The Crater Lake Monster

Plot synopsis:
In Crater Lake, Northern California, Dr. Richard Calkins (Hyman) is informed by his colleague Dan Turner (Garrison) that he and his girlfriend Susan Patterson (Cobb) have made an incredible discovery in a nearby cave system. The three head down and discover a system of cave drawings, including what appears to be a depiction of people fighting off a Plesiosaurus, thus providing evidence that dinosaurs existed at the same time as man. However, a flaming meteorite crashes into the lake just overhead, resulting in a cave-in that destroys the cave system and the drawings, while the three scientists are barely able to escape alive. The local sheriff, Steve Hanson (Cardella), sees the meteorite crash and radios in the incident before continuing on his patrol.
Several months later, Sheriff Hanson meets with the three scientists to go search for the meteorite. Turner and Patterson dive down to the bottom of the lake, only to find that the meteorite is still too hot to recover and has resulted in the entire lake becoming significantly warmer than before, rising to approximately 90 degrees. Somewhere else on the lake, a birdwatcher (Hal Scharn) is setting up his equipment when the monster suddenly rises out of the water, moves onto the shore, and kills him.
Two friends, Arnie Chabot (Roberts) and Mitch Kowalski (Siegel), running low on money, decide to start a boat rental service. Their first customer is U.S. senator Jack Fuller (Eliot), who rents a rowboat for a quick fishing trip for $20. However, he is attacked and killed by the monster. Arnie and Mitch see the empty boat drifting in the middle of the lake and go out to retrieve it, finding only some large blood stains inside the boat. They bring the boat back to shore as evidence for the Sheriff.
Some time later, a performer named Ross Conway (Hoover) and his wife Paula (Lewis), are on their way to a show when their car suddenly begins to break down. They stop at a gas station and learn from the mechanic (John Crowder) that their car won't be repaired for several more days. The attendant tells them that the fastest method of transportation at this point is by boat across the lake. The couple heads down to Arnie and Mitch's dock to rent a motorboat for $25 and head out. While out on the lake, they are attacked by the monster, but manage to outrun it due to the boat's motor and run it aground. When the monster pursues them onto the shore, Ross empties the can of gasoline into the boat and sets it on fire, with the blaze scaring the monster away.
Arnie and Mitch, as they walk away from renting the boat out to the couple, begin to argue about their boat-renting service, with Arnie constantly claiming that they're his boats instead of "our boats." Mitch claims that he is tired of being bossed around by Arnie, and the two eventually fight. Their scuffle leads to the water, where the two discover the severed head of Fuller floating in the lake just as the Sheriff arrives. As he takes in the head for evidence, he orders them to stay out of the lake, stay away from the shore, and to not rent anymore boats. Realizing that the couple from earlier is still out there, Arnie and Mitch head out in another boat to search for them. They eventually discover the charred remains of the motorboat and the distraught couple, both too mortified to explain what happened to them. The couple is taken away in an ambulance, and the Sheriff issues a stern warning for Arnie and Mitch to not head back out onto the lake.
While at the local diner, the Sheriff spots a man (Sonny Shepard) who is wanted for armed robbery in the nearest town that killed the clerk (Mike Simmons) and another customer (Mary Winford), and quickly pursues him into the forest. After the robber drives his car off a cliff and jumps out, the Sheriff pursues him on foot. The chase eventually leads them down to the shore, where the Sheriff shoots him in the knee, then stops and hides behind a tree to reload. During the brief pause, the monster quickly snatches the robber and drags him under. The Sheriff does not hear it happen, but discovers a large blood stain on a nearby rock. Meanwhile, Calkins' autopsy report on Fuller's head comes in, and he tells the Sheriff that the wounds were caused by an animal's teeth, and the attacking animal is not only of a significant size, but also living in the lake.
When the Sheriff returns the next day to the location where the robber went missing, he finds several massive footprints before the monster suddenly emerges. He fires all six shots in his revolver at it before jumping in his car and driving away. He tells Calkins, Turner, and Patterson about the incident, and his description of the monster fits that of a Plesiosaurus. While the three scientists are excited at the idea of a living dinosaur in the lake, the Sheriff is determined to kill it before it takes more lives.
