Lake Placid (1999) Revisited – Horror Movie Review

A new episode of The Black Sheep video series has arrived online this morning, and with this one we’re looking back at director Steve Miner‘s 1999 killer crocodile horror comedy Lake Placid (watch it HERE). To find out why we think Lake Placid deserves more love than it gets, check out the video embedded above!

Scripted by David E. Kelley, Lake Placid tells the following story: When a mysterious creature violently kills a man in a Maine lake, Jack Wells, the local game warden, looks into the bizarre case, along with Sheriff Hank Keough and visiting paleontologist Kelly Scott. Looking for clues in a tooth that the beast left behind, Kelly and the others eventually locate the monster, a massive and vicious reptile eager to devour anything in its path. Can the crocodile-like creature be stopped?

The film stars Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda, Brendan Gleeson, Oliver Platt, Betty White, Meredith Salenger, David Lewis, Tim Dixon, Natassia Malthe, Mariska Hargitay, Jed Rees, Richard Leacock, Jake T. Roberts, Ty Olsson, and Adam Arkin.

The Black Sheep series features different takes on horror films that the masses or/and critics didn’t care for but that we found merit in. We defend horror movies that deserve more love!

This episode of The Black Sheep was Written, Narrated, and Edited by Lance Vlcek, Produced by Lance Vlcek and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

What do you think of Lake Placid? Are you a fan of this “nature run amok” movie? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Lake Placid spawned a franchise that includes the straight-to-video follow-ups Lake Placid 2 (2007), Lake Placid 3 (2010), Lake Placid: The Final Chapter (2012), and Lake Placid: Legacy (2018), as well as a crossover with the giant snake franchise Anaconda. Released in 2015, that crossover was appropriately called Lake Placid vs. Anaconda. All of those movies were Sci-Fi Channel / Syfy premieres.

A couple of the previous episodes of The Black Sheep can be seen below. To see more, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!

Source: Arrow in the Head

About the Author

Cody is a news editor and film critic, focused on the horror arm of JoBlo.com, and writes scripts for videos that are released through the JoBlo Originals and JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channels. In his spare time, he's a globe-trotting digital nomad, runs a personal blog called Life Between Frames, and writes novels and screenplays.