Back in episode 372, we did all the rest of the Anaconda films. This time, we swap over and do all the “Lake Placid” films, including the crossover with Anaconda. We’ll cover the newer “Lake Placid: Legacy” next week.
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Mainstream Films:
1999 Lake Placid
Director: Steve Miner
Writers: David E. Kelley
Stars: Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda, Oliver Platt, Brendan Gleeson, and Betty White
Runtime: 82 minutes
YouTube Trailer Link:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s a giant creature feature, set in a beautiful location. There’s a lot of violence and gore, but also a lot of dark humor - it’s not quite in the comedy genre, but there are a lot of chuckles to be had. The casting is excellent and added a lot to making the movie more watchable and entertaining. It was a fun watch.
Spoilery Synopsis
As credits roll, we see scenes of a very placid lake. The sheriff and a diver are out tagging beavers. The diver goes down and finds an underwater tunnel and checks it out. Turns out, it’s not a beaver nest. The sheriff, aboard the boat, pulls up about half of the diver.
In New York City, Kelly explains to Myra that her boyfriend has dumped her; Myra already knows because she stole Kevin from her. Kevin comes in and talks about a probable-bear attack and wants to send Kelly to Maine to investigate a tooth they found in the diver. She’s not really gung-ho about field work, but has no choice but to investigate.
Near Lake Placid, Sheriff Hank welcomes Jack Wells, with Fish & Game, to investigate the animal attack.
Kelly, Jack, and Hank go out to the lake and talk to an old woman who is the only person who lives directly on the lake. Mrs. Bickerman says her husband died two years ago from an assisted suicide. Kelly, in the meantime, does not enjoy the natural beauty of the place. “I have good hygiene; I’m not welcome here.”
Hector Cyr, a rich mythology nut, shows up in a helicopter. He’s obsessed with crocodiles, so that’s weird. There shouldn’t be any crocodiles in this lake, but he’s pretty confident that’s what they have. They go out in canoes, and something knocks over one of the boats. They also find the diver’s toe.
Hector’s a party animal, and sets up quite a campsite. Hank doesn’t like him at all.
The next day, they use all their equipment as Hector and Jack go diving for the creature. Meanwhile, the monster attacks the boat with Kelly and Hank. They’re fine, but the deputy, on the other hand, loses his head. Hector gives a ridiculous speech about dreaming he’d lost his head.
Suddenly, a huge bear attacks! That goes nowhere because even more suddenly, a giant crocodile leaps out of the water and eats the bear– whole. Finally, Kelly decides she’s having a good time.
In the morning, they all go croc-hunting. They find another severed head just on the edge of Mrs. Bickerman’s place. They watch as the old woman leads a cow to the beach and feeds it to the enormous crocodile.
Mrs. Bickerman admits she’s been feeding the thing for six years; it’s a sort of pet. It was what killed her husband. Meanwhile, Hector goes swimming again and comes face to face with the big croc. The crocodile lets him get onto the helicopter, but then tries to eat that.
Hector wants to sedate and capture the crocodile. He doesn’t want it killed, which Fish & Game will do. He’s persuasive. They use one of Mrs. Bickerman’s cows, dangling from a helicopter, as bait. Eventually, the croc takes the bait and crashes the helicopter. It comes up on land and menaces everyone. The crocodile manages to get stuck inside the helicopter and can’t get out. They tranquilize it, so it’s all good. Suddenly, a second crocodile shows up, and Hank gets to shoot that one explosively.
As things wind down, Hank and Hector drive off to the hospital. Kelly and Jack get together.
Some time passes and we see Mrs. Bickerman, out at the dock, feeding a new batch of baby crocodiles…
Brian’s Commentary
The interplay between Hank and Hector is comedy gold. Actually, this movie is only good because of the stellar cast. The croc is a combination of CGI and practical effects, but it’s all very effective.
It’s a great mix of giant-animal horror and comedy. It was successful and then led to a whole batch of sequels.
