# Lake Placid (film series)

Lake Placid is a series of American natural horror comedy films created by David E. Kelley. Produced and distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, the series began with Lake Placid (1999) directed by Steve Miner, and was followed by five television sequels, Lake Placid 2 (2007) by David Flores, Lake Placid 3 (2010) by Griff Furst, Lake Placid: The Final Chapter (2012) by Don Michael Paul, Lake Placid vs. Anaconda (2015) by A.B. Stone, being a crossover with the Anaconda series, and Lake Placid: Legacy (2018) by Darrell Roodt. Each installment revolves around the presence of giant, 30-foot-long man-eating crocodiles in the fictional location of Black Lake, Maine, and the efforts of various groups to capture or destroy the creatures. All of the films (except for Legacy) reference members of the fictitious Bickerman family.

## Background

During the production of the original film, Stan Winston Studios were hired to produce the 30 foot long animatronic crocodile, which was covered in a water-resistant urethane skin and functioned underwater using waterproofed hydraulics. In 2014, following the re-release of the original film on Blu-ray, Daily Dead interviewed director Steve Miner about the production of the film. According to Miner: "The first thing I did when I got on board Lake Placid was send the script over to Stan. Stan went ahead and began building the main 18-20 foot croc out of pocket even before we had locked down our financing or anything like that. He may have spent close to a million dollars on him- it may not have been that much, but it was close. And that’s such a testament to Stan- I kept telling him that I didn’t even know if we were going to be making the darned movie, but he just kept moving ahead. What I didn’t know when I took on Lake Placid was that it had already been turned down by all the studios so when it came time to put the movie together, it was a little more challenging than I originally thought it was going to be. That’s when I brought in Mike Medavoy and he really got this movie done for us. We started making the rounds again and eventually Fox ended up picking up the movie the second time. Mike then brought these French investors over to Stan’s shop to see the crocodile in action and Stan finished that thing up just in the nick of time. It ended up working out so perfectly though because Stan had the croc working perfectly where his jaws would open and close, his eyes and head were able to move around and he could move the other parts and shake him like he was attacking something. That’s what ended up impressing the investors and it’s because of Stan that we were able to finance Lake Placid. Had it not been for him or for Mike, we wouldn’t be talking about it now".

## Films

| Film | U.S. release date | Director(s) | Screenwriter(s) | Producer(s) |
| Lake Placid | July 16, 1999 | Steve Miner | David E. Kelley | Peter Bogart, David E. Kelley & Michael Pressman |
| Lake Placid 2 | April 28, 2007 | David Flores | Todd Hurvitz & Howie Miller | Phillip Roth & Jeffery Beach |
| Lake Placid 3 | August 21, 2010 | Griff Furst | David Reed | Phillip Roth & Jeffery Beach |
| Lake Placid: The Final Chapter | September 29, 2012 | Don Michael Paul | David Reed | Phillip Roth & Jeffery Beach |
| Lake Placid vs. Anaconda | April 25, 2015 | A.B. Stone | Berkeley Anderson | Phillip Roth & Jeffery Beach |
| Lake Placid: Legacy | May 28, 2018 | Darrell Roodt | Jeremy Smith, Matt Venables & Johnathon Lloyd Walker | Lance Samuels |

### Lake Placid (1999)

A massive, man-eating crocodile terrorizes the small town of Black Lake in Maine. A group of people, including a paleontologist, a local sheriff, and a wildlife expert, are forced to work together to track down and stop the creature. As they uncover the mystery of the crocodile’s origins, they must confront the deadly predator and its reclusive owner, Delores Bickerman, before it claims more victims.

### Lake Placid 2 (2007)

In Lake Placid 2, the offspring of the previous deadly crocodiles wreak havoc on Black Lake. The crocodiles, now owned by the Sadie Bickerman, terrorize a new group generation, including a game warden, his family, and a group of teenagers.

### Lake Placid 3 (2010)

A game warden moves his family to Black Lake after inheriting the cabin of his aunt, Sadie Bickerman. Locals assure him the crocodiles are gone, but his mischievous young son finds a few juvenile crocs and begins feeding them. They quickly grow into very big adults and start attacking the game warden's family, nearby town, and poacher Reba.

### Lake Placid: The Final Chapter (2012)

Reba the poacher is back, now an EPA agent. Black Lake is turned into a crocodile sanctuary surrounded by an electric fence. When the fence gets left open one night, a high-school field trip bus unknowingly enters the park. It's up to Reba and the sheriff to save the kids from becoming crocodile chow.

### Lake Placid vs. Anaconda (2015)

The pharmaceutical company Wexell Hall inadvertently causes a new generation of mutant anacondas to escape into the crocodile-infested Black Lake. As the deadly snakes wreak havoc on the town, Sheriff Reba and her team must face off against the killer reptiles. With both creatures threatening the town's survival, the characters must find a way to stop the carnage and prevent further destruction.

### Lake Placid: Legacy (2018)

A group of young explorers and activists discover a secret area hidden from all maps and GPS devices. When they reach the center of the lake, they discover the abandoned facility where the crocodiles of Black Lake originated from. However, the beast that lurks in the facility is larger and deadlier than any that came before it.

