Creature from Black Lake

Two college students go down South looking for bigfoot. The locals try to warn them off. They get into some mild trouble with local girls, one of whom is naturally the sheriff's daughter. But the real fun begins when bigfoot shows up.

Many of us who were children in the 70's harbor a certain misbegotten affection for bigfoot movies. Many of these were actually "documentaries" or "docudramas" that are pretty hard to find these days. Another one, "Snowbeast", is a pretty decent TV movie. This may be the best, certainly one of the better at least, of the purely fictional, cinematic movies. It's pretty tame like most of these movies were (with the exception of the wonderfully gory "Night of the Demon" and the short-lived "bigfoot-rape" movies), but it has some pretty good suspense and likable characters (including the guy who played "Ponce de Leon in the 70's cult classic "Pretty Maids All in a Row"). It was a local production made in the South by a director with a great affection for the region, who for once doesn't treat small-town Southerners like a bunch of dumb hicks (OK, maybe they really ARE a bunch of dumb hicks, but its still refreshing).

This movie kind of fell into the shadow of the similar but more successful "Legend of Boggy Creek", but I personally liked this one a lot better. Tragically it's not available in widescreen yet, but I'd still recommend it.

Pretty good for a low budget B movie in the Bigfoot genre. It is funny, serious, suspenseful-what more can you ask for? Acting is not painfully bad as in some low budget 70's movies, and is actually pretty good, though it was a little gory and violent in several scenes. I would not let children watch it, especially if you are planning a camping or hiking trip in the near future ! I thought that compared to Legend of Boggy Creek for instance, it was a lot more entertaining. And one hundred percent better than Boggy Creek II. Mystery Science Theater's Boggy Creek II is pretty funny and worth watching. All I can say is, watch it!

This was one of the many low-budget Bigfoot movies made in the 70s, all of which were probably attempts to cash in on the success of "The Legend of Boggy Creek," which somehow took in $20 million. Despite being unoriginal, I think this is a MUCH better movie than "Creek" and possibly the best Bigfoot movie ever made, take that as you will.

Whereas "Creek" suffered from having no plot, no main characters, and insane musical numbers, "Lake" has a tense, engaging story with a great cast. The last 15 minutes are unexpectedly suspenseful and had me hooked. It also has some very funny scenes, especially during the second half when we are introduced to Trapper Joe (played by fantastic character actor Jack Elam). Joe is hilarious, although I'm still slightly creeped out by the fact that he had a large doll hanging by a string in his bedroom.

Besides the characters, I also just like the look and feel of this movie, with the brown, dusty backgrounds and eerie forests. The settings are great and create an unforgettable atmosphere. If you're looking for a low-budget thriller that, while not exactly scary, is at least fun and exciting, this one is hard to beat.

I remember seeing this movie in the now defunct 'Jerry Lewis Cinemas' chain when I was a teenager. Living in a rural, and I mean rural area, the movie affected my brother and I that summer. My little brother wouldn't go near the woods at our house (all we had around were woods, LOL), and would check all the door locks before going to bed for almost a month because of this movie.

Myself, well, I'd get some goosebumps when I was riding my motorcycle through the woods. But back to the movie. You either love it or hate it. Black Lake does have some slow scenes, but does deliver a punch, especially with Dub Taylor's flashback scenes. Jack Elam made the movie for me, I just wished they had given him more screen-time. I loved the way he chewed up his lines!

The creature is never really seen in detail, just in shadows or blurry footage, but that adds to the suspense. It's available on VHS or VCD from Bijou Flix. Watched it the other day with my wife and teen daughters....and it did scare them.

For its time and budget, a good Bigfoot film IMHP.

I know, I know. This is an extremely dated, average, run of the mill, low budget, cheesy seventies B class horror movie. However, I saw this film in the theater when I was ten years old and it scared the hell out of me. The creature depicted in the movie kept my brother and I out of the woods for an entire summer. We were convinced that the existence of Sasquatch type creatures was entirely possible and that sudden violent death awaited anyone unfortunate enough to have a close encounter with one of these bad tempered beasts. For nostalgic reasons alone this is still one of my favorite B class horror movies, but don't go out of your way to find it.