Thursday, October 10, 2019

31 Days of Horror Day 10 Scooby Doo Curse of the Lake Monster

TITLE-Scooby Doo Curse of the Lake Monster
SOURCE-Boomerang streaming app

So far there has been 4 live action Scooby Doo films. Most people know about the first two. Since they played in theaters and had a fairly all star cast. Lesser known are the 3rd and 4th films. These were made for tv and premiered on Cartoon Network. And oddly the 3rd and 4th films are prequels.


I saw and didn't like the first 2 Scooby Doo films. There is various reasons why I didn't like them. A big part of it was Sara Michelle Geller was horrible as Daphne. And Freddy Prinze Jr was horrid as Freddy. Even though Linda Cardellini is great as Velma ,it isn't enough to make up for how bad 2 of the leads are.

It was September 2009 I am on the coast spending some time with my extended family. This was before broadband internet was available where I lived. So while at my aunt's I used her internet to download all the podcasts and stuff I wanted. Back in her computer room she had a tv that had just basic cable. I was trying to find something to watch and saw listed what I thought was one of the many animated Scooby movies. Turns out it was the 3rd live action film. Which told the story of how the Scooby Doo gang met.  This 3rd film was actually really good.

Skip ahead to early 2019 I had just signed up for the VRV streaming service. I got it cause it included Boomerang and Shudder,plus about 8 other channels. While going through the Boomerang app I started adding a bunch of the animated Scooby Doo films to my watchlist. This is when I discovered there is a 4th live action Scooby movie. And it has the same cast as the third film. Seeing this I added Scooby Doo Curse of the Lake Monster to my list of films I wanted to review in October.

School has just ended for the summer and Daphne has the Scooby Gang jobs at her uncle's country club. Their first night at the new job a frog monster appears and attacks people. So of course the Scooby gang wants to figure out who is the frog monster.

Also through out the movie Shaggy develops a major crush on Velma. Shaggy asks Velma out on a date. After lighting a match and Velma reacting badly Shaggy starts to realize something is up with Velma. Seems Velma got possessed by the spirit of a witch.

Of course the gang solves the mystery of who the frog monster is. Velma gets freed from the witch's control. And the film ends with Shaggy and Velma dating.

All the main cast is pretty good at their parts. Hayley Kiyoko is the stand out as Velma. Managing to capture the essence of Velma that we all know from the classic 60s and 70s episodes of the Scooby Doo cartoons.

Sadly it looks like this 4th film didn't do to well. Cause it came out in 2010 and there hasn't been another live action film since then. Which sucks. Cause the two made for TV films are way better than the tripe that came out in a theater.

Scooby Doo Curse of the Lake Monster gets a B-.