Lake Mungo

I never realized how spoiled I was when I first started doing these reviews. As the years went on, I had Netflix, a Prime without commercials, Shudder, HBO Max, Peacock, Paramount, Hulu once and the one I miss most of all... video stores. It's been rough sledding finding good movies as of late, as streamers eliminate password sharing and Disney+ not having enough content I want to see. I can't tell you enough how much I miss video stores... After a long search on the few streaming sites I have, I chose..

Lake Mungo (2008)

I had seen this one get recommended a lot on Reddit. It seems like there are two options with this movie; people either love it or hate it. And you know what? I can see both points of view.

The movie is a mockumentary about a young girl who drowned while swimming with her family. The film starts off as a normal documentary, and it plays out like a normal true crime story. It gives background, covers her disappearance, the search for her body, it interviews parents, friends and neighbors. I didn't realize it at first, but it plays out as a NAT PKG. That's a news story that's told entirely through interviews, video and natural sound. There isn't a narrator throughout the entire movie. As someone who has done a few NAT PKGs, and in my class the next assignment I'm having my students do is a NAT PKG, I was tickled pink to see what's essentially a 90-minute story told entirely through interviews. The journalist in me adores that the movie chose that route.

Shortly after her death, the family says they started hearing things in their daughter, Alice's, room, and her brother, Matthew, starts getting unexplained bruises all over his body. Matthew then sets up video cameras around the house and starts taking pictures, and we start seeing images of a girl in photos and video around the house and the dam where she drowned. The movie then interviews more people, including a psychic that the family used as they discuss their experiences with the family.

From there, the movie takes some weird turns. When searchers recovered Alice's body, her parents were brought in to identify the body. The dad did, but the mom couldn't bear to see her body. Later in the movie, we find out that Matthew has been faking the pictures and takes to walking around the dam where she died dressed as his sister in hopes people will see her. He says he does this so his family will want the body to be exhumed and then tested so his mom can get the closure she desperately needs. Things like that keep popping up so you can never get too confident that you know what's going on, it's not until the credits roll, that can be a little confident of what you "know."

One thing I noticed about this movie is that seemed a bit disjointed. We'd have moments where we'd introduce characters, and when the family would get interviewed, they'd act like nothing was off. Then later when it would get revealed that the thing wasn't as it appeared, their demeanors would completely change, despite this information not being a shock to them. Like, with the photos, when we first see them, the family is talking about them as if they're proof, but then when it gets revealed that they were faked, they act disappointed. And in the case of the psychic, the family talks about him like he's a good guy who wants to help, without even hinting that something is off about him. Later in the movie, we're told that Alice actually visited him before she died, and the family completely changes their attitude towards him. Like, the entire movie is them talking about the past, and they shouldn't be shocked by these moments. I get it's a movie and they want to surprise the audience with these reveals, but it comes off as too staged, if that makes sense. I don't know of a seamless way to do it, but the way it comes off took me out of the movie a bit.

With that said, I liked it. It's a slow, plodding affair that never really puts its foot on the gas. You learn everything slowly, and each piece of the puzzle gets shown to you at the pace of downloading a video on a dial-up modem. Still, it's interesting enough to keep you invested, and it's mainly because of the actors. Everyone is so believable in their roles. Like, they nail every single emotion they're trying to convey. Every time the family is interviewed about Alice, you can see and feel their emotions they're trying to contain for the cameras. It does seem like at different points of their interview, they're just waiting for the red light to go off so they can finally break down.

I mentioned earlier about twists and turns, and I'm going to reiterate that. This takes some wild turns. When you turn it on and you're a good 15 minutes in, you assume this is going to be a straightforward ghost story, but it really expands into something a whole lot bigger. Alice wasn't murdered, but you start learning about what she was going through in the last days and weeks of her life and understood that she saw it coming. Through the investigations, you discover that Alice, as a ghost, has been trying to guide them in different directions so they can unravel the mystery.

It's not scary, but it does have a couple of very good moments. As I write this, I've been debating whether I want to wander into spoiler territory. At first, I thought, why not? No one has heard of this movie, and no one is gonna watch it. But then I thought that that didn't matter. If you decide to watch this movie, it's better not to have it spoiled for you. This is a mystery wrapped up in a ghost story, and it's best to learn and experience that mystery unfold as the story is told. I will say one thing, and I didn't catch it on my watch through, but Lake Mungo is a bit more clever than I gave it credit for. At the end of the movie, the family is in a much different place than when they started, and the pictures with fake hauntings, well, it turns out there was more to them than originally thought as well. I was a tired ,boy so I missed what was going on in the final scenes, but it made me appreciate the movie a lot more.

If you enjoy a slow burn, I think you'll like this. The mystery is good, but there's no "OH EM GEE" moment like when Bruce Willis realizes he's been DED the whole time. The movie moves slowly, and that includes the ending as well. On top of the speed its big moments aren't flashy, but they can get underneath your skin, especially when the family finds the phone and you realize what's been going on in Alice's head. Plus, there's the insane moment involving her neighbors that will make you wonder if Lake Mungo switched movies about 50 minutes in.

8 Dr. Chainsaws!