Bog (1979)

I found Bog on Amazon Prime and was shocked to realize that it was made in the seventies and was a regional drive-in movie with a swamp monster. These aren’t the kinds of movies that I tend to miss and go out of my way to find and watch. Though the fact that I’m still finding them makes me happy and excited for what might still be lurking out there patiently waiting for me to unearth it. Yeah, I’m a nerd…

Things kick off with a fisherman using dynamite to stun his catch so he can just scoop them out of the water. This backfires on him when he wakes something up that grabs and yanks him from the boat. Then we meet a pair of married couples who end up at the same lake which we know since they find his boat and are all like “Hey free boat!”. After a night of drinking beer and snappy dialogue the menfolk are shocked when the ladies get taken by something in the lake. Later the bodies are found, and the sheriff gets involved. With a couple science types tossed in they figure out that there is a monster and that they need to kill it. The rest of the movie is random people getting killed by the monster, which we never see more than a glimpse of, while they figure out the best way to kill or capture it.

This is about what I expected when I saw the poster and read up a little bit about Bog. This is a low budget movie that follows the monster formula to a fault and stars some sort of familiar names on the back end of their careers. This was the bread and butter of the drive-in flick so no surprises. We get a few characters killed off to set the stage for what happens later. Here the fisherman and the wives. But there is also a weird swamp guy and poor old deputy Corky that get killed off. All of the deaths happen offscreen and are later explained by “science”. The creature lives off of blood, which it collects by shoving a proboscis down a person’s throat and puncturing the aorta. Sounds gruesome doesn’t it? The actual killing is left to the viewer’s imagination as we only get to see one pale bloodless body.

Another thing left to our imagination is the creature. For most of the movie was see a claw and that it is. When the entire creature is on display it is kept at a distance from the camera or shrouded in fog or obscured by a net. What we do get to put eyes on convinced me that this is one of the goofiest looking creatures that I’ve ever seen and I loved it! I wanted to see more of it and was disappointed that we didn’t. I mean you are making a silly monster movie for the drive-in market embrace that and go for it.

Best look at the creature that we get

The cast features a couple familiar names one being Aldo Ray who did a lot of television in the fifties and sixties seemingly specializing in playing the sheriff, which is what he does here. The other is Marshall Thompson who I remember from a classic fifties sci-fi movie It! The Terror from Beyond Space which I’ve covered for the site (check out the link here). We also get to see the great Leo Gordon and lovely Gloria DeHaven collect paychecks as well. Seriously though they all are taking the proceedings seriously and the movie benefits from their acting skills and experience.

Is this a great movie? Honestly it is not. There are some pacing issues and the day for night shots look bad, but there is something so cheesy about the proceedings that I just can’t help myself but to enjoy Bog. I’m explaining this because I have a suspicion that if you don’t have the same affection for these low budget movies from the seventies you might find this one boring and dumb. Warning given I’d say that I do recommend Bog for anyone that shares my love for these odd flicks.

© Copyright 2019 John Shatzer

The Day Time Ended (1979)

Recently I’ve been digging back into my Mill Creek DVD sets. These are those collections of Public Domain movies that they put out on the cheap. Though many times they find out that they aren’t public domain (see the Giant Spider Invasion) and are forced to recall products. Admittedly most of the movies contained are junk but once in a while you find something decent hiding in there. The set that The Day Time Ended is in has a decent copy of The Crater Lake Monster in it, which is a personal favorite of mine. Does this movie stack up to that one? No, it does not, but it isn’t half bad.

The story focuses on a family that lives in an isolated ranch house that has solar power and is sort of off the grid. Living there is Grandpa, Grandma, their kids, son in law, and a granddaughter. They have just returned from vacation when all sorts of weird stuff begins happening. First up we get a strange pyramid in the horse corral, which is followed by UFOs, and other strange lights. The action really heats up when a diminutive alien shows up and dances around the house followed by an aggressive spaceship the size of a dust buster and some dinosaur looking creatures that have a wrestling match in the yard. Yeah this is a weird movie. After some talk of time warps the family ends up on another planet looking at an alien city and talking about it being their new home.

First, I had no idea that this was directed by one of my favorite exploitation low budget guys, John “Bud” Cardos. This is the man responsible for Mutant starring Wings Hauser and Kingdom of the Spiders with William Shatner. While those two movies are very straightforward monster movies this one is a bit different. While the Day Time Ended boasts some fun stop motion effects and a lot of strange creatures this isn’t a typical monster movie. It focuses less on the creatures and doing battle with them and more on the odd sci-fi story at the center of the action. We keep hearing about a supernova and what it might mean for the planet Earth. There are also weird electrical storms and an even weirder sequence where the house teleports to a scene surrounded with planes and other debris from the past and maybe the future? I found it all very interesting but could totally understand someone not digging it.

You thought I was kidding about the dancing alien!

The second thing that I never knew was that this was produced by Charles Band. While Cardos’ involvement excited me I’m not that thrilled with Band. He has made some good movies but also has a lot of bad ones on his track record. Here I think his involvement is a plus and was probably the reason we got so many great stop motion creatures. They reminded me a lot of the aliens from Laser Blast, which I’ve always enjoyed. The music and other visual effects work were also decent and on par with what I’ve seen from his other productions.

I'm a sucker for stop motion

My final observation is this. While many other movies in seventy-nine were trying to cash in on the animal attacks genre (Jawspolitation), or Star Wars this one feels more like Close Encounters of the Third Kind both in the way that the aliens are portrayed as well as the time travel elements involved. Hell, the boneyard with the airplanes and other debris looks quite similar to those in Spielberg’s movie. This was an odd choice considering how popular and easier the other movies were to “borrow” from, but I give The Day Time Ended some credit for trying.

This one is for the science fiction fan only. If you are looking for a movie with lots of action and monsters you will be sadly disappointed. Do I recommend it? Yes, with the caveat that you understand the kind of movie you are about to watch.

© Copyright 2019 John Shatzer