Director: Joel Anderson
Screenplay: Joel Anderson
Starring: Rosie Traynor, David Pledger, Martin Sharpe, Talia Zucker
Release Date: 2008
LAKE MUNGO is a fictional documentary consisting of interviews and home video footage that follows the plight of the Palmer family who, in December of 2005, is hit by tragedy when their 16 year old daughter Alice (Zucker) drowns in a nearby dam. In the months that follow the terrible loss the family, including Alice’s father Russell (Pledger), mother June (Traynor), and brother Matthew (Sharpe) begin to experience strange occurrences in their home, unexplained noises in the night, unsettling nightmares and what appears to be irrefutable visual proof that Alice’s spirit is lingers on in this world, as she begins to appear in the backgrounds of various photographs taken by Matthew. Eventually the Palmer’s uncover a series of clues that lead them to the titular lake and a chilling revelation about Alice’s final days.
LAKE MUNGO is a frustrating film, as it deals with a series of events which, while certainly eerie in their own right, are totally undercut by the knowledge that none of what we are watching has any basis in reality. It is presented as a documentary, and if I didn’t know otherwise beforehand I would have thought it was totally legit as the performances, from the Palmer family on down to the minor players such as the local authorities, are across-the-board fantastic. It really does feel like we are watching real people recount a truly traumatic tragedy that has befallen them, so much so that at times it is easy to forget that this is just a movie. My problem is that they take the realism to extremes, as the ghostly phenomenon, when it does occur, is relegated merely to a series of still photographs and grainy home video footage capturing a figure that MIGHT kinda look like Alice looming in the background.
While the initial presentation of this footage did actually raise a few hairs on the back of my neck, the effect is eventually kneecapped by the revelation that all of the aforementioned images were faked by Alice’s brother for reasons too far-fetched to take seriously. The first half of the flick is a solidly eerie affair that slowly builds up to the big reveal of these images, and for the filmmakers to suddenly pull back and basically say that all of that was bullshit seemed like a major betrayal, and a huge waste of my time. In all fairness, this flick is not served well by being marketed as a horror film, at which it is ultimately a failure. LAKE MUNGO functions best as a family drama that just happens to feature a few debatable supernatural elements. The entire crux of the drama leads to the Palmers’ discovering a few unseemly aspects of their daughter’s personality that reveal she wasn’t the perfectly innocent angel they believed her to be, and then the movie just kinda ends. I will say that the final revelation of what happened to Alice at Lake Mungo features a truly startling image that, were this based in fact, would have left a massive shit-stain in my pants, but as it is was still incredibly unsettling. However by the time the movie ends all of the participants’ actions are so untrustworthy that all you can do is shake your head and wonder what the point of all of it is.
For what it is, LAKE MUNGO is exceptionally well-made, and tells a compelling enough story of the heartbreaking lengths some people will go to when dealing with grief and denying their loved ones have indeed passed on. As a drama it is very effective, but as a ghost story, while quite spooky in spots, it flounders due to the unreliability of the characters involved.
My Rating:
6.5/10
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