The People Across the Lake

Chuck Yoman (Gerald McRaney) and his wife, Rachel (Valerie Harper) lead very busy lives, and live in a very secure home with their kids. Rachel has had enough of the fast pace and stress, and convinces Chuck to move to a rural house on a lake.

At first, all goes well, other than a few backward locals. Then, Chuck decides to take a swim in the lake, and makes a gruesome discovery. Suddenly, he has a very cold swimming partner! He goes to get the Sheriff, but when they return, the evidence has vanished. When the deputy tells a story of several past disappearances, the Yoman's wonder just what sort of place they've moved into. Strange occurrences and more deaths add to the mystery. Can Rachel and Chuck figure it all out... and live?

THE PEOPLE ACROSS THE LAKE is a different kind of suspense thriller. It's got a TWIN PEAKS weirdness mixed in with the chills. It's a black comedy about family dysfunction, wrapped in a psychological horror story. A nice change of pace for the fear fanatic!

Co-stars Barry Corbin in a unique role for him...

This Is one of those classic American made for TV movies that are just made for watching on a rainy afternoon. Although the script is highly implausible it never takes itself too seriously and neither do the cast which leads to a great tongue in cheek murder mystery / horror film best enjoyed with a bid bag of popcorn or box of chocolates. A big bonus of this film is the fantastic location filming and despite the strange goings on and even stranger residents round Lake Tommahawk I for one would not mind living there!

All in all a great film to watch over and over again.

The premise of the story is common enough; average family wants out of the rat race; wants to find the simple life....so they move from Sherman Oaks,California to Lake Tomahawk; kids in tow.

The lake is beautiful, they have leased an old house....but wait; there may be something in the lake; people are being murdered, and no one knows how (never mind why). Gerald McRaney is excellent, a familiar face for Lifetime viewers; Valerie Harper is also good; since this film was made in '88 maybe the writer should produce a sequel!.

You will also enjoy Barry Corbin as the town eccentric, and Darryl Anderson as a Bruce Dern-lookalike/crazed military man.

While the story plot is a bit over the top; if you are a movie buff you will be reminded of similar scenarios from ""Psycho""; ""Deliverance""; as well as other horror stories of that genre. Several camera shots and sequences will give you a sense of deja vu.

Sit back and enjoy; if you don't take it too seriously it is very entertaining; and better than, for example the more recent movie:

""I Know What You Did Last Summer""; it seems they made better movies in the good old 80's!.

A family moves into a new lakeside home and discovers a terrible secret about the community -- that there are a series of unsolved murders in the area. It's a movie you can watch on television or streaming. A family moves into a new lakeside home and discovers a terrible secret about the community -- that there are a series of unsolved murders in the area and they aren't sure what is going on. Anyway, not much more to add but the acting is very good and the script isn't as bad as a lot of the reviews here say. It's a mistake to watch this as a comedy unless you're really young or just like sci Fi movies.

Don't think of this movie as a horror movie; as such it would be a disastrous "1". It's almost entirely predictable and you've certainly seen everything in it before in movies that are far, far better. Instead, think of this movie as a comedy/parody. If you do so, then it's at least a "5" (out of 10).

It begins ordinarily enough, but as the movie goes on, watch as Barry Corbin goes farther and farther over the top. By the end, it has truly become hilarious.

Some weekend afternoon, when it runs on The Mystery Channel or some other cable/ satellite channel, cue it up and practice your Mystery Science Theater 3000 routine but in the horror genre: You won't be disappointed -- this movie is the Mother of all horror movie Bombs.

Atlant