Lake Placid 2 Review by Bobby LePire. Edited by Courtney McAllister.

 

Now, it is time to return to ‘Creature Feature Month’! Last week, we discovered that the original “Lake Placid” movie is an underappreciated gem, and that leads us directly to today’s flick- “Lake Placid 2”. Coming eight years (eight!) after the first movie, this sequel was made for the Syfy Channel, when it was still Sci-Fi. The lower budget didn’t worry me much, although the fact that it’d have to not be so over-the-top did. With no returning cast or characters, does this live up the first movie?

 

The plot is the first one, but not. Allow me to explain-

Things get underway when two researchers, Frank (Robert Blush) and Tillman, are attacked by a crocodile at the lake. Frank survives, and goes to the sheriff’s office. Sheriff James Riley (John Schneider) and Fish And Wildlife Officer Emma Warner (Sarah LaFleur) go to investigate, and immediately stumble upon Tillman’s head. The officers go ask Sadie Beckerman (Cloris Leachman) a few questions about giant crocodiles, who proves to be just as vile and curmudgeonly as her sister Dolores (Betty White). Meanwhile, James’s son Scott (Chad Michael Collins), and his new friends, Kerri (Alicia Ziegler), her boyfriend/ tool Thad (Ian Kesler), Rachel (V.J. Kewl), Larry (Justin Urich),  and dog Daisy galavant throughout the woods. At the same time, Mike (Vlado Mihaylov), Sharon (Yana Marinova), and Edi (Zhasmina Toskova) go for a swim. After another croc attack or two, the cops decide to close the beach and call in help from an unsavory poacher, Jack Struthers (Sam McMurray) and his assistant Ahmad (Joe Holt).

 

So, while the first movie avoided a ton of cliches, this seems to hit all of them- need to close the beach? Check! Teens going skinny dipping just to be killed for their clothes phobia? Check! One of the main characters has a child in danger? Check! The cops are too stupid to get proper authority to do certain things? Check. It is a tad frustrating, because a lack of budget doesn’t mean that you have to resort to base cliches that are as old as the genre itself.

 

But not all is bad with Todd Hurvitz and Howie Miller’s script. As frustrating as those cliches are, it does help make this a completely different beast; so while some cliches are there due to laziness, some are probably there to distinguish it from the original. What the screenplay does recycle from the first is mostly the characters- the sheriff is a wisecrarcker, the hunter is an odd duck, the old lady who knows more than she’s letting on is a complete bitch, and so on. And while not the out and out comedy the first movie was, “Lake Placid 2” does have a light breezy tone, with some good one liners and some ingenious setups- there’s a sequence where a gossip rag writer is interviewing Dolores, and how she sets up him as a snack is lots of fun. But nothing tops when Larry, who was forced to sleep in a tree for the night, falls off the branch and hits, not the ground, but the sleeping crocodile. While he is an instant idiot afterwards, that is fun as hell, and fairly original.

The movie also wastes no time in getting to the goods, something it shares with the first. After the first attack, and some characterization, we get an action beat every eight to ten minutes, so there’s a pretty decent kill count. The main crocodile in “Lake Placid” just loved to decapitate its victims, but here, our killer crocs have a limb fetish going. Lots of arms and legs getting bit off, squashed, and eaten. The action never feels repetitive, which is good, and it pretty gory at times (extended cut), but the movie never really goes as far/ crazy as the original. In part, because this was made for TV, the movie can only show so much, but it does what it can, and it’s still enjoyable. And while this is set in modern day (when it was produced), the eight year gap isn’t noticeable at all, which is pretty impressive.

 

David Flores, director of two of my all time favorite Sci-Fi Channel films- “Crimson Force” and “Sands Of Oblivion”- was at the reins, and he did a fairly good job. While there’s no overt style, there are some interesting and cool shot choices- the TMZ-like guy’s death, on a pier, is filmed with increasingly close cuts, until the crocodile jumps out and eats him. It keeps the tension, while being visually cool.

 

The editing, by John Quinn, is a bit of a mixed bag. There are three scenes that are edited confusingly, and they stand out all the more because 90% of the movie is fine. When James and Emma are investigating Frank’s case, they discover something in the water. We cut from a medium shot on the boat, to a wide shot on the water, with unused screen space on the left (from the audience’s perspective), then back to the medium boat shot. We never get a tight (or even a medium tight) shot of what they see in the water. And when they do find it, it is not off in the left field of the screen, it is on the right. This is some bad geography going on, and it is not until the thing is brought aboard the boat that we finally even get an inkling of what they were aiming for- Tillman’s head.

 

The mostly computer effects by Svetozar Hristov, Georgi Kraev, and Ryan Spike Dauner are only so-so. Being set mostly during the day, means the crocodiles are constantly being very well lit, which makes their rubbery and weightless appearance hard to hide. They don’t always appear to be properly walking on land, but they look good in the water. The three crocodiles have excellent and subtle colorizations that make them look really believable, and a night rainstorm hides some of the flaws, so that action beat looks the best.

 

John Schneider, arguably the most recognizable face here, is really good. He’s believable as a loving father, as a small town sheriff, and romantic lead. He interacts with the creatures well, and brings a lot of charm to the role. Sarah LaFleur is as up to snuff as her male co-star. Her rapport with Schneider feels honest, and zingers seem natural. Sam McMurray sports a wavering, unidentifiable accent, that is hilarious! Given that the character often hypes himself up (unearned), I am unsure if this is on purpose or not- the character might think that an accent makes him sound more legitimate, when it doesn’t; so the actor is playing that angle up. As I can’t guarantee that, I’ll say half on purpose, half not.

 

Cloris Leachman gets all the best comedic lines, and her murderous old lady is pretty funny. Alicia Ziegler brings a warm energy to her part, and Chad Michael Collins plays the bored, city kid in a small country town well enough. The rest of the actors aren’t as good, with most of them sounding unnatural or playing too over-the-top and being kind of annoying; I am looking at you, Ian Kesler. Although, his character is meant to be a complete douche, so once he bites it, it is very satisfying.

While the fact that it isn’t as zany/ crazy as the first hampers it slightly, and the over reliance on cliches is frustrating, there is plenty about “Lake Placid 2” to recommend. The main cast is solid, there is plenty of croc action, and the comedy that is present works. If you are into creature features, or just trying to watch all the Syfy movies, this is lots fun.