Kevin’s Commentary
I agree with Brian, it was casting done right that added a lot to the movie. It could have been a lot lamer than it was. Okay, it wasn’t that lame, it was pretty entertaining. And the humor helped a lot.
The croc is a practical effect - a giant puppet - in many of its scenes, which was much better than having it be purely CGI. Though the CGI is quite good too. Trivia says the croc actually has less than four minutes of screen time.
Somehow, I had missed seeing this before now. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
2007 Lake Placid 2
Director: David Flores
Writers: Todd Hurvitz and Howie Miller
Stars: John Schneider, Sarah Lafleur, Sam McMurray, Chad Michael Collins, Alicia Ziegler, and Cloris Leachman
Runtime: 88 minutes
YouTube Trailer Link:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
The first movie was enough of a success that they made a sequel. They embraced the CGI this time, lowered the quality of casting, and generally cheapened everything as a direct to TV SyFy production. The gore was a step up, while the humor and pacing were a step down. It was barely okay, but not the win the first one was.
Spoilery Synopsis
After the credits, we open two men in a boat talking about how many people have disappeared on this lake. Soon, it’s one man in the boat.
Sheriff Riley listens to his son Scott complaining about being there after a custody battle. The EPA man comes to the office and tells them about his partner being eaten. They think it’s all a joke until he shows them the man’s chewed arm. Emily, from Fish & Wildlife, arrives, and she has history with Sheriff Riley.
The group goes out on a boat to see where the attack took place, and they talk about the crazy old woman who used to feed crocodiles on the lake. They find a head and then go to talk to old Sadie. Sadie is the sister of the other Mrs. Bickerman.
Sadie feeds the local newsman to her crocodile. Riley, Emily, and Frank soon see the crocodile when it smashes their boat. A CGI plane lands, and Struthers, a rich loon, arrives. He wants to hunt the crocodile.
Meanwhile, Scott and Kerri meet in the woods, along with Thad and Larry. They head to the lake with her friends. He goes out for a walk alone and finds a nest with eggs. Thad breaks some eggs and soon pays for it.
Riley and company tranquilize the croc and put it right to sleep. It’s not as asleep as it appears, as Deputy Dale and Frank soon learn. They set up some bait and lure in the croc, but they harpoon Struthers’s airplane instead. Working together, they kill the crocodile.
After some celebrating, they all camp for the night. Scott, Larry, and Kelli are lost in the woods. A second croc attacks the camp and eats Ahmad, Struthers’s assistant. They go to see Mrs. Bickman, who tells them that there are three of the big crocodiles out there.
Emily, Riley, and Struthers find the nest and take the eggs. They come across Scott and Kerri just after Larry gets eaten. Riley blows up a second croc, but the big one is still out there. Kerri and Scott feed Mrs. Bickman to the final croc– no, turns out there were really four of them.
Emily hides in a tree trunk as Riley shoots the next croc. Struthers loses his head but blows up the final croc.
Scott, Kerri, Riley, and Emily drive away. They drop Kerri and Scott off at home, and they kiss.
Brian’s Commentary
This was made for the SyFy Channel and never hit the theaters directly. All the “Teenagers” are way old and the acting is equally bad. It’s very cheaply made, with no corner left uncut.
John Schneider is just “We have David Hasselhoff at home.” They lost nearly all the humor and went for a straight-up horror movie this time. The film overall is just pretty dull, even for a made-for-TV story.
Kevin’s Commentary
Everything about this sequel was a step down from the original. The crocodile, and some other elements, were very obvious CGI without the practical effects of the giant crocodile puppet. The cast, script, and pacing weren’t as good. All in all, the entertainment value was less.
I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as the first movie.
