The original film, “Lake Placid” was possibly one of the crappiest killer animal flicks I’ve ever seen. And I was anxious to see it when it was released. The woefully under-appreciated Bill Pullman was alright, as was Bridget Fonda, but through it all was a horrible script, a cheesy plot, and a simplistic story that bordered on absurd. Nah, we didn’t need a sequel. I know you were about to ask that, right? Does necessity come into play when money comes to mind? Never, you stupid fool. “Lake Placid 2” has one thing going for it. Cloris Leachman, and then you wonder how the hell they wrangled her into this. This woman is a comedy legend, what the hell did they do to grab her? A bribe perhaps? Blackmail? A blood oath made with Satan? Poor Cloris Leachman.
And then there’s John Schneider, the man unfairly written off of “Smallville,” for the sake of ratings. Here, he plays the typical sheriff character you see in all of these horror movies, and that’s sad. The man is much more talented than he gets credit for. But, I was open to “Lake Placid 2” only because in my perpetual optimism, I wanted this to be fun. And then I remembered that David Flores has worked on numerous really bad killer animal films, most of which have gone on to four or five parts, surprisingly. Flores basically conducts the same formula here as he did in the last films. There’s the sheriff with a past, his ex-lover, the wily comic relief, the rebellious teenage son and his doe eyed love interest, and Cloris Leachman. Poor Frau Blücher.
One consolation, and I use the term very loosely, is that the sequel has a link to the original, and that’d be great if the original was any good. And I love the bland characters here, from Leachman who is not convincing as eccentric, Schneider who is Bo Duke with a Sheriff’s outfit, and his love interest who does her best to mimic Bridget Fonda at times. And yet again, there is some of the worst dialogue I’ve heard in forever, here. Jokes fall flat, exposition is slim, and the story is pretty ridiculous. Overall, there’s really nothing to this film beyond a cash-in, or attempted cash-in. Yes, it’s a horrible sequel to a pretty terrible movie, but it’s still better than “Super Croc” in the end.