Curse of the Swamp Creature
| Curse of the Swamp Creature | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Larry Buchanan |
| Produced by |
Larry Buchanan (producer) Edwin Tobolowsky (associate producer) |
| Screenplay by | Tony Huston |
| Starring | See below |
| Music by | Ronald Stein |
| Cinematography | Ralph K. Johnson |
| Distributed by | American International Television |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 80 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Curse of the Swamp Creature is a 1966 American film directed by Larry Buchanan. 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[1] even though it bears more than a few striking similarities to the 1957 AIP film Voodoo Woman.
Buchanan later said "never make a swamp picture. Your film comes back and it's all... strange."[2]
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
- Bill McGhee
- Ted Mitchell
- Roger Ready as Frenchie
- Bill Thurman as Driscoll West / The Swamp Creature
- Tony Huston as Tom
- Gayle Johnson as Mura
- Michael Tolden
- Annabelle Weenick as Hotel clerk
- Patrick Cranshaw
- J.V. Lee
- Naomi Bruton
Production notes
Despite showing the monster very prominently on the posters of the film, which bill it as an "underwater terror from another age," other than brief, partial glimpses down into the mist-filled glass tank where its body is being modified from its original human form, the titular burly, bald, Spock-eared and slit-pupiled, protruding ping pong ball-eyed creature only appears at the climax of the film for less than five minutes before meeting its demise, and no scenes take place underwater.
The webbed-fingered, hospital gown-clad creature was created using primitive prosthetic make-up and greyish green body paint and not the infamous cheap and phony-looking scalloped-scaled rubber wetsuit and fiercely-fanged fish head mask with painted ping-pong-ball eyes Buchanan later used in Creature of Destruction and 'It's Alive!'.
The movie was filmed in Uncertain, Texas where the Fly-N-Fish Lodge and Airport seen in early scenes still exists.[3]
The film re-uses Ronald Stein's previous music from both It Conquered the World and Invasion of the Saucer Men.
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.
See also
References
- ↑ 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
External links
- Curse of the Swamp Creature at the Internet Movie Database
- Curse of the Swamp Creature is available for free download at the Internet Archive