## Cast and crew
### Cast

   * An $^A$ indicates an appearance through archival footage.
   * A dark gray cell indicates the character was not in the film.
| Character | Films | Films | Films | Films | Films | Films |
| Character | Lake Placid | Lake Placid 2 | Lake Placid 3 | Lake Placid: The Final Chapter | Lake Placid vs. Anaconda | Lake Placid: Legacy |
| Character | 1999 | 2007 | 2010 | 2012 | 2015 | 2018 |
| Jack Wells | Bill Pullman | | | | | |
| Kelly Scott | Bridget Fonda | | | | | |
| Hector Cyr | Oliver Platt | | | | | |
| Sheriff Hank Keough | Brendan Gleeson | | | | | |
| Deputy Sharon Gare | Meredith Salenger | | | | | |
| Sheriff James Riley | | John Schneider | | | | |
| Emily "Emma" Warner | | Sarah Lafleur | | | | |
| Jack Struthers | | Sam McMurray | | | | |
| Scott Riley | | Chad Michael Collins | Chad Michael Collins | | | |
| Kerri | | Alicia Ziegler | Alicia Ziegler | | | |
| Ahmad Andrews | | Joe Holt | | | | |
| Thad Hyland | | Ian Reed Kesler | | | | |
| Larry Willis | | Justin Urich | | | | |
| Reba | | | Yancy Butler | Yancy Butler | Yancy Butler | |
| Ellie | | | Kacey Clarke | | | |
| Brett Willies | | | Mark Evans | | | |
| Aaron Fitzgerald | | | Nils Hognestad | | | |
| Tara Kendrick | | | Angelica Penn | | | |
| Charlie Berman | | | Brian Landon | | | |
| Sheriff Tony Willinger | | | Michael Ironside | | | |
| Sheriff Theresa Giove | | | | Elisabeth Röhm | | |
| Ryan Loflin | | | | Paul Nicholls | | |
| Chloe Giove | | | | Poppy Lee Friar | | |
| Max Loflin | | | | Benedict Smith | | |
| Elaine Ford | | | | Caroline Ford | | |
| Brittany Fanning | | | | Scarlett Byrne | | |
| Drew | | | | Daniel Black | | |
| Deputy Nermal | | | | Jeff Stewart | | |
| Will "Tully" Tull | | | | | Corin Nemec | |
| Bethany Tull | | | | | Skye Lourie | |
| Sarah Murdoch | | | | | Annabel Wright | |
| Beach | | | | | Stephen Billington | |
| Tiffani Jones | | | | | Laura Dale | |
| Margo | | | | | Ali Eagle | |
| Deputy Ferguson | | | | | Oliver Walker | |
| Jade | | | | | | Katherine Barrell |
| Sam | | | | | | Tim Rozon |
| Alice | | | | | | Sai Bennett |
| Henderson | | | | | | Joe Pantoliano |
| The Bickermans |||||||
| Delores Bickerman | Betty White | Betty White | | Mentioned | | |
| Sadie Bickerman | | Cloris Leachman | Cloris Leachman | Mentioned | | |
| Nathan Bickerman | | | Colin Ferguson | Mentioned | | |
| Susan Bickerman | | | Kirsty Mitchell | | | |
| Connor Bickerman | | | Jordan Grehs | | | |
| Jim Bickerman | | | | Robert Englund | Robert Englund | |

### Crew

| Role | Film | Film | Film | Film | Film | Film |
| Role | Lake Placid | Lake Placid 2 | Lake Placid 3 | Lake Placid: The Final Chapter | Lake Placid vs. Anaconda | Lake Placid: Legacy |
| Role | 1999 | 2007 | 2010 | 2012 | 2015 | 2018 |
| Composer | John Ottman | Nathan Furst | Nathan Furst | Frederik Wiedmann | Claude Foisy | James Matthes Andries Smit |
| Editor | Paul Hirsch Marshall Harvey | John Quinn | Matt Michael | John Quinn | Cameron Hallenbeck | Christopher Minns |
| Cinematographer | Daryn Okada | Lorenzo Senatore | Anton Bakarski | Martin Chichov | Ivo Peitchev | Trevor Calverley |
| Production companies | Phoenix Pictures | Sci-Fi Pictures | Stage 6 Films UFO International | UFO International | Destination Films UFO International | Destination Films Blue Ice Pictures Out of Africa Entertainment |
| Distributor | 20th Century Fox | 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Sony Pictures Home Entertainment | Sony Pictures Home Entertainment | Sony Pictures Home Entertainment | Sony Pictures Home Entertainment | Sony Pictures Home Entertainment |
| Running time | 82 minutes | 88 minutes | 96 minutes | 90 minutes | 92 minutes | 93 minutes |

## Reception
### Critical and public response

| Film | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic | CinemaScore |
| Lake Placid | 47% (96 reviews) | 34 (25 reviews) | C |
| Lake Placid 2 | 11% (9 reviews) | — | — |
| Lake Placid 3 | — | — | — |
| Lake Placid: The Final Chapter | — | — | — |
| Lake Placid vs. Anaconda | — | — | — |
| Lake Placid: Legacy | — | — | — |

## Music
### Soundtracks

| Title | U.S. release date | Length | Composer(s) | Label |
| Lake Placid: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | July 27, 1999 | 47:00 | John Ottman | Varèse Sarabande |
| Lake Placid 2: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | August 12, 2008 | 24:00 | Nathan Furst | Lakeshore Records |

## Other media
### Video games

Lake Placid: Croc Drop is an interactive game produced in 1999 to promote the film Lake Placid from the same year.
Lake Placid 2: Croc Alley is an interactive game produced in 2007 to promote the film Lake Placid 2 from the same year.