The Crater Lake Monster!

Great poster! Humdrum movie!

The Crater Lake Monster is a movie meant to capitalize on the glamor of the Loch Ness Monster, which when this movie was made in the late 70's was at its height.

We have a remote rural town with a population of dozens which finds itself next to a lake with a giant creature which from time to time lumbers out and attacks some random person or other. The Sheriff and some local scientists typically plumb the mystery and eventually they and couple of town goofballs battle the beast with a rather predictable result.

First the good.

The setting is gorgeous. Often the movie will isolate on shots of the surroundings and its absolutely lush and beautiful. I'd like to visit this place.

The basic story of a meteor landing in the lake and the resulting heat causing a forgotten egg to hatch releasing the monster seems almost plausible.

The early sightings of the creature are pretty good given the time this movie was made. The movie makers are wise (or perhaps forced by limited footage) to keep the creature off screen and that is usually a smart thing for a monster movie. Too much critter gets boring, whereas the anticipation of a critter never does.

The creature effects are pretty good, and the main reason for any monster lover to check this movie out. David (Equinox, Flesh Gordon) Allen does the work here, and he's a solid talent in this field.

Now the bad.

Not enough creature. Yes they kept it off screen, but they did it too long and when in the end of the final reel it does appear for a visit we don't get enough to satisfy the long set up. Again, I'm sure budget was an issue since the creature was stop-motion.

The key to a good monster flick is that in addition to a decent monster you whip up story that will compel the audience to the ultimate clash. This one lacks that essential element. The story rather meanders, often going down cul de sacs introducing unimportant characters who never really pay off. They seem to be filling up screen time and of course they are doing exactly that.

The acting is uneven. Some of it is pretty good, some of it is painful. The lack of a decent voice over track hurts this detail I suspect.


All in all this is an interesting monster movie. I got it in a Mill Creek collection that offers up other off beat flicks. So I paid less than seventy-five cents for it. That's a good price, not much of an uptick from a ticket price if I'd gone to see it at the drive-in when it first opened many decades ago.

If you don't mind spoiling the ending here's a clip with most of the creature effects.





That is one great poster. Though the creature looks nothing like that.

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Kong -- King Of Cars?

Above is a ludicrous image from somewhere, of a statue of the mighty Kong (looks like Son of Kong really) holding up the awesome VW Bug.


Here is the famous commercial featuring Kong for Volkswagen. The stop-motion work on this mini-classic was done by the late Dave Allen, who worked on lots of stuff before his untimely death, but is probably most famous for Equinox.


Here is a wacky commercial featuring Kong and Son. It's kind of funny actually. The expressions are wonderful.


And here is a model featuring the mighty King Kong as a drag racer, in case you were wondering how that might look.


For more views see this link.

What does the mighty King Kong think of all these attempts to merchandise his awe-inspiring image?


Yikes!

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Equinox!

See if this plot sounds familiar.

Four teenagers head into the country for some fun and relaxation and end up at a cabin in the woods which comes under attack by the dark forces of Hell. The youngsters fall victim one by one to the various attacks which include intruding monsters and demons who invade the spirits of the kids themselves. The violence seems to be centered around a mysterious book filled with ancient lore. Eventually all the kids succumb save one who is left to tell the tale, though his ultimate fate has little doubt.

Generally speaking that sounds a lot like Sam Raimi's Evil Dead movies. But it's not a description of those, rather it's a brief overview of the movie Equinox. This movie began as an amateur effort put together by Dennis Murren and other talented special effects monsterkids and some aspiring young actors (including a future Rose Parade queen and Frank Bonner star of WKRP In Cincinnati) which tells the story of penetrating a barrier to Hell. They even got Frtiz Leiber, the famous fantasy author and creator of Fafhrd and Grey Mouser, to do some work in this one. Forry Ackerman shows up in a voice cameo.

The movie was completed on weekends with minimal equipment and rough stop-motion effects and then sold to a local producer named Jack Harris who got the cast together again and shot new material to make the film a bit longer for release. This resulted in two versions of the movie, the later one with more overt sexual content.

The movie got released into the theaters and has since become a cult favorite.


Criterion Collections put together a somewhat pricey but a very entertaining package with both versions of the movie and lots of background information including interviews with the many of the cast members and the creators. It's a very nice collection and if you can get it for cheaper (which I did with some coupons at my local Borders) then it will be well worth the investment, especially for anyone interested in horror movies, stop-motion animation, or cult movies. This one has something for everyone who is not afraid to watch less than slick Hollywood production.

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