THE CRATER LAKE MONSTER (1977) *1/2 Crater Lake has always inspired legends, probably all of them more interesting than this. William R. Stromberg understands that you have to link monster attack scenes with other ones, he just isn't sure which kind. The one of the Oregon sheriff kickin' back and drinkin' a beer while he's waiting for the phone to ring is a pretty good one, if only you could see which microbrew he's goin' after. The other linkers aren't as good, though that Vegas lounge act guy may have the single worst fake British accent that I've ever heard. I didn't even realize that he was trying, for awhile. The shots of trees, to the accompaniment of strange musical selections, aren't entirely bereft of entertaining value, though virtue would appear to have eluded. The plesiosaurus is functional, if not cute, though my personal preference would have been for a bit more emphasis on the flippers. Suddenly, with mere minutes to go before the rolling of the credits, the film adopts a reasonable facsimile of a spaghetti western ethos, which isn't any more out of place than any of the rest of it.
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