Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Nostalgic / Retro value with this one. There we quite a few of these "Bigfoot" films that came out during the 1970s "Bigfoot" craze! This is one of the better one's that was produced during that decade - maybe not the best one made, but it is a fun watch.A couple of college kids from Chicago are interested in the bigfoot stories coming out of the south. They pack up and head down to Oil City, Louisiana hopped up to find the truth. They end up meeting a few rednecks that refuse to speak of the creature... but a couple of them opened up. I won't give away the ending but I will say - they do encounter the bigfoot.6/10

Two lovable Chicago anthropology students, Pahoo(an extremely likable Dennis Fimple playing his character affable)and Rives(John David Carson), do not heed the warning from locals to stay away from a Louisiana swamp where a possible Sasquatch resides. They had caught wind of this story from Trapper Joe Canton(the always entertaining Jack Elam)about losing his fishing buddy to a giant primitive creature spawning scientific interest to find it.I really enjoyed this little low budget sasquatch movie, but it might be too laid back and "good ole boy" Country for some tastes. Dub Taylor has his usual scene-stealing hillbilly role as Grandpaw Bridges who lost loved ones to the killer Sasquatch. This film, in essence, works best as a fish-out-of-water comedy. The only real horror is the monster with it's loud roar which awakens the viewer to the fact that it's still in this film. The creature is talked about more than seen, and even when it is shown, cinematographer Dean Cundy shoots it in ways not to display the fact that it's merely a man in a costume.I felt robbed, though. The photography shot by Cundy is clearly anamorphic wide-screen to present this Bigfoot tale. Sadly, yet, we are stuck with a terrible pan-and-scan version with a low quality print. It's better than nothing, I do agree, but I felt that there was so much more Cundy had to offer, cut off the screen. You can see that the print was blown up to such a massive size one character takes up most of the screen, where in a usual wide-screen we can see all the people present in any certain scene instead of the scan moving over annoyingly to see who's talking to who. A shame, really. I don't think anyone will ever care enough to give the flick a treatment it rightfully deserves.

"Creature from Black Lake" gets my vote as the single most amiable and entertaining Bigfoot fright film to ever amble onto the big screen. John David Carson and the ever-daffy Dennis ("Truck Stop Women," "House of 1,000 Corpses") Fimple display a breezy, relaxed, wholly personable chemistry as two eager beaver college anthropology students who visit a Louisiana stick burg to find out if stories concerning Mr. Size 25 Shoes have any basis in fact.Zestfully directed by Do-It-Yourself regional indie filmmaker Joy Houck, Jr. and cleverly written by Jim McCollough, Jr. (who co-stars as a wily country boy who befriends our heroes), this fine feature boasts an endearingly playful sense of good-natured humor, likable characters, a strong spooky atmosphere, and a tasty, picturesque evocation of the Creole State's lush, marshy bayou. Furthermore, the stellar, spot-on, spirited tearin'-apart-the-scenery performances by dependable seasoned hambones Jack Elam and Dub Taylor add a substantial energy boost to the proceedings. Taylor essays his standard role of a crusty, hot-tempered hillbilly grandpappy with his trademark testy aplomb ("Dadgum it!"), but Elam steals the the entire show with his growly, eye-rolling portrayal of ornery ol' swamp cuss trapper Joe Canton (Elam's "nothin'" story in particular is an absolute corker). Stocky, stony-faced cracker character actor Bill Thurman brings his usual low-key charm and unaffected acting style to the role of a sheriff named after then First Brother Billy Carter. Morgan Fairchild's comely sister Catherine McClenny has a sassy small part as a feisty greasy spoon waitress.In a nifty homage to "The Legend of Boggy Creek" Fimple has the holy living hell scared out of him when a guy catches him off guard while he's urinating behind a bush. The unusually adroit and sporadically expansive widescreen cinematography was done by a fledging Dean Cundey, who eventually established himself as a top director of photography with his groundbreaking gliding camera-work for "Halloween." Jamie Mendoza-Nava's score deftly alternates between moody, menacing scareshow music and sprightly, s**t-kickin' country bluegrass. The film concludes with a genuinely harrowing sequence in which Sasquatch (Roy Tatum in an up-to-snuff excess body hair outfit) stalks and attacks our protagonists. All in all, this dandy's a complete winner.

I remember seeing this movie in the now defunct 'Jerry Lewis Cinemas' chain when I was a teenager. Living in a rural, and I mean rural area, the movie affected my brother and I that summer. My little brother wouldn't go near the woods at our house (all we had around were woods, LOL), and would check all the door locks before going to bed for almost a month because of this movie.Myself, well, I'd get some goosebumps when I was riding my motorcycle through the woods. But back to the movie. You either love it or hate it. Black Lake does have some slow scenes, but does deliver a punch, especially with Dub Taylor's flashback scenes. Jack Elam made the movie for me, I just wished they had given him more screen-time. I loved the way he chewed up his lines!The creature is never really seen in detail, just in shadows or blurry footage, but that adds to the suspense. It's available on VHS or VCD from Bijou Flix. Watched it the other day with my wife and teen daughters....and it did scare them.For its time and budget, a good Bigfoot film IMHP.