Betty White's Only Sci-Fi Horror Movie Is Streaming For Free
Betty White was a prolific actress who starred in over 130 movies and shows, spanning a career from the late 1940s until 2019. You might recognize her best for roles in "The Golden Girls" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," but she also appeared in "Toy Story 4," 2009's "The Proposal," "Family Guy," "SpongeBob SquarePants," and many others. But what you won't find in that long list of credits, at least not often, are any horror-related flicks or shows. Sitcoms, comedies, animated films and series make up the bulk of her roles, but one of the only sci-fi and horror movies she starred in, a cult classic creature feature, is now streaming free on Tubi.
That film is "Lake Placid," and alongside Betty White is a star-studded cast including Bridget Fonda, Bill Pullman, Oliver Platt, Brendan Gleeson, Meredith Salenger and Mariska Hargitay. The premise isn't complex. A remote town in Maine and its premier lake are stalked by a gigantic, 32-foot saltwater crocodile. Some of the town's residents discover horrifically mutilated victims of the croc, and the local Fish and Game officer (Jack Wells, played by Bill Pullman) enlists help from a professional New York City-based paleontologist to investigate, played by Bridget Fonda.
Where does Betty White come into all of this? Ominously, or perhaps prophetically if you live near any large crocodiles, White plays an older woman, Mrs. Delores Bickerman, who has befriended and has been feeding the croc, essentially helping it grow. Her role is much more than a cameo and is actually integral to the plot. White's character is both curt with her words and hilarious, too. If you've never seen the film, it's worth a watch, even just once. Though be warned, it is very campy and not traditionally well-received.
What do people think about Lake Placid?
The aggregated scores for "Lake Placid" are middling, at best. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 47% score from critics and a 37% score from everyone else. It's telling when a movie has lower user scores than critic scores. You certainly don't see that often with well-received flicks. It hasn't fared much better at IMDB either. Currently, it's scored 5.8 out of 10 stars across over 70,000 user reviews. The vast majority of reviewers scored it 6 stars, with over 18,000 reviews in that range, compared to 13,000 for 5 stars and 7 stars, respectively. It definitely goes down in the legion of undeniably awful sci-movies that may or may not be a blast to watch, depending on what mood you're in.
According to the JustWatch streaming charts, a service that logs the popularity of streaming content, including movies like "Lake Placid," the movie isn't all that popular with home viewers either. That may change, since it's free to stream on Tubi and will be more accessible over the coming weeks to anyone interested. There are worse ways to spend the 82-minute runtime of the film, especially if you're a fan of Betty White. She has some fantastic, if not vulgar, one-liners that will probably solicit a cackle or two.
If you're looking for something to watch instead of "Lake Placid," in the vein of underrated sci-fi horror movies that no one really talks about anymore, another creature-feature is "Slither," or 2020's "Underwater." I'm partial to "Pandorum," which has an incredibly interesting twist to discover — I think so anyway. If you're looking to be scared, there are a handful of '80s sci-fi horror movies that are still terrifying even by today's standards.