Fogbrook Thing, The (1985)

... aka: Berko Brothers, The

Directed by:
Mark Osborn

In 1965, a busload of boy scouts of various ages and their chaperone arrive deep in the Victorian brush of Fogbrook for a camping trip. 280 miles from the nearest town, the scouts set up their tents, raise their flag and, later that night, share ghost stories around a campfire. One of the older scouts tells the "true story" about The Berko Brothers ("berko" is Aussie slang for "berserk") to the younger ones in an attempt to scare them. According to the legend, a pair of Italian brothers crashed their plane near the area years ago. One of the brothers' legs were horribly mangled in the crash, forcing the other to piggyback his sibling across the dangerous terrain. Because the brother who could walk spent so much time carrying his crippled brother around on his back, the two managed to fuse together into one mass of two heads and four arms. And they both went crazy in the process. Visitors to the area have even reported seeing the brothers in the area lurking around in the brush. Some even claim they've seen them warming themselves by their fire late at night...

This 22-minute short is quite well done and manages to brilliantly capture the impact a good scary campfire tale can have on an impressionable young mind. The director and cinematographer do superb jobs setting up an eerie atmosphere and really make the most of the thick forest surrounding the camp; turning it into a sinister place indeed, and compounding that with scenes in the tents late at night, with shadows of tree branches swaying in the wind reflected inside and a bunch of young and scared boys lying awake in silence just waiting for the mangled brothers to make an appearance... The ending is a tad pat after such a great build up, but this is precisely the type of film that would make a great segue for younger viewers to start getting into the genre.

There were many reports of people viewing this Aussie production before it actually materialized online. In some theaters in both Australia and the UK, it was shown before Space Camp (1986). It also may have been a bonus feature on some video releases in the 1980s. The short finally turned up because it was featured on the Australian children's program Kaboodle, which was eventually released on a DVD box set. You can now view it on Youtube.

★★★

Encounter with the Unknown (1973)

Directed by:
Harry Thomason

During the years 1949 through 1970, Dr. Jonathan Rankin conducted extensive research in the field of psychic phenomena and catalogued hundreds of events that defy rational explanation. The most intriguing aspect of the research was the discovery of an apparent relationship between many of these events and certain cemeteries located throughout the United States. According to Dr. Rankin, 453 people directly involved in these strange events were buried in only 23 separate cemeteries throughout the nation. Some of the persons died as a result of the recorded event but many lived normal life times before being interred in one of the 23 cemeteries. This apparent final grouping of people who were touched by the unknown is referred to in parapsychology as the Rankin Cluster Phenomena. Dr. Rankin's research was never completed due to his untimely death August 20, 1970. He was buried 16 blocks from his home in one of the 23 cemeteries he spent his lifetime studying. The following episodes are based on supposedly true events described in Dr. Rankin's writing and involving one of the mystery cemeteries.

Sounds intriguing, no? Well, the filmmakers responsible for this trio of supernatural tales just made all of the above up. Not only is there no famous parapsychologist named Dr. Jonathan Rankin, but there was also no study and no linking of strange events to cemeteries. The film doesn't even bother following that fake set-up itself!

The Twilight Zone's Rod Sterling narrates, introduces the major players and reminds us that "There are few things as strange as reality." While attending the funeral for Johnny Davis, three college students; Frank (Gary Brockette), Randy (John Leslie) and Dave (Tom Haywood), are approached by Camille (Fran Franklin), mother of the deceased. She informs them they'll get their just reward, mentions a heptagon and says "one by land, two by sky." Later, while traveling by plane, Frank recounts his story for priest Father Duane (Robert Ginnaven). He and his friends had tricked the geeky Johnny into going to an old woman's home to get laid; claiming she was a young and willing friend of theirs. Instead, Johnny was accidentally shot and killed. Seven days after the event, Dave was run over and killed by a car. Now it's fourteen days later. After Father Duane gets off at his destination, the plane takes off again and crashes. Seven are killed, including Frank. Father Duane then sets about to locate Randy and see if the 7-7-7 prophecy is real or mere coincidence.

Our second story (a "soul-shattering rendezvous with darkness") is set in Southern Mississippi in 1906. While out fishing, young Jess (Kevin Bieberly) falls asleep and his dog Lady runs off. Later that night, the boy hears barking so he sneaks out of his window to take a look. When his father Joe (Robert Holton) finds him, he's lying on the ground half out of it next to a deep hole. The hole is actually an underground cavern which has been opened up by rain. Smoke, strange noises and beastly growls come out of it. Word soon gets around town about the mysterious cave. Some think it's "the work of the devil." Others want to know what's inside of it. Against his wife's (Annabelle Weenick) psychic premonitions, Joe and some other men from town (including Bill Thurman) decide to further investigate the strange hole. Joe agrees to be lowered down into it with a rope... and doesn't emerge as the same guy went down there.

