Trailer of the Week: The Boogens (1981)

Fun from the Sunn Classics folks in Utah.

R.I.P. Charles E. Sellier, Jr.

I recently learned that Idaho-based producer/director Charles E. Sellier, Jr., died unexpectedly on Monday. He was 67.

Sellier is best known for writing the original novel The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams in 1972, which he later adapted as a film and a TV series starring Dan Haggerty.

But for horror fans, he's even better known for his long association with the Utah-based Sunn Classic company, producing oddball films and documentaries (mostly for television) like The Mysterious Monsters (1976), In Search of Noah's Ark (1976), The Bermuda Triangle (1979), The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1980) and The Fall of the House of Usher (1982).

He also directed the notorious Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984), and served as a producer on The Boogens (1981). In more recent years, he had focused on Christian-themed films and TV programs, and he maintained a Web site at www.grizzlyadams.com.

Get Down and Boogens

The Boogens (1981)
Utah

Although it still sadly lacks a legit U.S. DVD release, fans of The Boogens can at least set their DV-Rs to record the film tonight when it plays on Turner Classic Movies at 2:30 a.m.

The film was helmed by busy TV director James L. Conway, who was also responsible for Sunn Classic projects like The Lincoln Conspiracy (1977) and Hangar 18 (1980), and produced by Charles E. Sellier, Jr., a Utah filmmaking institution who not only worked with the prolific Sunn, but also directed the notorious Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984).



"The Boogens" are scaly, turtle-like critters that emerge from an old silver mine to munch on a cast that includes future Mrs. Conway Rebecca Balding (Silent Scream, Soap), Fred McCarren, Jeff Harlan, and a lot of Coors beer.

It's a fun little movie that has been out of print for years, so if you have a chance be sure to take in the TCM broadcast. I'm hoping to dig up a copy of Stephen King's review of the film for the old Twilight Zone magazine ("Digging the Boogens") so I can post some excerpts later. I'd also like to find a copy of the novelization.



You can read an interview with Conway on John Kenneth Muir's blog. Clips and trailer below.