"Happy Homemade Shenanigans"
An attempt to do something slightly different with the ultra low-budget comedy Lovecraft subgenre, LAKE MICHIGAN MONSTER is getting a Blu-ray release from Arrow packed with extras.
Captain Seafield (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews who also writes and directs because it's that kind of production) claims his father was snatched from their boat by a sea monster and so he enlists the aid of three 'specialists' to help him track it down.
LAKE MICHIGAN MONSTER is very much in the spirit of Larry Blamire's LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA movies, and if you liked those you might get a kick out of this one. Be warned, though, that the budget is much lower and the sense of 'shot on a Sunday afternoon because we were bored and thought it might be a wacky thing to do' is much higher.
But does it work? Whereas Blamire's films justify their feature length, LAKE MICHIGAN MONSTER starts to outstay its welcome rather fast. It feels like the kind of thing that might have worked as a five minute sketch, or at a stretch a half hour episode of The Goodies or The Comic Strip, but at 78 minutes this stuff starts to get rather wearing. Mind you, such is the beauty of Blu-ray that you can pause it and come back later. It's also the kind of film to leave on at a party because it's highly likely none of your guests will have ever seen it.
Arrow's Blu-ray is packed with extras, including three commentary tracks, one of which is 'drunk' although nobody gets into a fight like on the best (and unplanned) alcohol-assisted commentaries. There are three interviews, an effects breakdown and you get the Captain Seafield theme song performed by the Seafield Monster Sextet if you really want to hear it again.
As usual there are trailers, stills and a reversible sleeve. The first pressing of the disc comes with a booklet with new writing on the film by Barry Forshaw.
LAKE MICHIGAN MONSTER is out on Blu-ray from Arrow on Monday 2nd November 2020
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