Watch Rana: The Legend of Shadow Lake For Free

So much average

Good concept, poorly executed.

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

I'm not a Troma fan, in fact I'd go as far as to say that my opinion of the average Troma film is somewhat derogative.This early Troma title is very different from the others and yet succeeds in somehow being worse. Allegedly a horror comedy I can assure you in contains minimal horror and absolutely no comedy, looking at the cover I know that's probably hard to believe.Rana: The Legend Of Shadow Lake otherwise known as Croaked : Frog Monster From Hell is not about a giant frog as the cover art would suggest and is more a Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954) type, except despite being made in the 50's the monster looked better then.With very little actually happening, looking terrible when things do and with little to no redeeming features Rana is actually worse than the cover would suggest and that's really quite impressive.Nice to know Troma was awful from day one.The Good:Funny cover artThe Bad:Daft conceptWeak horror, poor comedyDishonest coverOddly boringThings I Learnt From This Movie:An actual giant frog would have been considerably more interestingThis makes the Toxic Avenger look intellectual

Rana: The Legend of Shadow Lake (1981) 1/2 (out of 4) Kelly tells the story of when he was 11-years-old and staying with his father by a large lake. He tells the story of how one summer a half-man, half-frog creature began stalking people.Bill Rebane directed this film and it's without question one of the worst films of its kind. In fact, I'd argue that this was one of the slowest and weakest films ever made for the genre and the only thing that really saves it is the fact that Troma bought it and gave it a much better title: CROAKED: FROG MONSTER FROM HELL. That title alone is exploitation gold but it also seems that Troma knew that the film itself couldn't be sold so they came up with a crazy title to get some sales.As far as the film goes, it's really a throwback to the various monster pictures of the 1950's drive-in era. Movies like ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES and THE GIANT GILA MONSTER is what this film tries to be like but the problem here is that the film is deadly dull from the word go. We keep hearing a lot about this monster but we never clearly see him until the very end. And when he does arrive it's easy to see why the filmmakers didn't want to show it off as the creature costume is downright awful. I mean it's really, really bad and certainly one of the worst that you're ever going to see.The performances really aren't any better and the gore effects are pretty tame and not at all creative. The film clocks in at around 89-minutes, which is honestly about eighty-minutes too long. RANA: THE LEGEND OF SHADOW LAKE just doesn't have a single thing going for it outside of its great title and alternate title. I'm sure they were trying to do something but it just seems like they had no money so instead of anything good we were just given a boring talk-fest.

If you know Bill Rebane, you'll know what to expect here: Low budget antics with local actors, z-grade effects, and yet an overall charming atmosphere. This is one of his better efforts as it actually has things happening during the plot.A guy and his gal end up on an isolated island and in between heavy petting, he recounts and incident from his childhood while growing up on the island with his father. When he was but a kid, some folks ended up on the island looking into some sort of legend (and of course the treasure implied by the legend). You've got some treasure hunters masquerading as loggers, and odds with local crazy hunter Charlie (they exchange pot shots at each other fairly regularly), two scientist chicks, and another scientist guy who very early on gets killed by some creature in the lagoon.Bottom line is: there's a crazy frog monster in the lake in the middle of the island and he's not too happy at being disturbed. The loggers are next on the menu (and the also clash with our narrator's dad several times), but when old Charlie gets plugged our frog guy goes mental and it's up to our survivors to get off the island before Rana gets them all, and who will survive (except the narrator, of course, but then we've got to find out why he came back).Much more exciting than Rebane's Alpha Incident and The Game, Rana is a more straightforward horror film which pleased me to no end as I'm a sucker for a regional film. The plot moves very fast (for a Rebane film) and there's even a smattering of gore here and there. The acting is what you'd expect if you know Rebane's films, and some of the music was downright funky. Rather high incidents of slow motion throughout, for some reason.To summarise: If you're curious about Bill Rebane, try this one, Demons of Ludlow and the Giant Spider invasion. Lesser works included the strange film The Game, the boring Alpha Incident, and the so-so comedy Twister's Revenge.

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.