“Never doubt that monsters exist. They do.”
A high school teacher is lecturing his class. The topic is monsters. Especially the stories about Bigfoot. During the discussion a special guest arrives. Roger Mason (Dave Flocker) enters the class and tells the students a fantastic story of how he actually saw Bigfoot. He tells them that it not only was responsible for several deaths, but that as the result of the encounter three of the students spent the rest of their lives in a mental institution.
He then tells them of how, 15 years earlier, he and five of his students, along with an archeologist, Dr. Bill Wyman (Bill Simonsen), the curator of the Lincoln County Museum took a field trip into the mountains digging for artifacts. At first they find a few prayer sticks and rock tools. Then while scouring the area they find a cave. In the cave they discover an underground tomb. In the tomb are some pottery and what looks like a mummy covered with mud. They take the mummy from the cave and bring it back to the cabin where they are staying. They store it in the shed behind the cabin. When it comes back to life it goes on a rampage killing anyone it runs across.
“Curse of Bigfoot” was released in 1976 and was produced and directed by Dave Flocker, AKA, Don Fields. The story was also written by his brother James T. Flocker, AKA, J. T. Fields. Originally released in 1958 as “Teenagers Battle the Thing” The additional footage includes stock footage of scenery and logging. The original movie was filmed in color however it was only released on VHS in black and white. Later when it was changed to “Curse of Bigfoot” and re-released, it was the color version.
Only one of the stars from the original movie appears in the additional footage. None of the additional stars are credited at all. The rest of “Curse of Bigfoot” consists of the entire 1958 film seen as a flashback. The original film focused on the resurrection of a mummy and had nothing to do with Bigfoot. Basically the filmmakers took the original movie and stuck the additional prologue into it and that was all.
The movie starts with the same credits and opening as the original movie. Then the new prologue is inserted. After that the movie goes right into the original movie. Again as with “Teenagers Battle the Thing”, there is much confusion with dates and cast members. For a small low budget nothing movie there has been a lot of speculation about it. I doubt that we will ever really have answers to all the questions that spun around the original movie.
Suffice it to say, the history, or lack thereof, for both “Teenagers Battle the Thing” and “Curse of Bigfoot” is more interesting than the movie.
As for “Curse of Bigfoot”, I don’t think the additional footage adds anything more to the movie. In fact, it takes away a little of the charm of the original film. As far as the difference between the black and white and the color versions, I prefer the black and white version. Again, I think it adds to the silly amateur charm.