Lake Mungo is written and directed by Joel Anderson. It stars Talia Zucker, Rosie Traynor, David Pledger, Martin Sharpe, Steve Jodrell, Tamara Donnellan and Scott Terrill. Music is by Dai Paterson and cinematography by John Brawley. Film is a mockumetary that sees Sixteen-year-old Alice Palmer drown while swimming in local waters. Once her body is eventually found and identified by her father, the Palmer's bury her and try to move on. However, the family begin to experience a number of strange occurrences around their home. Is Alice trying to contact them? Calling in a psychic parapsychologist for help, the Palmer's begin to unravel the secrets of their daughter's life.
It's tricky one to unravel is this, in that I mean the feeling towards the film being decidedly mixed. Skimming through a number of reviews you can see that many tuned in to it expecting a boo jump horror movie, while there's also the inevitable hoards of scary film fans who see the word supernatural and think they are getting the new Exorcist. I'm not sure how the film was marketed but it certainly isn't a horror film, and it doesn't purport to be either. What unravels is a genuinely interesting story with supernatural overtones, in fact a meditation on grief, prophecy and nasty secrets that can cut a family in half. This is not to say that Lake Mungo does not contain spine tingling moments, it does, especially when grainy video footage and murky photographs come in to play, but ultimately it openly operates below the normal horror conventions. It even has a few surprises in the narrative as well, with one particular side-step really a bold move and making the film better for it.
It's not a film that is easy to recommend, if I'm to term it in one sentence then I would say it's an effective chiller with serious themes at work. The makers aren't trying to make you soil your underwear, they want to draw you in and make you feel uneasy as you wait for the mystery to be solved. In the main they achieve this, though you have to accept the amateurism that comes with film projects such as this. Forget comparisons with Paranormal Activity et al, that is folly, for this is a different beast all together and expectation of such will lead to crushing disappointment. 7/10
It's tricky one to unravel is this, in that I mean the feeling towards the film being decidedly mixed. Skimming through a number of reviews you can see that many tuned in to it expecting a boo jump horror movie, while there's also the inevitable hoards of scary film fans who see the word supernatural and think they are getting the new Exorcist. I'm not sure how the film was marketed but it certainly isn't a horror film, and it doesn't purport to be either. What unravels is a genuinely interesting story with supernatural overtones, in fact a meditation on grief, prophecy and nasty secrets that can cut a family in half. This is not to say that Lake Mungo does not contain spine tingling moments, it does, especially when grainy video footage and murky photographs come in to play, but ultimately it openly operates below the normal horror conventions. It even has a few surprises in the narrative as well, with one particular side-step really a bold move and making the film better for it.
It's not a film that is easy to recommend, if I'm to term it in one sentence then I would say it's an effective chiller with serious themes at work. The makers aren't trying to make you soil your underwear, they want to draw you in and make you feel uneasy as you wait for the mystery to be solved. In the main they achieve this, though you have to accept the amateurism that comes with film projects such as this. Forget comparisons with Paranormal Activity et al, that is folly, for this is a different beast all together and expectation of such will lead to crushing disappointment. 7/10