Finally, we have "The Girl on the Bridge," which is based on an popular urban legend with slight variations depending on which area of the U.S. you live in (I've usually heard it called "The Hitchhiker"). After wrecking her car in the river, pretty young Susan (Rosie Holotik) is found standing on a bridge in a daze by a Senator (Michael Harvey) and his wife (Judith Fields). She has no recollection of what had happened. All she knows is that she just wants to go home. Susan then recounts what led up to her fateful crash. During an argument, her father (Gene Ross) told her to stop seeing Paul (August Sehven), the man she truly loves, because he doesn't have much money. Susan refused and continued to sneak out to see him. The star-crossed lovers eventually attempted to run off together and elope... and that's when they crashed. When the Senator and his wife go to drop Susan off at her home, they understand why Susan's father has deep regrets about telling her that "I'd rather see you dead than married to that boy."

If you can overlook the low production values, highly variable acting (many appear to have been dubbed) and predictability of the plotlines, the three stories are somewhat entertaining. Unfortunately, this is brought down a notch by both sheer redundancy and an awful final 10 minutes, which is nothing more than a narrated recap of what we've just seen. The echo-voiced narrator (not Serling) rambles on and on about death, witchcraft, white magic, black magic, the Egyptian 'Book of the Dead,' burial rituals, energy released during birth and death and a bunch of other nonsense. Just like the beginning fake scroll, this seems like a desperate attempt to tie things together and it doesn't work. Serling's narration is also unnecessary and just as redundant, though it does at least lend this low-budget regional picture a little class.

This was filmed in Texas and features many regular actors in the films of such Alamo State filmmakers as S.F. Brownrigg (Ross, Weenick and 1972 Playboy Playmate Holotik were the stars of his hit DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT) and Larry Buchanan (Thurman and Weenick). The director also made VISIONS OF EVIL (1973) and THE DAY IT CAME TO EARTH (1979); both of which featured Ginnaven in a major role.

★★

Teenagers Battle the Thing (1958)

... aka: Curse of Bigfoot

Directed by:
"Don Fields" (Dave Flocker)

Dr. Bill Wyman, an archeologist and curator at the Lincoln County Museum, decides to enlist the aid of high school teacher Roger Mason and five of his students; Johnny, Norman, Sharon, Linda and Bob, to help excavate and uncover the ruins of an ancient Indian camp site. They all travel to the small Southwestern town of Ivanpah and stay at the home of a museum association member who lets them use the place whenever they want. Their first day there, they go out to the excavation site and begin digging. They unearth some pottery fragments and prayer sticks, but then locate a piece of a burial stone at the base of some rock cliffs covered in pictographs. The men in the group decide to scale the cliff with some rope and walks along the ledges to see if they're anything hidden in the rocks. Once they do, they come across a stone tablet that predates the Indians they're there researching. The markings are from cavemen, though. More specifically; the earliest known species of man; the ape man.

The guys lift the stone tablet and as soon as they do, smoke (actually a preservation vapor) starts rolling out from the Earth. There's a hole there and a tunnel leading down to an underground cavern. A few of the guys climb down and stumble upon some ash-filled pottery and a mud-covered mummy. They tie the mummy to some boards and bring it back into town with them; sticking it in a shed until they can unveil their discovery at the museum the following day. One of the guys sees it move but nobody believe him until the ape-mummy actually disappears from the shed. That night, it busts into a local woman's home and kills her. The archeologist and company, along with the local sheriff, come to the conclusion they must destroy it. Their plans of luring it into some gasoline-soaked hay bails using meat scraps doesn't quite pan out as they'd hoped, so they just use a flare gun instead.

I wish I could write more detailed summary of this film's plot, but there's nothing to really discuss. This has to be one of the most uneventful, least thrilling films in existence. Running just 60 minutes, it's basically divided into two portions: the excavation crew digging through dirt until they make their discovery part and the monster getting loose part. And honestly, I really could have lived with the first part, which has a charming simplicity to it, if it had led to something worthwhile, but it doesn't. I think it says a lot that the most entertaining aspect of this entire film is checking out the picturesque Southwest desert locations. The scenes with "the thing" are brief and unexciting. All it does is kill a woman off-screen, tackle the sheriff and then gets set ablaze. This also suffers a lot from having a cast of nobodies reduced to play anonymous cardboard characters. This film flat out refuses to characterize anyone and the students, for the most part, just stand around. There's no real battle like the misleading title suggests, though a few of the teens get to finally put the pitiful hairball out of its misery.

I'm not sure if this was ever released theatrically in its original form of not, but it was salvaged a decade-and-a-half later when the entire film was sandwiched between 30-minutes of newly shot color footage of people talking in a classroom. The resulting hodge podge was then released (debuting on network television) as Curse of Bigfoot (1976) to cash in on the Big Foot craze of the day. Big Foot... Mummified Ape Man... What's the difference, right?

Now a public domain title, this has been released on video and DVD by many labels over the years. Writer James T. Flocker (brother of the director?) also backed THE LUCIFER PROJECT (1976) and directed GHOSTS THAT STILL WALK (1977).

★