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(Pleatherface) LAKE PLACID Is a Perfectly Funny, Not-Quite-Scary Horror Jaunt

By. Pleatherface 

LAKE PLACID is not a great horror movie. I would even hesitate to say it’s a ‘good’ horror movie. But what I will defend is that it is often funny accidentally, and sometimes on purpose. I’ve been a huge fan of comedy for a long, long time. I had originally intended to pursue a doctoral project focused on Irish literature and humor, which would evolve into a focus on consumer behavior and colonialism. Which is a bit of a long way of saying that this is the type of horror movie made for my specific taste in film. It is part of Tubi’s lineup of horror, one that may be familiar to those who have read along on my journey as a newbie to the genre. I don’t want this to become a ‘recommendation’ for using that streaming site for its curated content, but rather a larger conversation on how we tend to consume film through services such as that one. I think LAKE PLACID is a perfect example to start the conversation, as it is a perfectly fine ‘cult-type’ but not cult-movie that has a decent sized fanbase but that may not be on most people’s radar when thinking of the horror genre (or comedy for that matter! Probably super high on the Betty White fan-community though!). I would like to ask readers to think about how they make decisions on what they watch. Do they just explore there ‘For You’-equivalent feeds on their movie/tv/music/etc. streaming sites? Or do they depend on communities, virtual or physical, for recommendations on consumable-worthy material? This is what I mean when I go into deep thoughts about how is it we consume products and what that says both about who we are and what are our beliefs or our cultural-social baggage that informs that us.

So, before diving more into that meaty subject: What about Lake Placid? Lake Placid came out in 1999; it was written by famed TV writer David E. Kelley (Doogie Houser MD, Ally McBeal, Boston Legal, etc.) and directed by Steve Miner (Friday the 13^th Part 2 and Part 3, Soul Man, Day of the Dead 2008 remake, etc.) with a cast that included Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda, Brendan Gleeson, Betty White, Oliver Platt, and cameos by the likes of Mariska Hargitay – pre-Law and Order fame. Despite such a well-known cast, surprisingly the movie was deemed to fare poorly in the box office but did decidedly worse  with critics. From my view of the movie, I must agree with criticism of its tone and identity (was it a comedy or horror?) were not in-sync and this decidedly affected the final product. It is not scary at all, though it does have some solid set pieces where the crocodile takes center stage; but as a natural predator, despite being in some ways scarier than a shark, entirely work. I can see a version where the animal’s natural movement and behavior imitate the likes of Jason Vorhees or Michael Myers, but the film does not make the most of its murder machine protagonist. For example, there is a fantastic scene where the human cast is surprised by a bear attack. As the bear threatens them steps away from the water, the crocodile springs into attack mode and basically gulps a full-grown bear down in one swift move. This is an amazing scene, but there is no anticipation to set up a payoff. One of the most powerful things Spielberg did with Jaws was use music and pace to set up the limited shark screen time. This film did not have to contend with the limitations of that classic, it’s CGI and practical model used for the crocodile are surprisingly good for today and must have been excellent at the time of release. So, a bad villain can at least be saved by well-scripted humans.

If LAKE PLACID shows what happens when a killer creature arrives without enough anticipation, Pleatherface's look back at JAWS explores how Spielberg turned limited shark screen time, isolation, and a few increasingly ominous notes into one of horror's most enduring threats.

While the talented cast do their best to put some sort of life behind the words, every single interaction seems like it is not meant to be connected to each other. And that also takes into consideration that the only likeable character is an older lady who may be right in thinking she is the smartest person in the room at any given time. Bill Pullman’s je’ ne se quoi is not enough to overcome the smarminess of his character. Bridget Fonda gets an ungrateful role that does not ask her to do anything, and even then makes her appear completely incompetent at what she should be an expert by bringing in an oddball in Oliver Platt to be the science guy, but also be the weirdo that thinks the killer is awesome. Then you have Brendan Gleeson who might have been told there would be a lot less comedy going on in this film, but whose committed performance is nevertheless funny in how off he is in comparison to the rest (his one-liners are funny not because of the words but because he seems so earnest in delivering them). And then there’s Betty. Mrs. White was an accomplished comedic performer who brings her unique matter-of-fact-ness humor to what could have been a very odd character – but not in the good way it ended up!  Her sarcasm punctuates true smarts, that which the other characters just, as effectively as she hits the mark, fail to capture and leave the audience wondering who would listen to these supposedly smart people. You could say that she, unlike Gleeson, goes for a similarly earnest performance; but, unlike him, she knows how she is meant to be funny. This is not to be taken as diminishing the work of the cast or director (the film is beautifully shot, often taking advantage of the beautiful New England landscape), because most of the fault of it all lies within the script itself.

