User reviews

In Oregon, a meteor crashes into Crater Lake and heats the water, hatching a dinosaur egg. Months later, fishes have vanished from the lake and a huge dinosaur hunts cattle and human to feed. The local Sheriff Steve Hanson (Richard Cardella) investigates the mysterious disappearance of tourists and even a criminal. He also tells to the rednecks Arnie Chabot (Glenn Roberts) and Mitch Kowalski (Mark Siegel) that they shall not rent their boats to the tourists. When he discovers the dinosaur, his friend Richard 'Doc' Calkins (Bob Hyman) and two scientists asks him to leave the animal alive for the scientific community. Will Steve let the dinosaur live?

"The Crater Lake Monster" is a terrible and lame dinosaur film with awful story, screenplay, performances and special effects. The characters Arnie and Mitch are annoying and unfunny. There is a thief and murderer that appears in the middle of the story only to be eaten by the dinosaur in one of the most ridiculous scenes. When the sheriff discovers the existence of the dinosaur, he does not summon the army or the National Guard and prefers to confront the animal with a revolver and a bulldozer. The DVD from Rhino is very poor, without subtitles or extras; therefore adequate for this shameful flick. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): Not Available on Blu-Ray or DVD (fortunately)

... and how they bore you right out of your mind! The Crater Lake Monster is one of the classic BAD films from the 70's made with no actors of any note, an embarrassing script, woeful direction, and a tireless desire to fuse "horror" with light comedy. This movie introduces a paleontologist who finds drawings of an aquatic dinosaur underneath Crater Lake...a meteor falls from the sky, and an aquatic dinosaur of the claymation variety begins to terrorize and eat the inhabitants surrounding Crater Lake. The whole matter is taken care of by Steve our local sheriff. Much of the film - when not showing pools of blood left behind from what we imagine must have been the beast dining - is spent following the bumbling antic of two guys named Arnie and Mitch who run a boat rental place. They try so bad to be funny, that we get lines like, looking at a business sign, Mitch saying to Arnie "You spelled bait wrong, it's spelled B-A-T-E." The laughs were rather scarce here. We then see them get drunk together and imagine a tree trunk to be the dinosaur. Laurel and Hardy watch out! The dinosaur looks fake, but the movie is fun in a bad way. And at the very least, the lake is beautiful.

We have a lake. We have an animated meteor crashing. We have a killer stop-motion dinosaur with flippers. Okay, so let's call this movie THE CRATER LAKE MONSTER. What else can we add? Hmm, two idiots called Arnie & Mitch to define the ultimate definition of "comic relief". We also got to have a sheriff who doesn't really do a damn thing in this film and whom nobody listens to. Aw crap, we're over halfway through the movie and we forgot to insert a bad guy! No worries, let's introduce some guy with a moustache, have him rob a store to indicate he's a bad guy, then have him pop up somewhere near the lake, have him chased through the woods and all this for the sole purpose of him ending up as dinosaur snack food. That should work.

A complete, clumsy mess, this film. Its logic will twist your mind to force laughter out of you. The first film to feature Dave Allen as a "stop motion supervisor". After this one, he joined forces with Charles Band for several years until the the mid-nineties, when Band ran out of money to pay him, I guess. The dinosaur effects are charming and the whole film is pretty damn unintentionally funny. Unfortunately, that's about the only good thing that can be said for it.

Good Badness? Yes. The mind-bending logic in the narrative should be enough reason for that. If not, Arnie & Mitch will do the trick. 3/10 and 8/10

The heat of a meteor crashing into the lake incubates a prehistoric egg, which grows into a plesiosaur-like monster that terrifies the community and eats those daring enough to go into the lake, like a couple on a honey moon, a felon, and a mild-mannered fisher-man. Granted, the acting is bad (even though actor Mark Siegel went on to have a great effects career at Industrial Light and Magic)and the poor sound and picture quality of the crown international VHS (I just bought my copy of this film on DVD, much better video quality!), and the irritating flaws (How can that chick see "stars" in the middle of the day? How come a cop is driving over a course of 6 MONTHS to get to a dinner?), but despite the poor continuity and plot holes, I must admit that I did enjoy this film. The stop-motion special effects for the dinosaur are excellent, the suspense is adequate, the characters are quit funny, (unintentionally, most of the time) and it was pretty fun to watch and poke at the flaws.......enjoy!

The film starts out with the finding of cave paintings that depict dinosaurs with humans - an extraordinary discovery. On that exact same day, a meteorite lands in the lake in the same park as the cave painting findings. Then *poof* we end up with a dinosaur coming out of the lake! Of course it kills some people but for most of the film no one knows about the dinosaur and the deaths are just mysterious deaths.

