Lake Placid
USA 1999
Reviewed by Jamie Graham
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Black Lake (nicknamed by the locals "Lake Placid"), northern Maine, the present. A Department of Fish and Game diver is killed while trawling the depths of the lake. Sheriff Hank Keough sees him killed from a boat. In New York, palaeontologist Kelly Scott is sent on her first field assignment to the lake to investigate. She establishes that a tooth pulled from the diver's torso belonged to a crocodile, and joins Keough and game warden Jack Wells in their quest to capture the reptile.
They are joined by Hector Cyr, a mythology professor who has swum with every type of crocodile. The four of them come across Delores Bickerman, an old woman who sacrifices cows to the crocodile. Catching woman and crocodile mid-meal, Cyr dives into the lake to swim with the 30-foot beast. A helicopter is brought in to lift him to safety but is attacked by the crocodile, a diversion which allows Cyr to escape. A hovering helicopter then lowers a cow into the water as bait. The crocodile strikes, the helicopter crashes and the reptile gets trapped in the wreckage, allowing its hunters to drug it. A second giant crocodile appears, but is blown up immediately. The Florida Fish-and-Game team arrive to take care of the drugged crocodile, and the four battered hunters depart. But back at the lake, Delores is feeding a batch of baby crocodiles...
Review
Just as the serene waters of Lake Placid belie the presence of the marauding crocodile lurking within its depths, Steve Miner's wonderfully trashy, frequently hilarious movie is not all it seems at first. Initially, Miner is delighted to nurture notions that Lake Placid is going to be just another po-faced Jaws rip-off. Opening with a helicopter shot that scuds high above the water's surface, the film quickly establishes an ominous tone as the camera swoops into the lake's murky depths. Even the most cine-illiterate viewer couldn't fail to spot the parallels with Steven Spielberg's film: the creature's-eye viewpoint, the kicking diver high above, the rapidly diminishing distance between the two.
Rather than thrash around in stagnant waters, though, Lake Placid quickly veers into unexpected territory. The first hint comes with the death of a Fish-and-Game Department diver, whose body is hauled from the churning lake, sans legs, by Brendan Gleeson's horrified sheriff. Coming as the bloody climax to the aforementioned mechanical predator-in-the-depths build-up, it's unclear whether we should laugh or gag, but there's a clue in the half-body reference to Alligator (scripted by John Sayles), which was also healthily aware of its own preposterousness. (Miner already has a track record in self-aware horror cinema, having directed Friday the 13th Part 2 with its strong echoes of Mario Bava's Bay of Blood, 1971, and Halloween H20 with its Scream-style self-referentiality.)
In place of Sayles' typically wry tone, however, Lake Placid's screenwriter David E. Kelley (creator of Ally McBeal) goes for broad humour, stuffing his characters' mouths full of scathing sarcasm. Much of the comedy bleeds out of the head-on collision of dropping New York palaeontologist Bridget Fonda amid a landscape and people for whom her only reference point is Deliverance. Consequently, she spends much of the film's refreshingly brief duration dishing out condescending one-liners. (Although Oliver Platt's mythology professor is given the best line: "The sooner we catch this thing, Sheriff, the sooner you can get back to sleeping with your sister.") Indeed, the withering put-downs are the film's main attraction, coming with more force and snap than any of the colossal reptile's sudden attacks.
Of course, such low humour delivered with staggering frequency will not be to everyone's taste, but then neither will a movie about a 30-foot Asian crocodile hiding out in northern Maine. Genre buffs, on the other hand, will be delighted by this spirited 'B' movie which recaptures the winning horror-comedy formula Sayles made his own in the late 70s (he also penned Piranha). Admittedly, the third act is weakened by the crocodile's long-awaited revelation, proving to be just another jerky creation ill-rendered by CGI, but Lake Placid is nonetheless a triumph compared to such recent, lazy additions to the genre as Anaconda, Deep Rising and Deep Blue Sea.
