Lake Placid: Legacy (2018)

Here we are, at last. This is the final (to date) film in the killer croc movie series, and I have to say that my expectations were very low as I went into it. Anyone else would feel the same after slogging through the previous instalments, which crashed so low after the fun of the first film. And yet, despite the odds, I also held on to a small bit of hope. 

Directed by Darrell Roodt, who has a few movies in his filmography that make it worthy of exploration, this presents a script from Jonathan Walker that puts a bunch of urban explorers in peril. It may not be the most complex premise, but it still feels as if more effort has been made here than was made in so many of the other sequels (that really all just had numerous people accidentally wandering into a lake full of happy snappers). 

Am I going to dive further into the plot? No. Despite making an effort to make use of a different location, the rest of the movie plays out in predictably familiar fashion. People don’t realise they are being stalked by a huge crocodile, some of them die, people then realise they are being stalked by a huge crocodile, they strive to survive in territory that is more suited to the predator hunting them, they wrack their brains trying to figure out how to kill it.

The cast are decent enough, and I was happy to see Joe Pantoliano as the one established actor given a supporting role this time (and giving a performance a lot more restrained than anything we saw from Yancy Butler or Robert Englund in previous movies). Katherine Barrell, Tim Rozon, Sai Bennett, Luke Newton, Craig Stein, and others who will be devastated that I haven’t namechecked them here, all at least try to act well enough to overcome their lack of character development. As a group of relative unknowns (relatively unknown to me anyway), there is some extra fun to be had from knowing that anyone could be chomped at any moment. Well . . . until it starts to become obvious who has been given the lead/survivor role.

Although clearly not a movie with a huge budget, the FX work here is something else that feels like a step up from most of the preceding films. Those involved either had some more money to play with or decent CGI has become easier and cheaper to get right, and it’s a relief to see a killer crocodile that doesn’t look as if it crawled out of an early Resident Evil game. It’s not a perfect creation, but it’s good enough.

The main setting is used well, dressed and lit in a cost-effective way, and the pacing just manages to keep boredom at bay. I could recommend you at least 20 crocodile/alligator movies better than this one, and most of those could be off the top of my head right now, but I could also name a fair few films that were a lot worse than this (although most of them, sadly, have Lake Placid in the title).

Not one to mark as a high priority, but those working through the series will be relieved to find that it ends on a relative high note. Until they decide to remake/reboot/make another unnecessary sequel.

5/10

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Lake Placid: The Final Chapter (2012)

Spoiler warning, this isn't the last film in the Lake Placid movie series. I am sure that most people wouldn't have been fooled by "The Final Chapter" sub-heading, especially horror fans who saw the same words used so memorably in the Friday The 13th movie series (for a film that currently has about 7 or 8 films after it already). I knew this wouldn't be any kind of proper finale, but I also knew that I would probably wish it WAS a proper finale. This is a series that really hasn't been served well by the people wanting to wring more and more money from sequels that provide nothing but diminishing returns.

The plot isn't even worth the time and space it would take to describe it. Suffice to say, a group of young folk end up beside the wrong lake, which means they could quite quickly become snacks for some hungry crocodiles. Looking out for the kids are Sheriff Giove (Elisabeth Röhm), Reba (Yancy Butler, reprising a character we all thought had died in the previous movie), and Loflin (Paul Nicholls). And Robert Englund plays a hunter/poacher called Jim Bickerman.

Writer David Reed is also returning from the previous movie, where he didn't do too bad a job, although I wish he hadn't. This is a step down, in terms of both the writing and the direction, the latter now in the hands of Don Michael Paul. Neither man does more than a perfunctory job behind the camera, obviously hoping that the wonky CGI and poor pacing will be made easier to accept by the main cast.

It isn't.

Oddly enough, there's at least some potential with the main adults. Röhm has a good presence, and her chemistry with Nicholls works quite well as their characters are pushed closer and closer together by the clumsy script. Butler is happy to once again ham things up a bit, although she has less scenery left to chew on whenever Englund has been onscreen ahead of her. Someone clearly forgot to tell Englund that he didn't have to play his character like a bastard cousin of Ahab. I'm happy about that though, because he certainly adds some fun. Poppy Lee Friar, Benedict Smith, Caroline Ford, Scarlett Hefner, and the rest of the younger cast members are sadly left hanging out to dry, not given any character depth nor any truly memorable moments, which means every scene they are involved in becomes a waiting game until we see some of the older characters back in action.

I know not to expect great things from these movies, I'm not a complete idiot (ahem, no need to look so surprised), but it shouldn't be so hard to make something moderately amusing and entertaining. They almost managed it with the previous film. They don't manage it this time though, and this isn't really worth your time. Unless your a masochistic completist. Like me.

3/10

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Lake Placid (1999)

Steve Miner has quite the varied filmography, but he's arguably best known for being the man who served up the second and third (3D) instalment of the Friday The 13th movie series. Having also given us Halloween H20: 20 Years Later and House, he's quite the horror franchise guy. Lake Placid is a different beast from those films, but the mix of humour and thrills is not entirely removed from the playfulness that Miner has often had in his best work. And I would put this up there as some of his best work.

The story is quite simple. There seems to be a big beast that has made home in a large lake in Maine. This becomes obvious when the beast attacks someone scuba diving in the lake, biting them in half. Sheriff Hank Keough (Brendan Gleeson), Fish & Game Officer Jack Wells (Bill Pullman), and a paleontologist sent along from the big city, Kelly Scott (Bridget Fonda), all get to work trying to figure out what is hiding in the lake. Hector Cyr (Oliver Platt), an expert on mythology and crocodiles, thinks that he already knows.

A creature feature that decides to focus on the interaction between the characters, as well as plenty of humour, Lake Placid might be a bit tame for some (there's only one truly memorable death scene, and it's in the first few minutes of the film), but it's a lot of fun, doesn't outstay its welcome, and features some superb special effects work. The big croc looks fantastic throughout, and feels like a very real, physical, threat to anyone nearby.

Writer David E. Kelly goes for quirkiness, and is helped by the casting. Profanity always sounds better coming from Betty White, and she gets to deliver a couple of truly memorable lines here. While we get the standard meet-cute moments between Pullman and Fonda, the better relationship is the one between Gleeson and Platt, two men who immediately start off butting heads before starting to grudgingly admire one another.

When it comes to Gleeson and Platt, two men I enjoy seeing in anything, this gives them some great dialogue to spout, making it an easy film to recommend if you're fans of their work. Pullman is doing his fairly bland, but likeable, schtick, and that's fine for this, and Fonda gives yet another very enjoyable performance that makes me remember how disappointed I was when she seemed to suddenly disappear from movies. White, playing an old woman who lives lakeside, and who may know a bit more than she's letting on about any possible nearby crocodile, is a joy every time she's onscreen.

It may not be as good as the amazing Alligator, but Lake Placid can easily make a claim to be the best killer crocodile movie. And with a runtime of only 82 minutes, it's almost impossible for you to feel as if you've wasted your time on it, even if you somehow end up not enjoying it as much as I do.

8/10

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