There is a little bit of comedy sprinkled throughout the film this is somewhat laughable. The dinosaur is pretty neat looking for the time era (NOT a CGI generated creature like today's creatures and monsters). The story is kinda interesting but it does hit a few lulls off and on.

Overall it's an alright film - watchable but not great.

4/10

Well, what are the odds! At the exact right moment that a few redneck amateur-scientists discover cave paintings indicating that some type of dinosaur monster might have inhabited the area thousands of years ago, a burning meteor crashes into the lake and spontaneously hatches a monster's egg that has been lying there … for over a thousand years, I suppose! "The Crater Lake Monster" is a movie that literally must be seen to be believed, but you better do so in the company of many friends and a pile of ganja in order to make the wholesome a little bit easier to digest. Yes, this is a terrible film with the utmost ramshackle screenplay imaginable and numerous irrelevant padding interludes that are downright embarrassing, but it's also irresistibly charming and so clumsily put together that you simply have to cherish some kind of fondness for it. Half of the film – at least – revolves on the wacky adventures of Arnie and Mitch. These two local yokels own and run a boat renting shop near the lake, but spend most of their days picking their noses and quarreling over fascinating stuff like to spell the word "bait". It is mostly during their prototypic Laurel & Hardy situations that new puddles of blood or decapitated heads are discovered in the lake. Steve Hanson, the heroic but not exactly sharp Sheriff is on the case, but only if he's not too busy chasing big city thugs traveling through the area. Halfway through the film, there suddenly is an abrupt scene about a thug robbing a liquor store and killing two people in the process. This textbook "WTF" moment appears to take on the complete other side of the country, like in New York City or something, and has absolutely nothing to do with the events going on at Crater Lake. Only like twenty minutes later the robber pops up again in Hicksville and there's an "exhilarating" chase through the woods, ending in the Dino's hungry muzzle. The absurd little details in "The Crater Lake Monster" are too numerous to mention! For example, this is probably the only creature-feature in which the players discover the obligatory gigantic footprint AFTER they already spotted the actual monster. The goofs in continuity should be legendary as far as I'm concerned. It's like everybody forgot to pay attention to it. Night turns into twilight into day and back into twilight … all during one and the same diurnal course! The monster is undeniably the best aspect about the film, especially since it's accomplished through good old fashioned and adorable stop- motion effects. The cute critter is a Plesiosaur; meaning an aquatic dinosaur looking like a crossbreed between Denver the Last Dinosaur and an alligator. "Crater Lake Monster" is a unique and unforgettable movie- experience that I can only encourage to track down! The miserable 1 out of 10 rating is just out of principle (and because basically, this IS a very bad film) should be put into perspective, because I might as well could have given it 10 out of 10 for sheer entertainment value.

A meteor lands in Crater Lake, Oregon, where the incredible heat incubates a dormant, fertile Plesiosaur egg; once hatched, the dinosaur rapidly grows to 50ft in length and begins to feed on unfortunate visitors and locals. Sheriff Steve Hanson (Richard Cardella) investigates with the help of paleontologists Dan (Richard Garrison) and Susan (Kacey Cobb).

Filmed in Fantamation (whetever the heck that is), The Crater Lake Monster is a typical 50s-style creature feature, only it's from the late-70s, meaning that along with the hokey premise, dreadful acting and jerky stop-motion monster, we also get Jaws-inspired attack scenes with a fair amount of bright red blood splashed all over the place, and characters sporting either big sideburns or Farrah flicks. Helping to pad out the film to feature length are light relief hick duo Arnie and Mitch, a pair of drunken dolts who hire out fishing boats on the lake, plus a pointless sub-plot about an armed robber on the run from the law having shot two people during a liquor store hold-up (maybe he was upset because they didn't stock one of their stylish 'Booze' T-shirts in his size).

Fans of quality film-making will no doubt quickly move right along, but those who dig shonky monster movies for their sheer naffness should find enough to enjoy here: in addition to the not-in-the-least-bit-scary animated aquatic creature, we get some hilarious close-ups of a crap monster model in the water, some of the worst day-for-night photography ever ('Look at the stars' coos a woman to her husband as the sun beats down on them from a clear blue sky), true professional Bob Hyman as the town's doctor fluffing his lines but carrying on regardless, a guy crashing a boat gently on a sandbank and then taking a nap, a very slow car chase, and a police photo-lab adorned with 10 x 8s of cute kittens and puppies (suspects in an illegal bone and catnip smuggling operation perhaps?).

