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I have not had much luck with After Dark’s Horrorfest stuff. For the past two years they’ve released “8 Films to Die For” and in addition to ending a sentence with a preposition, they’re usually more like 8 films that make you want to die. But a good friend of mine told me this one was good, and I should watch it. Since I always try to keep an open mind, I gave it a whirl. To mixed results, I’m sorry to say. Lake Mungo, which is a most unawesome name for a film, is a pseudo-documentary. It’s been compared to Paranormal Activity, but I think it is structured far too much like a regular documentary for that. It’s more like an episode of Ghost Hunters, or something similar. Oops, I gave away that it’s a ghost story right there, didn’t I?
Now that the cat’s out of the bag, here it is: while out cavorting at the lake one day (not Lake Mungo, though) Alice disappears - not through the looking glass, but into the drink. No one actually sees her go in, though. They only see that she’s not around, and that her towel is still on the beach, dry as a bone. After dragging the lake they find her waterlogged corpse, and in hindsight this should have told me the movie was going to be a series of set-ups left to dangle in the breeze. It is specifically mentioned that no one saw her disappear, leading the viewer to believe something nefarious or supernatural happened. Nope: she just fell in.
| This sudden mortality leaves the family to grieve in their own ways. Father, Russell, dives headlong into his work with a brave face and a smile; brother, Matthew, develops (ha ha) a strong interest in photography that will betray his grief later in the film; and mother, June, blames herself for not being a perfect mother. Though after a photo taken in the backyard seems to contain the spectre of Alice, she decides to hire a local medium to do a seance, which produces more photos and videos seeming to show a presence that may be Alice. |
This girl disappeared
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At this point the movie bursts into rivulets of storyline, each dribbling down the director’s bib. The photos were doctored, to which point is never fully explained. One of the videos actually contains the neighbor, who is looking for the sex tape he and his wife made with 16-year old Alice (the footage of which was the creepiest thing in the film - and not in the good way). From there it leads to the actual Lake Mungo, where Alice spent a weekend on a class trip the year prior to her death.
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These people cared
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We are treated to a series of ridiculous cell phone camera footage. The stuff makes the Blair Witch Project look like it was shot with a state of the art Steadicam. It is dark, grainy, and shaky as hell, yet the parents are able to make out what they see their daughter doing, off in the distance, with enough accuracy to actually find that spot and Alice’s own cell phone...from which they uncover yet more cam footage. It is in this footage that we get the final twist to the film. Pursuant to the rest of the film, it is meaningless and ties in with exactly nothing that precedes it in the course of events. |
And that’s the end. The family seems to have some closure from this nonsense, and moves on. But does Alice? That is the question. The answer to which I couldn’t have given a fuck less about. A movie about the grief of a family losing a loved one, and one so young, I would be down with. And using a ghost to facilitate that story I would also be down with. But having a documentary that promises me terrible events following a tragic death, but instead delivers a plot with a Hydra head of loose ends and meaningless twists I was not down with.
| So, does Lake Mungo look good? Yes, the photography is warm and inviting. Is it well-acted? Yes, everyone does a fine job in front of the camera. Are there honestly creepy images and unsettling moments in the film? Why yes, yes there are. But is it satisfying? Does it deliver on its promise? Is it even a horror film, let alone a film to die for? No, no, and no. |
This guy didn't
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In the end I found Lake Mungo to be a mechanically well-crafted film with weak content. Kind of like biting into a chocolate candy and discovering unflavored gelatin inside instead of the filling promised on the wrapper. That metaphor is not as eloquent as I would like, but covers the bases.
Note: IMDb has a Lake Mungo listed as being in-production, as well as the regular listing for this one. Since this film is Australian, could this be an American remake? Or the same director redoing this film with a bigger budget? Both of these seem more probable to me than another film actually called Lake Mungo. But the answer to any of those questions will always be, to me, why?
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