Legend of the Bog

Horror / thriller

Ireland

Peacock Films

R4 DVD

I had great hopes of this film, largely because of Vinnie Jones. I haven’t seen him in a bad role yet. This budget film, however, fails to do much with him. This is a pity because there are areas where a stronger character is needed. The plot is not bad but underdeveloped. The characters are generally stereotypes and Jones is the only one who stands out above the general mediocrity. Even so, it was still an entertaining film. Why?

“Bog People” is the general name given to the 3,000-year-old bodies being dug up from ancient bogs as development spreads. The bodies are mostly found in the bogs of Ireland and Denmark. One of the characters is a young Professor of Forensic Anthropology and at the start of the film he is explaining the Bog People to a group of students. He points out that they were often killed and sunk in the bogs along the boundaries between the Celtic tribes. In the Celtic beliefs this has left them trapped between Life and the Underworld. Were they sacrifices, criminals or captives? As more bodies are discovered the scientists will learn more about them. He is therefore keen to examine Irish Bog bodies as they are found and sets out with one of the students who is detailed to drive him around. She is, of course, an attractive young woman.

We cut to a building site where an American woman (stereotypically brash, rude and pushy) is inspecting the progress of the development she is funding. A bog body has been discovered by the workmen but she can’t spare the time to have the site crawling with police or anthropologists, so she orders the body dumped into a stream. The fresh water revives the bog man who now sets out for revenge.

Through various coincidences the professor and his driver, the rich American woman and her taxi driver, and a pair of young women all get lost in the forest around the bogs. Lost and with night approaching they all finish up at a lonely cottage. The cottage is the home of Vinnie Jones who plays a hunter of Bog People. He introduces himself only as Mr Hunter. A rejuvenated Bog Man once attacked his partner and he had to shoot the man to put him out of his pain. He also killed the Bog Man and now hunts them. He admits to having killed at least two others as well. The lights in the cottage will have attracted them if there are any around so he suggests that they stay there until tomorrow when he will guide them to the village. The American woman will have none of this and takes off into the dark forest with her taxi driver. Of course the Bog Man kills her (very satisfying, that bit) but we only hear her screams.

One by one the group is picked off until only Hunter, the Professor and his assistant are left. They will now have to fight their way out to the village against a Bog Man who is bigger, stronger and out for revenge.

There are the makings of a good film in this plot and the producer did what he could with his budget, but there just isn’t enough terror in it. The “bog” could be any forest anywhere and the Bog Man looks more like Tor Johnson from the old Ed Wood movies – just a huge man wearing a bit of old sacking that is in a remarkable state of preservation after three thousand years in a bog. At least the Bog Man gets the best comedy bit when he comes across a pair of yapping poodles. In the next scene he now has a pair of fluffy black boots. There was a lot of time wasted as each character reveals a dark secret in their lives that suggests they may have a certain connection to the bogs themselves. As an attempt at improving the characterisation it just didn’t work. Without the interesting plot subject and Vinnie Jones’ role I don’t think this film would have worked. Even with its defects though, it is quite good entertainment. Now, if someone was to give the producer and director a lot more money and tell them to go off and do it again properly …..

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