Curse of the Swamp Creature

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 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."

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

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.

The film re-uses Ronald Stein's previous music from both It Conquered the World and Invasion of the Saucer Men.

Reception

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". 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."

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
List of American films of 1966

References

External links
 
 
 

Category:1966 films
Category:1966 horror films
Category:1960s monster movies
Category:1960s science fiction films
Category:American films
Category:American International Pictures films
Category:American monster movies
Category:English-language films
Category:American science fiction television films
Category:Films directed by Larry Buchanan