Lake Placid Vs Anaconda DVD Review

     Actors: Robert Englund, Yancy Butler, Nigel Barber

Director: A.B. Stone

Format: Multiple Formats, AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC

Language: English

Subtitles: English

Region: Region 1

Number of discs: 1

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

DVD Release Date: August 4, 2015

Run Time: 92 minutes

 

When there have already been far too many sequels in a franchise, the next logical step is to combine it with another overdone film series. Even in larger budget films, this has been attempted over enough time, which is how we ended up with Alien vs. Predator and Freddy vs. Jason. But despite Robert Englund in a supporting role, the Syfy Channel original film, Lake Placid vs. Anaconda, comes nowhere close to the quality of these theatrical releases. Instead, this just looks like every other TV movie from this station, cheaply made in another country for the lowest possible budget.

 

Everybody should know what they are getting from the Syfy Channel by now, especially those who have followed the adoption of both these creature feature franchises. It is the fifth film in both the Anaconda and Lake Placid franchises, though many of the sequels were also cheaply made TV movies with CGI graphics just as predictably atrocious as they are here. Forget what you may have liked from the original films, because neither retains even a fraction of the same quality. Instead we are given the frozen TV dinner version of the same thing, tasting of sad desperation and laziness.

 

The plot is nearly insignificant to the experience, but the reason for each of these creatures being brought together has something to do with genetic modification. It doesn’t really matter beyond the excuse to have bikini-clad sorority girls running for their lives between scenes of senseless undressing and CGI carnage. Apparently Black Lake (the actual name of the lake from the Lake Placid franchise) is only six miles away from Clear Lake, which is somehow where the anaconda snakes ended up after the initial Amazon setting of the theatrical films. All that really matters is that there are a series of sudden crocodile attacks against a group of sorority sisters in various states of undress, and then the snakes appear in the final scenes for a showdown that actually saves many of the victims.

 

Shot in Bulgaria, the film is stacked with European actors doing their best to hide accents as they expose body parts. Robert Englund makes a brief appearance, though he is clearly here for namesake more than performance. The entire endeavor feels forced and rushed, which is never more apparent than in the atrociously bad computer generated effects that the Syfy Channel has become known for. Not only were no real animals used, it is impossible to believe the actors had interaction with anything on set. What I wouldn’t give to go back to days of cheap rubber snakes of practical effects.

 

The DVD has no special features, rightly so. Nothing here deserves further examination, unless you are a teenage boy desperate to see the breasts of bad actresses bared.   

 

Entertainment Value: 2.5/10

Quality of Filmmaking: 1/10

Historical Significance:  0/10

Special Features: 0/10





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