The Crater Lake Monster (1977)

I'll tell you why so serious

good back-story, and good acting

As Good As It Gets

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

RELEASED IN 1977 and written & directed by William R. Stromberg, "The Crater Lake Monster" details events in the high country of central California after a meteor strikes the eponymous (fictitious) lake and incubates a prehistoric egg, which hatches a plesiosaur-like creature that terrorizes the locals. Despite the title, the story does not take place in Crater Lake, Oregon, and the filmmakers don't hide this fact in light of (1.) the California plates of the vehicles and (2.) the lake is clearly snake-like in shape and not round like Crater Lake in Oregon. Speaking of the lake they used for establishing shots, it's located roughly 425 miles southeast of Crater Lake in central California.The movie is akin to modern Syfy flicks, but shot on a low-budget in the mid-70s. It lacks the production quality of 70's creature features like "Jaws" (1975) and "Prophecy" (1979), but isn't even up to the production level of TV flicks like "Snowbeast" (1977) and "Kingdom of the Spiders" (1977). The second-rate acting of the principles in particular distinguishes "The Crater Lake Monster" from these movies. But the Ray Harryhausen-like stop-motion effects are effective, although whenever the creature is shown emerging from the lake the contrast between the two (the monster and the lake) looks decidedly fake.Kacey Cobb shines on the female front and looks great in tight jeans, but her role is too small. There's some goofy slapstick provided by Arnie and Mitch, which is only a notch or so above the antics of Skipper and Gilligan. Other than that, the tone is serious and there are some highlights, like the excellent locations, the 70's atmosphere (styles/décor/etc.) and the surprisingly moving close. I should add that I never perceived the plesiosaur as a particularly scary or formidable dinosaur, but this flick gave me a different perspective.THE FILM RUNS 1 hour & 25 minutes and was shot in Huntington Lake and Palomar Mountain, California. ADDITIONAL WRITER: Richard Cardella. GRADE: C

Creature features back in the 70's often based themselves around the notions of monsters that many people actually believed could be out there. To this end, there were several films about the Yeti and Bigfoot. The water-based equivalent of this phenomena were the lake monsters of which there were several reported 'sightings' of, these included legendary creatures such as the Loch Ness Monster and Ogopogo, amongst many others. I know it sounds strange nowadays but back in those days people really did believe things like that could actually be out there. The Crater Lake Monster is one of those films that taps into the belief in the possibility of the existence of these lake creatures. It was made by b-movie legends Crown International Pictures and it tells a story where a large plesiosaur emerges from a lake after a dormant dinosaur egg is fertilised by a meteorite from outer space.This film seems to have a pretty bad reputation but I can't go along with the negativity at all. Most cheap monster movies from the period would never have put a fraction of the effort into the rendering of their creature as this one does. The special effects artist David Allen has to be given special mention for his stop-motion work, which I thought was more than decent. The monster is a pretty impressive creation, especially when you take into account the low budget here. The beast emerges several times to cause perturbation and despair and whenever it does constitutes the highlights of the movie. On the whole, the film looks pretty decent too, with an attractive location and some nice photography. So, from a creature feature point-of-view this definitely scores. The only thing that damaged the film for me was the excessive use of very poor humour based around the antics of a half-witted duo called Arnie and Mitch, whom we spend far too much time with. Their appearances do slow down the film and feels a bit too much like padding. But, this aside, The Crater Lake Monster is a very pleasant experience and one of the more ambitious releases from Crown International from the period.

In Oregon, a meteor crashes into Crater Lake and heats the water, hatching a dinosaur egg. Months later, fishes have vanished from the lake and a huge dinosaur hunts cattle and human to feed. The local Sheriff Steve Hanson (Richard Cardella) investigates the mysterious disappearance of tourists and even a criminal. He also tells to the rednecks Arnie Chabot (Glenn Roberts) and Mitch Kowalski (Mark Siegel) that they shall not rent their boats to the tourists. When he discovers the dinosaur, his friend Richard 'Doc' Calkins (Bob Hyman) and two scientists asks him to leave the animal alive for the scientific community. Will Steve let the dinosaur live?"The Crater Lake Monster" is a terrible and lame dinosaur film with awful story, screenplay, performances and special effects. The characters Arnie and Mitch are annoying and unfunny. There is a thief and murderer that appears in the middle of the story only to be eaten by the dinosaur in one of the most ridiculous scenes. When the sheriff discovers the existence of the dinosaur, he does not summon the army or the National Guard and prefers to confront the animal with a revolver and a bulldozer. The DVD from Rhino is very poor, without subtitles or extras; therefore adequate for this shameful flick. My vote is three.Title (Brazil): Not Available on Blu-Ray or DVD (fortunately)

...and it is this film. I imagine that if indeed there is a negative afterlife, damned souls are tied to a rather uncomfortable couch and forced to watch this movie on a continuous loop for all eternity. Okay, maybe it's not that bad, but it is probably the worst film I have ever seen next to "Manos, the Hands of Fate"... and I have seen a lot of bad movies, believe you me. This is just a crummy B movie, bad film-making at it's finest(or is it worst?) The thing I really didn't like about this movie is the moronic duo they threw in for comedy relief. Now, a little comedy relief is a good thing, but most of the movie is focused on the adventures of these two morons, rather than on the "heroes" of this film, who are actually in it for less time than them! To be fair, Crown International really destroyed the movie by adding bad music and doing a poor job editing. But honestly, this was probably a bad film to begin with, so Crown really couldn't have done that much to hurt it. This really needs to be in the bottom 100 list. I wouldn't wish this one on my worst enemy. Actually, it's my kind of campy B movie. It was bad, but I still liked it, despite my one star rating.