Lake Placid: The Final Chapter is a 2012 horrortelevision film directed by Don Michael Paul. It is a sequel to Lake Placid 3 and the fourth installment in the Lake Placid series. The film premiered on September 29, 2012 by Syfy. As the title suggests, it was intended to be the final installment in the series. However, it was later followed by two sequels: Lake Placid vs. Anaconda and .
Plot
EPA Agent Reba, with Dennis and Sheriff Theresa Giove, venture to Black Lake and neutralize an infant crocodile with a tranquilizer. They meet Lieutenant Ryan Loffin on land and drive towards a ten-thousand volt fence built by the Army Corps of Engineers. Theresa's daughter, Chloe, and her friend, Elaine, join the Marshfield Swim Team in a tour bus, which mistakenly goes through the gate of the electric-fenced park towards the Black Lake instead of Clear Lake, and the swim team spends the night there having various conversations. Dennis is searching the woods for the crocodile, and is attacked by the crocodile. Gus, the bus driver, uses the lake as a bathroom, spying on two girls playing in the water without their bikini tops, and is killed by a crocodile after the girls leave the water. The next morning, with the police officials on alert, the swim team decides to ride the lake with jet skis, and one of them, Joey, falls off the jet ski. He is attacked in the water by a swarm of infant crocodiles and killed. A student on the beach is dragged by a crocodile into the water, and another is slain while trying to enter the bus. The other students and the coach make it safely inside the bus before further attacks. Chloe, who has wandered off in the woods, meets Max, after he fell off a resting platform on top of a tree. The team finds a skeletal part of a crocodile from a crocodile carcass. The swim team continues to run through the woods until they find an abandoned camp and a smaller crocodile. The group flees separately, and Brittany steps into a trap on a rope, and gets strung up on the tree. Her head is severed by the crocodile, leading to her demise. Chloe falls into a hole, is trapped, and battles with a crocodile. Max distracts the crocodile with a rock, and Chloe subdues it by hitting it with an unloaded gun. The team finds the injured Dennis while Chloe retrieves a cell phone from the crocodile’s mouth. Max dispatches a rope to pull Chloe out of the hole as the crocodile awakens. The team makes it safely to land and suddenly Dennis is pulled under the bus and killed by a crocodile. The remaining swim team and Max encounter Jimmy Bickerman, who "forcefully" encourages the kids to board his boat. Coach Macklin stays on land and is killed by a crocodile. The students and Max are taken hostage by Jimmy. They make it back to land and are taken to a cabin. Jimmy then finds a nest of eggs by the shoreline. The team finds Tina by the electric fence while Jimmy steals the eggs from the nest and stows them away in his satchel. Elaine finds one room of the cabin full of flesh and blood and is attacked by the crocodile in it. Chloe and others kill the crocodile while Elaine still survives with injuries. They reunite with the team while Reba accuses Jimmy of his actions. Jimmy takes Max hostage while a crocodile breaks free from its chains and takes a boat with it. Drew is devoured as he tries swimming towards the boat while the others retreat towards the electric fence. Theresa dodges a charging crocodile, causing it to crash into the fence, causing it to be electrocuted to death. By next morning, Jimmy awakens and taunts the last crocodile. He tosses his satchel and appears to be devoured as the crocodile latches on to his leg. An ambulance arrives to support the survivors by the electric fence. Theresa and Ryan passionately kiss. In the end, a woman jogging through the woods thinks the lake is now crocodile free, but is killed by the last crocodile that still remains.
The film received generally negative reviews, mostly due to its uses of unrealistic, low-budget CGI and an open ending that is conflicting with its name. However, Lake Placid: The Final Chapter has also been stated to be much better than both of its predecessors. It received positive reviews from some critics who praised its plot and character development. David E. Kelley, the writer of the original film, gave the film 4.5 out of 5 stars and said, "Is this the last one really? The ending doesn't make me think so. I am glad to see Robert Englund in this and some of the cast from the previous movie! The effects are still lame as second and third, but the story is good". Another critic, Marcie Frank, said she was totally into it and couldn't change the channel. Scott Weinberg, from FEARnet, wrote: " I've seen a lot worse "crocs run wild" movies than Lake Placid 4..
