Lake Mungo (2009)

Very disappointing...

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This film effected me beyond the usual jumps and giggles of horror flicks. I'm genuinely amazed by the emotion and atmosphere it presents. Give it a shot, it's certainly worth the watch!

I don't consider myself a patient person, and slow movies lose my interest, however, while Lake Mungo was slow, something about it made it hard to look away. Maybe it was being able to relate to the Australian setting (as an Aussie myself), maybe it was my desperation in need of a horror-fix, I can't really pin-point it. It could be the investigative theme of the film, as it doesn't go overboard in it's presented techniques (no super high tech gadgets, government spies, etc), and thus makes it seem real- something achievable by the average person. It begins to feel personal.The final hour-half hour of the film is where everything begins to piece itself together really well. Throughout the film you're constantly asking new questions (eg. "where did that person go"), and the end really makes the build up feel justified. It's a chilling feeling, still, and you might be a little on edge for the remainder of the day after watching Lake Mungo- but if you're a horror fan, this should be your cup of tea. It's not a fast paced, mega-action slasher, but it does give you the subtle feeling of uncertainty and vulnerability, which is admirable.

So many modern horror movies have gone for the "found footage" style that no one has realised that the faux documentary approach could be much more unsettling. "Lake Mungo" is a film that prefers the more realistic, quiet approach to horror, that is much less viscerally "scary" per se, but more unsettling, and it definitely leaves a more lasting impact after the film is over.The film begins with a death and the film could be summarized as a series of attempts for the family of the girl who died to find closure, or acceptance. It is a very subtle film that builds slowly, but never fails to be surprising. It is filled with a sense of dread and despair in every scene, not just outright horror.The family's attempts at closure begin with noticing strange occurrences of their daughter, Alice, in photos and videos 6 months after her sudden death by drowning, and her body's identification. From here and throughout the film, it is unclear whether these supposedly paranormal incidents are the family's grief getting to them and making them believe Alice is still there, or if there is actually something supernatural happening. Much of the film, even after the ending is incredibly ambiguous, and many aspects of Alice and her death and whatever follows go unexplained, and this only adds to the strange realism and mystery of the film. Even though I went into the film knowing it was fake, about half way through the film I actually began to think I might've been wrong because of how incredibly lifelike the performances, dialogue, and style of the film was. Everything in it aided this feeling that it was a REAL documentary. It was edited and shot like a documentary, with the only actual shots filmed by the documentarians being the interviews, and the rest being poorly shot footage that looked the part, whether it was VHS style home video cameras or flip phone footage, everything felt real, including the absolute lack of jumpscares. This makes the revelation near the end so effective.What the film is grounded on, however, is not its attempts to scare the viewer, but the family's attempts to accept the death of a loved one. This previously mentioned revelation is jot only incredibly scary, but serves the metaphor for the grief of the family. Ultimately, what the family needed in order to accept Alice's death was not the fact that she is still with them, but a feeling that she had accepted her death as well. They really needed to know that it wasn't as sudden for her as it was for them.

I really wanted to like this movie, but I almost fell asleep halfway through it. That hasn't happened to me since the Europa Report, which is saying something. This movie had great acting, great atmosphere, and an overall genuine feel to it. Sadly, it just didn't live up to it's own potential.There's a lot that could have made this movie better: 1. Shorten the time to about an hour which is typical for a documentary style special. A lot of it could have been cut out for brevity's's sake.2. Allow the ghost photos of the teenage girl to be real. I thought it was a real cop out and a major interruption to the story when it was revealed that the brother was faking the pictures. The end of the movie would have been more satisfying had the ghost pictures built up to the big reveal later.3. Nobody needed to know about a teenage girl's sex life. Nobody needed to see some old pervert taking advantage of his babysitter. I thought that was tacky and unnecessary to the overall storyline. FYI, if you needed to see that then you have issues beyond what a message board can help with.4. Expand the psychic's role in the storyline. The trick with the tapes was original and could have played a bigger role overall.5. Make the girl's death more meaningful than a spontaneous drowning. Tie it into a local legend or something.