Lake Placid: The Final Chapter Review by Bobby LePire. Edited by Courtney McAllister.

 

As ‘Creature Feature Month’ continues, the “Lake Placid” franchise can officially claim itself a quadrilogy. “Lake Placid: The Final Chapter” is said fourth entry, and was released two years after the so-so third movie. This time though, we do have a returning character- Yancy Butler’s Reba! Was rewriting the ending of the third to bring her back worth it? Is the movie more enjoyable than the last one?

Picking up right at the end of “Lake Placid 3”, “The Final Chapter” wastes no time in getting to it-

After being savagely thrashed to near death, Reba wakes up in the ravaged grocery store. She fights a croc off, and sets about to kill ‘em all. One year later, she is now the Fish and Wildlife warden, trying to protect the few remaining crocodiles, against her better judgement. Teaming up with the new sheriff Theresa Giove (Elisabeth Rohm), and Army Corps of Engineers construction foreman Ryan Loflin (Paul Nicholls), to oversee an electrical fence being built around Black Lake. Meanwhile, the Marshfield High Swimming Team is going on their annual camping trip at Clear Lake, the twin to Black. What happens when they wind up at the wrong lake? How were the corralled crocodiles surviving?

Let us address the elephant in the room- retconning the previous film to bring back the character of Reba, is probably the best decision made in the entire movie, and holy crap, does this movie get everything right! Reba was the absolute highlight of the last film, and thankfully, the filmmakers didn’t mess with her. Aside from changing her occupation, the character is the exact same- a gun-toting, no bull taking, quip at the ready badass!

Sheriff Giove: Jump into croc infested waters. That's smart.

Reba: Smart, no. Fun? Fuck yeah!
 

or, in reference to Dennis (Ako Mitchell), jumping into the lake to save a tranqed croc and getting his hand bitten off-

Loflin: [to Dennis] Tell yourself that the next time you try and sign your name.

Reba: Yeah, and jackin' off is gonna be a bitch.

Happily, Butler once again throws her all into the role, and makes it her own. She’s been in several movies that I have seen- “Hard Target”, “Wolvesbayne”, “Kick-Ass”, and “Shark Week”. She’s been good to excellent in all of them (especially the utter awesomeness of “Wolvesbayne”), but this will always be the role for which I remember her. She really is just that good here.

Unlike last time, she doesn’t have to carry half the movie by herself. Elisabeth Rohm as the sheriff is excellent. She has a very confident and authoritative screen presence, so when she’s barking orders at people, it makes sense they’d jump to it. She’s also not without her fair share of fun lines, and she lets the zingers out with ease. Her chemistry with Poppy Lee Friar as her daughter Chloe, is fantastic, and their mother/ daughter relationship is very realistic. Rohm and Nicholls also have excellent chemistry, so while she has good reasons to be resistant to actually getting romantically involved with him (while building the fence, he reports to her, essentially making her his boss for this project), their body language and time together suggest otherwise. It is refreshing to see this relationship not be dragged out for the entire film- fifteen/ twenty minutes in, they go to dinner together.

Paul Nicholls as the collected Ryan is quite reliable. His character has no arc, but he is the centered one, able to stay calm even when running from the crocs, and that helps us buy into how they all survive. Robert Englund has a small role as the poacher Jim Bickerman; yes, of the famously croc loving clan. Englund is always a pleasure to watch, and he is fun as ever here. Clearly, being able to get out from straight horror and into a more action oriented role ignited something in him, as even though his role is small, he makes the most of it.

 

Friar proves herself quite well, even at such a young age. Given that she had been acting for a decade before this movie, that isn’t much of a surprise. She is bookish and loves libraries, and while the writers rely on this a bit too much, Friar gets that across, in a non-stereotypical way- no glasses, has friends, talks to the boy she likes (more or less) right off the bat. Hell, even that constant reading thing gets a pretty funny payoff at the end. The rest of the supporting cast are just as good.

Much to my surprise, the same scribe who drafted the slightly disappointing/ slightly fun third movie, penned this. While he got some TV work and another Syfy original between the two movies, his skills have improved tenfold. The dialogue is funny when it needs to be, but still hits a surprising number of dramatic notes, and is very engaging. I like the idea of the twin lakes, and accidentally getting to the wrong one. There is an odd moment with the coach not wanting to go on a boat, but since that leads to one of my favorite kills in the movie, I’m not complaining too much. The most interesting thing about the story is the cannibal aspect- the quarantined crocs have kept themselves alive by eating each other! This has made them much bigger and more aggressive than before. This fresh spin is really interesting and helps keep things intense throughout.

Director Don Michael Paul- the same Don Michael Paul that inflicted the horrendous “Half Past Dead” onto the world- does a very capable job. The tension is kept high, and the movie never falters on its frenzied pacing once things kick into gear. The sequence when one of the crocs attacks some jet skiing students is very well done. The editing from a POV underwater shot, to the kids, and back, slowly getting closer is awesome.

 

The score in this movie is also quite good, serving the action beats and tension well. Composer Frederick Wiedmann, who has done a host of the DC animated movies, delivers exciting and exhilarating music cues that add that much more enjoyment to the movie. John Quinn’s editing is tight and controlled, with the geography of characters never in question.

Finally, we come to what could really make or break this movie, the special effects. The team assembled for the CGI on the crocs clearly took their work seriously, as this is the best the beasties have looked since the first movie. The creatures have weight to them, and even when they are moving super quickly, still seem believable. Their colorizations are very good, and they interact with the characters and environments very well.

“Lake Placid: The Final Chapter” is an excellent and awesome b-movie, and one of the best Syfy Channel movies I have seen. Everything about it from the solid direction, excellent script, fine acting, and good special effects come together and gel in a perfect confluence of crazy awesome fun. This movie rocks, and makes up for the third movie in spades!