar."
And of course who can forget the famous outhouse
scene? Which culminates in a wife having to hose poop off of her
husband's leg.
Show me ANY other movie featured on MST3k where
one character has to hose off another character's shit. And no,
Joe Don Baker movies don't count.
"Is this The Miller's Tale, Mike?"
(note: that's an absolute killer riff, if you get it)
I
wouldn't say Boggy Creek 2 is a perfect episode.
For starters,
the first ten or fifteen minutes of the movie are actually pretty boring. And because of that, you might
be tempted to turn the movie off and give up. But don't. Just stick with this
one for a while. It's worth it. It's really funny.
"You can't surf in Arkansas! Foul!"
Other personal favorite things
about this episode: One of the things I love about this movie is that shirtless Tim
is played by an actor named Chuck Pierce. Who just happens to be the
son of the director/writer/star of this movie, Charles B. Pierce.
I love that Charles wrote a role specifically for his son, and it
involved his son just walking around shirtless all the time. Thus ensuring that the MST3k guys could
bag on him for ninety straight minutes, and make fun of his physique.
Um, call me crazy, but that's one of those parenting
moves that might have somehow backfired a little bit.
"Jeez, do a push-up, kid."
"Tim had a bladder the size of a thimble."
Trivia:
Even though the name of this movie is "Boggy Creek 2", it's
actually the THIRD movie in Charles B. Pierce's Boggy Creek series.
His
first movie ("The Legend of Boggy Creek") came out in 1972. And it was
actually a pretty successful little low budget regional
horror movie. I remember seeing it on video store shelves all the
time back in the 80s. In fact, because it was an
early attempt at a fake documentary/found footage movie, one could make
the argument that The Legend of Boggy Creek should REALLY
be considered the first incarnation of the Blair Witch Project.
Blair Witch and Boggy Creek are very much the same type of movie.
In any case, there's no disputing the fact that Charles
B. Pierce invented a new type of movie when he created The
Legend of Boggy Creek back in 1972. And then, when it made $20
million dollars at the box office, and it became a big hit, he
spent the rest of his life going back to the well over and over
again, and trying to come up with more sequels.
Director/Star/Writer Charles B. Pierce, who actually had a very successful career
I'm not
entirely sure why the names of the movies went "The Legend of
Boggy Creek", and then "Return to Boggy Creek". And then why this
one (the third one) was called "Boggy Creek 2." Maybe it was a
rights issue. Maybe the guy just didn't know how to count.
Maybe Charles B. Pierce simply came up with a cypher that not even
the finest mathematicians among us will ever be able to unlock.
In fact, now that I think of it, it does make
me wonder if Charles B. Pierce was actually the Zodiac killer.
"Off campus research! At the University of Arkansas!"
Oh
yeah, one last thing. If you ever DO track down a copy of
the second movie in this series ("Return to Boggy Creek"), just know going
into it that it stars Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island, and little Dana
Plato, before she did Diff'rent Strokes. At what I can only
imagine was a high point in both of their careers.
Mister Drummond? Um, Tim just whipped out his camel toe again.
