| Lake Michigan Monster | |
| Director: | Ryland Brickson Cole Tews |
| Producer: | Mike Cheslik Sebastian Johnson Ryland Brickson Cole Tews |
| Starring: | Ryland Brickson Cole Tews Erick West Beulah Peters Daniel Long Wayne Tews |
| Editing: | Mike Cheslik |
| Music: | Chris Hoelter Chris Ryan De Wolfe Music |
| Studio: | Blood Sweat Honey |
| Distributor: | Arrow Films |
| Runtime: | 78 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $7,000 (estimated) |
Lake Michigan Monster is a 2018 black-and-white American adventure comedy horror film written, produced, and directed by Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, starring Tews, Erick West, Beulah Peters, Daniel Long, and Wayne Tews. It centers on an eccentric alcoholic who assembles a team to track down and kill the title monster out of revenge for the death of his father.
The Lake Michigan Monster was developed by Tews and Mike Cheslik after a conversation Tews had with a close friend on the possibility of what would happen if a monster washed up on the shores of Lake Michigan. The film was influenced by British comedy group Monty Python and the earlier episodes of the television series The Simpsons, with additional inspiration gathered from the films of Guy Maddin, specifically Brand Upon the Brain. The Lake Michigan Monsters visual style was developed to fit its low-budget and comedic style, as the only camera available developed only low-resolution footage. Filming began mostly around Milwaukee and Muskegon, Michigan, over sixteen months.
It premiered at the Milwaukee Film Festival on October 24, 2018, and was later screened extensively at various film festivals in 2019, including the Beloit International Film Festival, and Fantasia International Film Festival. Video distribution company Arrow Films later purchased distribution rights to the film, releasing it via the company's channel and video on demand on August 3, 2020, before releasing it on Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on November 2. In addition to garnering multiple awards and nominations, it was generally praised for its homage to 1960s B movies, humor, and use of practical and visual effects.
Seafield, an eccentric, alcoholic "sea" captain, lost his father to a lake monster. He assembles a team of specialists in what he refers to as the "Team of the Century". The team consists of weapons expert Sean Shaughnessy, sonar operator Nedge Pepsi, and former Navy Officer Dick Flynn. They arrive at Lighthouse Island in Lake Michigan, intending to kill it. While their first attempt fails, Dick is attacked by the monster during their second attempt, with the monster impregnating him.
The team later meets with Seafield's brother Ashcroft to brainstorm a new plan. At night, the team encounters the monster, who leaves them a note, saying it will see them in their dreams. While dreaming, Seafield witnesses Dick being attacked by the monster, and it later appears with an egg, which it calls a peace offering. In the morning, Seafield finds the egg and has Sean shoot it. During their third attempt, Dick throws the egg's pieces into the lake as bait after hearing voices calling out for the egg. The monster later kills Sean in a rage after finding the egg's remains.
During Sean's funeral, Dick is angered after discovering the monster's offspring was his unborn son and leaves the team. Back at base, Seafield tells Nedge the truth. He is neither a captain nor rich as he previously claimed. Upset, Nedge leaves him. At night, Ashcroft tells Seafield that he is cursed for killing the monster's child and for Sean's death; the only way to break the curse, he warns, is to kill the monster. Seafield attempts to reenlist Dick and Nedge, but they deny his offer. Seafield then encounters Sean's ghost, who pursues him to a boat headed for Lighthouse Island. During this time, Ashcroft is attacked and killed by the monster on Lighthouse Island.
Back on the boat, Seafield realizes the boat is heading backwards. He attempts to get it back on course, but the boat starts to malfunction. He fixes it and heads to Lighthouse Island. En route, he finds Ashcroft's severed head, who tells him the reason they didn't have a mother was because their father killed her. Arriving at the museum, Seafield heads down into the catacombs and finds his father's ghost army. He asks them for help in killing the monster, which they accept. However, the monster proves to be too powerful and defeats them, telling Seafield to fight it himself. Heading towards the entrance to the monster's lair, he again encounters Sean's ghost, who attacks him. Finding the sword that Dick lost during one of their failed attempts, he slices Sean in half, but Sean regenerates and continues pursuing him. He successfully avoids Sean and enters the monster's lair.
In the lair, Seafield encounters the monster, a female semi-humanoid creature, and attacks her. After a brief skirmish, the monster reveals that she and Seafield are siblings. Their father, a drunk, never knew their mother's true nature until one day when their father arrived at a Milwaukee liquor store five minutes after closing. Sobering up, he was horrified by their mother's true form and killed her. Once the monster came of "killing age," she avenged her mother by killing him. The monster admits that she wanted to put their violence behind them, impregnating a nearby naked man (Dick), as a peace offering to Seafield, but he rejected it by destroying the egg.
