The Crater Lake Monster

The Crater Lake Monster is a 1977 Bmovie horror film directed by William R. Stromberg for Crown International Pictures, and starring Richard Cardella. The script was also written by Stromberg and Cardella, and their affiliation with The Crater Lake Monster marked the zenith of their careers.

In Crater Lake, Northern California, Dr. Richard Calkins Hyman is informed by his colleague Dan Turner Garrison that he and his girlfriend Susan Patterson Cobb have made an incredible discovery in a nearby cave system. The three head down and discover a system of cave drawings, including what appears to be a depiction of people fighting off a Plesiosaurus, thus providing evidence that dinosaurs existed at the same time as man. However, a flaming meteorite crashes into the lake just overhead, resulting in a cavein that destroys the cave system and the drawings, while the three scientists are barely able to escape alive. The local sheriff, Steve Hanson Cardella, sees the meteorite crash and radios in the incident before continuing on his patrol.Several months later, Sheriff Hanson meets with the three scientists to go search for the meteorite. Turner and Patterson dive down to the bottom of the lake, only to find that the meteorite is still too hot to recover and has resulted in the entire lake becoming significantly warmer than before, rising to approximately 90 degrees. Somewhere else on the lake, a birdwatcher Hal Scharn is setting up his equipment when the monster suddenly rises out of the water, moves onto the shore, and kills him. ........

Source: Wikipedia