Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Lake Placid Blu-ray Movie Review

This is the sort of croc you probably don't want near your feet.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 5, 2014

It’s been said that the reactions of fear and laughter are linked more closely than one might initially think, and there’s probably no better example than the tendency to want to giggle for a bit after a good scare. It’s a bit strange therefore that there haven’t been more outright horror comedies, at least films that aren’t parodies like the Scary Movie franchise. One reason may be the difficulty in maintaining a proper tone which delivers both laughs and chills in more or less equal measure, not to mention being able to deliver a cogent entertainment cobbled together out of seemingly disparate though perhaps psychologically linked elements. A salient example in this regard is the raucous 1999 film Lake Placid, an entry which offers some undeniably funny moments and at least a couple of decent scares along the way, but which feels a bit ragtag in its development and ultimately doesn’t quite hit the mark as either a comedy or a horror film. It’s an interesting hybrid, though, and one which offers a chance for the almost criminally underrated Brendan Gleeson and Oliver Platt to spar in two entertaining supporting roles. The film would arguably have been more effective had a bit more time been devoted to developing these characters, not to mention those played by the stars of the picture, Bill Pullman and Bridget Fonda. But Lake Placid is to be commended for cutting to the chase from almost the first moment, setting up the premise that a mammoth crocodile has somehow migrated to the chilly waters of an isolated body of water in Maine that has been ironically nicknamed Lake Placid. When a Forest Service worker is bisected while attempting to tag some beaver in the lake, a coterie of local investigators is sent to look into the mishap. A distant paleontologist is also called to the site to examine an almost primordial tooth found in the corpse, one which is initially assumed to be that of a bear, but which is soon identified as belonging to an impossibly large crocodile. The rest of the film is simply the interplay between this motley crew as they attempt to ferret out the crocodile, with an emphasis both on the simmering romance between the Pullman and Fonda characters as well as the comedic rivalry between the Gleeson and Platt characters.

In some ways, the opening sequence of Lake Placid is the most traditional thing in the picture. We meet Sheriff Hank Keough (Brendan Gleeson), who does not take kindly to what he perceives as the uppity sarcastic tone of most of the Fish and Game workers with whom he comes in contact, including the one currently in a boat with Keough, out to tag some beaver. In a scene that deftly plays on viewers’ memories of Jaws, the camera swoops up from below this tagger as he swims, and there’s even a playful riff that is more than a bit reminiscent of John Williams’ famous half step motive that propelled his score for the Spielberg picture. When Sheriff Keough finally becomes aware that the Fish and Game guy is in trouble, it’s too late, and though the sheriff heroically tries to help the guy, the results are one of the more spectacularly gory incidents in the film.

From there, Lake Placid repeatedly veers off into odd little tangents, something that gives the film its unique flavor but which may simultaneously annoy some horror purist sensibilities. One of these is the way in which a major character, paleontologist Kelly Scott (Bridget Fonda) is introduced. Instead of giving us a no nonsense look at her professional life, we’re instead subject to the tail end of what was evidently an unsuccessful affair with her boss (Adam Arkin in a cameo), one which has ended with the revelation that he’s taken up with her best friend (Mariska Hargitay in another cameo). Her boss wants her to go to Maine to inspect the tooth that has been found in the Fish and Game worker’s corpse, but Kelly feels it’s all a gambit just to get her out of the way so that this new relationship might blossom. The film jump cuts here in what is probably meant to be a funny moment setting Kelly on the way to Lake Placid, but which really feels like something salient was left on the cutting room floor.

Once the film segues to Maine, the rest of the crew is quickly assembled, as Kelly almost immediately meets (and begins bantering with) Fish and Game Warden Jack Wells (Bill Pullman). Once they get to the site of the mishap, the appearance of a helicopter signals the arrival of mythology expert and crocodile aficionado Hector Cyr (Oliver Platt), with whom Kelly has some sort of unexplained (and unfortunately unexplored) history. The film here veers off into to more traditional comedic territory, with running gags like Keough repeatedly becoming encumbered in various snares that Cyr sets around the camp to catch the crocodile should it come onto dry land to forage for a few “snacks”.

