The Crater Lake Monster

Starring:Richard Cardella, Glen Roberts (II), Mark Siegel, Bob Hyman, Richard Garrison, Kacey Cobb, Michael F. Hoover, Suzanne Lewis, Marv Eliot, Garry Johnston, Sonny Shepard, John Crowder, Susy Claycomb, Hal Scharn, Mike Simmons, Mary Winford, Jim Goeppinger, Joe Sasway
Director: William R. Stromberg
Studio: Rhino
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Amazing
The Worst Dinosaur And Meteorite Comedy Ever Made
Pathetic Creature Feature!
Intermittently effective monster movie
"Steve, we're up against something that...

The Crater Lake Monster
Starring: Richard Cardella , Glen Roberts (II) , Mark Siegel , Bob Hyman , and Richard Garrison
Director: William R. Stromberg
Manufacturer: Rhino
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00005YUP6
Release Date: 2002-02-12

Customer Reviews:

Amazing.......2006-09-04

Some people miss the point with some things.

For example, with the two brothers who obviously not very bright, but their development is deeper than that. In the senes with them, its obvious that one is basicaly immoral, willing to do almost anything to get money, while the other objects to his brother being immoral, but he's obviously scared enough of his brother not to do anything about it most of the time.

Also, the robber who appears in one scene and kills this people almost turns the thing into a "novie", in other words, a movie that is almost like a novel, because it has other things going on besides the main plotline.

Sites made by people who are actually honest and research things have noted that the claymation was good for its time, even if the people writing these articles didn't like the movie itself. I agree with them simply because, aside from the fact that they research these things (more often than not by watching other, simpilar movies) I really don't care that much about special effects. CGI might not have existed when this movie was made, but I'm still happy there's no CGI in it because CGI is beyond horrible.

The only remotely bad thing about this movie that I can see is that when one of the female victims is running from the monster, she gets a relatively far distance from it and collapses against some wrocks, THEN she starts screaming hysterically.

Still, this movie can't really be blamed for that because at this point there were a lot of movies with at least one female victim who screamed hysterically when she was in danger.

The Worst Dinosaur And Meteorite Comedy Ever Made.......2006-01-16

"The Crater Lake Monster" is a movie that reeks in so many dimensions that it really becomes difficult to criticize simply because it's hard to decide where to start. Other reviewers have summarized the plot (such as it is) nicely, so I will dispense with that other than to say it concerns a dinosaur that hatches when a meteorite impacts a rural area near "Crater Lake." The commotion requires an idiotic sheriff, several comic relief hillbillies, and a crack team of researchers from a university to attempt to deal with the creature, resulting, of course, in the typical "we need to kill it" versus the "we need to save it for science" arguments (one guess as to which side of that debate is proven correct).

This film has almost unbearable acting with a script to match, and features some of the cheesiest dialogue in movie history. I have seen many bad films, and this is definitely in the "so bad it's a crime it wasn't done by MST3K" category. The pretense, plot, and general fundamentals (watch for such Ed Wood classic techniques as "day for night" shooting, in which the temporal aspects of the movie become completely disjointed from reality) of the film match the ineptness of the actors, but perhaps lamest of all is the monster itself which is one of the worst and least terrifying creatures in the annals of horror cinema.

This film is also available in "The Horrible Horrors Collection, Volume 2" (from Rhino), a multi-DVD pack with seven other cheesy stinkers, most of which are actually even worse than "The Crater Lake Monster". (Hard to believe, but true.)

For fans of really terrible cinema, this one will be sure to elicit delighted groans.

Recommended only for truly hardened connoisseurs of schlock cinema.

Pathetic Creature Feature!.......2005-04-19

This is a truly terrible film!

Most disappointing--as a resident of the Pacific Northwest, I at least expected this to be set at Crater Lake, Oregon. No such luck. It would have been a camp experience to find a local connection for a dinosaur flick!

Every aspect of the film is laughable--none more so that the bad day-for-night scenes! The actors are wooden. They have bad hair. We actually root for the stop motion dinosaur to eat all of them! Sadly, some people survive.

The catatonic state of a couple of the tourists involved with the monster (the alcoholic magician and his assistant) might well mirror the state of the viewer of the film.

Sad, sad, sad....................

