TTT: Rana: The Legend of Shadow Lake (1975)

Courtesy of MST3K, I've seen a couple of Bill Rebane movies already. Monster A-Go Go is, I believe, the worst movie to have ever hit my optic nerves in all of my 31 years. Even robots cracking jokes couldn't help it. The Giant Spider Invasion is a bit of bad movie gold that features a Volkswagon covered in fur as the title creature: I love it. Rana lies somewhere in the middle of these, though unfortunately closer to the A-Go Go end of the spectrum.

I really wanted to like the film. I'm always keen to watch a movie filmed in my part of the world (Rana was shot in Wisconsin, right across the lake). It sports a "You're all doomed!" guy in it, a stock character I can't get enough of in horror movies. This doomsayer is Charlie, a crazy old trapper who lives alone in the woods and is the only person who knows what's going down. I've never seen a man-frog monster in a movie before, either, so that sounded neat (I've really gotta rent Hell Comes to Frogtown).

Sadly, it just never comes together. There just isn't enough fun stuff in the movie -- Charlie really being the only bit of entertainment -- to make up for the long stretches of watching people swim, horseback ride, sleep in tents, fish and feed deer. A bad-bad movie.



aka Croaked: Frog Monster from Hell
aka Ranna
d. Bill Rebane