I loved Hundreds of Beavers so I was eager to check out an earlier film from the creative duo behind it, Lake Michigan Monster. Sharing some of the film’s creative styles, it’s shot in black and white, made to look like a throwback to yesteryear, and has a goofy sense of humor that slides from slapstick to crass to brilliant.

Seafield (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews) recruits a group of specialists to help hunt down the sea monster, lake monster rather, that killed his father. He has Nedge (Beulah Peters) a sonar expert, ex-Navy man, Dick Flynn (Daniel Long) and weapons expert Sean Shaughnessy (Erick West).

They return to the scene of the crime, one fathom out, and Seafield executes a number of plans to find a way to capture and kill the monster, but none of them seem to work.

Filled with gags, and fun performances Seafield eventually encounters the monster, and will have a reckoning.

It doesn’t quite have the looney tune wackiness of Hundreds of Beavers but you can see the possibilities of it around the edges. There are fun effects and it plays like a send-up of the monster movies of yesteryear.

Some of the humour misses the mark, but a good portion of it works pretty well. The pacing isn’t quite as tight as it could be, but there are a number of wonderful moments. It just ends up being a silly, funny film, hinting of the promise that would come to fruition with Hundreds of Beavers.

And I honestly hope that means there is more to come.

Like Hundreds of Beavers, Mike Cheslik and Tews penned the script together. They seem to have a love for the early days of cinema, and they work hard to make their narratives thrive within those trappings, while throwing in modern sensibilities.

There’s lots of fun to be had here, and I almost wished I had watched this one first so that way I could have gone into it without knowing how much I enjoyed Hundreds of Beavers. But without Beavers, I wouldn’t have known to go looking for this one.

Once again, this falls in the realm of those who love cartoons, a little silliness, some cinematic creativity and a healthy willingness to go along for the ride.

While I didn’t enjoy this one as much as Beavers, I do hope that there is more coming from Tews and Cheslik. I like their film-making style, and for the most part, I share their sense of humour. So keep it coming.