Seafeld seems to accept the monster's story and goes for a hug. Instead, reaching for a pair of hidden knives, he stabs her in the neck killing her. It is then revealed that the monster had lied about the entire story, as the monster had told Seafeld the wrong closing time at the liquor store. He celebrates his victory and then suddenly is harpooned in the eye by Sean's ghost, who thanks him for avenging his death and passes into the afterlife as the film ends.
Lake Michigan Monster was written, produced, and directed by Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, with development for the film beginning sometime in 2018. Inspiration for the film came about after a conversation between Tews and his close friend Erick West. Tews, who was in the process of moving to Los Angeles at the time, was visiting Lake Michigan with West where the two jokingly struck up a conversation on what would happen if they were to witness a mermaid washing up on the shore of the lake. Believing the concept was a great idea for a potential feature film, Tews began developing the film's screenplay shortly afterward, marking Tews' feature film debut. Concluding that the film would be a low-budget production, Tews developed the film's screenplay with his friend and fellow filmmaker Mike Cheslik, writing sequences around specific locations where he knew he could film, with the intention that he (Tews) also starred in the film. Development of the film's screenplay was influenced by Tews' love of the British comedy group Monty Python and the earlier episodes of the television series The Simpsons. Tews also listed additional influences such as the films of Guy Maddin, specifically Brand Upon the Brain (2006), and Sam Raimi's Evil Dead II (1987), for the film's humor and style. Early on in development, the original idea of a mermaid was changed into that of a lake monster, as they felt it was "more attainable". Tews and co-writer and producer Cheslik also came up with the idea to keep the film at a brisk pace, reasoning that its potential audience would see through the film's limited budget and lose interest. Dialogue and characters were also deliberately structured around friends and family of Tews, whom he had in mind for certain roles. In an interview with Comic Book Resources, Tews stated, "They more or less play themselves in the movie, and because they're not classically trained actors... I kind of just wrote their characters as who they are in person".
Principal photography began in March 2017, for sixteen months, with shooting locations occurring mostly around Milwaukee and Muskegon, Michigan. The film was shot using an old DSLR camera, owned by Tews's girlfriend, actress Beulah Peters, with low-resolution footage, owing to the decision early on in production to shoot in black and white, which Tews later reflected helped the film to stand out among other productions at the time. A majority of the film's budget, approximately $7,000, was supplied by Tews from his side job as a pizza delivery man. The film's cast and crew were mostly composed of personal friends of Tews, all of whom worked in multiple roles during production. According to Tews, there was no real director of cinematography, with both cast and crew members operating the camera during production. With limited production funds, cast and crew members constantly devised methods of shooting sequences within the film's budget. Underwater sequences proved to be the most difficult to shoot. As Tews stated in an interview with horror magazine Rue Morgue, the camera operators had a limited supply of oxygen and could only shoot for a short amount of time before surfacing for air
The film's title monster was designed by veteran special effects artist and director Joe Castro, with additional help from cast member Erick West, who designed the claws. Castro had previously contributed to over fifty productions, notably, Evil Toons (1992), Campfire Tales (1997), Night of the Demons 3 (1997), and The Summer of Massacre (2012). Working with Castro, Tews wanted the film's monster to be unique and "something you’d never seen before", also having the design resemble an (unmentioned) member of the film's cast. The resulting design was noted by one critic as resembling the early works of cinematic pioneer Georges Méliès. While also serving as the film's editor, Cheslik contributed to the film's computer-generated imagery, working on over 300 effects shots depicted in the film.
Lake Michigan Monster premiered at the Milwaukee Film Festival on October 24, 2018. The film was screened extensively at various film festivals in 2019, starting on February 2, where it was screened at the Beloit International Film Festival, followed by a Q & A with director Tews. On March 9 it was screened at the MidWest WeirdFest, as a part of the first seven films in its official line-up. The 10th Annual Door County Short Film Fest presented a special screening of the film on April 19. From April 7 to June 28 it would have screenings at the Milwaukee Twisted Dreams Film Festival, and the Vidlings & Tapeheads Film Festival, respectively. It later had its international premiere on July 25, 2019, at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal. It was a part of the official selection of films screened at the 6th annual FilmQuest film festival, where it was screened on September 11. The Bay City-based event known as the Hell's Half Mile Film & Music Festival screened the film on September 27, and on October 11 it was showcased at the Northeast Wisconsin Horror Film Festival.
Screenings of the Lake Michigan Monster continued at multiple film festivals for the final half of 2019, most notably the Flyway Film Festival, Lausanne Underground Film and Music Festival, Nightmares Film Festival, before having its premiere in the United Kingdom at the Abertoir Festival.
