Nostalgia for the movies of the 80s and 70s isn’t really anything new at this point, but it can still be charming when done right. That gritty style of filmmaking from days gone by has recently made a comeback with films like Grindhouse, Machete and even V/H/S. Now, in Lake Nowhere, the brainchild of Christopher Phelps and Maxim Van Scoy, the Nostalgia Goggles have been taken to a whole new level with a movie that could only be more suitable for VHS if it were in fullscreen.
This deliciously cheesy production is a brief throwback to the early days of home video and the slashers of yore. While it’s not quite feature-length, with a runtime of approximately 50 minutes, Lake Nowhere is filled to the brim with gory fun and knows not to overstay its welcome. What could have been just another one-trick-pony is in fact a love-letter not just to these old movies themselves, but to the viewing experience that accompanied them in the age of Blockbuster and bootleg tapes.
The movie begins with a series of garbled commercials and trailers that instantly set the stage for the film’s amazingly grimy atmosphere, owing a lot to the original fake trailers preceding Rodriguez and Tarantino’s Grindhouse. After these, we’re introduced to a group of teenagers getting ready to party in an isolated cabin in the woods, heavily reminiscent of the original Evil Dead. Things take a turn for the worse, however, as the teens realize that they are not alone in Lake Nowhere.
The plot is basically an excuse to turn these characters into slasher bait, but it works well in the context of a low-budget exploitation flick attempting to cash in on the slasher fever of that simpler time. There are a few interesting twists, and the trailers before the movie seem to have had a lot of effort put into them, but the story here is only secondary, with the visuals and violence being the main attraction.
Like most slashers, Lake Nowhere features an ensemble cast, leaving you to guess which, if any, of the victims are going to survive their horrific ordeal. Mathew Howk, who played the Masked Maniac, did an exceptional job of channeling his inner Kane Hodder as he stalked fornicators through the woods. The B-Movie nature of the script doesn’t give the other actors much to work with, but they do seem to having genuine fun.
Phelps and Van Scoy did their best in maintaining tone and atmosphere while simultaneously having the movie balance dark comedic elements and brutal gore with extremely small intervals in between. Despite the apparent guerrilla filmmaking techniques behind the scenes, the entire film had a picturesque and colorful presentation that contrasted with the violence like a good faux-Giallo horror picture.
If you miss late nights watching scratched video tapes and still having fun despite the quality and cheesiness of their contents (or if you’ve never had this experience but wished that you did), Lake Nowhere is for you. My only regret is not having watched it on an actual VHS tape, which is available for purchase on the film’s wonderful old-internet styled official website.
Screened at the Ithaca International Fantastic Film Festival.