Lake Mungo (Horrorfest ’10)
| release date | January 29 2010 |
| studio | After Dark Films |
| director | Joel Anderson |
| writer | Joel Anderson |
| starring | Talia Zucker, Rosie Traynor, David Pledger, Martin Sharpe |
| trailer 1 | Trailer #1 |
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13 Comments
BORING, BORING, BORING! This movie is horrible. Better off watching paint dry.
initially a good build up leads to convoluted plot twists, which robs the movie of it’s documentary illusion. good ideas are flat out ruined by the story branching off into unnecessarily bizarre u-turns for no reason. the only things to take away from this are good performances (for the most part) and a few genuinely creep pieces of imagery.
and people don’t fucking record everything with their cell phone in the dark JUST to get the flashlight to work! fuck.
This was an eerie little film with tons of build up to a middle of the road payoff.
Though in parts it did creep the hell out of me, it wasn’t enough to make a solid impression.
This movie is not going to be loved by horror fans expecting ghost stories ala The Ring, The grudge and so forth. The film is more along the lines of Paranormal Activity, but deals with the drama of family lies and secrets. The film deals with real life horror. The film is mockumentary of a family dealing with the loss of their daughter. The creepiness factor is there and the film keeps you guessing as to what is really going on up until the genuinely heartbreaking ending.
Basically a very interesting mockumentary with a marvellous cast, wonderful settings and beautiful cinematography – sadly with a very thin story and a pretty messy script full of unnecessary lengths, boring moments and annoying red herrings/plot twists. Could have been way better.
It really reminded me of the Last Broadcast but with an incredibly more rewarding ending. It is boring at times but the cast and cinematography overshadows this weakness.
it reminded me of sleeping! I hope the remake is fucking better!
You’re fucking kidding me, right?
2.5?
That’s complete bull, this is a GREAT movie, it may not be exciting, but the story is damn good, the tension is there, the acting is great and the execution was phenomenal. 2.5 is ridiculous, if you don’t mind a slow, yet great, movie.. Definitely give it watch, remake is almost guaranteed to be bad.
Much better than Paranormal Activity, but it’s not for everyone. If you’re expecting a balls out horror flick with wall to wall jump scares you will be very disappointed, but if you’d like to see a very well made mockumentary/drama with some genuinely creepy moments (and one downright terrifying scene towards the end), you’re in for a treat. The movie leaves you with many unanswered questions and left me a little unsatisfied once it was over, but other than that Lake Mungo is the best ghost story to come along in years. It’s worth watching just to see the footage on Alice’s phone… I haven’t had a scare like that in a long time.
There have been a number of films in the last few years which are built around convincing the audience that they are true stories. Lake Mungo is built around the same idea.
Lake Mungo doesn’t approach it’s story from the “found footage” perspective, but instead is essentially presenting itself as a documentary chronicling events after they’ve occurred. This isn’t trying to be Paranormal Activity or The Blair Witch. And it’s probably in part because of that difference that the film works pretty well.
The story in this little Australian fright flick is about a family whose daughter drowned while they were on vacation together. The mystery though, isn’t about whether there was some kind of foul play, the central question or tension to the film is the fact that they start experiencing the kinds of things that are usually associated with a haunting. They tell of sounds in the house, coming from the girl’s bedroom, etc.
I don’t want to give anything away beyond that, but I can tell you that on a number of occasions during the film, I was definitely surprised by the direction the story was taking. In being able to pull that off, they do a wonderful of giving you some connection to the way this family must have felt as these events were taking place. The best word I can use to describe the construction of the story, and the cinematic presentation of that story is elegant. This isn’t something that’s trying to make you jump out of your skin.Though there are some really creepy visuals in the film, it’s intent seemed to be more to give you a consistent feeling of unease, and to creep you out once you’ve gone home and you have to turn out your lights at the end of the night. It’s a very subtle, subdued film that succeeds in creating an atmosphere that induces the fear of the unknown in a more cerebral way that most horror films today don’t have the patience or skill to even attempt.
It’s not for everyone, and when it was released by After Dark Films as one of their Eight Films To Die For in their yearly traveling Horrorfest, it got mixed reviews, and was more or less passed over. I can definitely understand the horror community not being thrilled by it because it does eschew the kind of shock and gratuity most horror fans have become accustomed to.
I’m not going to recommend you try and watch this immediately (though it is on Netflix, Watch Instantly), but the next time you’re looking for something to watch that is well made, isn’t too heavy and some creepy fun Lake Mungo would do well. This is a good one to add to the Halloween viewing list as well.
