Rana: The Legend of Shadow Lake (1981) 1/2 (out of 4) Kelly tells the story of when he was 11-years-old and staying with his father by a large lake. He tells the story of how one summer a half-man, half-frog creature began stalking people.Bill Rebane directed this film and it's without question one of the worst films of its kind. In fact, I'd argue that this was one of the slowest and weakest films ever made for the genre and the only thing that really saves it is the fact that Troma bought it and gave it a much better title: CROAKED: FROG MONSTER FROM HELL. That title alone is exploitation gold but it also seems that Troma knew that the film itself couldn't be sold so they came up with a crazy title to get some sales.As far as the film goes, it's really a throwback to the various monster pictures of the 1950's drive-in era. Movies like ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES and THE GIANT GILA MONSTER is what this film tries to be like but the problem here is that the film is deadly dull from the word go. We keep hearing a lot about this monster but we never clearly see him until the very end. And when he does arrive it's easy to see why the filmmakers didn't want to show it off as the creature costume is downright awful. I mean it's really, really bad and certainly one of the worst that you're ever going to see.The performances really aren't any better and the gore effects are pretty tame and not at all creative. The film clocks in at around 89-minutes, which is honestly about eighty-minutes too long. RANA: THE LEGEND OF SHADOW LAKE just doesn't have a single thing going for it outside of its great title and alternate title. I'm sure they were trying to do something but it just seems like they had no money so instead of anything good we were just given a boring talk-fest.

I hadn't even heard about "Rana" a.k.a "Croaked: Frog Monster from Hell" until a friend of mine mentioned it a couple of weeks ago, but I instantly wanted to see it for a number of reasons. Number one: Hello! It's a movie about a giant killer frog monster! What more reason do you need? We've seen angry frogs before in the early 70's eco-horror trash fest "Frogs", but they were only normal sized and boring killer frogs! Plus, one of the taglines I encountered stated: "This time, the frog dissects you!" Best cheesy tagline ever! Number two: this is another accomplishment of the notoriously awful director Bill Rebane, who also made the insufferable creature features "Giant Spider Invasion" and "The Capture of Bigfoot". Of course, in my wild enthusiasm, I actually forgot that this thing is probably rare and ultra-obscure for a good reason. Could it possibly be any worse than the other Rebane stinkers, like the aforementioned ones and also "The Demons of Ludlow" and "Monster-a-Go- Go"? Oh yes, sire! This is bad film-making in the purest meaning of the term: long boring stretches of footage that is completely irrelevant, one-dimensional characters, inept dialogs and a total absence of excitement and bloody action. The titular monster is nowhere to be seen until late in the film, but unlike as in "Jaws", you'd wish they never bothered to show it at all once you finally see it. Speaking of "Jaws", there are multiple more heavy influences from that film, like the music and the underwater P.O.V. shots, but I can hardly hold that against Bill Rebane because practically all horror movies around that time imitated the successful gimmicks of Spielberg's summer blockbuster. The plot is narrated by a guy, as some sort of warm fireplace story to his girlfriend in their holiday cabin, and describes a traumatizing encounter of his own childhood. In the story, the narrator is an 8-year- old kid, living with his father near a swamp. After the mysterious disappearance of an anthropologist in the area, another much better looking anthropologist of the female kind comes to investigate. More and more people start to vanish in the swamp, like poachers, but obviously nobody believe the crazy old guy when he says that the legendary frog monster is to be blamed. Rana, as he/she/it is called, looks more like the inbred cousin of Creature from the Black Lagoon than like a frog or any type of amphibian whatsoever. "Rana" is pretty boring during the first hour, but then suddenly quite a lot happens in the span of only a few minutes. One of the characters stumbles over a skull with the eyes still in its sockets, there's a gunfight in slow-motion at the pier and the monster's claws can be admired as he crushes the head of a poacher into a tree. After these three minutes of outrageous action, everything gets boring and tedious again. Couldn't you have spread the a little, Mr. Rebane?

This film was a lot better then I thought. It was pretty much a throw back to "Creature From The Black Lagoon" except half man half frog & he had a weapon also guarded gold treasures. This is an excellent throwback tribute to Jack Arnold's Sci-Fi Classic the monster suit isn't as good as in Lagoon, but hey what the hell Rana was done a lot lower of a budget then Jack Arnold's Lagoon. I saw this movie finally when I bid & won on ebay. My mom purchased it was a VHS used in good condition got that during X-Mas 2005. I enjoyed pretty much every sec. down to the needle. It was pretty bloody is one reason I really liked it bloodier then Lagoon but not as scary almost though. If the suit would of been better but it's damn good for the budget. The Frog Man likes the younger girl the one that was swimming around in the lake in the sexy one piece pink swimsuit. Yeah Rana got her in the end after Kelly's father was killed. Kelly & the Female Palentologist's young niece were there & that is when Rana broke in & attacked them. He took her over his shoulder this is a lot like in Lagoon when The Gillman takes Julia Adams off the boat & dives back into the lagoon with her. Well I ain't telling much about Rana all u B & Z Graders should see it I loved it! By the way I will be getting the DVD release of it from Troma under it's a.k.a. title "Croaked: Frog Monster From Hell". Which I got & was very disappointed in cause it ran only 89 mins. I also have the old Burbank VHS as I stated & that one ran about 93 mins. Stupid because Troma originally distributed the film why they cut out 3 or 4 mins. for the DVD release makes no sense. Doubt there will ever be another more commercial DVD this being such an obscure 70's monster flick. Along with Rebane's other 70's Sci-Fi Efforts besides, "The Giant Spider Invasion" from 1975. That just got a 2009 2-Disc DVD Deluxe Treatment. That one seems to get the most attention. Which is a shame his 1977 Sci-Fi Effort "The Alpha Incident" was doubled billed with Star Wars at the theaters back in 1977. It was the second feature to Star Wars. Rebane stated in the commentary on the new Spider Invasion DVD, he didn't know if Alpha or his 1987 Horror Slasher Effort "Blood Harvest" got the bigger share of the pie. He never did get the money for Spider Invasion's theatrical gross. Neither it's enduring Cult Status as a mainstream Drive-Inn Sci-Fi Classic. Rana is one of my favorites of the 70's though. So I gave it a 6 but Octaman '72 & Zaat '72 are better they got an 8 for their type.

I thought the frog monster would be featured more in the movie. You only see the monster maybe 3 minutes in the entire movie! The times the monster is featured you don't see the monster most of the time. You see through his eyes, which was probably done for budgeting purposes. The movie mostly focuses on a old man who wants no one on the island. Frog Monster had potential but they dropped the ball! The box was very misleading. The Frog Monster attacks a scientist and her niece. Not a group of lovely young ladies as the movie box makes you want to believe. I'm usually a fan of these types of movies but this movie really struck out.