You know I can’t swim and if I ever drowned I’d probably haunt someone like Katy Perry.
Lake Mungo (2008)
Directed By: Joel Anderson (The Rotting Woman)
The Prologue
Lake Mungo was a film from 2008 but it’s finding life this year being part of The After Dark Horrorfest 8 Films to Die For series. What I found more shocking than learning of the documentary style of the film was learning that it’s set for a American remake in 2011..And I must ask why??
While other American remakes usually tend to come with films not in English, remaking a film that is in English seems pretty odd to me. But today isn’t about the remake is it? Nope, it’s about the review of the one we already have!
The Movie
Sixteen-year-old Alice Palmer drowns while swimming in the local dam. When her body is recovered and a verdict of accidental death returned, her grieving family buries her. The family then experiences a series of strange and inexplicable events centered in and around their home. Profoundly unsettled, the Palmers seek the help of psychic and parapsychologist, Ray Kemeny. Ray discovers that Alice led a secret, double life. A series of clues lead the family to Lake Mungo where Alice’s secret past emerges. Lake Mungo is a mystery, a thriller and a ghost story.
Mungo Lake is told in the style of a documentary. Which I feel gives the movie a very creative advantage over other films that deal with the same subjects. While it adds uniqueness to the telling of the story, it could also come across as boring to those who are not fans of documentaries in general. So with this film you won’t have something that’s for everyone as I’ve heard people say they love it and I’ve heard folks say they hate it.
If you can handle the slow burn and build of the over all film delivery you get treated to some very creepy tails told by all involved. You wonder at times if the ghost of Alice is really haunting her family or if perhaps they are just cracking under the stress. Deeper looks into each case of her apparent haunting turns over some rather shocking information. So one should also note that his story packs a few twist and turns that make you for one moment feel that you have it all figured out only for another element of the story to pop up that once again leaves you in question. I found it all interesting, just a bit dull on the story telling at times.
As we look deeper into Alice’s past and her trip to Lake Mungo before the tragic events that were to follow, the film does give us one very haunting scene that results in the “money shot” of the movie. I found it to be frighting as the scene played out before me causing me to have one of the few actual spooked moments I can recall actually having since my mature days of watching horror movies. Give kudos to the editing, give kudos to the tone, but I for whatever reason was pretty creeped out for a moment during the scene I’m talking about and if you see it I bet you’ll have the same feeling and know just what scene I’m talking about without me having to actually spoil anything here.
While the movie isn’t a real documentary you’d never be able to tell it from the acting as I feel the acting is probably the single best thing about this movie. However limited the story or logic may appear to be at times you have a cast of people that hang on to every line they say as if it were real and if you didn’t know better you’d feel it was real as well. I’ve seen people from real documentaries that weren’t half as convincing as these folks were.
By the time the final credits rolled I knew I had seen a film that was creative and full of some fighting imagery and interesting plot twists but I also knew I had seen a film that won’t be for everyone out there in the horror world. It’s a bit slow, it’s not flashy, but if you can stick with it you do get a movie that’s worth a watch to spite it also being a movie that leaves you with a lot of unanswered questions.
The Conclusion
I almost feel as if it’s a one scene film. After watching it that one scene I’m speaking of is all that really stands out. I’ll admit it has some interesting twist and turns with the plot and that the acting is very very good but some stuff doesn’t make much sense.
So it comes down to this folks, if you like documentaries about ghost then this movie is for you. If that’s not your cup of tea then you may want to skip it. I liked it enough to give it a fair score but it’s going to be a very mixed reaction to this one.
Again I must ask, why are we remaking this??
The Rating (6.5/10)
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