Lake Placid (1999) | 31 Days of Horror: Oct 23

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Look below the surface.

Lake Placid is part monster film, part nature documentary, and part absurd character study. It delivers on all levels once audiences can get past its calm exterior, to what really lives below.

Before Viewing

The narrator of this trailer describes that this creature has existed since prehistoric times and has been worshiped by many cultures. What appears to be a giant alligator or a crocodile is living in a mountain lake where some scientists and a local sheriff must figure out some way to stop it. It capsizes canoes, bites divers in half, and even finds a way to down a helicopter. Just what the heck is living in Lake Placid?

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

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After Viewing

At Black Lake in Aroostook County, Maine, a diver tagging beaver is bitten in half by something very large. Sheriff Hank Keough (Brendan Gleeson) witnesses the attack and brings the remainder of the body back. In New York City, paleontologist Kelly Scott (Bridget Fonda) has her boyfriend, and boss Kevin (Adam Arkin), break up with her, just before he sends her to Maine to investigate a strange tooth recovered from the attack. Jack Wells (Bill Pullman), with the US Fish and Game Department, arrives at the lake and takes charge of the investigation–not believing that it might be a crocodile.

The remote lake only has one house on it, that of Delores Bickerman (Betty White), who the three go to talk to in case she has seen anything weird. In front of the sheriff, she admits she killed her husband two years ago and buried him out back. Other than that, she’s seen nothing weird. At their base camp, which Kelly is surprised about because she thought they’d be staying in a motel, a helicopter lands. Inside is kooky mythology professor, and crocodile aficionado Hector Cyr (Oliver Platt). He heard there may be a crocodile in the lake and came to investigate.

With him, Hector brings a lot of fancy equipment, as he’s also rich. The four go out on the lake in canoes to investigate. Hank and Kelly’s canoe gets flipped by the croc but without further incident. On the shore, they find a big toe, belonging to the beaver diver. Cyr parties hard that night to Hank’s displeasure, especially since Hector is paying his deputies to dig traps along the shore. After working with Jack for a couple of days, Kelly decides she does want to stay and help. Hank almost shoots Hector the next night, thinking that he is a crocodile moving through the shrubs.

The next day Hector and Jack go diving while playing baby crocodile sounds through a speaker into the water to attract the adult. The croc drags the boat anchor knocking Kelly into the water again. She is retrieved, but Deputy Burke (Jed Rees) gets his head bitten clean off as he leans over the boat to pull in the speaker. Later at the shore a grizzly bear charges Jack, scratching him. Luckily the giant crocodile is nearby and eats the bear easily. Hector continues to piss off the sheriff who finally punches him in the face. Kelly stitches up Jack’s wound, warming up to him.

Hector takes Deputy Sharon Gare (Meredith Salenger) out in his helicopter to look for the croc (and maybe get lucky). Hank, Kelly, and Jack observe Delores leading a blindfolded cow down to the beach by her house, where the crocodile comes ashore and eats it. She admits she’s been lying to them and has been doing this for six years now. Her husband was accidentally eaten by the beast. The croc approaches Hector in the water and he narrowly misses becoming a snack. As they fly away the creature grabs onto the pontoon of the helicopter damaging it. Hector pleads with Jack and Hank that they can’t kill the creature. It’s a miracle that it’s even here in Maine.

They all come up with a plan to tranquilize and capture the beast. That evening, using another cow as bait, the crocodile arrives and the helicopter suffers a malfunction plunging into the water. Deputies shoot tranq darts at the beast as it lashes out at the helicopter. Hector escapes and the croc gets caught in the cabin of the helicopter, finally succumbing to the sleeping agent. A second, smaller crocodile lunges at Hector, and Hank shoots it dead. The next morning Kelly decides to stay in town with Jack as the crocodile is strapped to a trailer and transported to Portland to be contained. Delores sits on a pier and feeds bread to several tiny crocodiles swimming in the lake.

“It’s really his lake now.” – Delores Bickerman

 

Lake Placid is the next film in a week of big animal horror that started over the weekend with the sci-fi-infused Mimic, and has now seen alligators, ants, and spiders. It’s a film that doesn’t immediately jump out as either a horror film or one about a big animal–which is usually named for the species of animal: Piranha, Grizzly, Sharknado! Instead, Lake Placid asks audiences to look below the surface both literally and metaphorically for what lies beneath. Without watching the trailer, a casual viewer may be unaware that a film titled Lake Placid is a horror film. Even if they knew that it was about a killer croc, it may draw comparisons to the site of the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York–which is far from the truth. It’s set in Maine, far from the hustle and bustle of the Empire State. But why make a film that is so obtuse about its pedigree? Let’s look deeper.

The film is directed by Steve Miner, who by 1999 was a known name for his horror films. He got his start as a production assistant on Wes Craven’s debut The Last House on the Left, and was an associate producer and assistant director on the original Friday the 13th, before directing Friday the 13th Part 2, Friday the 13th Part III, House, and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. Horror aficionados might see his credit on the posters or promotional materials and realize what type of film this really was. To be fair the poster did help reveal a little about the film with the tagline, “You’ll never know what bit you.” But Lake Placid wasn’t just some Jaws ripoff directed by a long-in-the-tooth genre director. Did you see the writing credit on this film? It’s David E. Kelley! Yes, the same David E. Kelly who, by this time, had created Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, The Practice, and Ally McBeal. It was not some cheeseball script that got passed around Hollywood. It was a script written by one of the hottest young creators at the time. It is also a big clue that there’s more going on with this film than viewers and critics may expect.

