| Lake Mungo (2008) |
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| Director: | Joel Anderson |
| Writers: | Joel Anderson |
| Starring: | Talia Zucker, Rosie Traynor, and David Pledger |
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The Plot: Alice Palmer is a spirited young girl who is beloved by her family and is a popular girl within her community. Unfortunately, tragedy strikes when she and her brother go swimming while out with her family. The young girl drowns, and her family are left reeling from this horrible event. As the weeks start to pass and her family tries to come to grips with this death, strange events start to happen around the Palmer home. This leads to the family setting up several cameras within the house and eventually ghostly footage begins to show up on tape. As the family tries to make heads or tails of this information, they are startled to find that their lovely young Alice also led a double life that few knew about. |
| The Review |
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This realism certainly accounts for a high percentage of the scares that are to be found in Lake Mungo. Even though the movie is devoid of traditional “jump scares,” it instead tries its best to creep its viewers out in a classier fashion. Without relying on big supernatural scares or bait-and-switch moments where cats jump out of closets, the movie is forced to rely on atmosphere and capitalize on the audience’s fear of the unknown. Similar to the best scares found in Kairo (aka Pulse) by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Lake Mungo relies on slow moving shots that focus on supernatural events that are not distinctly visible to the audience. In shots that at first appear to be mundane, this “documentary” points out the creepy ghost-like image that is reflected in mirrors or through shadows. In keeping the visuals to a minimum, the audience manages to develop their own fear and bring it to high pitch. This creates an unnerving atmosphere that is rarely duplicated in cinema, and it makes Lake Mungo an unprecedented success.
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| The Conclusion |
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