Please don't spend money on this.

Masterful Cinema

just watch it!

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

I hadn't even heard about "Rana" a.k.a "Croaked: Frog Monster from Hell" until a friend of mine mentioned it a couple of weeks ago, but I instantly wanted to see it for a number of reasons. Number one: Hello! It's a movie about a giant killer frog monster! What more reason do you need? We've seen angry frogs before in the early 70's eco-horror trash fest "Frogs", but they were only normal sized and boring killer frogs! Plus, one of the taglines I encountered stated: "This time, the frog dissects you!" Best cheesy tagline ever! Number two: this is another accomplishment of the notoriously awful director Bill Rebane, who also made the insufferable creature features "Giant Spider Invasion" and "The Capture of Bigfoot". Of course, in my wild enthusiasm, I actually forgot that this thing is probably rare and ultra-obscure for a good reason. Could it possibly be any worse than the other Rebane stinkers, like the aforementioned ones and also "The Demons of Ludlow" and "Monster-a-Go- Go"? Oh yes, sire! This is bad film-making in the purest meaning of the term: long boring stretches of footage that is completely irrelevant, one-dimensional characters, inept dialogs and a total absence of excitement and bloody action. The titular monster is nowhere to be seen until late in the film, but unlike as in "Jaws", you'd wish they never bothered to show it at all once you finally see it. Speaking of "Jaws", there are multiple more heavy influences from that film, like the music and the underwater P.O.V. shots, but I can hardly hold that against Bill Rebane because practically all horror movies around that time imitated the successful gimmicks of Spielberg's summer blockbuster. The plot is narrated by a guy, as some sort of warm fireplace story to his girlfriend in their holiday cabin, and describes a traumatizing encounter of his own childhood. In the story, the narrator is an 8-year- old kid, living with his father near a swamp. After the mysterious disappearance of an anthropologist in the area, another much better looking anthropologist of the female kind comes to investigate. More and more people start to vanish in the swamp, like poachers, but obviously nobody believe the crazy old guy when he says that the legendary frog monster is to be blamed. Rana, as he/she/it is called, looks more like the inbred cousin of Creature from the Black Lagoon than like a frog or any type of amphibian whatsoever. "Rana" is pretty boring during the first hour, but then suddenly quite a lot happens in the span of only a few minutes. One of the characters stumbles over a skull with the eyes still in its sockets, there's a gunfight in slow-motion at the pier and the monster's claws can be admired as he crushes the head of a poacher into a tree. After these three minutes of outrageous action, everything gets boring and tedious again. Couldn't you have spread the a little, Mr. Rebane?

Rana: The Legend of Shadow Lake is set on an isolated Wisconsin island called Rana which refers to a lake god worshipped by Indians, presumably a long time ago. We begin with a man named Kelly (Glenn Scherer), isn't that a woman's name?, telling a woman named Chris (Doreen Moze), isn't that a man's name?, about local legends & the way things used to be when he was 11 years old... Cut to that point in time & the young Kelly (Brad Ellingson) lives on the island with his Father John Morgan (Alan Ross) who happens to be the local Ranger, things were usually very quiet on the island with just Kelly his Father & an old hermit named Charlie (Jerry Gregoris who also has co-writing & co-producing credits) but ever since Kelly found a rare bone fragment that was 125 millions years old things had become busier on the island. A local university sent female paleontologist Dr. Elli Hatley to investigate & her niece Susan (Julie Wheaton) went along for the ride. Three men posing as loggers also turned up at about the same time, Burley (Jim Iaquinta), Cal (Bruno Alexander as Bruno Aclin) & Mike (Michael Skewes) while yet another paleontologist named Sorensen (Lorry Getz) was attacked & killed by something that lives in the lake... Kelly carries on to explain that in the legends that surround the island it is said that somewhere at the bottom of the lake there is huge amounts of gold, but the legend also states that a prehistoric frog creature known as Rana guards the gold & kills anyone foolish enough to attempt to locate it...Co-photographed under the pseudonym Ito (?!), co-produced & directed by Bill Rebane Rana: The Legend of Shadow Lake is a pretty dire film on all accounts. The script by Gregoris, Lyoma Denetz & Mike Landers is tediously slow, dull & boring to the extent that those 96 minutes felt considerably longer. The character's have no personality or likability, the dialogue is stiff, unnatural & really flat I mean people just don't talk like this do they? The basic story could have had potential if the flashbacks were used to unravel a mystery but here they are just used to pad the running time out & there really isn't any need for Kelly to be narrating the film apart from the fact it's an easy way for Rebane to cram a lot of dull exposition in with the least amount of effort. The whole film is just stupid & doesn't gel at all & what about Rana the frog creature himself? Well he makes an appearance at the end for about two minutes & that's it, the rest of the film we just get point-of-view shots & a rubber claw. The extremely predictable twist ending leaves the door open for a sequel which, thankfully, has yet to materialise.Director Rebane again shows his general incompetence here straight from the opening sequence featuring really jerky aerial shots of the island to the way everything looks to have been filmed in natural light so the brightness & colour levels appear to shift all over the place & it's not an easy film to watch. One more thing Bill, where does all that neon lighting come from in those underwater caverns? He fails to create any sort of tension, atmosphere or excitement & as a whole Rana: The Legend of Shadow Lake is a real chore to get through. Every other shot seems to be of a landscape, a tree, the surface of the lake or some local wildlife just to stretch it out even further & it reminded me of a really dull & dry wildlife documentary in terms of content, entertainment value & style, basically very little on all three accounts! There are a few gore scenes, someone has an arrow pushed through them, a body severed in half, someone has their face crushed against a tree & some severed fingers.With a budget that probably wouldn't buy a round of drinks in a pub these days Rana: The Legend of Shadow Lake is a shoddy production from beginning to end, terrible static cinematography, music that feels like it belongs in a different film & Rana himself when he eventually turns up is obviously just a guy in a rubber wetsuit painted green & a silly rubber mask. The acting is awful although there is a great scene when a goat tries to stand on a box in the background & falls off in spectacular style! Plus there is absolutely no reason for it whatsoever...Rana: The Legend of Shadow Lake is a real chore to sit through & is of very little, if any, entertainment value. I'll give it two stars because one or two bits of gore & the bizarre but cool goat scene, although in themselves they are hardly recommendations to watch this. Apparently Troma released this under the alternate title 'Croaked: Frog Monster from Hell' which is a cool title for a crap film, one to avoid.