On the surface, Lake Placid is one of many in a long line of films about giant creatures feeding on humans. The killings begin, experts are brought in to investigate, and quickly realize that they are over their heads. From there more people die and the heroes have to decide how to kill the monster. This is the film that most critics (and audiences) see; one that retreads the same roads as previous films, like Alligator, but doesn’t provide either the same excitement or campiness. But for those that dive deeper, the film is a treasure trove of excellent elements. It’s a film that is smartly written and acted. Bridget Fonda’s Kelly is an acerbic and entitled city girl who, for all her paleontological knowledge, knows nothing about the great outdoors. She is completely out of her element. She mentions that she used to summer at her grandparent’s lake when she was young, but has apparently become so acclimatized to the city and her job that she has forgotten how great it is to be in nature. Her whining about the little things, such as having a decent bathroom or hating mosquitos, is so trite and on point that audiences may dismiss it as a trope for the genre. Which it is. But it’s also navigated with just enough tongue-in-cheek that it’s hilarious. The same goes for Brendan Gleeson’s Hank and Oliver Platt’s Cyr. Gleeson navigates an American accent deftly as a small-town sheriff who is already done with the sarcasm of outsiders by the time the film starts–and then three more sarcastic outsiders join him for the adventure. He plays off Platt’s character, who is a brilliant foil. Cyr appears to be on the autism spectrum–at least as played by Platt–saying everything that comes to mind, like how fat the sheriff is. But these two develop a trust and amiability as the film continues. Their story is more compelling than the de facto burgeoning romance between Kelly and Jack.

But the highlight, for viewers that “get” the overall tone of the film as well as the casual observer, is Betty White. In the long line of projects she worked on this was her only horror film, which is a tragedy. Her take on the no-nonsense and foul-mouthed Mrs. Bickerman is probably the most memorable character of the film. She’s not some doddering old woman who cowers at the idea there is a monster in the lake. In fact, she doesn’t see the crocodile as a monster. To her, it’s a pet that she and her husband (God rest his soul) took care of for the last six years. She feeds it the occasional cow, which seems to keep it complacent until a scientist comes into its habitat and it gets a taste for people. Lake Placid reveals itself as a film about how things can look calm on the surface, but no one knows what is going on underneath. The lake in the film is called Black Lake, which Hank tells the others was once considered to be called Lake Placid (due to its calm and still waters), “but somebody said that name was taken,” as if that ever stopped anyone. Delores Bickerman is an example of one of the characters that also has more going on under the surface. Introduced as a sweet old lady, she soon admits to killing her husband and burying him, shocking the collected group. But that’s a lie, as she knew about the crocodile and wanted to avoid it being killed. Kelly appears to the locals as a prissy city girl who can’t handle the woods, but she’s processing her own trauma of dating her boss and then getting dumped for another, prettier co-worker. Hector, as the audience learns, is not just an eccentric millionaire (which according to Hank is what you call a mental person if they’re rich enough) with a penchant for crocodiles. But he’s a sad man whose money has isolated him from “normal people,” so he seeks his kicks by staring into the eyes of crocodiles, to be judged by them as the ancients did.

The biggest alteration from the standard horror formula is the characters realizing that the crocodile is just being a crocodile. It’s not rabid, or mutated, or somehow alien. It’s just a large animal trying to survive in its natural habitat when humans invade and disturb it. It actually saves the characters from a grizzly bear attack–which is a pretty cool scene! The pity for the animal starts with Delores, and works its way through Hector, Kelly, Hank (surprisingly), and finally Jack–who appears like he will shoot to kill, but picks up another tranquilizer gun instead. Of course, this sets up possibilities for sequels, with the original live crocodile being transported elsewhere and the lake teaming with babies. And that’s just what happens. Between 2007 and 2018 five sequels were produced (direct to TV on the SciFi/Syfy channel) which expanded the campiness and absurdity of the film, including the fifth film/fourth sequel, Lake Placid vs Anaconda, which was a crossover with the Anaconda film series.

Though the film focuses a lot on its characters, as it should, there are still plenty of great jump scares and tension with the crocodile. Adopting a Jaws-like attitude, much of the creature’s appearances are relegated to musical cues and underwater POV shots. But unlike that little shark film, Lake Placid had a working 32-foot animatronic crocodile created by Stan Winston Studios (Aliens, Predator, Jurassic Park)–which is seen on the back of the semi at the film’s end. A CGI beast was also used for some scenes. And what cool scenes they were. Who was not both shocked and excited when the croc leapt past the boat taking the Deputy’s head clean off? Or its crazy wrestling match with the helicopter? This beast was definitely something to contend with. This is what people came for and it does not disappoint. I can’t speak to the sequels (which, let’s face it, are probably garbage), but Lake Placid is a surprising film that is less of a low-budget monster flick, giving more than expected. It sets a high bar for similar films to come. Stay tuned for two more giant animal horror films this week on 31 Days of Horror.

Assorted Musings

• Hector finds the toe of the diver killed in the opening moments. The film then amazingly references a similar scene from Alligator, where the coroner relates the story of finding only a man’s toe. They buried that toe. The hero of Alligator remarks it must have been a very small casket. Here, Hank says that the man looked taller. What a great moment, especially when viewed nearly back to back.
• The characters can’t believe that a crocodile, let alone a 30-foot one, could live in a lake in Maine. Hector hypothesizes that it may be 150 years old, and was able to swim to Maine from another continent, being able to tolerate saltwater conditions unlike alligators. There were, of course, two crocodiles in the lake which makes the idea slightly more ludicrous. But that’s not why people pay money to come see the film.
• Hector’s last name, Cyr, is an anagram of the word “cry,” referring to the phase of crying crocodile tears or giving false emotion.