Creature from Black Lake

[jaws3dfan]

Originally Posted by BluPat

Has anyone gotten a shipping notice yet?

Just got mine. Can't wait to get it!

[RalphoR]

Never got the shipping email but I received the blu-ray today. Super well packaged in a bubble lined manilla envelope and the move was also bubble wrapped. Mint condition. I'll try to watch this tonight after the late baseball game.

[Mystic]

Received the package today from Synapse. Very well packaged, and the shipping was extremely fast considering I received the shipping notice on Tuesday night. I'll be watching this tonight

[RalphoR]

Pretty impressed with the video and the audio as well. It's a huge improvement over whatever ratty dvd you've been watching. If it's your kind of movie it's worth the price tag.

[Katatonia]

Mine arrived earlier today direct from Synapse as well.

I haven't seen the film in probably 25+ years, and that was on VHS, so it should be nice to revisit it later tonight in good quality for once!

[Mystic]

I watched the blu-ray last night. The restoration is excellent, it's probably the best that this film has ever looked. I'm very pleased with this release, and happy to now have it in my collection.

[Katatonia]

Originally Posted by Mystic

I watched the blu-ray last night. The restoration is excellent, it's probably the best that this film has ever looked. I'm very pleased with this release, and happy to now have it in my collection.

I watched it earlier and concur with that. The transfer looks great as with most Synapse restorations. The original negative seems to have been in pristine condition, or at least there was no apparent damage. Colors looked natural and vibrant.

The Dean Cundey Interview was interesting, offering some nice tidbits on the production. I guess he is one of the last surviving members of the cast/crew now, as most of them are gone. It also showed some brief clips of how badly the film looked in it's "cropped" VHS/TV incarnations... this is a visual triumph compared to what's come before it.

[jaws3dfan]

I got mine in the mail today, can't wait to watch it.

[CountYorgaRules]

Originally Posted by Mystic

I watched the blu-ray last night. The restoration is excellent, it's probably the best that this film has ever looked. I'm very pleased with this release, and happy to now have it in my collection.

I totally agree and I never saw it look this good!

[BluPat]

Just got mine today! Can't wait to watch it! The packaging sure is nice.

[BluPat]

Watched it tonight and wow the PQ is amazing. Looks like a brand new film. I've never seen this before and I enjoyed it.

[cakefactory]

I watched this last night. It's not a great film by any stretch of the imagination, but the blu-ray is light-years better than the old VHS rips we had before. Like, some of the night scenes actually look REALLY good, they truly look like they were filmed by someone that would go on to Halloween. The movie itself is just so stagey that often there's nothing interesting that could be done with the camerawork.

From a plot/character standpoint, it's also not great, the heroes are annoying twits, snickering at scaring innocent locals and making them drop food all over the restaurant, obsessing over local women, etc. You're clearly supposed to like them and think they're funny. And I love how badly cast the one named "Pahoo" is that keeps identifying himself as a college student and looks like a rough 40 years old. The other guy looks much more like a healthy 30. There are a couple good old character actors in there (particularly the unmistakeable Jack Elam) which helps, and the movie does do a good job of spacing out the bigfoot scenes so you don't lose interest like a lot of these kinds of things where they have one scene at the beginning and one at the end. And some of the aforementioned night scenes really are pretty creepy. Bigfoot only looks about 5' 10" despite everyone talking about how tall he is, but it's still effectively shot in ways that leave you with the impression that the suit was actually pretty good (I dunno if it was, but it's usually pretty effectively in shadow or cut away from very quickly).

I saw this years ago and the only scene at all that I remembered was

[Show spoiler]bigfoot tipping the van over.

Guess I wasn't paying a lot of attention.

[jaws3dfan]

I couldn't disagree with cakefactory more (no offense) but I really enjoyed Creature from Black Lake. It was great to see the early Cinematography work from Dean Cundey (Halloween, The Fog, Escape from New York, Back to the Future etc.) And I thought the acting was good and characters were very believable, granted it's not a fast paced film but it's a ton of fun plus Jack Elam (The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, Cannonball Run) is an amazing character actor and when he is on screen he always steals the scene.

