Lake Mungo is a 2008 Australian psychological horror Thriller, and mystery film. The film is rated R and it is an hour and 27 minutes long. The film is written and directed by Joel Anderson and it stars Talia Zucker and Martin Sharpe.
Now let’s talk more about this movie and see if we can put it on our list this Halloween.
Lake Mungo Review
Today we’re going to be talking about a very special film, one that I’ve wanted to talk about for a while. It’s called Lake Mungo and it’s directed by Joel Anderson. It’s the only film he ever made.
I’ve been trying to find this guy actually. I can’t find him on social. I can’t find a website. I can’t find any information about him. I even asked around a fantastic Fest. People don’t know where he is.
Why am I so adamant about figuring out more about this filmmaker? Because I think he made one of the scariest films of all time that is rarely ever discussed. And it should be.
Lake Mungo is what you might call a mockumentary. It’s a fake documentary. This film is about the disappearance of Alice Palmer. We see interviews with her family as they discuss where she went, why she’s missing, and they eventually uncover that she’s dead. That’s not a spoiler, don’t worry.
The film is about where she went that night. Why was she there? Who was she therewith? Can anyone shed light on this mystery? What happened to Alice? And it’s horrifying.
This is a deeply unsettling film, and a lot of it has to do with the fact that these actors who are portraying her family in these interviews are wonderful.
I actually remember pausing it and looking up their IMDb’s just to see if they had been in anything else to make sure these are actors right.
They’re really good. They sell everything. Every little bit of emotion is reserved in the right ways. Kind of like how if you’re being interviewed for real, you don’t really want to cry in front of the camera.
If this was a film, everyone’s crying all the time. But in a real documentary, people try to hide it. They try to bottle it up because they don’t want to cry in front of people they don’t know they’re not actors.
And these actors are pitch-perfect in keeping that emotion hidden as much as possible and only letting it show in key moments.
But what’s absolutely bone-chilling about this movie is the way Joel Anderson uses recovered photographs and footage from cameras set up around the house.
And you look at a shot and you think you’re seeing something, but then he says, no, I’m going to Zoom in over here in the corner. That right there. That’s the real threat.
Oh, my God. Even thinking about this one-shot disturbed me. I’m not even kidding.
It’s so rare that I see a film that really disturbs me. But Lake Mungo did. In regards to home video releases, this DVD is basically all we’ve got After Dark Horrorfest 4. The special features are trailer and widescreen presentation impressive.
I’m assuming that the majority have not seen this, which is why I don’t want to say that much else about it. I would love for you to have a fresh experience like I did with this movie because it really did scare me, which is so rare nowadays.
But I also wanted to write this review because I’m hoping that somebody from Scream Factory, Shout Factory, or Severe or Arrow Video can find a way to pick up Lake Mungo.
I don’t know what the rights issues are with this, but this needs a making of documentary. This needs some special features. This needs people involved with it, talking about it because it is so much better than this shitty floppy thing.
And last but not least, Joel Anderson, if you happen to come across this review someday, please make another movie.
I’m going to give Lake Mungo an A.
The term underrated is used far too often, but Lake Mungo absolutely is. This is an underappreciated underseen gem, and I really hope you guys check it out. It is on Amazon Prime right now, which is probably the easiest way to view it. So please do.
Guys thank you so much as always for reading the review of Lake Mungo horror movie. See you next time.
Lake Mungo Trailer
Check out the trailer of Lake Mungo a 2008 horror drama, and mystery film. The film employs mockumentary-style storytelling with found footage and docufiction elements, using actor “interviewees” to present the narrative of a family trying to come to terms with the drowning death of their daughter, and the potentially supernatural events they experience after it.
