Film Review: Lake Mungo
Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery
Cert: R-rated
Director: Joel Anderson
Screenwriter: Joel Anderson
Starring: Rosie Traynor, David Pledger, Martin Sharpe, Talia Zucker, Tania Lentini, Cameron Strachan, Judith Roberts, Robin Cuming, Marcus Costello, Chloe Armstrong, Carole Patullo, John Dunn, Laurie Dunn, Kirsty McDonald, James Lawson.
Running time: 1h 27min
Parents advised to read before viewing film as some scene may contain scenes unsuitable for younger viewers.
Sex & Nudity: Video tape show of a threesome having sex.
Violence & Gore: Alice's corpse is shown in a graphic fashion, bloated and discoloured from her drowning death.
Profanity: There is no profanity in the film.
Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking: Teenagers are shown drinking in a video within the film
Frightening/Intense Scenes:
Story: 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.
Like: 2008 Few films convey this grieving process better than a psychological horror called Lake Mungo, which for a modern indie classic it somehow failed to get UK distribution upon release. It chillingly employs a intense documentary and found-footage format that tell a story of the Palmer family, who are attempting to overcome a strange drowning death of their daughter Alice. As they each struggle, Alice starts reappearing creeply in her brother’s photos giving a very chilling movitive as to why. Is she calling out to her family from beyond the grave? Or is it her ghost merely an illusion fuelled by grief?
Lake Mungo succeeds because there is not one stage throughout this film where you question the family’s pain. With Alice’s father Russell has a this forlorn look in his eyes, which suggests he hasn’t been sleeping because of the event that have expired, yet remains determined not to take any time off work. As her mother June is paralysed with regret and shivers as she talks you can hear grief and frighten feeling she has. Meanwhile, Matthew, Alice’s brother, pours himself into photography as a distraction away from what happened to his sister.
For anyone that knows what if feels like or ever lost a family member prematurely, the characters are all recognisable archetypes of those who are left behind which give a realism to the film. Subsequently, when each of the Palmers start talking about a haunting, you hang onto every single word they are saying. The film’s talking head set-up and creates a powerful sense of fear and foreboding that refreshingly avoids the horror genre’s usual reliance on gore as an effect to shock the audience.
Lake Mungo isn’t just a conventional ghost story but as much as it is an enigma around how death can disrupt the natural cycle of life. The family later some how find Alice’s mobile phone, which she mysteriously buried during a camping trip with friends for what reason. On it is a grainy video clip of Alice walking through the dark and spotting a mysterious figure on the horizon. As it draws closer and closer, the figure’s blurred face looks uncomfortably familiar. With all Paranormal events there just isn’t a rational explanation for what Alice sees, let alone that there isn’t a rational explanation for the unpredictability of death itself.
The thing about this film is the fact its doesnt feel like a film, it feels like the footage being used is real, just by the way the Errieness of the figure standing in the shadows, like it was an unrested spirit looking for revenge or some demon looking for strike fear. However, just when it feels like the film’s reached a conclusive explanation for the Palmer’s haunting, one final twist arises. The twist of all this that will strike a chord with anyone who has ever claimed to have experienced something paranormal , while logic will point to something fictitious and make believe, but there’s is always that doubt in the back of your mind that says you might have experienced something authentic and paranormal that go beyond any logic.
Dislikes: I found nothing wrong with this film
Overall: Dark, Eerily creepy in a psychological way, very disturbing
Rating: 5 out 5 Entertainment / 10 out of 10 for concept
Cert: R-rated
Director: Joel Anderson
Screenwriter: Joel Anderson
Starring: Rosie Traynor, David Pledger, Martin Sharpe, Talia Zucker, Tania Lentini, Cameron Strachan, Judith Roberts, Robin Cuming, Marcus Costello, Chloe Armstrong, Carole Patullo, John Dunn, Laurie Dunn, Kirsty McDonald, James Lawson.
Running time: 1h 27min
Parents advised to read before viewing film as some scene may contain scenes unsuitable for younger viewers.
Sex & Nudity: Video tape show of a threesome having sex.
Violence & Gore: Alice's corpse is shown in a graphic fashion, bloated and discoloured from her drowning death.
Profanity: There is no profanity in the film.
Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking: Teenagers are shown drinking in a video within the film
Frightening/Intense Scenes:
- The movie focuses on complex and serious things like grief and how the horrific death of a loved one can have horrific consequences on the family. The film overall feels very real in scenes which is one of the reasons why it is so terrifying. As the film continues it starts to turn paranormal and get even more terrifying.
- There is a few very frightening and realistic images that display death in close up shots. Sometimes the camera will be positioned in a dark room and a ghostly apparition can appear. Sometimes you don't see the apparition until the camera zooms in to where it is. This can be very frightening and creepy.
Story: 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.
Like: 2008 Few films convey this grieving process better than a psychological horror called Lake Mungo, which for a modern indie classic it somehow failed to get UK distribution upon release. It chillingly employs a intense documentary and found-footage format that tell a story of the Palmer family, who are attempting to overcome a strange drowning death of their daughter Alice. As they each struggle, Alice starts reappearing creeply in her brother’s photos giving a very chilling movitive as to why. Is she calling out to her family from beyond the grave? Or is it her ghost merely an illusion fuelled by grief?
Lake Mungo succeeds because there is not one stage throughout this film where you question the family’s pain. With Alice’s father Russell has a this forlorn look in his eyes, which suggests he hasn’t been sleeping because of the event that have expired, yet remains determined not to take any time off work. As her mother June is paralysed with regret and shivers as she talks you can hear grief and frighten feeling she has. Meanwhile, Matthew, Alice’s brother, pours himself into photography as a distraction away from what happened to his sister.
For anyone that knows what if feels like or ever lost a family member prematurely, the characters are all recognisable archetypes of those who are left behind which give a realism to the film. Subsequently, when each of the Palmers start talking about a haunting, you hang onto every single word they are saying. The film’s talking head set-up and creates a powerful sense of fear and foreboding that refreshingly avoids the horror genre’s usual reliance on gore as an effect to shock the audience.
Lake Mungo isn’t just a conventional ghost story but as much as it is an enigma around how death can disrupt the natural cycle of life. The family later some how find Alice’s mobile phone, which she mysteriously buried during a camping trip with friends for what reason. On it is a grainy video clip of Alice walking through the dark and spotting a mysterious figure on the horizon. As it draws closer and closer, the figure’s blurred face looks uncomfortably familiar. With all Paranormal events there just isn’t a rational explanation for what Alice sees, let alone that there isn’t a rational explanation for the unpredictability of death itself.
The thing about this film is the fact its doesnt feel like a film, it feels like the footage being used is real, just by the way the Errieness of the figure standing in the shadows, like it was an unrested spirit looking for revenge or some demon looking for strike fear. However, just when it feels like the film’s reached a conclusive explanation for the Palmer’s haunting, one final twist arises. The twist of all this that will strike a chord with anyone who has ever claimed to have experienced something paranormal , while logic will point to something fictitious and make believe, but there’s is always that doubt in the back of your mind that says you might have experienced something authentic and paranormal that go beyond any logic.
Dislikes: I found nothing wrong with this film
Overall: Dark, Eerily creepy in a psychological way, very disturbing
Rating: 5 out 5 Entertainment / 10 out of 10 for concept
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