TEENAGERS BATTLE THE THING (aka CURSE OF BIGFOOT, 1958/1975)

Both films streaming on Tubi!
Directed by Dave Flocker.
Written by James T. Flocker.
Check out the trailer here!!

Here’s a bit of an anomaly. Director Dave Flocker and his brother James T. Flocker put together a low budget black and white horror flick called TEENAGERS BATTLE THE THING, about a high school archaeology teacher who takes his class on a field trip and uncover a mummified monster from pre-history. A monster that resembles Bigfoot in many, many ways. In 1958, the film was only shown once in the filmmaker’s hometown. Flash forward to 1975, when the Bigfoot craze was in full effect and those darn Flockers decided to reedit, colorize, and re-release the film as CURSE OF BIGFOOT. In that film, added footage of a guest lecturer is added to the beginning, along with additional nature scenes to pad out the 60 minute TEENAGERS BATTLE THE THING to become a feature length hour and thirty minutes.

Look out! It’s a mummified Bigfoot on a rampage! After the class unearths the ancient cryptid, it wakes up and ambles after them for lengthy periods of screen time. The monster itself looks like it was made from the pelts of about twelve different animals (especially the creepy mask) and I guess it’s supposed to be wrapped in mummy wrappings as well. The whole thing looks pretty creepy. I mean, if I came across this guy in the woods, I’d be filling my pants. On top of that we have this damsel sporting some very unfortunate bangs that are more terrifying than any Bigfoot.

But this snail-paced z-budgeter takes about an hour and ten minutes to actually get to the Bigfoot mummy, leaving just about 15 minutes for the Bigfoot mummy to do some damage. The first hour of the film is filled with stock footage of nature, animals, and lumber mills and lengthy and needless exposition, this is especially so in the CURSE OF THE BIGFOOT version while TEENAGERS BATTLE THE THING gets to the mummy a little faster. Even those with a patient fast forward finger will be tempted to skip ahead on this one to the parts with the monster. Once the monster is loose, it’s decent fun as the beast wanders around, looms into the camera, peeks at the kids through bushes, and breaks tons of stuff.

I’ll give CURSE OF BIGFOOT = 2 FOOTS, 2 TOES!

Despite the horrible special effects, the stilted acting, and god-awful pacing, the idea of a mummified Bigfoot is pretty awesome. Plus the DIY Bigfoot get-up makes it all the more creepier.