RELEASED IN 1977 and written & directed by William R. Stromberg, "The Crater Lake Monster" details events in the high country of central California after a meteor strikes the eponymous (fictitious) lake and incubates a prehistoric egg, which hatches a plesiosaur-like creature that terrorizes the locals. Despite the title, the story does not take place in Crater Lake, Oregon, and the filmmakers don't hide this fact in light of (1.) the California plates of the vehicles and (2.) the lake is clearly snake-like in shape and not round like Crater Lake in Oregon. Speaking of the lake they used for establishing shots, it's located roughly 425 miles southeast of Crater Lake in central California.The movie is akin to modern Syfy flicks, but shot on a low-budget in the mid-70s. It lacks the production quality of 70's creature features like "Jaws" (1975) and "Prophecy" (1979), but isn't even up to the production level of TV flicks like "Snowbeast" (1977) and "Kingdom of the Spiders" (1977). The second-rate acting of the principles in particular distinguishes "The Crater Lake Monster" from these movies. But the Ray Harryhausen-like stop-motion effects are effective, although whenever the creature is shown emerging from the lake the contrast between the two (the monster and the lake) looks decidedly fake.Kacey Cobb shines on the female front and looks great in tight jeans, but her role is too small. There's some goofy slapstick provided by Arnie and Mitch, which is only a notch or so above the antics of Skipper and Gilligan. Other than that, the tone is serious and there are some highlights, like the excellent locations, the 70's atmosphere (styles/décor/etc.) and the surprisingly moving close. I should add that I never perceived the plesiosaur as a particularly scary or formidable dinosaur, but this flick gave me a different perspective.THE FILM RUNS 1 hour & 25 minutes and was shot in Huntington Lake and Palomar Mountain, California. ADDITIONAL WRITER: Richard Cardella. GRADE: C

The main attraction in the Crown International creature feature "The Crater Lake Monster" is its stop motion animation by David Allen, who was one of the experts in the field. As for the rest, it's reasonably engaging stuff, with likable characters and a passable story. Although the movie runs only 84 minutes long, it is overextended somewhat, with some digressions - especially comedic digressions - that don't really add anything to the story. For example, more than a little too much time is spent with comedy relief characters Arnie (Glen Roberts) and Mitch (Mark Siegel). But the effects are fun, and there is some atmosphere to enjoy.A meteor crashes to Earth, landing in Crater Lake in Oregon. The now extremely hot water acts as an incubator for a dinosaur egg, a leftover from a long ago time. The monster, a plesiosaur, hatches and is soon feasting on local people and cows. It's up to intrepid county sheriff Steve Hanson (Richard Cardella, who also wrote the story and screenplay with producer / director William R. Stromberg) to figure things out and also determine how best to slay the beast.Strombergs' movie is never as much fun as it could be, because sometimes it's just not that interesting unless the monster is slithering around. (An amphibious dinosaur, it has flippers rather than feet.) But it's still amusing to watch, and the writers add such things as a subplot with a liquor store robber who is pursued by Steve, just to spice things up a little. The music (composed without credit by Will Zens) sounds like stuff you'd hear in a schlock picture from decades past. The on location shooting in rural California is effective. And the acting is absolutely nothing great but suitable for the material. Also co-starring is Bob Hyman as the local M.D. who is one of the voices who expectedly try to persuade our hero to let the monster be taken alive. And while too much time may be devoted to Arnie and Mitch, they're still somewhat endearing and not fatally annoying.Worth a look if you love creature features of all kinds of budgets.Six out of 10.

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?).

...and it is this film. I imagine that if indeed there is a negative afterlife, damned souls are tied to a rather uncomfortable couch and forced to watch this movie on a continuous loop for all eternity. Okay, maybe it's not that bad, but it is probably the worst film I have ever seen next to "Manos, the Hands of Fate"... and I have seen a lot of bad movies, believe you me. This is just a crummy B movie, bad film-making at it's finest(or is it worst?) The thing I really didn't like about this movie is the moronic duo they threw in for comedy relief. Now, a little comedy relief is a good thing, but most of the movie is focused on the adventures of these two morons, rather than on the "heroes" of this film, who are actually in it for less time than them! To be fair, Crown International really destroyed the movie by adding bad music and doing a poor job editing. But honestly, this was probably a bad film to begin with, so Crown really couldn't have done that much to hurt it. This really needs to be in the bottom 100 list. I wouldn't wish this one on my worst enemy. Actually, it's my kind of campy B movie. It was bad, but I still liked it, despite my one star rating.