To me, this movie is perfection.

Good concept, poorly executed.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

It's difficult to make a case for recommending "The Crater Lake Monster", because while it is definitely not totally terrible, it has many, many problems. Let's break down some of the bad first. Because of the budget constraints the acting is a real mixed bag. The sheriff is sort of the cream of the crap. All females in the film are beyond bad, and often appear to be reading their script during filming. The two hillbillies take up way too much running time, and their act eventually wears out it's welcome. The story itself is disjointed, and continuity non existent, especially admiring the stars in the sky with noontime shadows and obvious bright daylight. The musical score is awful, and at times grating. Now for the good. The on location scenery is nicely photographed. The stop motion sequences are well done. The film is only 85 minutes. - MERK

No need to recap the plot. Okay, the film's no classic. In fact, someone in production borrowed the bulldozer vs. monster from 1960's schlock comedy Dinosaurus. But, in my book, the 80-some minutes isn't bad enough to rate among the truly bad, e.g. Manos: The Hands of Fate {1966}. Catch the photography, which is pretty good (of course, post- production bungled day-for-night, but that's not photographer Gentry's fault). Then there're the lush colors, about as vivid as any I've seen. Add Cardella's sturdy performance as the take-charge sheriff, along with some pretty good stop-motion, and you've got genuine compensations that lift results from the truly bad. Of course, the intended comic relief is pretty lame, along with a script that appears almost thrown together. But perhaps most disappointing is the utter lack of tension. Monsters should generate tension. However, director Stromberg fails to build suspense, which requires a better sense of structure than what's provided here. Instead, the production goes for quick shock, which itself doesn't work very well. All in all, the movie's too good to be truly bad, and too bad to be good. I like what another reviewer observed, namely the results look like they were made by erratically skilled amateurs.

What a mess this movie is! "Night" shots are bright as midday, the acting is amateurish, and the monster effects are probably the worst I've ever seen. Basically the story is about a prehistoric dinosaur brought to life by the crash of a meteor in a lake, and the monster begins munching on the locals after it eats all the fish in the lake. The local sheriff investigates of course. For comedy effect, there are two moonshine-swilling idiots who unintentionally cause chaos as well. I've seen a lot of low budget movies that have trouble separating night scenes from day ones, but this one takes the cake. Supposed "night" scenes are bright as midday, with shadows showing on the ground and bright blue sky overhead. We are supposed to "know" that the scene is supposedly at "night" by the use of car headlights, lanterns, and dialogue. At one point a woman looks up at the bright blue sky and remarks "Look at all the stars! I've never seen so many"! I gave this film a 2 out of 10. Truly awful!

...and it is this film. I imagine that if indeed there is a negative afterlife, damned souls are tied to a rather uncomfortable couch and forced to watch this movie on a continuous loop for all eternity. Okay, maybe it's not that bad, but it is probably the worst film I have ever seen next to "Manos, the Hands of Fate"... and I have seen a lot of bad movies, believe you me. This is just a crummy B movie, bad film-making at it's finest(or is it worst?) The thing I really didn't like about this movie is the moronic duo they threw in for comedy relief. Now, a little comedy relief is a good thing, but most of the movie is focused on the adventures of these two morons, rather than on the "heroes" of this film, who are actually in it for less time than them! To be fair, Crown International really destroyed the movie by adding bad music and doing a poor job editing. But honestly, this was probably a bad film to begin with, so Crown really couldn't have done that much to hurt it. This really needs to be in the bottom 100 list. I wouldn't wish this one on my worst enemy. Actually, it's my kind of campy B movie. It was bad, but I still liked it, despite my one star rating.