To summarize the plot, crocodile appears in Maine lake, and the typical jurisdiction battle begins between local sherif and state wildlife officer. City-nerd-scientist comes to confirm what the locals know. Weird guy shows up fascinated by the killer/animal. Bit of a curve with an excentric older gal being some form of support for this creature. Jump scares here and there do little to set a tone of horror or drown the smart-assed-ness of other characters. A trap is set for creature, they catch it, spoiler there were two (never even get an inkling of hint this may be the case). Film ends with a contrived call back to an attempt at chemistry between two leads (unfortunately not Gleeson and Platt). As I stated, it is a fun enough jaunt that does not feel like entirely wasted time.

What this little detour on my trek through the horror genre got me thinking about was why. Why did I even push play on it? I think the cast was a reason, I probably remember hearing about it as a teen in the late 90’s and it was under the horror and comedy tags, so it pointed to an intersection of my own interests. It made me think of whose choice to mark this down as both a horror and comedy film, how that decision was mad so someone like me would probably end up watching this. That is a very lofty goal and way above what I can accomplish here. Nevertheless, there is a seed there for me to tackle here. The way in which we chose objects of consumption is not based on magical formulas or complicated algorithms. It is rather simple, and most of the time it comes down to things like visibility and opportunity.

On the first of those two, visibility, it comes down to the same reason by which we pick our morning cereal as kids or as adults. We often pick things we see that are in our vicinity or in our line of sight. This is why supermarket positioning is important for brands; sometimes we don’t pick the most colorful, just the one right in front of our eyes. What streaming services do is via the wealth of data available to them that we voluntarily share, they can curate a list of mathematically likely products we may consume. But here comes this articles plot twist; while I did subscribe to Tubi to be able to keep track of where I am when I need to pause a film, for this viewing of Lake Placid I used a different device to begin watching and therefore theoretically was outside of my own “polluted” algorithm. I realized as I tried to watch it later in my regular device, I had to really look deeper into the list of recommendations for something I had seen in the first 10 results. Would I have watched this film if I had stuck to my regular device? Probably eventually as I moved further down the section.

The second is opportunity. With the rising cost of streaming services, one often overlooked element is the rising cost of content. With the deluge of AI-generated ‘slop’ that is being produced and meant to be consumed with no discernable critical thinking, there is greater need for un-polluted content no matter the quality. I can see a nearby future where media vintage could become a marker of quality, not to different from the way in which it is used to indicate another way to identify a fine wine. Major streaming services can use their deep pockets to create that AI content and can also flex those financial muscles to purchase the better ‘bottles’ of those old media vintages. Services like Tubi are left to lean heavily on adds to support their model which leaves them with less purchase power. Therefore they tend to look for those pieces of coal or rough diamonds, media products that are just outside that cult-classic sphere, critically-acclaimed space, or commercial success fare. The LAKE PLACIDs of the world. Here is where those films can find themselves that opportunity element. Free services do include a few gems for sure, as I mentioned many of these classic horror films I’ve watched on free streaming. Quite a few of them are also of independent studios or purchased by private equity trying to milk something from a defunct production company acquired as an asset held by a midwestern meat-packing company. This is to say that of these two elements I am looking into, this one has the potential to be the one that offers the most variance.

This has already gone for quite enough, though I want to go into it further with you readers if you walk along with me. One of the movies I have often mentioned I wanted to review, The Cabin in the Woods, is only available for now on paid services. So I’ll keep that one in the pocket and go down the rabbit-hole of Tubi. I thinking this is a natural progression of my trip down Horror-lane, you start with recommendations from friends and the internet and then take your own detour through the curated spaces of online streaming. Thanks for joining me!

Of course, sharks and crocodiles aren't the only things waiting beneath the water. Katie Weiss dives into CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954) to uncover the two uncredited performers behind the Gill-man and the strange history of one of Universal Horror's most recognizable monsters.