The Crater Lake Monster is a 1970's monster themed b-movie but alas not one of the better ones.

It tells the story of a meteor that awakens something ancient beneath a lake which proceeds to chomp on the locals.

I was drawn to the movie because of the cover art but shortly into the film you'll realise that it's not being entirely honest with you.

The movie itself looks and sounds great, in fact I was stunned to discover that it's as old as 77 so for that it gets a remarkable thumbs up. The SFX however leave a lot to be desired even for it's time. The "Monster" looks like it's straight out of Jason & The Argonauts movie (The original ones) and for that reason it's very hard to take seriously.

One stand out part of this film is a couple of comedy characters who actually make the film somewhat watchable to a degree. I actually laughed but was frustrated that even the dreadful finale had to screw that up.

With more plot holes than you can shake a stick at this should have been better but poor writing and laughable sfx ruined it.

The Good:

Some oddly good comedy

Looks ahead of its time

The Bad:

SFX are unintentionally funny

Cover is deceptive

Weak finale

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Bray Wyatt has come a long way

Stars are easier to see during the day

Dying underwater will cause your blood to teleport onto your boat

Ancient wall paintings are discovered showing men fighting a dinosaur down High Peak Mine, a former Indian cavern. Meanwhile a meteor lands in the nearby lake. Before you know it all of the fish have disappeared, which is bad news for Arnie and Mitch, two rednecks that run a boat hire service, and people and livestock are mysteriously disappearing too. A stop motion carnivorous aquatic dinosaur has grown at an incredible (i.e. Impossible) rate from an egg in the lake and is eating everything and everybody that it can. In "Jaws" fashion the lake resort is closed and the local sheriff along with a scientist try to figure out how to stop the creature. The setting is Oregon but the film was shot in California, using Fantamation (!), the mountain and lake scenery are very nice but sadly the print that I watched courtesy of Talking Pictures TV (UK) was very poor. The monster looks very 1950's/60's when it is seen moving, however this is one of the few plus points of this very poor and cheap looking movie. Close up shots of its rubber head are hilarious, as are the many night scenes that were shot in broad daylight. The script is awful and most of the acting is as wooden as the trees in the forest. Arnie and Mitch not only work together but they live together too, their relationship is never explained, perhaps they are family, buddies or even a gay couple, bit of a mystery. However it is no mystery that they are there to provide a comedy element to the plot, pity that they aren't very funny. Don't expect to see much in the way of blood or gore. This was my first time viewing, I had not heard of this film before. I found it to be fairly entertaining for all the wrong reasons, I would recommend this turkey only to fans of bad movies.

Thanks to budget cuts there was no postproduction work to change several day for night scenes. Which results in bright day scenes with people using flashlights, talking about how beautiful the stars look and so on. These scenes are hilarious and would be the only reason for watching this film. The cuts also effected the monster effects and forced them to use stock music instead of a proper score. While the unintentional comedy was amusing the intentional comedy was eye rollingly bad.

No need to recap the plot. Okay, the film's no classic. In fact, someone in production borrowed the bulldozer vs. monster from 1960's schlock comedy Dinosaurus. But, in my book, the 80-some minutes isn't bad enough to rate among the truly bad, e.g. Manos: The Hands of Fate {1966}. Catch the photography, which is pretty good (of course, post- production bungled day-for-night, but that's not photographer Gentry's fault). Then there're the lush colors, about as vivid as any I've seen. Add Cardella's sturdy performance as the take-charge sheriff, along with some pretty good stop-motion, and you've got genuine compensations that lift results from the truly bad.

Of course, the intended comic relief is pretty lame, along with a script that appears almost thrown together. But perhaps most disappointing is the utter lack of tension. Monsters should generate tension. However, director Stromberg fails to build suspense, which requires a better sense of structure than what's provided here. Instead, the production goes for quick shock, which itself doesn't work very well. All in all, the movie's too good to be truly bad, and too bad to be good. I like what another reviewer observed, namely the results look like they were made by erratically skilled amateurs.

A meteor crashes into a lake which causes a dinosaur egg to hatch and before you can say Lock Ness, the baby Dino is chowing down on the local townspeople in this low-budget b-movie.

This movie has almost everything that one wants from a dinosaur flick. Well except for a good storyline, believable characters, a credible or even passable dino, good special effects, and/or anything that'll keep you from falling asleep, but other than those things the movie is tops, What it does have is two knuckleheads that are painfully groan-inducingly unfunny, so there's that. Seriously though, don't waste your time.

