Screened in the comfort of my own apartment via a good ‘ol Amazon rental for $2.99, somewhere around an 11:20pm showtime. Movie Theater Snacks: a bowl of cereal. Vanilla Frosted Chex, I think it was.
I had not heard of Lake Mungo until a few days before this; it came recommended from a friend of mine. The synopsis he gave me was very vague, “a girl drowns in a river and her family experiences some weird shit after it.” He then insisted I not look up a single thing and to watch the movie blind. He’s always been good when it came to recommendations. He hasn’t failed me yet. So I took his advice.
The film begins with some police footage. Then a thick Australian accent begins speaking over the video. Then, to my surprise, a talking head appears in the traditional documentary style, with the words appearing on the bottom of the screen: June Palmer, Alice’s Mother. I was taken completely by surprise. I had no idea this was a documentary and I became completely intrigued.
A family takes a weekend away and visits a beach, where their daughter Alice disappears into thin air. After a week and a half of searching, her body is found further down the beach; soaked, bloated, and decomposing. From this point forward, strange things begin happening in their home, and they soon believe Alice is coming back.
The biggest compliment I can give to the movie, is the adherence and loyalty it has to it’s faux documentary style. There were moments when I truly began believing in what the film was telling me. I knew it wasn’t real, but that didn’t stop me from sharing in the terror the Palmer’s were going through. Every piece of video footage was crackly and blurry enough to trick me into thinking “maybe this did happen?” It does such a tremendous job following through on the documentary style that it surpassed every cliche attributed to found footage, and flew passed the moniker of mockumentary.
Is it scary? Hell yeah it definitely is. It’s so subtle and minute in it’s horror that it creeps under your skin without you even realizing. There are no jump scares, no loud obnoxious bangs or growls, just pure terror. The scariest moments of the film are when you’re viewing blurry camera footage of a ghost standing completely still, staring right back at you. Without any outward horror, the film may give you a heart attack.
Lake Mungo took me by surprise. I was truly captivated from beginning to end. It does so much with so little, that you can’t help but have so much respect for it. I highly recommend.
Yagi Film Reviews 