The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

To wit: the Heights Theatre is giving everyone another opportunity to check out Christopher R. Mihm's local B-Movie homage Monster of Phantom Lake. This time, the film will be even better than it was back in early March, only because we're going to have the great early summer weather that these frightfests deserve. I use 'fright' loosely: Monster is a barrel of fun but hardly scary, which is just as it should be. And it is well served by stopping next door at the DQ for a malted with your bobby-sock sporting girlfriend or your duck-tailed boyfriend, if you've got either... or if you can convince your spouse to don that get-up, which I can't, and we're still arguing about that.

Ahem. Once again, I lament the fact that our theaters are filled with Poseidon and Mission Impossible and the forthcoming Da Vinci Code but not this little gem. If there's anyplace that should feature The Monster of Phantom Lake, it's one of our endangered drive-in theaters, where you could groove to "A-Rockin', A-Rollin', All the Way A-Ramblin'", which sounds pleasingly as if it were being broadcast from the local AM station between sounds of thunder.

Check it out tonight only at The Heights. Or, you could purchase this thing on DVD and project it onto your garage one warm summer evening, and let the kids fall sleep in their backyard tents and dream of bug-eyed lake monsters.

My original review is here, and contains adult language (the review, not the film, which is good for all ages).