Poor editing and uneven pacing dampen the impact of the monster scenes but the creatures themselves look great.
The poster for The Lake, a 2022 creature feature from Thailand, features the tagline “A Monster Will Rise.” And, indeed, a monster does rise. Two of them, in fact. Unfortunately, no one bothered to figure out what to do with these creatures afterwards. So, rise they do. And then they just meander towards not one — but two — nonsensical endings.
As the film begins, there’s a sense of momentum. A group of teenagers discover a large egg on the bank of a lake. As they decide to carry it off, a large bipedal, fish-like creature emerges from the water and murders them. The next morning, a young girl finds the egg and a smaller creature comes ashore and murders an entire farming community. The girl’s mother, Lin (Sushar Manaying,) and uncle, Keng (Thanachat Tunyachat,) escape the attack although Keng receives a bite wound.
Meanwhile, Royal Thai Police officer James (Theerapat Sajakul) and his partner, Wit (Amnaj Wajaon,) begin investigating a rash of monster sightings around the city. Bloody bodies are turning up everywhere paired with reports of a fish-like creature that walks on two legs. Thirty minutes into the movie and there’s been a lot of action, monster mayhem, and a decent setup of the major players.
About fifteen to twenty minutes later, it becomes apparent that the script has run out of juice. In fact, the script begins to lag behind the viewer. So much so that characters are oblivious to plot points that should need no explanation. If you’re forty-five minutes into this movie and don’t connect the dots between the egg and the monsters, you’re right on pace with the crack team of police investigators as portrayed here. Supporting characters come and go with little explanation and the logistics of a planned evacuation make absolutely no sense at all. I won’t even go into the psychic connection between the monsters and some of the characters.
While The Lake clearly needs help in the narrative department, the visual effects are surprisingly effective. Combining CGI with practical animatronics and men-in-rubber-suits, this modest production outshines most recent B-movie monster movies where it counts. Poor editing and uneven pacing dampen the impact of the monster scenes but the creatures themselves look great.
I mentioned this film having two endings. The “first” ending appears if you watch the film on Blu-ray, as I did. An “extended” ending appears on the disc’s special features. Neither ending resolves the story in a satisfactory way. The extended ending actually prompts more questions than it answers. Two deleted scenes also do little to patch things up.
If you’re a fan of giant monster movies, The Lake will most likely frustrate you more than entertain you. All of the effort went into creating a good-looking pair of creatures. Little to no effort went into creating a story worthy of your time or money. Save them both.
2.0 out of 5.0 stars
