User Reviews

Or maybe I should say "creature horror" because the one responsible for all the killings in here is not really an animal, but an artificially created creature. This is "Das Biest im Bodensee", a German small screen release from 1999, which means this one is already almost 20 years old. It was directed by Richard Huber and written by Mathias Dinter. For the former, it is among his most known works while the latter has made many other trash films that are even more famous. The lead actress here is the late Barbara Rudnik and she is also almost the only cast member that I know in here. The other would be Anna Schmidt, which is quite a coincidence as I really loved her on "Vater wider Willen" back then and so it was a nice surprise to see her in here. On her profile page I saw that she returned to film acting recently and I truly hope she decides to pick up roles once again. But now let us take a look at this film here. Yeah, it is trash, there is no denying. It is cringeworthy how the film takes itself so seriously at times and for the most part it was quite embarrassing. The ending sequence in the bad guys' headquarter was not a worthy finish at all and possibly the weakest part of the movie. Early on, at least there were some scenes on the river when we could be slightly scared (or entertained) by the presence of the creature and we could wonder if he will kill one of those guys in the next moments or not. Yes it is all very predictable (for example that the creature eventually kills the bad guys who made it) when it does and also you should definitely not expect anything like "Jaws" in here, but the film luckily has its tolerable moments which is also why I will refrain from giving it an even lower rating. But this certainly does not mean it is a creative achievement whatsoever. The story as a whole made no sense at all and there is also no love to detail as it all feels so cringeworthy in particular scenes. So yeah, apart from seeing Schmidt in here, I cannot really come up with anything positive and this is also just a very subjective preference of course. Besides, what is maybe the worst for the filmmakers (i.e. the writer) is how shamelessly he stole scenes and moments from other much more successful films. One example would be "The Usual Suspects" and you will know the scene I am talking about immediately when you see it. There is little quality to "The Beast in the Lake" and I definitely cannot recommend it. Maybe it will work as some kind of guilty pleasure movie for people who love the genre, but everybody else should really stay away. In terms of the scenes and contents and aspects, it's mediocre at best and garbage at worst. We should be glad that the sequel implied at the end never happened.