Credits
- Director
- Steve Miner
- Screenplay
- David E. Kelley
- Director of Photography
- Daryn Okada
- Editors
- Marshall Harvey
- Paul Hirsch
- Production Designer
- John Willett
- Music/Score Producer
- John Ottman
- ©Phoenix Pictures Inc.
- Production Companies
- Fox 2000 Pictures presents from Phoenix Pictures a Rocking Chair production
- Executive Producer
- Peter Bogart
- Producers
- David E. Kelley
- Michael Pressman
- Production Co-ordinator
- Linda Sheehy-Brownstein
- Unit Production Managers
- Peter Bogart
- George Chapman
- Location Manager
- Monty Bannister
- Post-production Supervisor
- Bill Brown
- Assistant Directors
- Mark Cotone
- Paul Barry
- Paul Garrison
- Patrick Weir
- Script Supervisor
- Jessica Clothier
- Casting
- Lisa Beach
- Additional:
- Michelle Allen
- US Associate:
- Sarah Katzman
- Underwater Cinematographers
- Pauline R. Heaton
- Mike Thomas
- Camera Operators
- John Clothier
- Douglas Field
- Steadicam Operator
- John Clothier
- Special Visual Effects/Digital Animation
- Digital Domain
- Visual Effects Supervisor:
- Andri Bustanoby
- Visual Effects Producer:
- Eileen Moran
- CG Supervisor:
- Keiji Yamaguchi
- Digital Compositing Supervisor:
- Claas Henke
- Colour/Lighting Supervisor:
- Rob Letterman
- Visual Effects Co-ordinator:
- Lauren Littleton
- Digital Animation Artists:
- Keith W. Smith
- Anders J.L. Beer
- Gaku Tada
- David Earl Smith
- Andrew Hall
- Martin Costello
- Michael J. Frick
- Digital Effects Artists:
- Toshiaki Shiozawa
- Franklin Londin
- Gonzalo Garramuno
- Digital Compositor:
- Katie Nook
- Crocodile Supervisor:
- Giancarlo Lari
- Character Set-up:
- Melanie Okamura
- Digital Paint Artists:
- Paolo J. de Guzman
- Martha Snow Mack
- Software Manager:
- Daryll Strauss
- Software Engineers:
- Darin K. Grant
- Marcus Q. Mitchell
- Joseph M. Lohmar
- Visual Effects Editor:
- Debra Wolff
- Colour Grading Supervisor:
- Jeff Kalmus
- Scan/Record:
- Christopher Holsey
- Chad Collier
- Jonathan Egstad
- Film Imaging Supervisor:
- Michael D. Kanfer
- Visual Effects Production Executive:
- Nancy Bernstein
- Additional Digital Effects
- Digiscope
- Executive Producer:
- Mary Stuart Welch
- Digital Effects Supervisor:
- Dion Hatch
- Digital Effects Producer:
- Laurel Lyn Schulman
- Digital Artists:
- Brennan Prevatt
- Lawrence Carroll
- Digital Imaging:
- Paul Howarth
- Derek Osaki
- Additional Visual Effects
- Visual Concepts Engineering
- Visual Effects Producer:
- Peter Kuran
- Administration:
- Jacqueline Zietlow
- Production Manager:
- Marilyn Nave
- Digital Supervisor:
- Brian Griffin
- Digital Compositors:
- Kurt Wiley
- Sean Mullen
- Editorial:
- Jo Martin
- Special Effects Co-ordinator
- Dean Lockwood
- Creature Effects
- Stan Winston
- Animatronic Crocodile Effects Created by
- Stan Winston Studio
- Effects Supervisors:
- Nick Marra
- Tim Nordella
- Effects Co-ordinator:
- Richard Landon
- Animatronic Designs:
- Bob Mano
- Jeff Edwards
- Paul Romer
- Hydraulic Engineer:
- Lloyd Ball
- Electronic Design:
- Bruce Stark
- Mechanical Department:
- Brian Namanny
- Blake Stach
