
Lake Placid
1999, Comedy/Horror, 1h 22m
96 Reviews 100,000+ RatingsWhat to know
critics consensus
Betty White's delightful supporting turn may be worth the price of admission alone, but Lake Placid is swamped by a smarmy script and inability to deliver on the creature feature mayhem. Read critic reviews
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Where to watch
Show all servicesLake Placid Photos
Movie Info
Cast & Crew
Jack Wells
Kelly Scott
Hector Cyr
Sheriff Hank Keough
Mrs. Delores Bickerman

Walt Lawson
News & Interviews for Lake Placid
Critic Reviews for Lake Placid
All Critics (96) | Top Critics (28) | Fresh (45) | Rotten (51)
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This may be no more than a squib of a B movie, and it remains about as frightening as a fish tank, but, if you have any poetry in your soul, you will surely thrill to a film that ends with a crocodile sticking its head in a helicopter.
November 30, 2020 | Full Review… -
The lazy finale makes Lake Placid seem more marginal and forgettable than it already was, which is actually something of a feat.
July 9, 2019 | Full Review… -
Miner's thoroughly unimaginative visual style sees to it that "Lake Placid" is not the least bit frightening, and the entire undertaking generates maybe one decent laugh. That is, if you don't count Fonda's chronic inability to act.
July 9, 2019 | Full Review… -
Lake Placid is an entertaining comedy thriller directed by Steve Miner and scripted by David E Kelley, the man who brought us Ally McBeal.
July 9, 2019 | Full Review… -
The whole movie's a giant croc.
December 13, 2014 | Full Review… -
It's neither Jaws-scary nor Tremors-funny, but genre-movie fans in 1999 did have a chance to feast on the year's talkiest, most neurotic horror movie. They respectfully declined.
July 7, 2014 | Rating: 1.5/5 | Full Review…
Audience Reviews for Lake Placid
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Sep 10, 2020An extremely strange blockbuster that features an overly sarcastic screenplay by David E. Kelley and a supporting performance from Betty White. Despite these weirder elements, the movie is a little dull which is a shame.Alec B Super Reviewer
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Jan 24, 2018Not bad for a giant-gator Creature Feature, but Goddamn listening the dialogue in the first act is aggravating as sin.Gimly M Super Reviewer
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Nov 15, 2013I love genre-bending movies, and especially those that mix horror with comedy. That puts me dead center of the target demographic of this film. The plot is pretty silly and there certainly isn't enough action for anyone looking for scares. What saves it is the script. It's witty and never takes itself too seriously. The characters are all foils for one another, setting up some of the most entertaining dialog of any movie I know. The plot revolves around a 30 foot Asian crocodile somehow winding up in a lake in Maine - go figure. What makes the movie are the characters assembled to do something about it. Bridget Fonda is an annoying paleontologist who's never before ventured out of her museum. Here, she plays both the archetypal fish out of water as well as potential romantic interest for the local game warden, played by Bill Pullman. The essential characters are rounded out by Brendan Gleeson's dour sheriff, Oliver Platt's rich and eccentric mythology buff, and Betty White as the colorful local little old lady with a secret or two. As I said, reduced to a plot outline, it's pretty unimpressive, but the verbal barbs that fly back and forth between the characters are what make the show. It's an "action/horror" movie I could watch with my eyes shut and still enjoy. 5 Stars 11-05-13Bruce B Super Reviewer
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Oct 21, 2011To begin with its not even Lake Placid, but some other lake, this one up in Maine ("the graveyard of horror!" ... I just said that. I don't know if its true. Like the sound of it though. London's maybe the real graveyard ... anyway ) and there's something in the water, something big, and its eating people. Funny and cool creature feature.Kevin M. W Super Reviewer
Lake Placid Quotes
Hank Keogh: | I never heard of a crocodile crossing an ocean. |
Hector Cyr: | Well, they conceal information like that in books. |
Hank Keogh: | Was that, like, a homosexual remark You know Hector, I'm sure you're a fine person in your own mental way, but I think it would be best if you and I didn't speak. |
Hank Keogh: | I'm going to say this because I believe in being straight with people: I think you are a mental. |
Hector Cyr: | Sheriff, I appreciate your candor, really I do. I think it's always good to know where somebody's coming from and frankly your origins have been a bit of a mystery ... to me. |
Hector Cyr: | Let's not overlook the fact that he didn't eat me. |
Jack Wells: | 'Cause he just ate a cow, stupid! |
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