2010 Lake Placid 3
Director: Griff Furst
Writers: David Reed
Stars: Colin Ferguson, Yancy Butler, Kirsty Mitchell, Kacey Clarke, Jordan Grehs, and Michael Ironside
Runtime: 96 minutes
YouTube Trailer Link:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s more of the same as the last two films. With no one seeming to really be aware that the events of the two films happened or were anything to be concerned about. The CGI is bad and obvious, but it was a bit better than the second movie. It still wasn’t as good as the first. If you saw the first two, this one was a bit of an uptick.
Spoilery Synopsis
It’s the Black Lake Wildlife Area, and two hikers arrive at the lake. They go for a swim and hear growling. A bunch of little crocodiles eat them both.
Nathan stands on the dock and has some kind of flashback to the previous film. Nathan, an EPA scientist, is old Mrs. Bickerman’s nephew, and he’s just inherited her cabin. The sheriff comes to visit Nathan, Susan, and their son, Connor. The sheriff tries to convince them that the crocodile incident will never happen again; he wants them to live here rather than sell the house. As they talk, Connor sees crocodiles outside and feeds them all…
Two years later, Connor is still feeding the much-larger crocs. Susan leaves him with Vica, the babysitter. He sneaks out to the store to steal a big bag of meat for his pets. Nathan is out in the woods studying elk when he meets a group of campers. When they find a head, Nathan thinks it might have been Reba, a local poacher.
Meanwhile, in town, Brett comes to see Reba. He wants to hire her to find a missing girl in the lake area.
At home, the crocs eat Vica’s little yap-yap dog and then Vica as well. Out at the lake, those four hikers start getting picked off one-by-one.
Connor and Susan try to help Vica, but the crocodiles are surrounding the house. He admits that he’s been feeding the crocs.
Reba and her clients’ boat are attacked, which ruins the hunting party. Nathan and the sheriff’s boat as well. There’s a failed attempt for all the good guys to run to the car from the cabin, but that goes badly.
Reba and Brett are attacked; the sheriff tries to run over a croc and gets eaten. They eventually make their way to Nathan’s place.
Brett holds them all at gunpoint because he wants to go out and find Ellie, the last of the hikers. He soon finds her, and they kiss and make up just before a croc eats him. Everyone gets in Reba’s boat and goes to town.
It’s the middle of the night, and most of the stores in town are closed. They break into Dmitri’s grocery store, the place Connor stole from earlier, and he’s got a gun. The crocodile outside makes sure nothing comes of that.
Nathan, Susan, Connor, and Ellie run for the truck, leaving torn-apart Reba behind. The big croc chases them until they blow it up at the gas station.
Time passes, and Nathan gives a lecture next to the lake about the extinct crocodiles that used to live there. Naturally, we see that they aren’t extinct at all.
Brian’s Commentary
This one was also made for TV, but it’s a lot better than the previous film. The crocs are all mediocre CGI, but once we get past that, the rest is pretty good. Anytime there’s any real action, the camera gets all shaky to make it look more exciting, and I found that annoying. The editing in other scenes is almost as bad.
Still, it was miles better than part 2.
Kevin’s Commentary
The CGI. Sigh. So much obvious CGI.
And the foreign touches creeped more around the edges because it wasn’t filmed in the United States, like the second film.
I agree it was a little better than the second movie. Still not as good as the first.
2012 Lake Placid: The Final Chapter
Director: Don Michael Paul
Writers: David Reed
Stars: Elisabeth Röhm, Yancy Butler, Paul Nicholls, and Robert Englund
Runtime: 90 minutes
YouTube Trailer Link:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Some time has passed, and now the lake and surrounding area is enclosed with a big, sturdy electric fence to contain the crocodiles which are the only ones of their kind. But lots of people still make it inside, either deliberately or accidentally, and there’s a decent body count. Everything about it is decent, not awful, but it’s really just more of the same we’ve already seen.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on the final battle of the previous film, and it turns out that Reba’s not as dead as she looked before. As she limps out of the grocery store, credits roll as she kills one more croc.
