PLOT: Kolchak encounters a series of murders linked by Spanish moss found at the scene. He traces the slayings to a Cajun man undergoing dream deprivation in a research experiment, which somehow releases a legendary swamp boogeyman, Père Malfait.
COMMENTARY: The monster recalls Marvel's Man-Thing and DC's Swamp Thing, both of which were popular in comics at the time. Richard Kiel returns from the previous episode to play the hulking id-driven creature. The monster-costume is pretty effective for early 70's TV, except for its obviously-human hands. Too bad no one could obtain some boggy-ish gloves. The climax in the Chicago sewers is notable.
The sharp dark-haired lab assistant was played by Elisabeth Brooks, best remembered for her role as the villainess Marsha Quist in "The Howling" (1981). She prematurely died of brain cancer at the age of 46 in 1997.