[cakefactory]

Hey, I said it was pretty good but very stagey and with twerps of main characters. If you couldn't disagree with me more, you'd have to think it was terrible!

[chetripley80]

Count me as someone else that really enjoyed this release. As I’m usually disappointed with most Sasquatch movies I’ve seen, I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked the story and acting in the movie.

Cundey’s work is really nice too. Even the creature design is decent. “Creature from Black Lake” gets my full recommendation for Sasquatch enthusiasts.

[Mystic]

Despite some of its shortcomings, I like this movie a lot. It's atmospheric, and the cinematography by Dean Cundey is great, Jack Elam gives a good performance, and the last part of this movie is still very creepy after all these years.

[The Great Owl]

The idea of embarking on an expedition into the woods to find Bigfoot is not a particularly good idea. At best, the people in the expedition party will not find any trace of the creature and will subsequently be dismissed as gullible souls who believe in a myth. At worst, they will encounter the creature and be violently torn apart limb by limb.

Pahoo and Rives, two Chicago college students played by Dennis Fimple and John David Carson, did not receive the above memo, because they have set out on research mission to find direct evidence of Bigfoot's existence in the Louisiana bayou. After arriving at their rural small town destination and being entangled in a few misadventures with the locals, including a flirtation with the sheriff's daughter that lands them in jail, our two persistent leads locate an outcast trapper, played by Jack Elam, who leads them to the supposed territory of the monster. They will soon discover that some legends are real. Bloody attacks, exploding vehicles, and stabbings ensue.

The 1976 low-budget horror film, Creature from Black Lake, directed by Joy N. Houck Jr., may not exactly be the pinnacle of scary cinema from its era, but it is a fantastic-looking picture, thanks to the cinematography by Dean Cundey, who would later achieve widespread fame for his work on John Carpenter's Halloween. The presence of Hollywood actors also enhances the end result, which would have been a forgettable regional endeavor in lesser hands.

Fimple (The Apple Dumpling Gang) and Carson (The Day of the Dolphin) are both engaging as the "Just two good ol' boys, never meaning no harm" main characters who both seem incapable of participating in any interaction that does not end in disaster. Supporting actor extraordinaire Jack Elam (Once Upon a Time in the West, The Cannonball Run) is the most recognizable face here. A western movie poster in the shed of Elam's character is a nice touch. Be on the lookout for Dub Taylor (The Wild Bunch) as a friendly farmer who is still haunted by an encounter with the villainous Bigfoot that resulted in the deaths of loved ones years before.

For me, the main attraction of Creature from Black Lake is its sheer 1970s-ness time capsule appeal. The filming location of Oil City, Louisiana adds an inviting backcountry flavor to the proceedings, especially during the sequences where our two heroes are looked upon with suspicion by the townspeople because of their laid-back long hair appearances. The Bigfoot being itself is conveyed with a decent amount of menace, especially when things go horribly wrong during the conclusion, but the lackadaisical slow-paced journey to that destination is more fun.


This Synapse Blu-ray looks downright amazing. I am now enjoying the audio commentary.

[DaylightsEnd]

Just ordered this direct from Synapse. Comments here on the PQ sealed the deal. Looking forward to adding it to the collection. I haven't seen it in ages, so it's a minor gamble, but I love these kinds of films and did really enjoy revisiting Severin's "Night of the Demon" (1980) a few months back.

UPDATE: Wow, I literally purchased this late last night, and Synapse already processed my order first thing this morning, boxed it up, printed the label, and now the carrier already has the package. Got a shipment confirm email from Paypal, too. Looks like I'll have it on Saturday morning. Man, that's crazy fast!

[fred25_Ca]

Well, after all the great comments here I also caved in and pre-ordered the regular edition coming out in December. I'm a monster nut and yet i've yet to see this one. Don't really care for the art on the slipcover but I love the original poster, so the regular edition was an easy choice.

[Werdsniper2]

$19.99 preorder up on Amazon right now. Not sure if interested.

I watched a little on YouTube and it seems ok. PQ is horrendous on YT obviously.