Saturday, August 4, 2012

THE CRATER LAKE MONSTER (1977) Theatrical Poster

Pretty much the only good thing about Crown International Pictures' 1977 drive-in fodder, The Crater Lake Monster, is the evocative theatrical one-sheet pictured here. (I'm sure someone out there knows who the artist is.) Unfortunately, the movie itself is an ultra-cheapo bore with a no-star cast that only sparks to life during the all-too-brief instances where the titular monster is on screen.

Of course, the film's creature looks nothing like the Tyrannosaur-like beastie on the poster, instead resembling some sort of mutant plesiosaur/salamander hybrid. To be fair, the stop-motion animation in the movie, executed by David Allen, is actually pretty good - there's just not enough of it.

Surprisingly, The Crater Lake Monster is actually available on Blu-ray disc, paired up with Crown International's space spoof Galaxina. And... yeah, I own it.
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6 comments:

  1. james newellAugust 4, 2012 at 7:19 AM

    i would think the poster owes a lot to Frank Frazetta's Eerie cover: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Zcs07lgdyqc/TXbhHqariHI/AAAAAAABOqY/2D-WxqBpMGk/s1600/05_eerie_1966sept_fritz_a.jpg

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  2. Metal MarkAugust 4, 2012 at 8:43 AM

    That's a fantastic poster. As you said it looks nothing like the creature in the film which is more of a Loch Ness monster type crossed with a seal. I like the stop motion and the locations in this film. They spent way too much time on those two silly hicks and not enough time on the monster. If they had spent more time on the monster and eliminated the comic relief then this might have been a very decent B movie.

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  3. Justin S. DavisAugust 4, 2012 at 3:21 PM

    Great, great artwork.

    It ranks up there with my other favorite only-good-thing-about-the-movie-was-the-poster, Blood Beach.

    http://www.impawards.com/1981/blood_beach_ver1.html

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  4. Michelangelo NaveaAugust 4, 2012 at 5:21 PM

    I saw this film about 3 months ago on Blu Ray it looked awesome ans I really liked the story one of the better Loch Ness rippoff B movies

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  5. 2 Warps to NeptuneAugust 5, 2012 at 11:46 AM

    Awful movie, brilliant poster. I'm reminded of the Deathstalker poster, which features that awesome ogre-thing nowhere to be seen in the actual flick.

    My favorite poster this year is for Toxic Zombies (1980, a.k.a. Bloodeaters):

    http://www.listal.com/viewimage/612840

    The movie is about hippies who turn into zombies after their pot crop gets dusted by an experimental pesticide. There was just no way it could live up to the genius of the premise.

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  6. Kevin FAugust 10, 2012 at 3:23 PM

    I have to disagree. I enjoyed the movie. I thought the monster looked pretty cool. It certainly isn't a great, or even good movie, but I had fun watching it. Heck, I enjoyed it more than Cloverfield.

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