6.1 out of 10 for one of the best recent horror films?

You seriously consider this to be a horror film?



If it harms none, do what thou wilt.

RUBISH BUBBISH

Whether this is a drama or horror is irrelevant but it most certainly does deserve to be rated highly. It scared the *beep* out of me and put me in a solemn thoughtful mood... for days afterward. I have yet to watch it again because of how badly it disturbed me and I never get that unsettled by horror films whether they be gory slashers or quiet ghost stories.

They mostly meet me at the waterfront after the social... mostly.

Indeed. I came to its page to give it an 8, while reflecting on it and considering even a 9. However, I wasn't surprised at the low ranking. It just confirmed my view of most people. Most were no doubt looking for another Paranormal Activity: hand-held 'shaky cam' throughout, objects inexplicably moving, raised volume thumps and a plot devoid of any substance to pull at the gullibility of the criminally stupid.

Hats off to writer/director, Joel Anderson. The way the subject matter and plot twists are handled has to be admired. It's done with such subtlety and resists the temptation to throw in cheesy 'jump scares', maintaining its documentary-like feel throughout; almost like an extended 60 Minutes segment. It's the complete lack of 'jump scares' and the slow, lingering video footage that makes this film so unsettling and frightening in its own way. The fact that audiences are predisposed to expecting something to jump out at them worked in this film's favor, making the slow tracking shots through the house very unpredictable. Easily the best of the horror 'mockumentaries' to date. It makes its counterparts look very generic and intellectually boring by comparison.

It's a shame the Australian film industry has such a lack of funding, yet ironically, it's probably this very reason that Australina film makers excel with 'mockumentaries' and horror (Wolf Creek) in general; a genre that doesn't require a huge budget to be effective:

Although more in the vein of the hand-held 'shaky cam' school, yet still utilizing the TV style interviews, I also thought The Tunnel (2011) was a great little film with some very effective fright scenes. It had its flaws, but I still preferred it over the more popular entries. I can only imagine at the plethora of good cinema we'd get if the Australian film industry had the kind of funding that Bollywood, the French, Spanish, and even Japanese do, let alone Hollywood.

Sadly, there's a Hollywood remake of Lake Mungo in the works. While this is obviously an attempt to cash in on something good, and an understandable one from an executive point of view, it still seems absurd. One can understand the financial appeal to remake Japanese horror films for a western audience, even if Japanese sensibilities don't often translate well to an English-speaking audience with western sensibilities, but it's not like Lake Mungo needs English subtitles. I'd like to think Hollywood would've been better off marketing Lake Mungo as it is, slapping a big studio name on it and putting faith in the intellect of its audiences, but sadly, the low ranking for this little gem is proof enough that the masses are largely brain-dead. Hollywood executives are understandably reluctant to invest in films that require the audience to invest thought, so the remake will obviously be dumbed down and the pacing sped up with predictable jump scares. Yawn.

In any case, Lake Mungo has raised the bar for horror mockumentaries. For me, all films in this category have to live up to it now. A class act.




EDSKRPHW