Unsettling.
I know this movies not real, yadayada. But there was something really unsettling to me about it. I've just watched it and now I can't sleep.
Anyone else feel really weird after watching it?
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MovieChat Forums > Lake Mungo (2010) Discussion > Unsettling.
Yep. I actually watched it in 2 sittings. The first time I turned it on I was home by myself and it was really late. The pictures started to make me feel creepy (even though I knew they weren't real), but whenever he set up the video camera that first scene where she walks past and it is clear as day, I was like "NOPE!" and turned it off. I watched the rest the next day. I felt so stupid because I know it wasn't real footage or anything, but they did such a good job at creating an eerie environment.
shareIt was honestly one of the scariest movies I've ever seen.
I don't say that too lightly.
The thing is, this isn't even really horror movie, I would consider it more of a drama with horror elements, but it sets up the characters so well that when the creepy stuff happens...it's really creepy.
Another bit of technical stuff that got to me was the slow zoom ins to wherever Alice was in the picture; I frantically searched to find Alice before they happened because my chills got worse and worse as the camera zoomed in. Those parts killed me. I felt helpless to the camera; I didn't want to see where it was going, but I had no choice.
But moreover the emotional stuff got to me. The ending might be one of my favorite endings in a really long time, because of how well they set it up earlier in the movie. It's not open and shut. Is Alice still out there? Was she ever there? Was it just a family's grief creating her? The credits seem to answer one way, but you can definitely argue against.
The bottom line is that this movie is arguably one of the best horror films in a long time. Definitely one of my favorites. It really got to me, it really spoke to me, it moved me, it creeped me the *beep* out and the cell phone footage (those who saw it know) gave me nightmares for a week. Full fledged nightmares.
Well the final image of the house with the window at the end shows us the reality of Alice and we know something supernatural was going on cause of the image of her dead body captured on her cell.
shareThat's not actually the final image. Keep watching after the credits begin.
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I don't come from hell. I came from the forest.
"NOPE"... LOL!
shareYes, I just watched this and it scared the crap out of me. Just as bad is the horrible melancholy depressive feeling that permeates the movie. I mean, its just a movie about doom. Very scary and lonely feeling. Why did I watch this at night?
shareWhats worse is that when I watched it (it was on tv) I thought it was an actual documentary! I thought it really happened, it scared the bejebers out of me.
shareMy sister and I watched it last night on SBS tv. We HONESTLY thought it was a documentary until we saw the closing credits, "Cast of Characters"!!!! That said, I would have had nightmares had I not found out it was fiction. So that's a good thing. :)
shareDitto - I couldn't believe we hadn't heard about this before - then it all became apparent it was fiction.....amazing film!
shareI saw it last night (SBS) and loved it. The ending really got to me.
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www.last.fm/user/metalion_sos
Heh! I saw it last night on SBS too and didn't turn it on until after the start so I fully thought it was a documentary. I was soooo shocked that they showed some footage of Alice's body as they removed it from the dam. I couldn't believe they got the family's permission to do that!!
Then when June was scouring the old footage, that she knew Matthew had faked, and saw the neighbour crouching there - it just seemed too much of a convenient twist. I finally fully twigged when they showed the footage of her having sex with the married couple next door.
After that, even though the plastic bag they found her phone and bracelet in was super clean and obviously never buried, that image on the phone still gave me the creeps.
I really appreciate that I was sucked in for the majority of the movie - in particular, the father's way of speaking... and constrained emotion absolutely got me!
surprisingly good movie!
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Yep!
I knew it wasn't real (thanks to imdb) but because i'm a tad mean I didn't let on to the Mrs. Anyway, 30 mins into the film I was ordered to turn it off. Once she google'd it and found it was a mockumentary....a big sigh of relief from her and we continued it. By the end we were both very freaked out. Definately one creepy movie!!!
I agree! i watched it this afternoon and cant stop thinking about it. Unsettling as well as very moving.
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Watched it on my own, in daylight. Was actually so freaked i turned most of the lights on come sundown, and tried hard not to look out of the windows with no curtains. The film was poignant and bittersweet, but that one cell-phone video was an old-skool scare of epic proportions. I swear im still a bit chilled two days later...
Read this signature, Would You Kindly?
Yep...that cell phone thing has stuck with me, even several years after I have seen it. My brother had watched the movie before me, thinking it was going to be just some other goofy *beep* movie that was On Demand, but the next day said "you HAVE to watch this."
It is very rare for a movie creep to me out as much as Lake Mungo did. I can't remember exactly what the image on the phone looked like, but my brain's fuzzy memory of it is enough to make me nervous about shutting off the lights at night.
Same here. I'm a horror fan, have seen hundreds--if not thousands--of horror flicks, and am NOT easily scared. I can probably count on my fingers the number of movies that I have found genuinely frightening, and this is one. It's been a year or two since I saw Lake Mungo, and the cell phone footage is still seared in my memory and gives me the chills just thinking about it now, sitting at the computer in broad daylight. Unfortunately, I can remember EXACTLY what she saw. Although it wasn't a big deal the first time that particular thing is seen (early in the film), the context of the cell phone footage scene made it one of the most horrifying things I have ever seen in a movie!
shareI'm with all of you here. Freakin' creepy movie!!! That cell video recording is going to hunt me forever!!! One of the most unsettling scenes I have ever seen... and I've seen a lot!
share*SPOILERS*
I watched this last summer. There I was thinking they could not make any really scary movies anymore. Rented this movie and a friend came over unannounced. At first I was kinda annoyed because horror movies need to be watched alone, at night. But as that cell phone scene hit, I was pretty much shocked to the core. I didn't experience feeling that kind of a scare in movies since I was a kid. And I wasn't even alone in the room. I do not know how I would have reacted if I had really watched this alone and in the end I am happy that I didn't. lol
The atmosphere is awesome, just so creepy....and they build the plot up so well, that you actually already become very tense when the cell phone footage starts and you read "Alice's cell phone footage". I immediately felt very unsettled and knew there's something really bad coming up but would have never imagined seeing THAT!
Great movie.
Count me in on the cell phone footage. That was purely unnerving. One of the single most disturbing moments I've ever seen in any movie. The fact that it actually looked like cellphone video made it even worse.
---with only minutes to react we've somehow been killed by a stick insect -- Londinieres
Same here, the whole lake mungo scene leading up to the cell phone footage of the ghost was so well done, haunting and creepy!
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