Summer is quickly drawing to a close, dear reader. The days are growing shorter, and the temperatures are gradually getting lower. Even still, the fall season hasn’t quite taken hold. That means that we have a narrowing window to enjoy the last glimpses of sunshine before the leaves begin to turn and the rain starts to pour.
That makes this the perfect time to catch some seasonally appropriate cinema that evokes summer vibes. Maybe you’re in the mood for a summer camp slasher like Friday the 13th. Or perhaps you’re due to revisit I Know What You Did Last Summer. There are no wrong answers, but there are several excellent options to choose from.
If you’re stuck and can’t decide, I recommend taking a trip to Lake Placid. Director Steve Miner is in his element with this one, delivering an outrageous creature feature that you can’t go wrong with. I wrote about Lake Placid a couple of years back, singing the film’s praises. My complimentary coverage reads, in part: “Summer is here, friends. In fact, we’ve already reached the midway point of the season. And that realization has me nostalgic for a creature feature that delivers chuckles, chills, camp, and carnage in spades.”
Lake Placid really does deliver on all of the above fronts. Not to mention, it features an exceptional cast, including Betty White as a foul-mouthed senior citizen with a few skeletons in her closet.
What happens in Lake Placid?
When a mysterious creature violently kills a man in a Maine lake, Jack Wells (Bill Pullman), the local game warden, looks into the bizarre case, along with Sheriff Hank Keough (Brendan Gleeson) and visiting paleontologist Kelly Scott (Bridget Fonda). 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?
It never ceases to amaze me that television powerhouse David E. Kelley, the man responsible for hit series like Doogie Howser, M.D., writes this farcical romp, The Practice, and Ally McBeal. This is his only horror movie credit, but it makes me wish he’d try his hand at genre cinema again.
If you’d like to take in Lake Placid as a last hurrah before summer draws to a close and you’re curious about where you can watch it, I’ve got the information you seek. The flick is currently available to stream on Tubi.
Categorized: News
