The Real ‘Lake Placid’

A lot of monster movies are grounded in reality with many taking inspiration from real-life events or are adapted from survivors’ tales.

Movies such as Open Water, The Reef, Black Water and even to an extent Jaws – had some elements from actual incidents.

Lake Placid (which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year) tells the tale of a 30-foot crocodile that terrorizes a lake in Maine.

The largest crocodile ever captured is shrouded in mystery, having been shot by a hunter in the Norman River in Queensland, Australia in 1957 and measuring an incredible 28 feet in length.

Given that the Lake Placid croc was just 2 feet longer than this; making the chances of a real one of that size a more realistic possibility.

Here’s an image of this magnificent creature –

The saltwater croc was nicknamed ‘Kris’ by the person believed to have killed it and a replica model of it has been erected in Normanton in Queensland for visitors to admire.

Krys, a Polish immigrant was added to the Guinness World Book of Records and was nicknamed ‘One Shot’ for the shot just below the eye that killed the creature. She did later regret killing it saying,

“I would never shoot one like that again,” she said later. “It was such a magnificent specimen.”

Such was her remorse for the incident that Krys and her husband Ron became advocates for crocodile welfare and campaigned against their killing for sport and exported goods.

In 2017 a 2-meter saltwater crocodile was actually discovered in a Lake Placid in Queensland but after a search by wildlife, officers, unfortunately, killed it.

One woman, Jessica Yong actually spotted the crocodile two days before it was killed but refused to reveal its location to the authorities for fear they would exterminate it. Sadly her instincts were correct.

What’s the largest crocodile you have ever seen? Let us know in the comments.

Find out more about the preservation of crocodiles from Crocodiles of the World.