David E. Kelley is one of the most successful writers of American television, known as the creator of many popular television series in 1990s and 2000s. His attempts to match that success on the big screen, however, left much to be desired. An example can be found in Lake Placid, 1999 horror comedy directed by Steve Miner.
The plot is set around Black Lake in Maine. Although there are very few humans living on its shores, it suddenly began to lose much of its fauna, especially beavers. Walt Lawson (played by David Lewis), Fish and Game officer investigating the matter goes scuba diving in the lake only to later be found with only half of his body. After realising that something in the lake is capable of devouring people, Sheriff Mike Keogh (played by Brendan Gleeson) gathers team of experts that includes Fish and Game officer Jack Wells (played by Bill Pullman) and paleontologist Kelly Scott (played by Bridget Fonda). They are soon joined by eccentric and wealthy mythology professor Hector Cyr (played by Oliver Platt) who thinks that they would have to deal with the gigantic crocodile which somehow managed to get into the lake. Before they see that Cyr’s theory is correct, team members will have their lives in danger, not because of giant monster, but because they can’t stand each other.
Script by David E. Kelley doesn’t look very original. Its plot, basic premise and even darkly humorous tone actually has striking resemblance to “Quagmire”, episode of The X-Files which was originally aired few years earlier. Kelley, who was also one of the producers, had much bigger budget at his disposal and Lake Placid features very good animatronics special effects designed by Stan Winston, known for his work on Aliens and Jurassic Park. The film also gathered rather diverse and talented cast that appeared to be quite relaxed in their performances. Unfortunately, Kelley’s scriptwriting failed to adapt to feature film limitations and many of such characters are less developed and less interesting than they would have been in television series. Even bigger problem is inability to find proper balance between horror and humour. One one hand, Kelley and director Steve Miner try to deliver straight monster film like Jaws, but this effort is impeded by characters being a little bit too quirky. On the other hand, quality and quantity of humour is much lacking. Impression is slightly improved by John Ottman’s likeable music score. Lake Placid is watchable film, but very disappointing to all those who base their expectations on writer’s stellar reputation or potentials this interesting premise had. Despite being disliked by critics, film had solid box office and from 2007 till 2018 it had five direct-to-video sequels.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
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