This movie freaked me out. I watched it by myself originally, then decided to make some of my friends watch it. It was so entertaining to watch everyone else get frightened. This is honestly one of the few movies in a long time that has freaked me out and made me want to cover my eyes.
BORING!
Seriously? What a boring piece of junk. No suspense, no thrills, no horror, no friggin’ ANYTHING except docu-style interviews on a death and possible ghosts. After Dark BOREfest to the max–what a waste of $$.
Slow moving, but effective. Some patience is required, but it has some creep factor to it.
More successfully accomplishes the trendy documentary style of ghost movie than most other films. Doesn’t necessarily hold your hand through the whole movie and point things out like “HEY LOOK AT THAT OBVIOUS GHOST IN THE CORNER”, but the format and narrative used causes a reaction similar to what the characters were going through. Also, has enough of a twist at the end to set itself apart from other typical ghost stories. More infromation here:
http://thewolfmancometh.com/2011/09/12/lake-mungo-2008/
“Lake Mungo” is an ambitious film, and I wouldn’t for a second tell anybody to steer clear of seeing it, but I feel as if its reach exceeds its grasp, perhaps only mildly. While this might be assuring to some; it will have the exact opposite effect on others. You might enjoy “Lake Mungo”, and I won’t deny that for the most part, I myself did. However, the film promises to deliver something new when it comes to the hand-held sub-genre of the horror film, and it just doesn’t. I’ve seen too much of this before.
But that doesn’t mean that “Lake Mungo” is a wasted experience. It has some scares, some spine-tingling moments, and even some thrills. But it has a story to tell as well; and it is one that didn’t affect me as I wanted it to. The appeal of horror movies shot with not-too-pricy digital camcorders comes from the realism-feel. And “Lake Mungo” certainly delivers when it comes to that aspect, but my biggest issue with the film is that…well, that’s all it does; and nothing genuinely “unique” beyond that.
A young lady goes missing while swimming at the local dam. She has drowned by the time her parents seek her out. She is buried; her family grieves in different ways. One form of grieving is dreaming frightening and fascinating encounters with their now-dead-family-member. Another form of such emotional release is setting up video cameras all ’round the house because the family members each feel that their daughter may still be amongst them.
The family consults a psychic named Ray. He’s a kind man; although he may have some secrets that he’s keeping from the family; just like the dead daughter. But you don’t need to see the movie to know that there’s a “big reveal” near the end. In fact, just look on the back of the DVD and the IMDB synopsis and you’ll find such info. So I’m not spoiling too much for you.
The video footage that is recorded from the cameras overnight it sometimes eerie and creepy, and at other times, just-plain-silly. I like to experience new scares; and playing ominous and creepy music whilst closing in on a “hidden image” of a presumably dead person is nothing near a “new scare”. The film often repeats its scares. But I still feel that most people will get what they want out of the experience when they watch it. When it comes to found-footage films, claiming to be “true stories”, this one isn’t great or even particularly good, but I admire its ability to have the same appeal as all the other films of its type. It was made with craft and skill; with a story that I can neither criticize nor praise.
And as for being a true story or not, let’s just assume that it’s all fake; because it most likely is. If my dead daughter was visiting me in the night, within the images from my digital-cameras, I wouldn’t want to edit it and put it out in theaters; eventually submitting it to After Dark Horrorfest 4. But what found-footage; hand-held horror movie isn’t fake? “Lake Mungo” is not a film at fault for its obscurity when it comes to the truth; this is merely how these movies are.
And they can’t really be made otherwise. “Paranormal Activity” and “REC” are better examples of their sub-genre because they are truly scary films. Doors close and demons roar in “Paranormal Activity”, while zombies linger, not too far from the heroes, in “REC”. “Lake Mungo” is perhaps flawed because it lacks the feeling of truly being there; at the scene of such horror. The story is told in memory of the events, instead of just down-right exploiting them in the very moment. This is one thing I kind of liked and kind of hated. But in the end, I can’t say there’s much I do hate about “Lake Mungo”, other than the fact that it’s nothing more than competent, well-made entertainment, and that I’ll soon easily forget it. But at least the ghosts in this film, unlike many of the ghosts of Hollywood horror movies, don’t get in your face and yell “BOO”! Instead, they just stand there and quietly say it; like gentlemen.
The film was slow moving and the ending left me feeling unsatisfied. It did have some creep factor to it though and despite these flaws I kind of liked it.
Scared the shit out of me!