soulexpress When John Carradine is in a film, it's either going to be very good or very bad. With a title like MONSTROID "It Came From the Lake," you can well imagine which side of the equation this thing falls on.During its first four minutes, the film tells us twice that it is based on actual events. If that's true, then in June 1971, the Colombian village of Chimayo was terrorized by a huge, ridiculous- looking lake monster ostensibly created by industrial pollution from a nearby cement plant. Since the film's heroes kill the monster in broad daylight—by blowing it to bits using a dead lamb they filled with dynamite—as numerous people watch (and take pictures) from the shore, and with a TV news crew filming every moment, it's odd that no record of these "real-life events" exists anywhere. I suspect "Monstroid" was fact-based in the same way that "Fargo" was."Monstroid" contains many classic elements of grindhouse fare: bad acting, tons of padding (mostly in the form of helicopter footage), macho one-dimensional heroes, female characters who are little more than eye candy, racist stereotypes (in this case, of the Colombian people as ignorant, gullible peasants), numerous screenwriters credited, and the overall look of a home movie shot in someone's back yard.During filming, John Carradine told a crew member, "This is the worst piece of s**t I've ever worked on, and I've worked on a lot of pieces of s**t." I can attest to the second part.

Bezenby Sure, this is one of them bad movies, but on the other hand, it's yet another good bad movies! The sexual politics of this one alone are hilarious, but wait till you get a load of the monster.A woman is having a bit of a dance for her boyfriend while he lounges in a hammock ignoring her next to a lake and the next thing you know he's being grabbed by a huge slimy claw and killed. The lake is in Colombia, but the cement factory next to the lake is US owned. Back in the US, the boss of the factory explains to troubleshooter Jim Mitchum (in between groping his secretary) that Jim's go to go down there and sort things out, as a local revolutionary called Sanchez is causing trouble by claiming pollution from the factory has caused some sort of monster to go on the rampage. There's also a news reporter there also reporting on the pollution.Jim's got to go down there and clean up the whole mess. In the town by the lake, the factory boss is having trouble dumping his girlfriend for the mayor's daughter and gets confused doing so and then they end up having sex by the lake, followed by a classic dumping by the factory boss, resulting in the creature chewing the girlfriend's legs off (one of the few gore pieces of the film).Naturally, Jim's put out by this, and a confrontation with Sanchez, and as Sanchez says: "We'll see who kicks who's arse". He's also having run ins with the reporter (seemingly being paid to hang about one place reporting on every single thing that happens there), as this is the seventies, Jim gets her in the sack pretty shortly. Add to this two nosey kids, John Carridine as a priest, and the first victim's missus being called a witch and being harassed by locals (ala Don't Torture a Duckling) and you've got a rather large cast to deal with. Also, Aldo Sambrell's in the cast too.Apart from Sanchez (who these days would probably be the hero, what with his pro-environmental/revolutionary stance, here he's made out to be a fanatic), everyone gets it together to rid the lake of the creature once and for all, and we get to see the creature in full. Try not to laugh too much! I've got to give to the makers of the film – they aren't shy in showing the creature, no matter how crap it looks.I love films with giant monsters in them, so I was fairly happy with this one. Maybe a wee bit too much interpersonal drama by a too large cast, but the creature itself is worth seeking this one out. That, and the way that woman are portrayed in this one (either sexual objects or witches), I guess there was one strong female character (the mayor's daughter/helicopter pilot), but big Jim gets confused by a female being a pilot. There's also a nice sting in the tale and for some reason, the film is called Monstroid at the start of the film but Monster at the end? There's no way this film was made in 1980 (I see now it was mostly made in 1971).

Michael_Elliott Monster (1979) * (out of 4) One of the great joys of VHS was walking into an old video store and uncovering a film that probably had no right to be on VHS. You can find many of these gems now on DVD but this film, also known as MONSTROID: IT CAME FROM THE LAKE, has a special place in my heart because I discovered it at a very young age and I must admit that it really blew my mind as at the time I had no idea movies could be so bad. The film is pretty simple as a cement company in Columbia are dumping waste into the lake and soon people start to go missing. Some believe it's activists but the truth is that a large sea monster is eating people. Apparently this movie began filming in 1971 but ran out of money so they picked up a few shots here and there for the next several years before finally hitting drive-ins in 1979. This might explain some of the badness because the movie will be going along and then something will happen that makes no sense to the previous scene you just watched. There's no doubt that this is one of the dumbest, more insane and outright laughable movies ever made so if you're a fan of trash then this here is a must see. Within the first five minutes we're told twice that this is based on a true story. From this point on we get countless bad actors getting eaten by this creature. Speaking of the creature, you'd have to rank him right up there with the one in THE GIANT CLAW for one of the worst in history. This thing really does look like a big turd and it's constantly changing sizes and shapes. I'm going to guess they were trying to give it a Godzilla look but they failed pretty bad. The scenes where he's suppose to be eating people are priceless as are the moments when people see him in the water swimming around. For some reason this thing needed four credited screenwriters including Herbert L. Strock who many will remember for directing such films as HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER and I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN. The cast includes Robert Mitchum's son James and we get John Carradine playing a priest. God bless Carradine because no matter how bad the movie is you just know he's going to bring in some charm. As horrid as this movie is it's pretty much bad enough to where everyone should check it out just so they can say they've seen one of the worst monsters in film history.

MisterWhiplash I could barely keep myself from either nodding off or just turning off this turd, but I decided to stick it out if only for the reasoning that maybe *something* would happen. This is the work of a writer/producer/director/special fx, Kenneth Herts, who wants to make a statement on ecological damage while making a monster movie. That's what he wanted, anyway. What it turns out to be is a lot of acting, either slightly hammy or just mundane and without much merit, and scenes that seem to repeat themselves as the monster ATTACKS in the river waters (oh, and what luck, a woman just happens to be naked in it... even though there have already been DISAPPEARANCES!) This is just nonsensical stuff, but I suppose it's not too harmful; it's not very obnoxious at the least and once or twice we get a semi-interesting peek at Brazilian "culture" (which is the father walking through town with his flock or other pieces of a semblance of 'hey, this is NOT America!'). But whatever hope the director had in casting Mitchum or Carradine is squandered on at best pedestrian and at worst excruciatingly banal and dumb dialog. It doesn't help that when we finally get something of a good look at the monster and the "action" happens, it too is stupidly staged and with only sleazy appeal. Usually I would feel sorry for a filmmaker who had a lot of problems getting a particular picture finished- in this case it took the better part of the mid 70s- but with Monstroid or Monster or whatever it's called... nah.If you happen to get the Elvira DVD double-feature of this (bad print with bad transfer quality) with Blue Sunshine, make sure to skip this one. Unless, of course, you're an Elvira die-hard and can't help yourself to hear her luscious commentary; personally, I'd rather get Joel or Mike Nelson with the robots from Mystery Science Theater on this roast turkey.