By MICHAEL GINGOLD
A key figure behind regional cult-horror favorites has left us.
The Shreveport Times reported that Jim McCullough, Jr., a.k.a. Jimmie Bradford McCullough, Jr., died May 10; a cause has not been reported. In the 1970s, he joined forces with his father (who passed away in 2012) on Jim McCullough Productions, which made numerous films in Louisiana and elsewhere in the South. Among the best-known are 1976’s CREATURE FROM BLACK LAKE, about the search for a Bigfoot-like creature, which Jim Sr. produced with Jim Jr. scripting and playing a key supporting role (pictured above), and Joy Houck Jr. directing. The McCulloughs encored as producer and writer, respectively, with Sr. also directing, on a backwoods slasher initially titled MOUNTAINTOP MOTEL, and released by New World Pictures in 1986 as MOUNTAINTOP MOTEL MASSACRE with the memorable tagline, “Please do not disturb Evelyn. She already is.”
The duo’s last genre outing was the 1988 direct-to-video serial-killer flick VIDEO MURDERS, with McCullough Jr. once again providing the screenplay while his dad produced and directed. Other films on which they collaborated were the sci-fi opus THE AURORA ENCOUNTER and the religious sports drama THE SAINT TAMMANY MIRACLE.
