Lake of the Dead

This wonderfully shot (and short), powerful film is a lost horror gem. The film focuses on a group of friends that travel to the woods. It all goes a bit terrifying as a brother is missing, people start sleepwalking, and the truth mixes with superstition. The film is quite dialog heavy in explaining itself, as we have a hypnotist that refuses to believe in ghosts. The scenes build up with a kind of quiet charm, and never fully reveal themselves, allowing our thoughts to intertwine with how the characters see it. The audience is really included in this film, with a lot of moments seeming as though the characters are trying to persuade us onto their side.

This is the only movie that have scared me so much that I had to stop watching. Not many will find a norwegian black&white movie to be interesting, but this movie makes all those sucky american horror movies look just like sucky american horror movies. Enough said.

"Lake of the Dead" is the story of a six young friends who travel from Oslo to Østerdalen in order to spend a few relaxing days in a cabin deep in the woods.Once they arrive,the brother(who had gone to the cabin some time before)of one of the women appears to have disappeared.A local legend claims that a one-legged man who died 100 years ago still roams the woods and hypnotizes people to drown themselves in a small lake.He murdered his sister and her lover,then drowned himself in the dark waters.Despite its age "Lake of the Dead" still managed to creep me out.The mystery of the lake is interesting and the climax is truly creepy.There is an eerie legend,a one-legged crow and the lake itself that easily could have been a murderer.The film has some striking similarities to Sam Raimi's "The Evil Dead",but I strongly doubt that Raimi has seen it.It's a crying shame that "Lake of the Dead" is so unknown and still unreleased on DVD.9 out of 10.

This was a bit of a disappointment after having heard very intriguing things about it. A group of friends go to a lakeside rural cabin that has "mysterious disappearance"/haunting-type legends attached to it, and where one visitor's brother was last known to be--but he's seemingly disappeared. The setup is fine, but the movie plays a bit like a television omnibus hour from the era (like "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" or "Suspense") in that its generic, overlit professional craftsmanship doesn't really suit the material--nor does the over-emphasis on character comedy. There's way too much talking, and when all is finally explained, it's a garrulous muddle of the pedantic and the fantastical that is offered in the undifferentiating lecture tones of a science class. This would actually be a better movie if it were less slickly produced--but then, others found it highly "atmospheric," while I thought that was its worst lack, so go figure.

After reading marvels about this one, considered a norwegian classic by some, I expected great things, but I think my expectations were over the top.

First off, my lack of knowledge on norwegian cinema is... complete. This was nominated the 4th best norwegian film of all time. I can't make any judgments on that. I'm very far from knowing enough movies from Norway to say anything at all, although I do believe it "may" be one of the best from that country. But it's certainly far from being one of the best movies ever.

For a horror movie and from what I read, I expected a scary or at least a tense movie with some atmosphere. I'm sorry, but the truth is that this movie hardly has any suspense at all, let alone scariness and real terror/horror. It lacks real atmosphere, being mostly about a group of adult people spending time with each other in an isolated but beautiful place where they experiment a few but brief tense moments. There is some gorgeous norwegian cinematography - the forests and the big lake which look stunning even in black and white.