Horror Movie Review: Croaked: Frog Monster from Hell (1981)

Croaked: Frog Monster from Hell (also known as Rana: The Legend of Shadow Lake) is a 1981 American monster movie directed by Bill Rebane. Written by Lyoma Denetz, Jerry Gregoris and Mike Landers. Yes, this snorefest of a monster movie had 3 people working on its story. Stunning.

It’s a Troma special. Cheesy b-grade quality and low-budget nonsense, Kelly Morgan (Brad Ellingson) is retelling the story of his father’s death. A tale that surrounds the half man/half frog creature known as Rana. Meanwhile, a group of loggers are running afoul of the creature and Kelly will have to face his past to stop it once and for all.

This really should have been a far better movie than it actually is and there are signs of quality fighting to break free of the monotony. These moments are few and far between though, mostly confined to its finale and even that ends up being wholly unsatisfying.

When you see a movie that talks of a frog/human monster hybrid causing chaos, you picture a fun combination of cheese, violence and silliness. Aside from being low-budget, Croaked: Frog Monster from Hell fails in all these departments. It is an absolute slog to get through. The plot is tired and clichéd. The cast of characters are forgettable, boring and the actors aren’t likely to have put this film on their CV. It lacks any memorable moments and even the eventual reveal of the monster itself is underwhelming.

It’s one of those movies that is described in some areas as a ‘so bad it’s good’ movie. It’s not. It’s just bad because it’s so slow moving that it’s hard to stay engaged. The brief bit of frantic action in the final moments can’t make up for that. Especially not when the movie is 93 minutes long.