Lake Placid (1999, R)

Directed by Steve Miner

Written by David E. Kelley

Starring Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda, Oliver Platt, Brendan Gleeson, and Betty White

As Reviewed by James Brundage (MovieKritic2000)

No one, and I mean no one, hates horror movies more than I do. As a genre, the horror movie was doomed from the beginning. Seeing that the genre is an offshoot of Halloween, I shouldn't have to say more, but I will. It is, as a whole, the lowest of the low for screenwriters (I'm not counting porn). It is the point where a director realizes that he will never do a good movie no matter how adeptly he handles his camera. It is the point at which an actress realizes the true currency of Hollywood, which lies somewhere around the upper middle chest.

Yet, when you see people like David E. Kelley, Bridget Fonda, and Oliver Platt signing on to a horror movie, you have to wonder.

So I started reading the reviews. The previews didn't excite me at all, in fact, they tempted sleep, but whenever the critic at Time jokingly called the film "Ally McBite", I was hooked.

Although the imdb registers Lake Placid as a horror/comedy, its comedy to the bone. Not only is it comedy, but it’s the kind of sublimely funny humor that comes in the form of every horror movie. Like Scream, Lake Placid knows that the horror movie never was and never will be original, and embraces this fact. And, in embracing this, decides to make fun of the genre as a whole by adding in off-kilter humor. Lake Placid gives you no unexpected twists as far as plot is concerned but every twist it can as far as humor is concerned.

For instance, you have Betty White finally breaking the typecasting of a nice, demure old lady that she got into while on "Golden Girls", when she plays the hermit-by-the-lake from hell. One of my personal favorite moments in the movie is when she says, "If I had a dick, Sheriff, this is when I'd tell you to suck it."

You also have the overweight sheriff that is suspicious of anyone not from his own town, the scorned woman in Maine on assignment from a boss that left her for a coworker, the man who worships crocodiles… in short, every age-old character need for a horror film, which is its main marketing ploy.

Lake Placid may be funny, but it isn't as funny as all of us would like. To pick on something, and I mean really pick on something, you've got to know it to the bone. Kevin Williamson, a child of the 80s, knows horror movies front and back and thus was able to make Scream, Scream 2, and I Know What You Did Last Summer highly intelligent spoofs of horror movies that already existed and do some really brilliant satire. Although Lake Placid is funny, it is nowhere near as satiric as Scream was.

Lake Placid does not derive its jokes from the formulas of horror movies. It does not take its chances to pick on Jaws, Jaws 2, or Alligator. It doesn't make the characters go out of their typecasted shells as Scream did. Instead, it puts them in different shells: those of a dark comedy.

Admittedly, I laughed during this film. I enjoyed this film, but the question of recommending this film remains. As a horror movie, it is just as good as anything else… yeah, that bad. As a comedy, it is a little bit below par. So, although Lake Placid may be funny and enjoyable, your money would be better spent by renting Scream again.