Sometime later, Sheriff Grove, Dennis, and now-Fish-and-Game ranger Reba, go out into a boat to look for one of the very rare crocodiles. They tranquilize and capture a small one, but there’s a report of bigger ones not far away. They all get into a truck and drive away, but a big croc chases them. The whole area is surrounded by an electric fence as a wildlife refuge for the protected animals. Dennis explains that the crocs are mutants that shouldn’t be getting so big.
Loflin talks to his son, Max, who is working on the electric fence. The sheriff goes home to her daughter Chloe. They go out and look at all the young guys who like Chloe. Chloe’s got a senior camping trip this weekend, but she doesn’t really want to go.
Poacher Jim Bickerman, along with Dennis and his men, sneak through the electric gate to go hunting crocs. They soon find one, and when it chases them, they can’t get out of the electric fence. The screams attract the attention of Max, who opens the gate and gets hauled off by a croc.
Chloe and a busload of teens arrive at the “safe” beach, but Chloe thinks they might have gone to the wrong place. Sheriff Theresa and Loflin make out at home. Chloe tells the story of Mrs. Bickerman and her oversized crocodile pets. Chloe’s boyfriend, Drew, double-times her along with her friend Elaine.
In the morning, the men call the sheriff, Reba, Loflin and the others. The gate was left open last night, and Max is now missing. One of the high school camping kids gets eaten by what appears to be… piranhas. Chloe finds Max out in the woods. Soon, everyone knows about the giant crocs on the beach.
Loflin kills a croc and climbs down the thing’s throat to see what’s inside. The crocs have run out of food and are eating each other now. The sheriff’s group soon makes it to the beach and finds Chloe’s phone.
Loflin and the sheriff find Dennis, who explains why he’s inside the fence. He’s soon eaten. The teen group catches up with Jim Bickerman on his boat. They all swim to the boat except for their coach, who is eaten. He doesn’t take them to the gate, he takes them to where he’s supposed to meet with Dennis (who’s already been croc-lunch).
Everyone shows up at the same place, and Drew meets a croc. There’s lots of running and shooting, and eventually, everyone makes it to the gate, where they fry the big lizard on the electric fence.
Bickerman, left behind, gets eaten. Max and Chloe, as well as Loflin and the sheriff, get together. Reba finally gets her croc head for the wall. We hear how Lake Placid is now clear of crocs– as we get an attack at Clear Lake.
Brian’s Commentary
That’s a mighty big lake to be surrounded by a high-voltage fence.
Again, there’s not very much humor in this one; they are still taking it all pretty seriously. There’s a lot of action and the pacing is decent. It’s not awful, but it’s not anything innovative, either.
Kevin’s Commentary
Having Yancy Butler return as Reba was a bright spot.
An electric fence that big and solid would cost a fortune. Plus the power to keep it energized and constant vigilance and repair to keep it running. It’s best not to think about the size of the lake shown on screen and the logistics of that fence.
It’s still full of CGI. But the cast did a better job than the last couple movies, and the pacing was better. The crocs are still way too bullet resistant. The sequels have each gotten slightly better, but they still aren’t up to the first one.
2015 Lake Placid vs. Anaconda
Director: A.B. Stone
Writers: Berkeley Anderson
Stars: Yancy Butler, Corin Nemec, and Robert Englund
Runtime: 92 minutes
YouTube Trailer Link:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s the crossover we didn’t know we needed, fifth in both series. The crocs from the Lake Placid movies were contained until they decided to try to combine the giant anacondas with them, and things became a mess. There’s quite a body count in this one, and lots of CGI creature action and gore. It had more humor than the anaconda films, which we just saw as well. It’s middling, not awful but some entertainment value. Especially if you like watching lots of young women in bikinis.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on a group of people hunting an alligator in the woods. Jim Bickerman looks like he’s lost some limbs due to the local reptiles. The giant crocodile is taken to a lab where there’s also a giant snake. This whole area is full of protected crocs, and Jim knows how to get in and out. They inject some cells from a crocodile into an anaconda, which is about to lay eggs. Suddenly, the big croc wakes up and gets loose. In the ensuing scuffle, the snakes escape as well.