The Sheriff, Calkins, Turner, and Patterson host a town meeting in the diner the next day, informing the town of the danger and what they plan to do to stop the monster. Arnie and Mitch ultimately take the scientists' side in favor of keeping the monster alive, saying it'll bring in a significant amount of money for the town. However, a man named Ferguson (Joe Sasway) is attacked by the monster and barely manages to make it to safety inside the diner. The Sheriff, Turner, Patterson, Arnie, and Mitch all head outside to confront the monster, which is just outside the barricade of farming vehicles and a wall of hay bails. The Sheriff starts up a bulldozer, but Arnie attempts to stop him at gunpoint, saying that the monster must live. The Sheriff convinces him that nothing will stop the monster without killing it, and Arnie jumps in the back, shotgun at the ready. As the monster draws closer, Arnie panics and attempts to flee, only to be caught and killed by the monster. The Sheriff slams into the monster with the bulldozer, causing it to drop Arnie's lifeless body. When it reaches its head down to try to pick up Arnie's body again, the Sheriff drives the bulldozer forward and repeatedly slams the bulldozer into the monster's neck, finally killing it.
In the aftermath of the battle, the Sheriff, Calkins, Turner, Patterson, and Mitch all mourn Arnie's death, with Mitch vowing to continue the boat rental service that he and Arnie started, softly repeating "our boats...our boats."

Tags: revenge

Review:
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.
Best lake monster movie with top notch Stop-Motion Effects by David Allen!.
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.
Dave Allen's Animation in Crater like steals the show it is what makes the film worth watching.
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.
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.
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).
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.
The monster is undeniably the best aspect about the film, especially since it's accomplished through good old fashioned and adorable stop- motion effects.
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.
In an age filled so-called 'monsters' which are no more than laughable men-in-rubber-suit creations or lizards dressed up in frills and forced to rip each other to pieces (cheap exploitation-style), it's refreshing to discover that the Plesiosaur in this little gem is an excellent Harryhausen-style stop-motion creature.Quite a hard film to find, but it's worth finding..
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?
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 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 "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 comedyLooks ahead of its timeThe Bad:SFX are unintentionally funnyCover is deceptiveWeak finaleThings I Learnt From This Movie:Bray Wyatt has come a long wayStars are easier to see during the dayDying underwater will cause your blood to teleport onto your boat.
I originally watched this movie in the early 90's maybe more like 89/90 on a local channel monster show called "Morgus Presents".
Crater Lake Monster, The (1977) * 1/2 (out of 4) Scientists are up in arms after they discover evidence that dinosaurs were around at the same time as man.
The dinosaur sets out for revenge killing anyone or anything that gets in its way.I've always been a fan of films like The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms but this here certainly isn't in the same league.
The film was released around the same time that the Loch Ness monster was in the news and it's clear the filmmakers are trying to cash in on that but they left this viewer pretty much scratching his head.
Boring monster movie is only redeemed by infrequent stop-motion special effects and occasional appearances by a giant rubber monster head.
The story involves a meteor crashing into Crater Lake (Crater Lake in Northern California, near Susanville, not the more famous National Park in Oregon), which then causes a dinosaur egg to hatch, unleashing a Loch Ness Monster-like creature upon the lakeside residents.
Stromberg, who's only other credit is special effects on "Night Train to Terror," and featuring a cast of non-actors, "The Crater Lake Monster" is strictly amateur hour.
It's too bad the enjoyable stop-motion and giant rubber monster head couldn't have been part of a better overall movie (you know, something like "Lake Placid").
The best part of the film of course is the monster, stop motion all the way in 1977?
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.
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.
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.
It was made by b-movie legends Crown International Pictures and it tells a story where a large plesiosaur emerges from a lake after a dormant dinosaur egg is fertilised by a meteorite from outer space.This film seems to have a pretty bad reputation but I can't go along with the negativity at all.
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.
The Crater Lake Monster is easily one of the most awful, amateurish film I've ever seen - ranking right up there with Manos, the Hands of Fate in terms of poor acting, useless direction, and kindergarten-level production values.
In this movie a silly-looking claymation/stop-motion animated dinosaur wakes up after a meteor hits a lake in Bumblebum, CA, and begins dining on the local hayseeds.
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?)..
As people are attacked by the monster, the Sheriff (Richard Cardella) investigates along with a group of scientists in order to stop the creature.What we have here is awesome stop-motion, a terrible script and a very low budget.
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.
The bottom line is that "The Crater Lake Monster" is a very bad film.
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'.
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.
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!.
He reminded me a little of Steve Barkett in THE AFTERMATH: sure, he's wooden, but he's enthusiastic with it and, I have to say, pretty entertaining when on screen.Sadly, the rest of the characters are not so good, including some truly insipid scientists, some distinctly non-rugged macho men, a guy sporting the worst British accent I've ever heard, and a couple of drunken rednecks who supply the film's comic relief.
