Rana: The Legend of Shadow Lake (1975)

User Rating:

1.9/10   

Director:

Bill Rebane

Writers:

Lyoma Denetz (writer)
Jerry Gregoris (writer)

Genre:

Adventure | Horror | Comedy | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Something's wrong beneath shadow lake... dead wrong!

Plot:

When Kelly Morgan was 11 years old he had a terrifying encounter with Rana, a strange half man/half frog monster living in a lake...

Plot Keywords:

Monster | Lake | Frog | Frog Monster | Gold

Cast

Paul Callaway	...	Rana
Richard Lange	...	Rana
Glenn Scherer	...	Kelly Sr.
Brad Ellingson	...	Kelly Jr.
Karen McDiarmid	...	Elli
Alan Ross	...	John
Julie Wheaton	...	Susan
Jerry Gregoris	...	Charlie
Jim Iaquinta	...	Burley
Bruno Alexander	...	Cal (as Bruno Aclin)
Michael Skewes	...	Mike (as Michael J. Skewes)
Doreen Moze	...	Chris
Lorry Getz	...	Sorenson
Angel Rebane	...	Baby Rana

Also Known As:

Croaked: Frog Monster from Hell
Rana: The Creature from Shadow Lake (UK) (video title)
Ranna

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Norway:15 (video premiere)

Filming Locations:

Gleason, Wisconsin, USA

Company:

Galaxy One Productions

Truly a painful experience...

Rana: The Legend of Shadow Lake is one of the most truly horrible visions ever put on film. The excruciating acting and horribly conceived script take it to a rare level of high comedy.

The plot involves a kid who finds a frog bone. The bone turns out to be from some kind of vague fossil frog or something, so a paleontologist shows up to look around this isolated island. Meanwhile, a bunch of true wizards are trying to swim to the bottom of Shadow Lake to find a buried treasure. There's a fair bit of bad early 70's music, and obscure scenes of the kid fishing and playing with deer. Jerry Gregoris, the film's producer, plays crazy Charlie, who tells the kid of a strange creature who lives in the lake, "half man... half frog... half, I dunno WHAT! They called him Rana...". People get killed by this guy running around in the Creature from the Black Lagoon's suit after someone dumped a gloppy bucket of green paint on it. Eventually Rana gets what's coming to him and the horrible secret at the bottom of Shadow Lake is revealed.

Scenes such as the kid, Kelly, feeding baby deer, fishing and trying to be cool in front of the paleontologist's beautiful (ha!) assistant are ugly. Even uglier is the adult Kelly narrating the tale while he makes out with his somewhat sleazy girlfriend. Watch for the scene when crazy Charlie's goat takes a tumble in the background.

This film is for the truly sadistic. If you somehow manage to find a copy, view at your own risk.