Watching it for the first time now in 2020, yours truly made it all the way through. I must say, it never felt like a chore. A tip of the hat is in order for the movie's creators.
A cheap sci-fi movie might suggest "camp." The creators might even weave in some camp, so to get a certain irreverent audience. Perhaps the best camp is non-intentional. But "The Crater Lake Monster," despite its rough edges and obscure actors/actresses, is nicely put together, really.
The '70s are baked in with rotary-dial phones, a casual affinity for alcohol, tight-fitting clothes (ouch) and cars that rolled off the Detroit assembly lines in the planned obsolescence days. We get a slice of small town life with a most "white bread" population. People's horizons had not yet been expanded by technology. (Analog technology doesn't count.) Life moved at a discernibly slower pace.
If anyone ended up "stealing" this movie, it was the two guys who rented out boats. Blundering rubes, yes. They had a volatile relationship but with an undercurrent of affection. Lest there be any doubt about the latter, we see one grieving for the other, speechless and staring, after the "monster" did its number. Glenn Roberts played Arnie Chabot. Mark Siegel played Mitch Kowalski.
The primitive monster lurks
In one sense the monster is like the Loch Ness one. But I sensed more similarity with the mythic (?) "Champ" creature of Lake Champlain in the U.S.
We see cave drawings as the movie begins, indicating a dinosaur-like creature may have once confronted homo sapiens in these environs. A meteor comes crashing down in a scene reminding me of "War of the Worlds." Crude special effects here but it propels the story.
The meteor lands in the large lake, heating up the water to "incubate" an ancient egg. Thus we get the monster which is presented as a "plesiosaur." We have heard the plesiosaur theory in connection with "Nessie." I do not believe the creatures were amphibious, yet in the "Crater Lake" movie it proceeds onto land - harmless artistic license IMHO.
Today this movie might be made with CGI. Fascinating how CGI began as seeming like a miracle and now it seems tired and boring. The same arc as with Velcro (LOL)?
CGI wasn't even a twinkle in anyone's eye in 1977.
How to proceed with special effects? This is a roll-the-dice decision. The famous movie "The Lost World" w/ Claude Rains grappled with special effects on a limited budget; BTW that limitation was due to the duress felt by the Hollywood studios due to the "Cleopatra" $ debacle.
Economical use of technique
One option for dino special effects was "stop-motion," the great gift that Ray Harryhausen gave us. His classic scene was of the charging skeletons, remember? That might make a kid (like me once) want to keep the light on in the bedroom for a few nights. The original "King Kong" was made with stop-motion.
Extensive stop-motion effects did not come cheap. So, 1960's "The Lost World" had to eschew that and went the risky route of filming actual small lizards as if they were large! I'm sure the effects people held their breath over that. But the movie came off as legitimate sci-fi, successful enough to be featured in prime network TV slots in the 1960s.
You might assume that "Crater Lake" was too austere to tap stop-motion. However, if you watch this movie closely, you'll notice the monster scenes are very limited, as if only a few basic poses or situations needed to be shot. For sure some of these fleeting scenes could be re-used. Maybe shown backwards the second time? Someone described the special effects as "claymation."
The special effects surpassed what I was expecting for this movie. Don't be misled, though: "Count Floyd" of SCTV would not consider this movie "scary." Perhaps a very young child would be scared, that's all. I did not laugh at the dino scenes - I was engaged in the proper way.
A plot absurdity can happen here and there even in the most elaborate and expensive movies. For example, how on earth could Will Smith just jump into an alien spaceship and fly it into space, like in "Independence Day?" When Charlton Heston first heard the apes speaking English, couldn't he have been suspicious that he had landed back on Earth (in "Planet of the Apes")? Hollywood people lose sleep all the time, no doubt, over whether implausible elements can be ignored.
We wonder while watching "The Crater Lake Monster" why a common robber would go into a liquor store and shoot and kill two people for a pint of booze!
The plot was weaved by a person or persons trying to create something meaningful. We came to understand and empathize with the characters, especially the two rubes with their boats. The guys would inspire a Moe Bandy/Joe Stampley song (from the 1970s, like the movie).
The sheriff is a key guy and he is so genuinely small-townish - he seems in charge of everything in his office, with paternalistic air. Richard Cardella plays Sheriff Steve Hanson. (Had to be a WASP-y guy, right?)
An irresistible affinity?
We wonder if any of us are really too different from Arnie and Mitch. We wonder if they are even aware of their own hardscrabble existence. The town suggests country music songs. One wonders upon watching this 1970s offering, if a bigger budget could make the story work as a bona fide hit. (Geez, re-construct the robber a little.)
I'm inclined to think some movies should simply not be re-made or re-imagined. The very unpretentious aspect of "The Crater Lake Monster" is an essential element. We can use our imagination to project bigger stars and more elaborate special effects. Let it stay in our imagination. What seemed real and endearing to me was the prolonged somber look on the guy's face as he is shocked and crestfallen at the loss of his friend. The dispatched plesiosaur lies nearby.
There is the inescapable feeling of Arnie and Mitch as being forlorn. Ah, "the majority of men lead lives of quiet desperation." They showed a modicum of enterprise with their boat rentals. We sense that within their humble reality they could find happiness. Maybe we all can see a little of ourselves in those guys, with the web of impulses like anger, jealousy, partnership and in the end, love.
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| Not on screen a lot, but effective |
"Jurassic Park" is the gold standard of such movies but it really just continued a pretty impressive line. Remember "The Valley of Gwangi" with its cowboys and prehistoric animals? The big dino in that movie was an allosaurus. The movie starred James Franciscus who gained fame as "not being Charlton Heston" (in the "Planet of the Apes" series). Talented man, Mr. Franciscus. I guess he was to Charlton Heston what James Whitmore was to Spencer Tracy.
The actors/actresses in "The Crater Lake Monster" are from down on the list, but this isn't to say they didn't submit serviceable acting. They did. And I did make it to the end of the movie, which was task No. 1 for writing today's post. I really give credit to everyone involved. The proof is in the pudding, or money. Amen! The budget for the movie was $100,000. The box office was three million. Enough said? Actually I wonder if Hollywood is really happy with low-budget movies that do well. Too many artistic issues can be presented IMHO.
The director was Wiliam Stromberg who also co-wrote with actor Cardella. Music was by Will Zens, uncredited. The distributor was Crown International Pictures. C'mon, let's raise a toast to "The Crater Lake Monster," you too "Count Floyd."
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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