The Crater Lake Monster

1977
PG
1h 25m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Dinosaur Adventure Adventure Crime Fantasy Horror Mystery Sci-Fi Thriller

A meteor that crashed into Oregon's Crater Lake unearths a dinosaur egg. The heat from the meteor causes the egg to hatch, and the emerging dinosaur takes to snacking on the locals.A meteor that crashed into Oregon's Crater Lake unearths a dinosaur egg. The heat from the meteor causes the egg to hatch, and the emerging dinosaur takes to snacking on the locals.A meteor that crashed into Oregon's Crater Lake unearths a dinosaur egg. The heat from the meteor causes the egg to hatch, and the emerging dinosaur takes to snacking on the locals.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

3.6/10

1.7K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
According to lead actor/writer Richard Cardella, Crown International Pictures took over production and did very little post-production work. For example, many of the day-for-night scenes were not tinted.

Goofs
The Conways' boat trip and the subsequent monster attack are described as happening on a moonlit night, yet all scenes take place in broad daylight.

Quotes
Mitch Kowalski: I've been stuffin' my shoes with newspaper for so long, my feet know more about what's goin' on than my head.

Connections
Featured in Fantastic Dinosaurs of the Movies (1990)

User reviews67

Review

Featured review

3/10

The Bumblimg Misadventures of Arnie and Mitch

... and how they bore you right out of your mind! The Crater Lake Monster is one of the classic BAD films from the 70's made with no actors of any note, an embarrassing script, woeful direction, and a tireless desire to fuse "horror" with light comedy. This movie introduces a paleontologist who finds drawings of an aquatic dinosaur underneath Crater Lake...a meteor falls from the sky, and an aquatic dinosaur of the claymation variety begins to terrorize and eat the inhabitants surrounding Crater Lake. The whole matter is taken care of by Steve our local sheriff. Much of the film - when not showing pools of blood left behind from what we imagine must have been the beast dining - is spent following the bumbling antic of two guys named Arnie and Mitch who run a boat rental place. They try so bad to be funny, that we get lines like, looking at a business sign, Mitch saying to Arnie "You spelled bait wrong, it's spelled B-A-T-E." The laughs were rather scarce here. We then see them get drunk together and imagine a tree trunk to be the dinosaur. Laurel and Hardy watch out! The dinosaur looks fake, but the movie is fun in a bad way. And at the very least, the lake is beautiful.