MovieChat Forums > Lake Mungo (2010) Discussion > Misleading plot description

Misleading plot description

posted 12 years ago by pascals_wager
8 replies | jump to latest

While I really enjoyed the movie, I was a bit disappointed by the film not actually living up to the plot description. The description talks about Alice's "secret past" and "double life". But all she did was sleep with the neighbours and see her own ghost. While of course these things don't occur in the life of an average teenager, there's still not enough there for me to consider her actually having a double life. Just seemed a bit tame, that's all.

Oh, and with the Lake Mungo part, I totally thought she was burying an aborted fetus or something. That would have been pretty shocking, but the footage on her phone was still pretty awesome too.

[–] ladydesdemonna 12 years ago

I feel the same way. I like how it wasn't your typical ghost story, but it definitely wasn't as the description said. Personally I don't know why Alice's ghost would want her parents to know she had a threesome with the neighbors. Kind of creepy.

I too had the same thought about the Lake Mungo burial. I just knew it was going to be a fetus.

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[–] pascals_wager 12 years ago

LOL - yes that was another thing I forgot to mention! Her parents said they felt Alice wanted them to learn about her "double life", but why would she? And they kept talking about how good she was at keeping secrets. But again, there wasn't that much she was hiding. A bit underwhelming there.

[–] trishthestalker 12 years ago

She was lonely and wanted to tell them while she was still alive. It's not so strange that she would want to not have to worry about that secret anymore.

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"Our lives are one masque ball." ~ Gaston Leroux

[–] pascals_wager 12 years ago

But why would she want them to know about the affair?

The ghost thing makes sense I guess. She probably wanted them to know that towards the end of her life, she already knew what was going to happen.

[–] Lifeguardfan 12 years ago

@nuclearseasons:

I took it as she wanted them to know so they would further understand the depression she was in. Just because the sex looked consensual doesn't mean Alice didn't harbor guilt and shame over it, especially because not only was it a taboo sex act, but it was an illegal sex act. Sex isn't just sex for a lot of people. Obviously Alice didn't want anyone to know about it or else she wouldn't have gone to such great length to hide the tape -- having her parents watch it gives them more insight as to what she was dealing with.

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[–] ecrisisny 12 years ago

Yeah, while I also enjoyed it on some level, I found even the fact it was part of the 8 Films To Die For series to be misleading. It felt more like a supernatural drama about letting go directed by Errol Morris than a true horror film.

[–] fiatlux-1 12 years ago

I agree with the OP. This film was completely misleading in its description.
I kept waiting and waiting for the *twist* that is in every supernatural film...there wasn't ANY!
Like who murdered her? Or was it an accident? Suicide?

What was the frigging point of showing all these red herrings, of the descriptions of Alice & events by her family if nothing happened to her?
This should have been described as a psychological thriller more than a horror film.
Atmospheric for sure (and those end credits were seriously creepy)but a big disappointment as a rule.

"I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus."
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[–] DaliParton 12 years ago

Huh? There were at least two "twists." Like she knew she was going to die - she met her own doppleganger and it freaked the crap out of her but she didn't tell anyone, it was practically a self-fulfilling prophecy and then how it turned out that she really was a ghost haunting them, despite all of the 'rational' explanations.