THE CRATER LAKE MONSTER (1977)
If you look up reviews of this film, a couple of things will jump out at you. A) The production company - Crown International - gave director William R. Stromberg a gastric ulcer (just guessing) by tampering with the final product. B) You will notice throngs of dweebs grousing about the special effects. Okay, maybe "throngs" is overshooting it a bit, but I did come across more than one artless comment on the stop-motion beastie in The Crater Lake Monster. Don't listen to the dweebs. This particular Plesiosaur looks incredible, considering the dinky budget. I don't even know how certain shots were achieved. The clay models mesh unjustifiably well with the actors. And the bulldozers. Yes, we get a brief struggle between our dinosaur and heavy machinery. By the way, I'm calling it a dinosaur out of sheer laziness. It's a prehistoric something that is shaken to life by a meteor. I'm realizing with age that a generous portion of the best movies ever made begin with a bolide fireball landing in the middle of a forest.
To that end, I wouldn't rank this flick over other contenders in the "meteor monster" sub-subgenre. Sorry, but it doesn't touch The Blob or Killer Klowns from Outer Space. It's definitely fun, though. I'm contractually obligated to enjoy it on account of a gratuitous car chase. It's so random, as is the double homicide that leads to the car chase. Seriously, where did that come from? I do have to deduct points for the goofball comedy. For some ungodly reason, we spend an inordinate amount of time with the muttonhead owners of a boat rental service. The film won't let them fade from memory. I guess we're supposed to react when one of them ends up as chum. Personally, if I were the Crater Lake Monster (y'know, in The Crater Lake Monster), I would demand better chum. I'd still say this is a fine motion picture. Slightly superior to 1985's The Sea Serpent, which I recently watched. Slightly inferior to the fossilized dung of the Midwestern Tree Dolphin.
Gotta watch out for those tree dolphins.
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