Lake Mungo - Movie Review

The past few decades of horror have brought audiences to believe that the supernatural should always be feared. Demons, poltergeists, and malicious ghosts are just dying (pun intended) to cause as much pain and death as they can when get the chance. It's a bad trend that needs to stop because ghosts (in one definition) are remnants of their former, living selves that are unable to find peace and so continually roam the living world. That existence is horrific because you could never interact with your loved ones or anybody, only able to watch as they experience the joys and pains of life. You can never show them how you really feel towards them and it's tragic. Which is why this week I'm watching a horror movie that goes things differently with the supernatural: Lake Mungo.

Lake Mungo starts with the Palmer having a little fun near a river in Ararat, Australia. But soon they realize their daughter, Alice Palmer hasn't come out of the river and after some searching soon the authorities become involved. The search soon turns up the dead body of Alice and the Palmer family becomes distraught with their daughter's death. But something is off because Alice seems to be appearing in their dreams and ghostly images of her begin to appear around the house and the neighborhood. The mystery of Alice's fate soon transforms into a twisted web of secrets, lies, and the supernatural as the Palmer family learns that their daughter might not have been who they thought she was.

Not all horror is through monsters, demons, and freaks of nature. It isn't always about escaping death or fates worse than death. H.P. Lovecraft, in one of his best quotes, tells us that the oldest and strongest emotion of humans is that of fear and the old and strongest form of that is the fear of the unknown. In my review last year of the excellent thriller, Searching, I talked about how tense the story got through caring about people and seeing people like the father played by John Cho continually work to find his missing daughter. I'm not a parent, but almost every parent I know would be extremely worried if their child suddenly went missing and the fear of finding out that their kid is dead is horrific to think about.

Lake Mungo explores the aftermath of what if the search brought up a dead body and the effects it leaves on a family. It goes further with the family having hopes and worries of if their child is still around and their past is coming back to haunt the rest of them. I wasn't watching out for jump scares or something to creep on me in the dark. Instead I was entranced by why the ghost of Alice would remain and it what it wanted with her family. That's the real horror, seeing how the family is trying to hold itself together and why the supernatural is affecting their lives. We're wondering if Alice is still alive or if something more sinister (supernatural or physical) has happened or is happening right now. I'm going to try and keep spoilers to a minimum, but there will be a couple in this review. You have been warned.

The acting for Lake Mungo is absolutely fantastic. None of these actors had done anything mainstream before, but the performances from all of them is so realistic! This is a mockumentary, a fake kind of documentary (like The Office), but everyone acting so well the person I was watching this with asked me if this was real or not. The parents Rosie Traynor (played by June Palmer) and David Pledger (played by Russell Palmer) were especially good in their performances. We also have a psychic named Ray Kemeny (Steve Jodrell) who does a great job as well to integrating themself into the situation and trying to help out the Palmers. These people were not afraid to cry on camera or express themselves, unlike actors in similar films. It felt a little too real at times (which is good in this case) because everyone acted like anybody else would and with how relatable the story was, even with the supernatural elements. This is a fictional story, but it feels like something you could see on the news.

These supernatural elements are rather strange in this movie though because of the script. At first it seems like Alice's fate is something mystical, but as the mystery deepens we find evidence of something else. Then it can switch back to the supernatural through more evidence. This could confuse people who aren't paying attention, but this also feels intentional because the family is just as confused as us in this terrible situation. Imagine yourself in their situation, you've lost your child and there are hints that they're possibly haunting your home as a ghost. As you try to find out why they're doing so you learn things about them before they died that really change your opinions on them, or at least open your eyes more to what kind of person they really are.

I was also very impressed with the cinematography. There is a mix between high quality footage that would be used in interviews and hand-held footage used by simple cameras. The high quality, documentary footage was steady, well-shot, and clear while the hand-held footage captured everything needed. Except for one hand-held scene that was way too close up for most of it, even for somebody crying to capture their face. This all blends together very well to create very compelling storytelling. I was also impressed by how the scenes were edited to hide and show certain things that more relaxed viewers would miss. Some of these moments were edits of earlier scenes, but the way they're done is very professional and always introduced new information to the audience in a clever way. As for scares, there was only one jump scare in this movie. One. And it was very, very well built up.

The movie also had really good use of audio and music. Often both were reserved and subtle, not taking the focus of scenes and always being in the background. Like an itch in the back of your head it perfectly kept raising my nervousness and ever so softly it continually made the scenes tension filled. Most of the time though silence and quiet, ambient noises were what filled most of the movie, which was great! It kept the realistic tone of the film while excellently building up the unsettling atmosphere the film presented. For example the Palmers set up cameras in their house after a few incidents and when viewing the footage there at first isn't much. But then the audience and the Palmers begin to notice things that shouldn't be there, all done with almost total silence.

This review is really hard for me because there is so much story that could spoil the movie and the best experience for this film in my opinion is to go in blind. I knew this film wasn't going to be scary, more depressing and unnerving, but that was it. It's kind of the main issue I have with this movie, but it's also one of the movies big strengths. Because of Hollywood's treatment of horror and overuse of jump-scares I worry that people will find this film to be boring, too slow of a burn to get through, and predictable. I found it to be none of these things because of my open mind and me being able to relate to these characters. When the movie ended I was a little disappointed at first with the ending. I was hoping for a more concrete ending, but after thinking about it I realized something: This isn't a murder mystery. This isn't a story where we find a bad guy, put them in jail, and everyone has some sort of resolution to their stories. No, this is a story about a grieving family and the uncovering of knowledge of somebody close to them.

Lake Mungo was unlike any horror movie I've watched before. The scares are not physical, nothing is out to get anyone. But psychological elements and scares get their power from being able to relate to the people in the film and their horrible experiences with a recent death. I kept getting more and more jittery and frightened as the film kept going and going on the mystery of Alice Palmer. The average movie goer might not fully click with it, but Lake Mungo is a must watch if you want relatable, tragic story that'll make your skin crawl. I've been wanting to watch this film for a long time and after watching it on Amazon Prime I think I've found a lost piece of media that everyone should see.

Tentative Score: 9.25/10

When I mean lost piece of media I mean it. This film, despite being over 10 years old, has not had a blu-ray release yet! And it's so hard to find one any streaming service. This film should be known more!