Lake Mungo

An extremely low budget and low key Australian horror done in the faux-documentary style that has now well and truly worn out its welcome, Lake Mungo is impressive in what it does with limited resources and its ambition is to be commended but a big problem with this now cult film is that it's sadly not very scary.

Whilst suitably creepy at times as Lake Mungo wears on towards it's slight 80 minute run time the films initial chilling set-up slowly descends into something that becomes unfortunately tiresome even though the film's final credits scenes provide some unnerving finishing moments.

While criticisms can be easily made of Lake Mungo's inability to capitalize on its promising cornerstones director Joel Anderson certainly must be commended for sticking to his low-budget guns and delivering a mock-doc that to the uninitiated may absolutely seem like a legitimate documentary! Using grainy phone footage, good use of talking heads and fake news reports, Anderson crafts a tale that actually feels real even if the story its telling becomes a little far-fetched and lacking. Telling the story of the sad demise of young Alice Palmer in this way allows Anderson to hide the films limitations in ways that don't take away from the films central premise and only some clunky delivery of dialogue really gives Lake Mungo's sleight of hand away.

One of the more impressive Australian horrors of recent times (although that's not entirely an amazing feat) and perhaps the best locally made example of a faux documentary yet produced (again not exactly tough competition), Lake Mungo has clearly in the years since its release found an appreciative audience that it failed to find upon initial runs these now many moons ago and you could do a lot worse than making Lake Mungo your horror fix over the slowly dying Paranormal Activity franchise or any other such higher profile wannabe.

3 buried cell phones out of 5

Well the movie itself has some flaws. It has some parts that is really unnecessary. But the allover story is really interesting.

It is one of the slowest horror/mystery movies I've seen, but i think that it benefits from it. The scares are mostly...not really scares, but they will get you goosebumps for sure. But you really have to stay the entire movie to get the entire thing. The end is what made it for me. People are comparing it to paranormal activity, and I get that, but the matter a fact is that these two movies are not very similar, the only thing really is that they use some home movie style footage.

Anyway, its a good movie if you like slow movies, and good scares. But its no movie theater material.

"Lake Mungo" is an Australian film that is part horror and part mystery...with a stronger emphasis on the mystery aspect to the story. It begins with the Palmer family on an outing and their daughter, Alice, drowning in the reservoir. What follows is the family trying to make sense of this death and as they go through Alice's things, they begin to realize that there's far more to the story than simply her dying. She certainly was NOT a normal teen and I'll leave it to you to see how and why.

If you are looking to be scared, I doubt if this film will do it for you. But instead of cheap scares, the film manages to be both creepy and unique. Using a fake documentary look and style, it certainly is unique and keeps your attention.

I was really surprised by this Aussie movie... I expected a straight forward ghost movie and at first you kind of get what you expect.... except for that the movie is entirely shot in the style of a TV documentary featuring mostly interviews with eyewitnesses, some old family video footage etc. mixed to a typical TV collage style. Funny thing is... this works damn good and is even more thrilling than your average ghost movie. The atmosphere is really dense and even though you barely see anything than blurry photos I was pretty creeped out in the first half of the movie.

The basic plot is about a family who loses their daughter on a swimming trip. Some time later the dead body is found but especially the mother finds no closure and soon strange things happen in their house. Its all the typical restless ghost haunting a house story but damn is it effective... and even better, half way into the movie the ghost thing gets dropped when some rather earthly explanations start to surface and the family looks deeper into the last weeks of her daughters life. Its all driving serpentine and when you think this is just a psychological movie it takes another turn back to the ghost story. The finale really gets you and leaves a lot of gaps for your mind to fill but thats what I really liked about the movie. Its a damn creepy ghost movie that makes you think and it throws you curve balls right until the credits roll. Forget all that Asian rip-off ghost stuff and give Lake Mungo a try... I doubt you will be disappointed.

LAKE MUNGO is an exceptionally well-made "mockumentary" about family, loss, grief, and difficult secrets revealed. It also happens to be a fantastic ghost story / supernatural mystery.

The character of 16 year-old Alice Palmer (Talia Zucker), who apparently died in a swimming accident, is haunting and ominous. Even when unseen. So deeply has she affected her family, that they are compelled to -finally- see her for who / what she truly was.

Alice is more than a mere specter. She's a living memory, driving the Palmers to uncover the truth at all costs. The revelation of which is quite shocking, even by today's jaded standards.

If you prefer movies that creep over you gradually rather than jumps and jolts every ten seconds, then this should deliver what you need...