“Death takes everything eventually. It’s the meanest, dumbest machine there is.”
You’re going to see the title Lake Mungo pop up on a ton of lists, all of which will have titles along the lines of “the best horror movies you’ve never seen” or “best unknown horror movies.” It’s not that the description doesn’t fit Lake Mungo, a 2008 Australian horror film that was part of After Dark’s 8 Films to Die For. Joel Anderson’s film has become horror’s worst-kept secret. It’s always dangerous to go into a movie that’s been hyped up as much as this one has, and while I didn’t find Lake Mungo all that frightening, it is, at times, riveting and bracingly human.
Alice Palmer is dead. She, much like the Twin Peaks character who her name references (the show was clearly a big influence on Lake Mungo), drowned. There’s nothing suspicious about her death, no hints of anything supernatural, and her family was there when it happened. It’s just one of life’s horrifying accidents. That’s the true nature of Lake Mungo: for all of its horror-movie trappings, this is a deeply personal film, one that at times is uncomfortable to watch because of the naked grief on display. This is where Anderson’s documentary approach to his material works best; this isn’t strictly speaking a “found footage” movie, but more of a completed narrative project.
Also, side note: this is maybe the best reproduction of news I’ve ever seen in a movie. Movies with ten times the budget of Lake Mungo can only produce gaudy, shiny graphics. Lake Mungo looks like it takes place in the world that we live in every day. It might be a small thing to mention, but by God is it effective.
Same goes for the cast, comprised of unknowns, many of whom haven’t done much since Lake Mungo. That’s not meant in a mean or snarky way; if anything, it helps humanize the characters in the film. This is such a talented ensemble without a real weak link among it. Talia Zucker appears in flashback as Alice, but is able to fully inhabit a girl living an entire life that her friends and family don’t have a clue about (“Alice kept it a secret that she kept secrets,” a friend says).
Martin Sharpe does fine work as Mathew, Alice’s brother, and handles well the complexities of his character, who at first seems like any normal grieving teen, but emerges at the end of the film as someone actually tortured by grief and possibly a little too fixated on his sister. David Pledger is good as Alice’s dad, Russell, but he doesn’t have a whole lot to do here. It’s Rosie Traynor who gets the meatiest material as Alice’s mother, June, who now has to reckon with her relationship with Alice.
This is deep stuff, and it might challenge some viewers. Not the content, mind you, but the sometimes glacial pace of the film. If you’re looking to white-knuckle your way through a film, look elsewhere. Full disclosure, it took me two tries to get all the way through Lake Mungo. That’s not necessarily a comment on the film, which is quite good, but it can be a jarring experience if you’re expecting anything resembling a traditional horror film. If anything, this is a somber family drama with occasional supernatural elements. The film waits a little too long to introduce the June-Alice strife, but it culminates in a genuinely heartbreaking sequence, so it gets a pass on that. (Weirdly enough, because of this subplot, this movie could make a good double feature with either Hereditary or Lady Bird.)
I’m not going much into the plot, because grief doesn’t really follow a narrative through-line. It’s sedentary chaos, an internal disruption of your entire world. There are a couple unexpected directions the story takes; I don’t want to say “twist,” because that’s a gaudy word with gotcha! connotations. The scares here are real, and so is the trauma. This is an unconventional, challenging, occasionally frustrating horror film. It has all those things in common with grief.
Thursday, 10/1: Phantasm
Friday, 10/2: Frozen
Saturday, 10/3: Suspiria
Sunday, 10/4: Suspiria (2018)
Monday, 10/5: Emelie
Tuesday, 10/6: Castle Freak
Wednesday, 10/7: Session 9
Thursday, 10/8: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
Friday, 10/9: We Are Still Here
Saturday, 10/10: The Changeling
Sunday, 10/11: The Bad Seed
Monday, 10/12: Verotika
Tuesday, 10/13: The Legend of Hell House
Wednesday, 10/14: Lake Mungo
Thursday, 10/15: Puppetmaster
Friday, 10/16: Marrowbone
Saturday, 10/17: A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
Sunday, 10/18: Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Monday, 10/19: Sweetheart
Tuesday, 10/20: Girl On the Third Floor
Wednesday, 10/21: Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
Thursday, 10/22: Triangle
Friday, 10/23: Dog Soldiers
Saturday, 10/24: Noroi: The Curse
Sunday, 10/25: Train to Busan
Monday, 10/26: Tales From the Hood
Tuesday, 10/27: Mandy
Wednesday, 10/28: Sometimes They Come Back
Thursday, 10/29: Veronica
Friday, 10/30: The Wicker Man
Saturday, 10/31: Child’s Play
About Author