What a mess this movie is! "Night" shots are bright as midday, the acting is amateurish, and the monster effects are probably the worst I've ever seen. Basically the story is about a prehistoric dinosaur brought to life by the crash of a meteor in a lake, and the monster begins munching on the locals after it eats all the fish in the lake. The local sheriff investigates of course. For comedy effect, there are two moonshine-swilling idiots who unintentionally cause chaos as well. I've seen a lot of low budget movies that have trouble separating night scenes from day ones, but this one takes the cake. Supposed "night" scenes are bright as midday, with shadows showing on the ground and bright blue sky overhead. We are supposed to "know" that the scene is supposedly at "night" by the use of car headlights, lanterns, and dialogue. At one point a woman looks up at the bright blue sky and remarks "Look at all the stars! I've never seen so many"! I gave this film a 2 out of 10. Truly awful!

A meteor hit's Crater Lake (hence our title), awakening a Plesiosaur, who proceed's to snack on the hick population (in California, that hick capital of the world.)

There's bad movies, and then there's "The Crater Lake Monster", which somehow managed to escape MST3K. Featuring grating acting, a decent stop-motion beast, and more, this is a dreadful piece of 1970's low budget exploitation/monster movie dreck.

While the movie is guilty of many crimes, the biggest one is Arnie and Mitch, two obnoxious rednecks who serve as our comic relief. They bumble around, fight to stock "banjo music",ogle women, and act like pathetic excuses of humanity. The characters are so bad, they should count as a crime against humanity.

Despite its budget limitations, this is a great film, proof that effort and imagination can overcome lack of cash. The opening, in which cave-paintings seem to show how some dinosaurs at least survived into the age of human beings, is a nice red herring. After that, a meteor comes down into a lake and causes heat which, in turn, causes the hatching of a frozen dinosaur egg (maybe the cave-paintings suggest instead that this isn't the first time such a thing has happened). When the prehistoric beast appears, it's a well-animated Plesiosaur which is soon causing disappearances in the local area. Alright, so it's not Jurassic Park, but it's still genuine entertainment for fans of monster movies.

This movie is a great Drive-Inn 70's Sci-Fi / Thriller I know most people give it bad comments though. Since it was supposed to take place at Crater Lake instead because of the low budget limitation it was filmed in California at some land formed lake up there. Anyway the lake is dark, murky & a good bit of it leaves behind that creepiness image & feel that Loch Ness gives you. Not the greatest acting but I guess good enough for this type of B-Drive Inn Sci-Fi Film. What makes this movie so great u ask? Any fan of Stop-Motion Animation knows of the great David Allen who followed in the footsteps of the stop-motion legends Willis O'Brien & Ray Harryhausen. He was inspired by them in the early 1950's as a young boy he saw some of their films on television. The Plesiosaurus which is a prehistoric water reptile from the Dinosaur ages that has a long neck razor sharp teeth & four flippers with a tail. It can walk on land as well. The attack scenes depicted in this film handled by Dave Allen using Stop-Motion Animation. Then some scenes in the water had like a fabricated head made for some of the close up water attack shots & a few other shots in the film. The Loch Ness Horror (1982) also has a Plesiosaurus in it which is supposed to be what Nessie is the nickname of The Legendary Loch Ness Monster of Scotland. Same with the lake monster that's in Lake Champlain in Upstate New York. Champ is the nickname & that is America's Loch Ness Monster. Back to Crater The Stop-Motion Animation in this film is some of the best Animation I have ever seen. This is one of his early efforts not to mention also. Equinox from 1970 was his first big break & that film earned a huge Cult following by Sci-Fi, Horror & Fantasy Film Buffs like myself. I also just got that 2 Disc DVD Special Edition Set from Criterion Collection I have checked some of it out awesome stuff. I can't wait to watch both versions of the films this weekend with the extras on Disc 2. Anyway back to Crater Lake Dave was assisted by Jim Danforth & Randall William Cook two other great Stop-Motion Animators Danforth that was focusing on more matte painting on Films at that time since Stop-Motion was becoming obsolete. His last film he did in which he did all the animation on was When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth (1970). Which he earned an Oscar for Best Visual Effects in America & that is a British made film. He started Matte Painting on that film as well while still doing Stop-Motion also. But Equinox he only does Matte Painting & most of the films after Equinox too. He does some assistant animation occasionally & other animation though. Jim Danforth he loves animation he thinks it gives that feel & look that CGI doesn't give cause it is too real the same was said by Ray Harryhausen. I agree with them both I prefer Stop-Motion Animation over CGI myself. Dave Allen's Animation in Crater like steals the show it is what makes the film worth watching. Otherwise if there was no great Stop-Motion either done by Willis O'Brien, Ray Harryhausen, Pete Peterson, Jim Danforth, David Allen, Randall William Cook, Phil Tippet, Jim Aupperle, Doug Beswick, or Dennis Muren which is an exceptional animator the others are the best animators out there. My point is without Dave Allen's Animation or one of the other greats I mentioned which Willis O'Brien passed away in the early 60's so he couldn't do the animation obviously. If u are a huge Stop-Motion Fan like me then u will really enjoy this movie. Other then that stay away I guess unless u are a fan of Drive-Inn B Sci-Fi Films with great special effects & low grade everything else. It is one of my favorite 70's Sci-Fi Flicks anyway.

