Blood Lake: Attack of the Killer Lampreys

***Blood Lake: Attack of the Killer Lampreys*** is a science fiction horror television film directed by James Cullen Bresseck and produced by The Asylum. It premiered on Animal Planet as a part of the network's Monster Week on May 25, 2014.

## Plot

Ted Jargenson, a city maintenance employee, is checking on a remote roadside pipe when he is attacked and killed by several hungry lampreys. Roughly a week later, the Parker family - Michael, his wife Cate, daughter Nicole and son Kyle - move to the small lakeside town for the summer as Michael is tasked with controlling the lamprey population in Lake Charlevoix. Michael meets the local fish and wildlife department, consisting of Will, Rich, and Marcy, and learns that these lampreys are particularly hungry and seem to be feeding aggressively on and effectively destroying the fish population. The mayor, Bruce Akerman, demands that Michael fix the problem within a day so that no tourist revenue will be lost.

The lampreys soon begin attacking people, first attacking Rich when he sets out on the lake to get a lamprey count. His body is found and brought to the morgue where lampreys burst from his chest cavity and kill the coroner, before they escape into the pipes and infiltrate the water system. Despite this, Mayor Akerman refuses to shut down the lake and Michael talks with the press. Mayor Akerman sees this and calls a favor in with Michael's boss to have him fired.

Meanwhile, Michael and Cate's flirtatious summer neighbor Ellen invites her pool boy Alex over to clean her pool, intending to seduce him by surprising him in the pool when he gets there. Alex has coincidentally started a summer fling with Nicole and invites her with him to Ellen's house, having been told that Ellen will be out running errands. They arrive to find Ellen's body in the pool being devoured by lampreys. Cate hears their screams and runs next door to call the police. An officer arrives and is promptly eaten by the lampreys in the pool, which allows Cate, Nicole, and Alex to escape.

The lampreys soon attack the town en masse through pipes and water sources outside. Cate and Nicole go to rescue Kyle, who went to the beach while the lampreys were attacking, while Alex goes to check on his own family. Mayor Ackerman is also killed when a lamprey enters his body when he sits on the toilet. Will convinces Michael to help him despite being fired and they witness the lampreys attacking and killing Marcy. They plan to shut down the main water system before the lampreys can escape into Lake Michigan, and discover several dead people throughout the town, including the mayor.

They encounter Cate and Nicole, who are busy trying to rescue Kyle who has barricaded himself in an attic storage area. They succeed when Alex shows up with a ladder and everyone is able to escape the town. The resolve to use bio salts from the dead lampreys' livers to lure the live ones to the main water plant to be electrocuted. They succeed in electrocuting all the lampreys at the water plant, though Will is lost to the swarm. As the town cleans up and Michael's family leaves, having seemingly solved the crisis, a lamprey attacks a member of the cleanup crew.

## Cast

* Jason Brooks as Michael Parker
* Shannen Doherty as Cate Parker
* Zack Ward as Will
* Christopher Lloyd as Mayor Bruce Akerman
* Ciara Hanna as Nicole Parker
* Koosha Yar as Kyle Parker
* Fred Stoller as Rich
* Rachel True as Marcy
* Jeremy Wade as Lamprey Expert
* Susie Abromeit as Ellen
* Jody Barton as Jim
* Nicholas Adam Clark as Alex
* Mark Christopher Lawrence as Ted Jargenson
* Mike Jerome Putnam as Officer Samuels
* Ase Justice as Homeless Guy

## Reception

### Ratings

*Blood Lake: Attack of the Killer Lampreys* drew in 1.2 million viewers, helping to rank Animal Planet at #6 among all ad-supported cable networks in the 9-11 PM timeslot among M25-54 (215K) and #7 among P25-54 (511K), excluding sports.

### Critical

Dread Central rated the film a score of 2.5 out of 5, stating that it "never quite reaches the giddy b-movie heights of similar slithery cult favorites *Slugs* and *Squirm*." *HorrorNews.Net* gave the film a positive review, writing, "It's cheesy, self-referencing, has no pretense at all, and it's just a stupid good time. If you go into it expecting a horror film, you will hate it. But if you come into it realizing it is farce, you will enjoy every minute of it."

The *New York Times* reviewed the film along with *Deep in the Darkness*, another horror film that premiered the night before on Chiller. The film was panned with considerable criticism doled out to the method of death given to Christopher Lloyd's character, with the reviewer calling it "revolting in ways that may haunt you long after this otherwise unmemorable film is over." Andre Mansau of Arrow in the Head awarded the film a rating of 4/10, criticizing the wooden acting, poor special effects, and erratic characters, although sentiments on Lloyd's character and death was different, saying "he's got the best death scene in the movie." The review also compared *Blood Lake* to other killer lake creature film series like *Lake Placid*, *Piranha*, and even The Asylum's own *Sharknado*, but claims it never rises to their level of entertainment.