At the Clear Lake State Recreation Area, we run into Tull, a wildlife cop. We also see Sheriff Reba in the next town over, where there is at least one missing person from the area around the Black Lake electric fence. If there’s trouble, the mayor is all set for a coverup. Deputy Ferguson is at Black Lake, and he’s found the mess from last night. Daphne, the missing girl, turns out to have a crocodile under her bed, which eats her.
Sarah Murdoch, the daughter of the dead businessman of the previous Anaconda films, tells Mr. Beach about the blood orchids and immortality. The only animals that are compatible with the serum are anaconda and those special crocodiles.
A couple of carloads of sorority girls are driving out to “prove themselves” at rush weekend. One of the girls is Bethany, Tully’s daughter.
Some hunters get eaten by a swarm of tiny crocodiles.
At the crime scene, Reba cuts open a croc and finds some remains inside. She calls Tully for some croc-assist.
The sorority group is clear to point out that the famous crocodiles are in that other lake, not here. Everyone gets into the water, and we soon see someone get dragged under– no, it’s just two guys playing games.
Sarah, Beach, and his men have a tracker in the female anaconda, hopefully before she lays eggs. They have the trackers and want Jim Bickerman to help them again.
Reba and Tully find it’s strange that all the trackers in the crocs have gone offline. They have no trackers, but the crocs must be headed to Clear Lake. Tully calls his daughter, who is at the lake, but she’s not answering.
A waterskier gets eaten on the lake, and we see a huge croc closing in on the sorority recruits. The waterskiing group soon learns they’re going to need a bigger boat. The sorority girls run to their cars, without keys, and watch as crocs close in on them.
Sarah beats up Jim; she needs his help. Her whole group is soon out in the wilderness area looking for the missing anaconda.
Tully and Reba are about to be eaten by a crocodile when the reptile is suddenly attacked and killed by a giant anaconda. They know about the crocs, but the giant snake is new for them.
The anaconda squeezes the girls’ car, so now they have no way to get away. Tully, Reba, and Ferguson arrive and check out the wreckage on the beach. They find the girls’ crushed car and soon, the remaining three girls.
Murdoch’s group steals a boat, and Jim goes for a swim. Beach and Murdoch argue about leaving Jim behind. They’re attacked by the male snake, but she won’t let him shoot it. They lose their goons, so now it’s just the two of them. They soon run into Tully, Reba, and the girls as well as an even-bigger female snake.
Murdoch calls in a helicopter as the snakcs and crocs start fighting with each other. One of the snakes brings down the copter, and things get weird from there. One of the snakes swallows Beach whole, and he uses a grenade from inside. That’s messy.
Elsewhere, Jim has finally swum to shore, and he’s thrilled.
Tully gets the croc-tracker from Murdoch, so now he can start rounding up the loose crocodiles. One final croc attacks, and everyone shoots it at once.
Somewhere in the woods, we watch as eggs hatch and tiny little snakes emerge…
Brian’s Commentary
Other than the original Lake Placid, this is the first of that series that I’ve seen. It seems to lean more heavily on humor than the Anaconda series.
It absolutely continued the ongoing story of the blood orchids and anacondas, although that never really did make much sense. This one was also made for TV, and it’s a lot cheesier and less serious that the previous Anaconda films.
Kevin’s Commentary
This was the fifth film in both series. We hadn’t done the Lake Placid movies (yet?) but that doesn’t matter much for seeing this one.
Again, there’s heavy and obvious CGI use. Some humor, more than the solo Anaconda movies so far. It wasn’t too bad, I thought it was fairly entertaining, it moved well and wasn’t boring. I’d give it a 6 out of 10.
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