Lake Placid

Hello and welcome to a new installment of Eccentric Spheres!

Buckle up as we take a journey to a lovely place called Lake Placid. Well, to the movies called Lake Placid to be more precise. There is a real Lake Placid in New York state, but that's not why we're here.

The movies are all about impossibly large crocodiles that eat people in a lake in Maine. Then the heroes show up and stop them. That's it really. Not exactly rocket science...

The first film came out in 1999, but we won't be talking about that, cause it's been ten years since I saw it, and I didn't fancy watching it again. It started the whole thing, but it's the sequels we want, because my wife and I just binge watched them all.

There are four sequels so far, Lake Placid 2 (2007), Lake Placid 3 (2010), Lake Placid: The Final Chapter (2012) and Lake Placid vs Anaconda (2015).

Now to be fair, they're not totally awful. They know what they are about and they know what you want. They rely heavily on lousy CGI because crocodiles are dangerous and good CGI is expensive. The first two sequels were made on estimated budgets of 2 - 2.5 million dollars, so not a lot to go around. I don't know what the other two went for, but judging by the outcome, I'd say they are in the same ballpark. Apart from the CGI there are actually some (not many) decent actors here,so that's nice.

What I found interesting, is that although they sit squarely in the monster category of films, the crocs behave more like slashers. They always eat the “worst” people first. In a sense one could say the crocodiles have very traditional conservative morals. Poachers, Litterbugs, Peeping Toms, Insensitive Jackasses and Pretty Girls Who Take Their Tops Off are all on the menu very quickly. Sure, some “innocent” people are gulped up as well, but at a much more reduced rate.

The only recurring character is introduced in Lake Placid 3, the tough as nails, no nonsense poacher, Reba. In The Last Chapter, she works for Fish & Wildlife, and in vs Anaconda, she's the sheriff. She was a fun character, and really made the movies better. But sadly the character was badly written in vs Anaconda. All her glorious snark was missing. A tragedy if you ask me.

For being movies that all hover just above the three star line on IMDB, they are surprisingly watchable. Just make some popcorn, crack open a cold drink, sit back and enjoy. If you don't want to sit through all of them, watch Lake Placid 2 and Lake Placid: The Final chapter. They are the best ones overall in my opinion. Lake Placid 3 is okay but vs Anaconda is pretty awful.

There you have it, six hours of entertainment, if you can stomach it, so until we meet again, have a great week, and stay away from crocodiles!