THE MONSTER OF PHANTOM LAKE (2006)
Back in 2006 Christopher R. Mihm decided he wanted to start
making a bunch of movies that celebrated the 50’s and 60’s sci-fi genre. To
date, he hasn’t stopped or showed any signs of stopping. In fact he had another
movie come out this year called “GUNS OF THE APOCALYPSE”. In his first several
films he worked a lot with actor/producer Josh Craig. Craig is good in this
film but seems to have a real distain for the acting style used in the 50’s and
60’s because he takes the method to a point that is so over the top that it’s
almost uncomfortable to watch. In this one he plays Professor Jackson (a
re-occurring character) who is oddly on a trip in the woods alone with a female
grad student, studying the effects of toxic waste. They end up running into
several teens camping in the area. Oh, and there is a crazed creature running
around killing people. It’s a dude with a costume that looks basically like it’s
been tarred and feathered and has a bucket with googly eyes on the head. It’s
freakin fantastic.
Acting wise as mentioned Professor Jackson is a little tough to handle. His dialog is oddly laced with pauses throughout. I know he is acting like this on purpose because he doesn’t do it in all of his films, but damn it gets annoying. Everyone else is actually pretty great, and Leigha Horton (who went on to product another tv show after this) stands out as Stephanie Yates. I am not sure how things went on set, but it appears that everyone in this film is just having an absolute blast. The production does a really stellar job of staying close to the best trying to re-imagine the 50’s sci-fi era. I have seen a lot of these attempts and this one is probably the best. It’s also shot completely in black and white.
I have read some complaints about the length of the film and this is a warranted complaint. I think the movie could have cut out 37 minutes of dialog and been just fine. It’s like when someone calls that you don’t want to talk to, and you try and pay attention but you are thinking, they should have just sent an email. As an example THE KILLERSHREWS was 69 minutes and came from that era. You don’t need to drag things out when the plot is as simple as this one was. Even THE WASP WOMAN clocked in at 63 minutes. Come to think of it, the extra 37 minutes this movie didn’t need was probably all the freakin pauses Professor Jackson used just trying to finish his sentences. It does take a while to finally get to the monster in this one, but it’s so wonderfully hooky, it’s worth the wait. Gotta give this one a 5 out of 7 for its effort alone.
Acting wise as mentioned Professor Jackson is a little tough to handle. His dialog is oddly laced with pauses throughout. I know he is acting like this on purpose because he doesn’t do it in all of his films, but damn it gets annoying. Everyone else is actually pretty great, and Leigha Horton (who went on to product another tv show after this) stands out as Stephanie Yates. I am not sure how things went on set, but it appears that everyone in this film is just having an absolute blast. The production does a really stellar job of staying close to the best trying to re-imagine the 50’s sci-fi era. I have seen a lot of these attempts and this one is probably the best. It’s also shot completely in black and white.
I have read some complaints about the length of the film and this is a warranted complaint. I think the movie could have cut out 37 minutes of dialog and been just fine. It’s like when someone calls that you don’t want to talk to, and you try and pay attention but you are thinking, they should have just sent an email. As an example THE KILLERSHREWS was 69 minutes and came from that era. You don’t need to drag things out when the plot is as simple as this one was. Even THE WASP WOMAN clocked in at 63 minutes. Come to think of it, the extra 37 minutes this movie didn’t need was probably all the freakin pauses Professor Jackson used just trying to finish his sentences. It does take a while to finally get to the monster in this one, but it’s so wonderfully hooky, it’s worth the wait. Gotta give this one a 5 out of 7 for its effort alone.
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