Lake Mungo (2008) Movie Review - Crushing Grief Stricken Aussie Horror
It’s Day 16 of our K-O-Ween 31 Days of Halloween horror movie review feature. Today we are taking a look at another movie that has proved divisive – Joel Anderson’s Australian Mockumentary Lake Mungo from 2008.
I am a huge fan of Lake Mungo. It is, however, one of those Marmite types of movies that seems to divide people down the middle. I have not seen too many people who are neutral in their opinion of it. Using a mockumentary style format not too dissimilar to Noroi: The Curse, Lake Mungo was part of the Found Footage boom of the past 15 years.
It is slow moving, the scares are subtle, and the story is not particularly traditional for horror. If you are in the mood for something different, however, then Lake Mungo might be perfect. Let’s take a look.
Lake Mungo (2008) – Synopsis
Lake Mungo opens with the Palmer family talking to an interviewer about their daughter Alice, played by Talia Zucker. The family recall how they took a trip to the Ararat dam. During the trip, Alice and her brother Mathew, played by Martin Sharpe, were out swimming in the middle of the water. Mathew, not wanting to get cold, headed back to the shore. Around 15 minutes later, Mathew asked his mum and dad where Alice was. She was not on the shore and could not be seen in the water.
The family, unaware of what had happened to Alice, contacted authorities and a rescue team was brought in. The search was set to take a long time so the family were told to head home and that the team would let them know if anything is found. The search goes on for a number of days before the family are called with the news that a body has been recovered.
What follows is a collection of interviews with the family and friends of Alice. Documenting their struggle to move on from the tragedy. And their accounts of a supposed encounter with Alice’s spirit, still haunting the family and staying beside them through their grief. But is there more to the story than meets the eye? And was Alice hiding secrets from the family that she knew would be too painful for them to find out?
Mockumentary Horror
Lake Mungo finds itself placed somewhere between mockumentary and found footage. The movie is presented as a documentary about the death of Alice Palmer. We have a mix of different styles all brought together to create a very convincing documentary aesthetic. The movie features handheld camera footage taken by the characters themselves. Absolutely awful phone camera footage that looks like it was filmed on a potato. Interviews with the characters in the movie, old photos and home videos as well as news footage. When it is all put together you have a movie that is very similar to Noroi: The Curse which we reviewed a few days ago as part of our 31 Days of Halloween feature.
Joel Anderson has done a fantastic job of making you think you are watching a real documentary. He has also made use of the gorgeous Australian scenery to add a layer of haunting beauty to the movie. The use of time lapses of the sky are particularly nice looking. Long lingering shots on barren landscape help illustrate the loneliness of some of the characters. The creative use of many different styles of filming keep everything looking fresh.
The documentary style combined with the found footage aesthetic is likely to put a huge bunch of people off straight away. Found Footage is fairly divisive and there have only been a handful of decent mockumentary horror movies. Right off the bat Lake Mungo is swimming upstream. I think to immediately dismiss the movie for these reasons is short sighted. It is well worth sticking with Lake Mungo as you may find a fantastic horror here that will stay with you. It is incredibly convincing and captivating throughout.
A Slow Burning, Haunting Story
Lake Mungo sets its story up gradually and slowly bleeds out its scares. It demands attention to what is happening and reels you in with a sympathetic family suffering from an awful trauma. This is a truly disturbing tale and, as the movie goes on, it becomes even sadder. To lose a young daughter on a family day out would be bad enough. The revelations that come out about Alice as the movie goes on only add to the family’s pain and anguish. It’s a profoundly sad story.
This is a family that, perhaps, had more issues than they realised and the documentary style is a perfect way to reveal this. We are constantly learning new things about Alice, her home life, and her life outside of the home. While this is happening, we are also being exposed to the haunting things happening to the family. They still feel Alice’s presence and bizarre things are happening that the viewer becomes privy. Whether this is a manifestation of grief or an actual haunting slowly becomes more apparent.
It is this mix of grief and the paranormal that makes Lake Mungo so compelling. You eagerly anticipate the next reveal. You genuinely want to know what has happened to Alice and whether the family are actually seeing her ghost or not. It is incredibly gripping for anyone that enjoys slow burn horror. It helps that Lake Mungo is expertly paced. You are never left bored. There are few better examples of combining family drama with a slow burn mystery and a legitimate ghost story.
Fantastic Acting
The mockumentary style horror movie demands convincing performances from its actors. Lake Mungo has this in spades. There really isn’t a weak performance in the entire movie and some stand out for being absolutely amazing. It is almost as if the actors actually experienced the events of the movie and were just relating them to the camera as they would in an actual documentary.
Rosie Traynor, in particular, is incredible. There are parts of the movie where you could legitimately believe that she lost her daughter and was heartbroken. At one point she is reading her daughter’s diary and the emotion she displays is so believable and authentic. It’s a powerful scene in a movie full of powerful scenes. It’s worth keeping in mind that there was no script for this movie.
The collective cast’s performances are one of the things that makes Lake Mungo such a compelling watch. You are never once taken out of a scene by awful acting and the characters seem genuinely invested in what they are talking about. This investment means that when they talk about something they saw or something that happened you believe them. As far as mockumentary and found footage horror goes, you would have to go a long way to find an overall better cast.
Not for Everyone
Lake Mungo almost certainly won’t be for everyone. It is a slow moving story, as well, that relies on atmosphere, and a viewer with a keen eye, for most of its scares. While it is genuinely scary in parts, this is only a secondary aim of the film. It is, primarily, made to get into your head. I am sure some people will not even consider it a horror movie at all. The horror genre is incredibly broad but some people’s enjoyment of horror is very linear.
Lake Mungo is slow paced and the context of the scares comes from the story being told. If you are a viewer that is likely to get bored without a decent amount of action then you may want to skip this entirely. It could, perhaps, be argued that the documentary style nature of the movie takes away from the scares somewhat. We are, after all, being told about events that have already happened. I, personally, don’t think this is the case. The documentary style offers a layer of realism to everything. I actually think this really adds to the horror but I doubt everyone will think the same.
I think the movie takes a bit of a misstep in the first half. A major revelation takes all the established tension and flushes it down the toilet. Lake Mungo is then left to try to re-establish the viewer’s belief in the events taking place and draw the viewer back in. A task which I think it will fail to do with some viewers. In all honesty, it took me a third viewing to get past this as it always took me right out of the flow. Stick with it, though, as the real horror comes later on.
Should You Watch Lake Mungo?
If you enjoy mockumentaries and found footage, you should definitely watch Lake Mungo. It has gained a bit of a reputation in recent years. Partly for how great it is and partly as being a bit overrated. It splits people down the middle. If you can get past the rhetoric, there is an incredibly haunting movie with a deep focus on the grieving process and familial struggles just waiting for you. It is slow paced, deliberate, and not for everyone. But for those of us who like it, Lake Mungo is one of the best found footage movies ever made.