Oddly, there isn’t a lot of suspense for the rest of Lake Placid. There’s absolutely no dispute in the film that the culprit is a mammoth crocodile, and director Steve Miner (working from a script by David E. Kelley of all people) reveals at least some of the beast fairly early in the proceedings. Perhaps even more troublingly, at least for those who want a jolt of adrenaline now and again in their horror films, there’s really only two set pieces from here on out, one which involves Kelly getting temporarily stranded in the water, with her cohorts of course unable to get the motorboat cranked up to rescue her, and the other which serves as the film’s climax, when an attempt to capture (rather than kill) the crocodile plays out in a patently goofy sequence that has Cyr hoisting a cow above the water (with his helicopter) as “bait” for the crocodile.

While the horror element is somewhat hit or miss in Lake Placid, the genial humor aspect is at least relatively more consistent, with a fun supporting role for Betty White as the sole resident of the lakeside (and one with a few secrets up her doilied sleeve). The banter between Jack and Kelly is fairly rote but engaging, but there is some actual comedic energy in the interplay between Hector and Keough, and in fact it’s probably this relationship that provides most of the interest in the film, despite the obvious attempts to gin up some romantic chemistry between Pullman and Fonda.

Lake Placid never completely gels as a cohesive whole, but it’s a fun little picture that has a couple of decent scares and at least as many laugh out loud moments. What might be the most successful thing about the film is something that’s drenched in a bit of irony. Lake Placid ultimately serves as proof positive of how hard it is to craft a film that’s equal parts horror and comedy.

Lake Placid Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Lake Placid is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory (an imprint of Shout! Factory) with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.36:1. The bulk of this presentation is quite strong, with noticeable fine grain (especially evident in bright outdoor scenes where it's quite visible against the clear blue sky), an absence of noise, and a generally stable and clear image. When light filters through the murky green underwater footage, there are occasional very slight banding issues, but you have to concentrate to really see them. There are also some issues here with variable clarity and softness, however, including some expected downgrades in what looks like stock footage used for the establishing shots outside of Kelly's museum, and perhaps more problematically some of the wide range location shots which capture the beautiful environs of Lake Placid. Contrast is just slightly inconsistent, seeming somewhat pushed in the brightest outdoor scenes. Colors look accurate, if not especially vivid, though even that aspect enjoys an uptick in a couple of the more gruesome blood and guts moments.

Lake Placid Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Lake Placid's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix has a couple of significant improvements over the also included DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix, notably in the much more boisterous low end, something that amps up a couple of the shock sequences where sound effects and score are well distributed around the surround channels. This is still a fairly front-centric mix a lot of the time, though there is some good separation even here, with clearly delineated foley effects emanating directionally as the cast moves through the forest and, later, starts exploring the lake. Dialogue is very cleanly presented and dynamic range is quite wide courtesy of things like a roaring helicopter.

Lake Placid Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making of Lake Placid (1080p; 31:20) is a contemporary featurette offering interviews with several principal cast and crew members. There are some fun reminiscences here along with a good overview of how the film came to be.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:58)


• Featurette (1080p; 5:38) is a vintage piece that serves as an extended commercial for the film.


• TV Spots (1080p; 1:34)


• Croc Test Footage (1080i; 7:21) is a really fun piece showing how the magic by Stan Winston and his crew was achieved.


• Behind the Scenes Gallery (1080p; 5:31)

Lake Placid Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Lake Placid could have been an outright comedy horror masterpiece if just a little bit more time had been spent establishing and then developing the characters. As it stands, though, the film is a lot of fun almost all of the time. It's neither that scary nor that funny, but it does manage to tweak a few moments out of each genre with a fair degree of panache. While Pullman and Fonda are the putative stars here, it's Gleeson and Platt that really light up the screen, aided by a spectacularly foul mouthed Betty White. This Blu-ray offers generally great looking video and nice sounding audio, and in typical Scream Factory fashion, comes with some good supplements. Recommended.