Man, what a scam this turned out to be! Not because it wasn't any good (as I wasn't really expecting anything from it) but because I was misled by the DVD sleeve which ignorantly paraded its "stars" as being Stuart Whitman, Stella Stevens and Tony Bill. Sure enough, their names did not appear in the film's opening credits, much less themselves in the rest of it!! As it turned out, the only movie which connects those three actors together is the equally obscure LAS VEGAS LADY (1975) – but what that one has to do with THE CRATER LAKE MONSTER is anybody's guess…

Even so, since I paid $1.50 for its rental and I was in a monster-movie mood anyhow, I elected to watch the movie regardless and, yup, it stunk! Apart from the fact that it had a no-name cast and an anonymous crew, an unmistakably amateurish air was visible from miles away and the most I could do with it is laugh at the JAWS-like pretensions and, intentionally so, at the resistible antics of two moronic layabouts-cum-boat owners who frequently squabble among themselves with the bemused local sheriff looking on. The creature itself – a plesiosaur i.e. half-dinosaur/half-fish – is imperfectly realized (naturally) but, as had been the case with THE GIANT CLAW (1957) which I've also just seen, this didn't seem to bother the film-makers none as they flaunt it as much as they can, especially during the movie's second half!

In a rural part of the Pacific Northwest of the United States, a meteor falls into a nearby lake shortly after some archaeologists have uncovered cave paintings showing early man fighting what appears to be a dinosaur. In the months after the meteor's impact. Strange happenings are noticed by the two boat renters Mitch (Mark Siegel) and Arnie (Glenn Roberts) as well as the local Sheriff Steve Hanson (Richard Cardella) which may point to a creature long believed to be extinct.

The Crater Lake Monster is a 1977 independent monster film directed and produced by stop motion animator Willaim R. Stromberg who co-wrote the film with star and lifelong friend Richard Cardella. Inspired by his love of monster films of the 1950s, Stromberg had wanted to make a more family oriented horror film in contrast to the rising popularity of more extreme horror of the 70s. The film is noted for its troubled post-production thanks to interference and ineptitude by distributor Crown International who pulled funding for several scenes as well as deleting expository ones that would've expanded on the plot, locked Stromberg out of the editing process, and didn't bother to correct several day for night shots so scenes set at night took place in broad daylight. The movie made a little over $1 million which tanks to a low budget cited under $200,000 most likely yielded a profit even if critical reception hasn't been kind to the film with some ranking it among the worst monster movies. While The Crater Lake Monster does have some glaring flaws as a result of the Crown debacle, there's an undeniable passion and energy on screen that makes this nowhere near the worst monster movies ever made (not even close).

While the titular Crater Lake Monster certainly feels like a "man out of time" given the technical revolution of Star Wars during the same year, given the tone the movie goes for it's rather fitting and shows some impressive utilization of stop motion techniques to bring the creature to life. The script is basically written and acted like a 1950s type monster film complete with some silly reasons why there's a monster as well as the occasionally stilted acting, but all these elements add to that underlying charm of the movie. The funniest aspect of the film for me is the fact comic relief characters Arnie and Mitch played by Glenn Roberts and Mark Siegel are given more screentime than the movies hero and co-writer Steve Hanson, but there is a strange quality that makes them kind of endearing if slightly schticky and I was usually amused by their antics (even if they also result in the movie ending on kind of a downer note). The biggest issue with the movie is the glaring post production issues and that really speaks more to Crown's incompetence than the movie itself, and in spite of those glaring issues I was still amused by the movie.

If you've seen a 50s monster movie, that's basically what this is only dressed up in 70s attire. It's a fun little oddity that never overstays its welcome and will be welcome viewing for bad movie fans and MST3Kers alike (this movie deserves its own episode featuring it). Dim the lights, get some popcorn, and have a good time.