Curse of the Swamp Creature
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Curse of the Swamp Creature | |
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Genre | Horror Sci-fi |
Screenplay by | Tony Huston |
Directed by | Larry Buchanan |
Starring | See below |
Music by | Ronald Stein |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Producers | Larry Buchanan (producer) Edwin Tobolowsky (associate producer) |
Cinematography | Ralph K. Johnson |
Running time | 80 minutes |
Production company | Azalea Pictures |
Distributor | American International Television MGM Television |
Release | |
Original release |
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Curse of the Swamp Creature is a 1968 American-made for television horror science fiction film directed by Larry Buchanan.[1] Although Buchanan was producing low-budget 16mm color remakes of American International Pictures sci-fi movies for television distribution around this time, he claimed this was an original[2] even though it bears more than a few striking similarities to the 1957 AIP film Voodoo Woman.
Buchanan later said, "never make a swamp pictures. Your film comes back, and it's all... strange."[3]
Plot[]
Deep in the rural swamps of Texas, the reclusive and ruthless wife-abusing mad scientist Dr. Simond Trent is conducting experiments in his laboratory on the local impoverished voodoo-worshiping black "natives" in an attempt to discover the secret to reversing evolution, feeding the failures to the alligators he keeps in his covered outdoor swimming pool. When a party of oil surveyors comes upon his isolated yet strangely suburban-style home, he decides to take the final step and turn the duplicitous female leader of the expedition into a grotesque and virtually indestructible amphibious "Fish Man" so that he can take his revenge upon the world.
Cast[]
- John Agar as Barry Rogers
- Francine York as Pat Trent
- Jeff Alexander as Dr. Simond Trent
- Shirley McLine as Brenda Simmons (aka "Mrs. Brenda West")
- Cal Duggan as Ritchie
- Charles McLine as Rabbit Simms
- Bill McGhee as Tracker
- Ted Mitchell as Valjean
- Roger Ready as Frenchie
- Bill Thurman as Driscoll West / The Swamp Creature
- Tony Huston as Tom
- Gayle Johnson as Mura
- Michael Tolden as Elderly Father
- Annabelle Weenick as Hotel clerk
- Patrick Cranshaw as Pilot
- J.V. Lee as Brother
- Naomi Bruton as Marcie
Production[]
This section may need to be rewritten to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards. (August 2018) |
Despite showing the monster very prominently on the posters of the film, which bill it as an "underwater terror from another age," other than a brief, partial glimpses down into the mist-filled glass tank where its body is being modified from its original human form, the titular creature (with its burly physique, bald head, Spock-like ears and protruding slit-pupiled, ping pong ball-shaped eyes) only appears at the climax of the film for less than five minutes before meeting its demise, and no scenes take place underwater.
The hospital gown-clad creature was created using primitive prosthetic make-up and grayish-green body paint rather than the infamously cheap and phony-looking scalloped-scaled rubber wetsuit (with webbed fingers) and fiercely-fanged fish head mask (with painted ping-pong-ball eyes) Buchanan later used in Creature of Destruction and 'It's Alive!'.[citation needed]
The movie was filmed in Uncertain, Texas, where the Fly-N-Fish Lodge and Airport seen in early scenes still exists.[4]
The film re-uses Ronald Stein's previous music from both It Conquered the World and Invasion of the Saucer Men.[citation needed]
Reception[]
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Curse of the Swamp Creature received predominantly negative reviews upon its release.
TV Guide gave the film 1/5 stars, calling it "[a] typically silly effort".[5] Jon Condit from Dread Central awarded the film 1.5 out of 5, writing, "Curse of the Swamp Creature is actually one of Z-grade schlockmeister Larry Buchanan’s better movies. That’s not to say that it’s any good, just a comment that you can probably sit all the way through it from beginning to end without falling asleep or wanting to gouge your eyes out with your own fingers."[6]
Legacy[]
A Curse of the Swamp Creature mask was one of the last items produced by the famed Don Post Studios before it went out of business in 2012.[citation needed]
See also[]
References[]
- ^ Craig, Rob (2007). The Films of Larry Buchanan: A Critical Examination. McFarland & Company. pp. 110–121. ISBN 978-0786429820.
- ^ Buchanan, Larry: It Came From Hunger: Confessions of a Cinema Schlockmeister, McFarland & Company, ISBN 078640194X, ISBN 978-0786401949
- ^ Goodsell, Greg, "The Weird and Wacky World of Larry Buchanan", Filmfax, No. 38 April/May 1993 p 64
- ^ http://www.city-data.com/.../Fly-N-Fish-Lodge-Airport-Uncertain-Texas.html[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Curse Of The Swamp Creature - Movie Reviews and Movie Ratings". TV Guide.com. TV Guide. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
- ^ Condit, Jon. "Curse of the Swamp Creature (1966) - Dread Central". Dread Central.com. Jon Condit. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
External links[]
- 1968 films
- 1966 films
- 1966 horror films
- 1960s monster movies
- 1960s science fiction films
- American films
- American International Pictures films
- American monster movies
- English-language films
- American science fiction television films
- Films directed by Larry Buchanan