This film was a lot better then I thought. It was pretty much a throw back to "Creature From The Black Lagoon" except half man half frog & he had a weapon also guarded gold treasures. This is an excellent throwback tribute to Jack Arnold's Sci-Fi Classic the monster suit isn't as good as in Lagoon, but hey what the hell Rana was done a lot lower of a budget then Jack Arnold's Lagoon. I saw this movie finally when I bid & won on ebay. My mom purchased it was a VHS used in good condition got that during X-Mas 2005. I enjoyed pretty much every sec. down to the needle. It was pretty bloody is one reason I really liked it bloodier then Lagoon but not as scary almost though. If the suit would of been better but it's damn good for the budget. The Frog Man likes the younger girl the one that was swimming around in the lake in the sexy one piece pink swimsuit. Yeah Rana got her in the end after Kelly's father was killed. Kelly & the Female Palentologist's young niece were there & that is when Rana broke in & attacked them. He took her over his shoulder this is a lot like in Lagoon when The Gillman takes Julia Adams off the boat & dives back into the lagoon with her. Well I ain't telling much about Rana all u B & Z Graders should see it I loved it! By the way I will be getting the DVD release of it from Troma under it's a.k.a. title "Croaked: Frog Monster From Hell". Which I got & was very disappointed in cause it ran only 89 mins. I also have the old Burbank VHS as I stated & that one ran about 93 mins. Stupid because Troma originally distributed the film why they cut out 3 or 4 mins. for the DVD release makes no sense. Doubt there will ever be another more commercial DVD this being such an obscure 70's monster flick. Along with Rebane's other 70's Sci-Fi Efforts besides, "The Giant Spider Invasion" from 1975. That just got a 2009 2-Disc DVD Deluxe Treatment. That one seems to get the most attention. Which is a shame his 1977 Sci-Fi Effort "The Alpha Incident" was doubled billed with Star Wars at the theaters back in 1977. It was the second feature to Star Wars. Rebane stated in the commentary on the new Spider Invasion DVD, he didn't know if Alpha or his 1987 Horror Slasher Effort "Blood Harvest" got the bigger share of the pie. He never did get the money for Spider Invasion's theatrical gross. Neither it's enduring Cult Status as a mainstream Drive-Inn Sci-Fi Classic. Rana is one of my favorites of the 70's though. So I gave it a 6 but Octaman '72 & Zaat '72 are better they got an 8 for their type.

I thought the frog monster would be featured more in the movie. You only see the monster maybe 3 minutes in the entire movie! The times the monster is featured you don't see the monster most of the time. You see through his eyes, which was probably done for budgeting purposes. The movie mostly focuses on a old man who wants no one on the island. Frog Monster had potential but they dropped the ball! The box was very misleading. The Frog Monster attacks a scientist and her niece. Not a group of lovely young ladies as the movie box makes you want to believe. I'm usually a fan of these types of movies but this movie really struck out.