In 2023, the Milwaukee-based Lakefront Brewery hosted screenings of the film on May 20. This was followed by additional showings at the Avalon Theater from May 21 to May 27, with Tews in attendance for a Q & A. after each screening. It was selected for inclusion into the 56th Sitges Film Festival, and was screened in the "Sitges Classics" section of the program in October 2023. In Cleveland, 2024, it was released theatrically for one day by the Cleveland Institute of Art.
On July 22, 2020, video distribution company Arrow Films announced that they had acquired distribution rights for the film, with a planned home media release in August of that same year.[1] On July 31, the company hosted a 24-hour virtual premiere of the film on the site AltaVOD. The premiere included supplementary interviews from the cast and crew. It was released via the company's channel and video on demand on August 3, and later on Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on November 3, 2020.
Lake Michigan Monster received generally positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Lake Michigan Monster holds an approval rating of 86%, based on 21 reviews, and an average rating of 6.9/10.
Critics have highlighted the film's homage to B movies from the last several decades. Richard Whittaker of The Austin Chronicle praised its humor as a throwback to the 1980s and 1960s low-budget cinema, calling it "a micro-budget, black-and-white whimsical voyage of wonderful waffling". Other critics have similarly highlighted the film's retroactive style and humor. Referring to the film as "a gloriously weird mash-up of genres and decades that revels in its low-budget strangeness and offbeat humor" Tampa Bay-based publication Creative Loafing praised the film "an evolution and reinvention of every schlocky black-and-white monster movie from the 1950s that you used to watch on Saturday afternoon TV." Rating the film 3.5 out of 5 stars, Drew Tinnin of Dread Central commented on the film's blend of various classic films, dreamlike quality, and idiotic charm, calling it "a unique blend of 50s sci-fi, superhero team-ups, and seafaring epics". Online publication Film Threats Joshua Speiser referred to it as "[a] love letter to B-grade 1950s monster movies", commending the humor and Ed Wood-style visual aesthetic.
The film's practical and special effects were positively reviewed by some critics. Grant Hermanns from ComingSoon.net commended the film's use of practical effects, praising their ingenuity and uniqueness. Matt Wild of the local news website the Milwaukee Record highlighted the film's effective use of computer generated imagery for the ghost army and dream sequences. Rue Morgue magazine's Dakota Dahl praised the film's parodying of low-budget monster movies, highlighting its practical effects as "intentionally cheesy" while also being 'technically impressive'. Writing on the "campy, B-movie design", Boston Hassle's Nick Perry comments that the effects mixed well with the film's weird and humorous elements.
The offbeat humor and witty dialogue were reviewed favorably by critics. Tracy Allen of PopHorror compared the film's comedic elements to Don Coscarelli's 2012 film John Dies at the End, while also commending the film for its fast pacing. On Yorkshire Magazine further echoed this sentiment towards the visual gags and dialogue. Gruesome Magazine offered similar praise, further noting the comedic elements often switched between what he called "Vaudvillian corny to laugh-out-loud hilarious". MovieWeb's Michael Gursky summarized the film by writing, "Littered with dry wit, slapstick bits, caricaturistic characters, kooky edits, and brief homages to classic B horror, Lake Michigan Monster is an earnestly funny, one-of-a-kind wild joy to watch." While commenting on the film's dry wit "play[s] better than the splashier, wetter knockabout", Kim Newman favorably compared the retroactive comedic elements to Robert Altman's Popeye (1980) and Larry Blamire's Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2001).
Lake Michigan Monster has received numerous awards and nominations since its premiere. In 2023, the film website Collider ranked the film at No. 3 in their list of "10 Underrated Horror Comedies From the 2010s".
| Award/association | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipient(s) and nominee(s) | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fantasia Film Festival | August 6, 2019 | Best International Feature | Ryland Brickson Cole Tews (director), Mike Cheslik (producer) | ||
| FilmQuest | September 14, 2019 | Best Visual Effects – Feature | Mike Cheslik | ||
| Best Director – Feature | Ryland Brickson Cole Tews | ||||
| Best Ensemble Cast – Feature | Lake Michigan Monster | ||||
| Best Editing – Feature | Mike Cheslik | ||||
| Best Sound – Feature | Bobb Barito (sound mixer) | ||||
| Best Score – Feature | Lake Michigan Monster | ||||
| Best Production Design / Art Direction – Feature | |||||
| Best Costumes – Feature | |||||
| Best Makeup – Feature | |||||
| Nightmares Film Festival | October 31, 2019 | Best Actor Feature | Ryland Brickson Cole Tews | ||
| Best Midnight Feature | Lake Michigan Monster | ||||
| Film Threat Award This | April 18, 2021 | Award This! WTF Indie like "What the F**k is This Movie Even?" | |||
| Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival | April 23, 2021 | Best Comedy | |||
| Best Actor | Ryland Brickson Cole Tews | ||||