- Alexander Machold
- Connie Cadwell
- Electronic Department:
- Kurt Herbel
- Glenn Derry
- Emery Brown
- Roderick Khachatoorian
- Art Department:
- Rob Ramsdell
- Michael Ornelaz
- Eric Ostroff
- Rob Phillips
- Mark Jurinko
- Trevor Hensley
- Fabrication Department:
- Judy Bowerman
- Beth Hathaway
- Karen Mason
- Mold/Technical Department Supervisor:
- Tony McCray
- Production Co-ordinator:
- Stiles White
- Puppeteers
- Lloyd Ball
- Rachel Griffin
- Richard Landon
- Robin Lindala
- Toby Lindala
- Robert Mano
- Nicholas Marra
- Ken Moersch
- Ryan Nicholson
- Timothy Nordella
- Bruce Stark
- Vincent Akira Yoshida
- Associate Editor
- David F. Reale
- Art Director
- William Heslup
- Set Decorator
- Tedd Kuchera
- Scenic Artists
- Mario Tomas-Niedworok
- Beatrix Schalk
- Ricardo Spinacé
- Erika Toliusis
- Sculptor
- Roderick Thomas Quin
- Costume Designer
- Jori Woodman
- Key Make-up Artist
- Dana-Michelle Hamel
- Special Make-up Effects
- Lindala Makeup Effects Inc
- Make-up Effects Artist
- Toby Lindala
- Key Hair Stylist
- Roy Sidick
- Opticals/Titles
- Pacific Title/Mirage
- Music Conductor
- Damon Intrabartolo
- Orchestrations
- John Ottman
- Damon Intrabartolo
- Music Editor
- Amanda Goodpaster
- Recorder/Mixer
- Tim Boyle
- Soundtrack
- "I Think I Love You" by Tony Romeo, performed by Maureen Davis, Jamie Dunlap, Scott Nickoley, David Pincus, Mark Pont; "It's Not Unusual" by Gordon Mills, Les Reed, performed by Tom Jones; "Is This Love" by Bob Marley, performed by Bob Marley & The Wailers
- Sound Design
- Steve Boeddeker
- Sound Mixer
- Larry Sutton
- Re-recording Mixers
- Gary Summers
- Gary A. Rizzo
- Re-recordist
- Mark Pendergraft
- Mix Technician
- Juan Peralta
- Digital Transfer Supervisor
- Jonathan Greber
- Digital Transfers
- Christopher Barron
- Joan Malloch
- Supervising Sound Editor
- Frank Eulner
- Dialogue Editors
- Claire Sanfilippo
- Jonathan Null
- ADR
- Editor:
- Marilyn McCoppen
- Foley
- Artists:
- Dennie Thorpe
- Jana Vance
- Recordist:
- Frank 'Pepe' Merel
- Mixer:
- Tony Eckert
- Editor:
- Sue Fox
- Boat Co-ordinator
- Dan Crosby
- On-set Wranglers
- Jason Crosby
- Gary Mulligan
- Cam Rolph
- Tom Stenner
- Ken West
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Jacob Rupp
- Animals Provided by
- Action Animals
- Animal Trainer
- Gerry Therrien
- Aerial Co-ordinator/
Helicopter Pilot - Steve Wright
- Cast
- Bill Pullman
- Jack Wells
- Oliver Platt
- Hector Cyr
- Bridget Fonda
- Kelly Scott
- Brendan Gleeson
- Sheriff Hank Keough
- Betty White
- Mrs Delores Bickerman
- David Lewis
- Walt Lawson
- Tim Dixon
- Stephen Daniels
- Natassia Malthe
- Janine
- Mariska Hargitay
- Myra Okubo
- Meredith Salenger
- Deputy Sharon Gare
- Jed Rees
- Deputy Burke
- Richard Leacock
- Deputy Stevens
- Jake T. Roberts
- Officer Coulson
- Warren Takeuchi
- paramedic
- Ty Olsson
- state trooper
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- 20th Century Fox (UK)
- 7,379 feet
- 82 minutes
- Dolby digital/Digital DTS sound/SDDS
- Colour by
- Technicolor
- Prints by
- DeLuxe
- Anamorphic [Panavision]