Rana: The Legend Of Shadow Lake (USA, 1981) 96 min color DIR: Bill Rebane. PROD: Jerry Gregoris, Bill Rebane. SCR: Lyoma Denetz, Jerry Gregoris, Mike Landers. MUSIC: Bruce Malm. DOP: “Ito” (aka- Bill Rebane), Bela St. Jon. CAST: Paul Callaway, Richard Lange, Glenn Scherer, Brad Ellingson, Karen McDiarmid, Julie Wheaton, Jerry Gregoris, Lorrie Getz.
Kelly Morgan (Glenn Scherer) relates to his hot-to-trot girlfriend Chris (Doreen Mose) the story of how when he was a youngster living on an island with his ranger dad, they were visited by two fetching female paleoontologists, Elli (Karen McDiarmid) and her niece Susan (Julie Wheaton), to investigate some old frog bones. These visitors offered a nice addition to the usual local colour, such as old coot Charlie (Jerry Gregoris- one of the screenwriters!), who has a pet goat on a leash in his shack, and who likes to shoot at the group of loggers who are also visiting the island. It seems that these men are interested in some fabled treasure that lies somewhere in the lake. However, the crazy old codger Charlie warns of a half-man, half-frog monster called Rana who lives in the waters. (He even throws chickens into the lake one night, supposedly as a sacrifice to appease the fabled creature.) And since the lake is unusually warm, and appears to be bottomless at the centre, maybe the fella has a point.
When a fellow scientist named Sorenson (Lorrie Getz), who is really looking for the loot, is mysteriously killed early on, we realize there is truth to Charlie’s ramblings. One by one the hapless humans are picked off by the frog monster, until the young Kelly (Brad Ellingson) proves he is a man by shooting the creature, thus saving the screaming girls. The adult Kelly is relaying this story while trying to smooch up the fetching Chris in her sexy velvet housecoat, in front of the cabin fireplace, but she keeps interrupting his amorous advances to tell her more about his adventure, and of course, the gold. Before long, this couple is diving into the murky lake bottom, seeking out the mysterious cavern where the gold lays. But is the danger really over? Is the frog monster still lurking about?
If this synopsis sounds like fun, believe me, it isn’t. This scenario written by three people at least makes more narrative sense than Rebane’s Invasion From Inner Earth, but isn’t nearly as adventurous, either. Director-producer Rebane (who also acted as director of photography under his oft-used “Ito” pseudonym) wisely lets the viewer wait until the last fifteen minutes before we see the monster- perhaps to build suspense, but more likely to hide the creature’s cheap rubber suit. Any suspense or character development is drained by Rebane’s refusal to shoot anything in close-up (except for one shot of a bullfrog- wow) preferring instead to let his cast of competent amateurs immerse themselves in miasmic views of the bluish boggy landscape. Granted, the climax where young Kelly protects the ladies from the frog monster breaking into the window, is lively, if because we’re finally seeing the rubber-suited, er, the frog monster while the young man blasts it with a shotgun, and even hacks off some of its webbed fingers. And the surprise shock ending, where the gold-digging duo discovers that Rana isn’t alone when a baby frog monster’s hand breaks through a huge eggshell, is shot so offhandedly that one may miss it.
When I first reviewed this movie for an article on Bill Rebane back in 2011, I had given its release year as 1975, as per the IMDB. Since then, it’s been reported that it was shot in 1981, and was trying to find a distributor as late as 1983-84. (Actress Cheri Caffaro, best known as the star of the Ginger movies, was associate producer of this film, and Rebane’s next film, The Demons of Ludlow, so it makes sense that they were produced around the same time.) But it looks like it was made in 1975- it’s that kind of movie.
Rana is a Black Lagoon rip-off that was perhaps shot in the wake of such films as The Legend of Boggy Creek, which inspired many regional producers to follow by example with similar “based on a true story” approaches and a pseudo-documentary feel to their own versions of some folklorish monsters who stalk the nearby creeks. (So if indeed this was a 1981 production instead of 1975, this was even made even later than when such films were still marketable.) This movie however could’ve used that pseudo-documentary style… any, in fact. Its few moments of suspense are drained by a similarly infantile approach to the material, especially in its cheesy electronic score that even brazenly rips off John Williams’ score to Jaws whenever some gurgling bubbles appear on the lake surface.Rana was once made available to VHS by good old Astral Video using the poster art above. Troma currently distributes it on DVD with the title, Croaked: Frog Monster From Hell.
Updated from its original publication in Vol. #1, Issue #24, excerpted from a larger piece on Bill Rebane. Much of the article has been dispersed accordingly in reviews of the films that have now been released on Arrow’s amazing box set, Weird Wisconsin: The Bill Rebane Collection.
Greg Woods
Greg Woods has been a film enthusiast since his teens, and began his writing "career" at the same time- prolific in capsule reviews of everything he had watched, first on index cards, then those hardcover dollar store black journals, then an old Mac IIsi. He founded The Eclectic Screening Room in 2001, as a portal to share his film love with the world, and find some like-minded enthusiasts along the way. In addition to having worked in the film industry for over two decades, he has been a co-programmer of films at Trash Palace, and a programmer/co-founder of the Toronto Film Noir Syndicate. He has also written for Broken Pencil, CU-Confidential, Micro-Film, and is currently working on his first novel. His secret desire is for someone to interview him for a podcast or a DVD extra.