S.F. Brownrigg

Do-It-Yourself Texas regional independent filmmaker S.F. Brownrigg might have only made a handful of highly distinctive and peculiar low-budget horror exploitation pictures, but he nonetheless carved out his own singular little niche with his small, yet unique and impressive body of cinematic work. His films are distinguished by a bleak, brooding tone, murky plots, startling twist endings, lively acting from a game no-name cast, shocking moments of gruesome violence, and a pungent and flavorsome down-home backwoods country atmosphere. Born as Sherald Brownrigg on September 30, 1937 in El Dorado, Arkansas, Brownrigg served in the army as a combat photographer and worked on numerous military training films during his tour of duty. Brownrigg first met fellow regional independent filmmaker Larry Buchanan in 1955. Brownrigg collaborated with Buchanan on several movies: He edited "The Eye Creatures" and did the sound on such pictures as "The Naked Witch," "Mars Needs Women," "Zontar, the Thing from Venus," "High Yellow," and "It's Alive!". Brownrigg worked for a spell as the head of the sound department at the motion picture lab Jameson Film Company. Brownrigg achieved his greatest enduring cult popularity with his debut theatrical feature "Don't Look in the Basement," a marvelously grungy and claustrophobic horror psycho winner that was a major drive-in hit in the early 1970's. Brownrigg followed this movie with the sleazy "Scum of the Earth," the moody "Don't Open the Door," and the grim "Keep My Grave Open." His last picture was the low-brow comedy "Thinkin' Big." Brownrigg wanted to make a sequel to Tod Browning's "Freaks," but alas this particular project never got past the planning stage. After his film career came to a close in the mid-1980s, Brownrigg wound up working in television doing such things as golf shows for ESPN as well as various hunting and fishing TV programs. In addition, Brownrigg was the president of the Dallas production facility Century Studios. His son Tony Brownrigg is an actor, writer, director, special effects artist, soundman, and cinematographer and his other son Stacy is a professional soundman. S.F. Brownrigg died at age 58 on September 20, 1996 in Dallas, Texas.