Lake Placid: Legacy (2018) Review

Lake Placid: Legacy (2018) Review

When a group of young explorers venture to a mysterious lake, they discover an island harbouring an abandoned lab facility with a horrific legacy: the island is home to a deadly predator. Before they can turn back, the crew gets dragged into a battle for their lives – former enemies will quickly need to put their egos aside and work together if there is any hope for survival.

Perhaps there’s something different in the water that I am drinking of late but I really REALLY shouldn’t have liked Lake Placid: Legacy. Why? Well it’s yet another in a franchise that had its only true moment of glory with the Steve Miner directed original back in 1999. Miner’s original had the wonderful image of Betty White blindfolding a cow to feed to a gigantic crocodile; cinema doesn’t get much more bonkers than that. Lake Placid knew it was stupid and ramped up the laughs. Unfortunately no one thought to tell the makers of the five follow-up movies that and instead their offerings were turgid, painful and immediately forgettable flicks that did little more than trade in on the goodwill of less discerning viewers.

Perhaps it’s not a change to the water I am drinking that has resulted in my liking this latest Lake Placid flick; perhaps the nicotine patches, that I am reliant on to get me through those more trying days, have an added side-effect of making the unbearable more bearable or perhaps it’s just that as a monster-crocodile-chomping-through-the film’s-cast-list kind of film it actually delivers the goods. It’s straight-forward, to the point, reasonably made, offers nothing new but still manages to engage as a bit of fun fluff. Director Darrell (Dracula 2000) Roodt’s American made-for-television film is a direct sequel to Lake Placid (1999) which ignores the events of subsequent instalments so there’s really no need to see the previous films, if you haven’t done so already (lucky, lucky you!).