I mean hey, this movie had a very low budget, and I have to hand it to them, they did quite well with what they had. However, I wouldn't say that makes this a good movie. The plot isn't so bad, but it leaves many assumptions to be made. Not to mention when a cop sees a meteor crash into a lake, you'd expect him to say or do more than come over the radio and just be like "a giant fire ball just crashed into the lake I guess, we should call the forest rangers". I mean, nonchalant much? The best part of the film of course is the monster, stop motion all the way in 1977? You're kidding! It's extremely obvious in many parts of the film that the cameras and equipment used are not professional equipment, and the plot tends to switch between a menacing monster, and two drunks who get into mischief. Overall the film had a lot of potential, but it could have been so much better.

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

This film is about a small lakeside town that is terrorized by a giant dinosaur. Now you'd THINK it would be easy to locate a 75 feet-long behemoth (give or take 10 feet)--but no one seems to realize what's happening during most of the film! The police as well as two local idiots all investigate and inexplicably don't notice the dang thing! As a result, there's a minimum of action or suspense in the film--something you'd certainly expect from a film about a creature that snacks on people! The bottom line is that "The Crater Lake Monster" is a very bad film. It obviously had a very low budget and doesn't have a lot to recommend it. However, in addition to the usual very bad acting and horrible writing you'd expect in a schlock movie with a score of 2.4, it has something even more laughable--a silly 'monster'. While it's supposed to be a scary dinosaur, it looks more like a children's plastic toy in many scenes. The closeups aren't much better, as the thing still looks very plastic and seems about as scary as a Twinkie. If you like laughing at terrible films, this one is for you. Otherwise, steer clear!

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