THE CRATER LAKE MONSTER
USA, 1977
Director: William R. Stromberg
3,5/10
The plot (with all its far-fetched plot points absurd subplots) is just laughable, soundtrack and editing are weak, the acting is incredibly lame (most notably one-time main actor Richard Cardella... yes, it's the same guy who also wrote the script!) and the characters are all pretty annoying, especially Arnie & Mitch, two Laurel-and-Hardy-like idiot hicks.
USA, 1977
Director: William R. Stromberg
3,5/10
I guess you know what to expect from a movie with such a title / cover... right. "The Crater Lake Monster" is a super-silly low-budget monster movie about a Dinosaur (probably some kinda Plesiosaur) who rises from the Crater Lake and terrorizes the inhabitants of the nearby villages, thanks to a burning meteorite who fell into the lake.
If you want suspense, kick-ass monster attacks and good acting... look elsewhere. One-time director William Stromberg turned one-time writer Richard Cardella's mishmash of a script into a slow, boring and unintentionally hilarious schlockfest, not to be taken seriously.
The plot (with all its far-fetched plot points absurd subplots) is just laughable, soundtrack and editing are weak, the acting is incredibly lame (most notably one-time main actor Richard Cardella... yes, it's the same guy who also wrote the script!) and the characters are all pretty annoying, especially Arnie & Mitch, two Laurel-and-Hardy-like idiot hicks.
At least, the stop-motion dinosaur looks fun, its attacks are all highly entertaining and I love all the Dino-POV-shots, There are also a few funny dialogue lines, cinematography and camera work are solid, and the monster vs. bulldozer climax is just great.
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I not only have this one in the video vault...I have it on BLU-RAY. It rook me decades to see this one, and you're right - it's not much, but it does have some 70's stop motion charm that makes it worth a look. Nice review, Harry!
ReplyDeleteWhat? Crater Lake Monster on Bluray? Why? LOL :D
ReplyDelete*checking Amazon* You mean that double feature with Galaxina?
The stop motion is fun, the rest is meh. Well, I've seen worse.
Lame title, terrible-looking movie. Having said that, it seems like cheesy fun. :)
ReplyDeleteHarry, I'm happy to announced that an extended version of my most recent movie review of "Mirror Mirror" was published over at White Cat Magazine! Yay me! :)
Check it out and don't forget to leave a comment. Both me and the editor of the site would appreciate that. :)
http://www.whitecatpublications.com/?p=1484
This film sounds terrible. Maybe even a little too terrible to watch. Having said that, if I was given the chance to watch it I probably would. A little cheese can go a long way, plus dinosaurs are awesome haha.
ReplyDelete@George:
ReplyDeleteYou would turn it off after the first 15 minutes :)
Wow, that's pretty cool. Checking and commenting!
@Cherry Neko:
You just can't go wrong with good ol' dinosaur cheese :)
I'm pretty sure that a meteor would DESTROY the egg than incubate it. But if that's how they roll, I'm going with it.
ReplyDeleteLeast yer right about sumthing: that stop-motion was fluid!
The writer can't give write himself a decent role and dialogue! This is one seriously lame movie!
ReplyDelete@Kai:
ReplyDeleteLOL I guess that meteor also destroyed the brains of the director and the writer :D
@Jon:
Oh yes, it definitely is :)
The original poster artwork is amazing for this one. It used to come on TV a lot, too. I remember getting this for Christmas on VHS one year as a kid along with the John Candy horror flick THE CLOWN MURDERS and LONG WEEKEND, all three on this cool little label called Interglobal. It's worth a few bucks and that's about it. The stop motion is nice, though, as you said, Harry.
ReplyDeleteCrater Lake, Clown Murders & Long Weekend = UBERAWESOME XMAS!! :)
ReplyDeleteOMG!!! I watched this on TV when I was just about 7-8 yrs old!!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely LOVED it as a kid.
Thanks Maynard for the review, and bringing back my childhood to life!
@Anon:
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure :)