Top Five Lake Monster Movies
Top Five Lake Monster Movies
Lake monsters, they are one of the definitive cryptids, second only to the hairy hominids such as Sasquatch and the Yeti. The idea of a large lake or loch harboring some large as yet unclassified animal is very exciting. Today we will explore my personal top five favorite films involving lake monsters.
5. The Loch Ness Horror.
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Image: Ruins of Loch Ness Castle. Source: Shadowgate from Novara, ITALY, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.
This list starts off with a movie about none other than the most legendary lake monster of them all, the infamous Loch Ness Monster! Independently made in 1981, The Loch Ness Horror is probably best categorized as a "so bad it's good" movie, which is a genre I adore. It is surprising there aren't more Loch Ness Monster movies, but out of the ones that exist this one is my favorite.
An example of the ridiculous dialogue:
Kathleen: Is it true Mr. Dean that Americans go to the picture house more than once a month? And spend a lot of time looking at magazines of naked women?
Spencer: [nonchalantly] Yes!
The creature in this film is amphibious and comes on dry land to attack and kill people. She has a body count comparable to Jason Voorhees. The film is clearly trying to imitate Jaws and while it fails at that it succeeds immensely at being fun and hilarious. I'm surprised MST3K never riffed on this film, it would have made glorious material!
4. Varan the Unbelievable
Image: Varan looking over mountains. Source: Toho, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Next up is Varan the Unbelievable or simply Varan since I am talking about the original 1958 Japanese version as opposed to the 1962 Americanized version. Varan is a "daikaiju eiga" or Japanese giant monster film. It was created by the same team that made Gojira, better known as Godzilla King of the Monsters here in America, four years prior for the studio Toho. While it isn't anywhere near as good, it is still a wonderful, fun little film that I believe is highly underrated.
What I like about Varan is that it takes place on a smaller scale than most giant monster movies. In a remote Japanese village where people live like they did hundreds of years ago in little huts with no running water. There is a legend of a lake monster, the village god "Baradagi-Sanjin" which is revealed to be a fictional dinosaur of the "Varanopode" family similar to Ray Harryhausen's Rhedosaurus or the Paleosaurus from Willis O' Brien's The Giant Behemoth a.k.a. Behemoth, the Sea Monster. Although Varan later comes to the city, most of the film, and definitely the best of the film, takes place in this small village, giving Varan the feeling of being a lake monster or cryptid rather than an unstoppable force like Godzilla.
The exquisite soundtrack from Akira Ifukube really sets the tone for this film, making it seem more ominous and mysterious. Also, the design for Varan is really awesome, he's one of the coolest looking kaiju, it's truly a shame he didn't appear in more movies. There were plans to include him in multiple Godzilla entries including a Godzilla vs. Varan in the 90's, but they all fell through and the monster's only other film appearance is a brief cameo in 1968's Destroy All Monsters. Perhaps the Monstervese series will eventually bring him back? If you want a good movie about a lake monster, Varan the Unbelievable is a decent place to start.
3. Legends & Lore of Dinosaurs & Monster Birds.
Perhaps this would also make a good book title someday. Legends of Dinosaurs & Monster Birds, or as it is known in Japan, Legend of Dinosaurs and Ominous Birds, is a 1977 daikaiju eiga. It features two dinosaurs, a plesiosaur and a rhamphorhynchus, which is a flying pterosaur. And before the paleontologists reading this correct me, yes I know! Neither the plesiosaurs or pterosaurs were actually dinosaurs! The film was produced by Toei studio, most famous for the hit anime Dragon Ball Z, but who also produced the daikaiju eiga The Magic Serpent (1966).
I fondly remember renting this film on vhs in the 90's from my local Blockbuster store (long before redbox or netflix). Back then it was titled simply Legend of Dinosaurs. My very first viewing of the film was disappointing. The title lead me to believe that it would be very dinosaur heavy like The Lost World or The Land That Time Forgot. But there were only two of them and they weren't on screen very much. But it was through subsequent viewing that the film slowly began to grow on me.
The first aspect that really makes it stand out is the fabulous jazzy soundtrack. It is a musical masterpiece that I love to listen to and it really sets the mood. Which brings me to the next thing I like about it. It just has a unique look and feel to it. By the late 70's they weren't producing many kaiju films, Godzilla and Gamera were both out of production. Dinosaur films were also slowing down greatly although there were still gems such as Planet of the Dinosaurs which came out the same year. It sort of reminds me of Godzilla vs. Hedorah a.k.a the "Smog Monster". It's psychedelic, and very 70's-ish. There is even a scene that parodies Jaws!
Bottom line, Legends of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds is a fun film and one of my favorite lake monster movies. I especially recommend it to fans of kaiju (Japanese monsters) and anyone that likes stuff made in the 1970's.
2. The Creature from the Black Lagoon
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1. The Crater Lake Monster
Nessie isn't the only cryptid in town. There's the lake monster Champ of lake Champlain, Lake Erie's Bessie, and lake Okanagan's Ogopogo in British Columbia, Canada. Then there's The Crater Lake Monster. People mistakenly believe that this film takes place in Oregon's Crater Lake but actually it's set in Northern California. This film was also released in 1977, I guess that was a pretty good year for dinosaur movies. Maybe because of everyone trying to cash in on both Jaws and the controversial King Kong remake.
Similar to The Loch Ness Horror, The Crater Lake Monster, is a much more well-made movie, featuring excellent stop-motion animation from David Allen. If you liked the former you will surely enjoy the latter.
It has an eerie score and the monster has a haunting roar (which would be reused in the stop-motion short 64,000,0000 years ago). There are some nice point-of-view shots of the plesiosaur, though they are a bit short for the monster. But the highlight of the film are its characters, especially the redneck duo of Mitch and Arnie played by Mark Siegel and Glenn Roberts respectively. They're hilarious and very likable. Sort of remind me of some people I know actually.
The film does have some bizarre, out of nowhere left-turns though, such as the murder scene in the convenience store. But it is fun and exciting all the way through, there's never a dull or boring moment! Overall, The Crater Lake Monster, is the definitive lake monster movie. Which is perfectly fitting because after all, it's the only one with "lake monster" in its name!
Speaking of plesiosaurs, in chapter 5 my book Legends & Lore of Sea Monsters I discuss the theory that sightings of "sea serpents" could possibly be living dinosaurs along with the strange case of the coelacanth fish, thought extinct for millions of years but discovered alive and well in the 1930's.
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