Intermittently effective monster movie.......2005-03-12

This low budget movie from 1977 was co-scripted by Richard Cardello who also plays the leading role -a local lawman in a lakeside resort in California who finds himself up to his nexk in corpses and disappearances ,the work of a pleiosaurus ,hatched from an egg when a mteorite crashes into the lake .As a side issue there is a more human menace to deal with as well -a liquor store robber with a penchant for killing anybody who gets in his way is also in the territory .
The live action is dire -especially a pair of comic relief hillbillies ( if blacks and Hisapnics were treated cinematicaly the way the poor and dispossessed white working clas routinely are the politically correct cretins of the liberal establishment would be foaming at their ever open mouths )
What keeps it worth watching amid the plethora of inept acting combined with poor sound and muddy colour is the effective stop motion dinosaur animation ( David Allen ,with some help from Randy Cook and Jim Danforth)especially when shown in medium and long shot

Just about passable

"Steve, we're up against something that..........2005-02-14

...goes against every natural law." Hmmm...that's exactly what I was thinking about this film as I watched it last night. The front of this Rhino DVD release for The Crater Lake Monster (1977) lists Stuart Whitman, Stella Stevens, and Tony Bill as the stars, but after watching the film last night, none of these three actors appear in this feature...a little research indicates they did appear together, in a film titled Las Vegas Lady (1975), which was also released to DVD by Rhino, so I suspect some sort of printing mix up (I kinda wish they had mixed up the films, as I feel Las Vegas Lady had to have been better than what I saw)...produced and directed by William R. Stromberg (gee his only film to date...big surprise), the film stars Richard Cardella (who also wrote this turkey), Glen Roberts (who looks quite a bit like George `Buck' Flowers), Mark Siegel (who would later discover his true calling behind the scenes, creating creatures for such films like Ghost Busters, Dune, and Poltergeist II), and Bob `Buster' Hyman (I'm speculating his nickname, given his last name).

As the story begins, a couple of paleontology students make a `startling' discovery in an abandoned mine of native drawings that, according to one of them, must be at least 1,000 years old (yeah, right...and I was looking for the `Fresh Paint' sign...seriously, the paint couldn't have been more than a day or two old). The (ahem) ancient paintings suggests that dinosaurs and man may have co-existed at some point...but alas, this amazing discovery is soon overshadowed by the arrival of a flaming meteor from space, which lands in nearby Crater Lake, causing the mine to collapse...but all is not lost, as the heat from the meteor warms the water to the point where a dormant dinosaur egg hatches, releasing a prehistoric relic that grows into a very hungry creature, whose diet seems to include fish, cattle, and the local hick population. After Sheriff Steve Hanson (Cardella) has a run in with the creature, the town seems split on what to do...there are those who feel the monster is bad for business and should be killed (the sheriff is inclined to agree after almost becoming `dino chow'...his words, not mine), but the scientific community (by scientific community I mean the two paleontology students and the local doctor, played by Bob `Buster' Hyman) believes a discovery of this magnitude needs to be captured and studied...I, myself, would probably opt for the former over the latter, especially since the creature's killed a number of people, including a senator who had gone fishin' (don't you think the disappearance of a senator would have sent a whole lot of federales into the area? I suppose he probably wasn't that popular). This all leads up to a rather unspectacular final confrontation between the creature and the townsfolk...will creature be victorious, turning the town into its' own, private larder? Or will the sheriff have one hellava trophy to mount on his wall? Will Arnie (Roberts) and Mitch (Siegel), owners of the boat rental/bait and tackle shop, ever commit and consummate their thinly veiled homoerotic relationship? Most of these questions shall be answered...

I've seen a lot of creature features, some good, many mediocre, and some just downright bad. The Crater Lake Monster falls to the left of just down right bad. The main reason for this is the inclusion of some of the worst comedic elements committed to film I've ever seen. In terms of on screen comedic duos, many would probably agree Abbott and Costello are among the tops, with Martin and Lewis following a close second. The characters played by Roberts and Siegel were written apparently to try and emulate these pairings, but the key to success is having one character being the straight man, while the other the buffoon. Two moronic buffoons do not a comedy duo make...the direction lacked, well, direction...the continuity was awful (the film was supposed to take place over a number of months, but there was no indication of this other than the characters telling us this), often we were supposed to believe it was night, but it was obvious this was not the case as the sun was still up (check out the scene where the magician, with one of the worst English accents I've ever heard, is out on a boat with his girlfriend, both commenting on how lovely the stars are despite that fact the sun is clearly visible), and seemingly meaningless plot points would appear out of nowhere...this is perfectly illustrated by the cut to scene featuring the guy in some city who robs a liquor store, killing the cashier and a customer, stealing only a bottle of booze (this scene was really a bummer, as it killed whatever humor the director cultivated to this point, and given my earlier comments, you'll know that wasn't much). Much later on the character does re-appear and ends up getting devoured by the creature...as far as the creature...the stop motion stuff was pretty bad (the credits later reveal the work was done in `Fantamation', whatever that means...I've only seen that process here, so it must not have been that successful), but when compared to the prop work, it looks award winning. The props of the creature's head were so bad they could only be shown either underwater or in a bunch of frantic, quick cut shots...it didn't matter much as the poorness came though regardless. I will give the film credit for at least showing the creature more than I would have expected. I can't tell you how many creature features I've seen where the creature rarely makes an appearance, and the audience is meant to piece it together on their own.

The full screen print here looks pretty good, and the audio ain't half bad. Included is a 35 second trailer for the film. The DVD case indicates a R rating, but it's really PG.

Cookieman108

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