The AIP Television logo at the beginning of CURSE OF THE SWAMP CREATURE.

I was unprepared for this. Seeing it instantly rejuvenated a flood of memories of the whole AIP Television gestalt. AIP Television distributed American International Pictures productions to local broadcast TV stations. But there was a larger market for movies than there were American International Pictures productions, so AIP Television also dealt in films picked up from independents and foreign studios. They'd buy up anything with an exploitable element or similarity to some popular, better-known film.

This logo preceding a film on Saturday afternoon or in the middle of the night meant that, for better or worse, whatever was coming up next would be worth 90 minutes of your time.

I can't remember ever seeing CURSE OF THE SWAMP CREATURE all the way through. I'd always either drift off or change the channel. But I kept waiting up for it, kept noting its appearance in the TV Guide. It is a film that is so void of content that it is hard to follow, hard to remember. Dreadful things happen in CURSE OF THE SWAMP CREATURE - human beings are used in gruesome medical experiments, fed live to alligators, knifed in their hotel rooms - but none of these things are made to seem all that important.

"Breathe! Breathe!" seethes Dr. Trent to his monster, who lives in an aquarium full of dry ice.