As for the monster, well it's a not-bad animated creature, with stop motion effects by the erstwhile Dave Allen and Jim Danforth combination.
The effects are quite good, close to Ray Harryhausen's standard, and I have to say that the film picked up whenever the monster appeared on screen.
First off, this movie bears a striking resemblance to the Japanese film "Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds".
Unfortunately, there are huge stretches of nothing happening and a strange moment where a man robs a liquor store and shoots two people that almost seems to come from another movie.The thing that really drags this film down though is Arnie and his buddy as they chew up more scenery than the dinosaur chews up people.
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.
Actually I think its about really cool monsters, which this has.I like this movie in a low budget drive in sort of a way.
It would seem as if Hanson, along with the town's doc, a visiting archaeologist and his girlfriend, and the area's two doofus boat renters, Arnie and Mitch, will have their hands very full, eliminating--and perhaps even capturing--the prehistoric menace...."A beast more terrifying than your most frightening nightmare," the original trailer for "The Crater Lake Monster" proclaimed, and while this amusing bit of hyperbole is of course patent nonsense, the film's creature nonetheless is a most pleasing creation.
I taped it when ITV screened it during the early hours around the mid 1990's but I recorded over it and wished I hadn't as it has not been on since and is quite hold to get hold of.A meteor that crashes into Crater Lake hatches the egg of a Plesiosaur and it starts killing and eating people.
The beast is killed at the end by a bulldozer.The stop-motion Plesiosaur by Dave Allen is quite impressive, despite the movie's low budget and fairly poor acting.I rather enjoyed this movie and wished it would come on TV again, although it is shown regularly on The Horror Channel, which I don't have.Rating: 3 stars out of 5..
The Crater Lake Monster starts late one night in Oregon as local County Sheriff Steve Hanson (co-writer Richard Cardella) stops his patrol car by the side of Crater Lake & witnesses a meteorite hurtle from the sky & crash into the lake.
As it happens a couple of university scientists named Dan Turner (Richard Garrison) & Susan Patterson (Kacey Cobb) are on hand to investigate the next day along with local County Dr. Richard Calkins (Bob Hyman) who all think little of it beyond the fact that it heated the lake up considerably, unfortunately unknown to them the warmed up water has acted as an incubator to a fertile Dinosaur egg at the bottom of the lake which hatches in no time at all & before he knows it Sheriff Hanson is trying to work out why there are so many missing persons reports & where old farmer Ferguson's (Joe Sasway) bulls have disappeared to...Co-written, produced & directed by William R.
The script by star Cardella & director Stromberg takes itself very seriously apart from a couple of dumb comedy relief rednecks & is a bit uneven as is the case in a lot of these types of films, there are whole stretches of the film when the monster isn't seen or even referred to, there's some subplot about a robber that goes absolutely nowhere & the film isn't sure who the main character is.
Most of the character's just come & go without much thought for continuity or narrative, the Sheriff, the County Doctor, the scientists, a couple from Vegas, the two local redneck idiots & the Crater lake monster itself all take it in turns to star for five minutes before they disappear for ten.
The monster itself is by far the most impressive thing about The Crater Lake Monster, the stop-motion animation on it is actually quite impressive.
The acting is uniformly poor by everyone, period.The Crater Lake Monster is a pretty bad film by most peoples standards which I'm not trying to deny but I thought it had some merit with some decent special effects & a nice feel to it.
This is one of the worst movies i have ever seen it's EXTREMELY boring with lots of boring dialog and has some VERY annoying characters and a laughable looking creature.
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!
If you haven't guessed yet The Crater Lake Monster is hardly the most inspired movie out there and it's run time is heavily padded by an inordinate amount of scenes that are completely mundane, which often include slow and pointless camera pans and long zooms - that take forever to complete.To no great surprise the monster itself is the best and most entertaining part of this cheap little creature feature; which is brought to life through a series of shots that include partial life-size mock-ups of the monster (or at least it's head and neck) and of course there's some corny stop-motion animation - which is my favorite part.
Just to make room for a Plesiosaur like monster to come out of the lake and start terrorizing people all over the small county.
Obviously, the director of the film William Stromberg and the writer/leading actor Richard Cardella were inspired by Loch Ness monster.
Yep, it's one of 'those' movies.Let's start with the plot/script: It's pretty lame, very limp story, just an excuse to see a large stop-motion monster eating people alive.
The monster effects were well, stop motion was pretty much solid, while from close, the big toy head was used, and that was so fake.
The next scene is just there to give us a rush towards the end of the film, it's about sheriff returning to the lake, on the same location where that ugly hobo was eaten, just to suddenly confront a monster.