Lake Mungo - An Unnerving Masterpiece (JAR OF FATE #4)
Like many horror fans, I obsessively collect horror movies on DVD and Blu-Ray. They sit in piles around my tiny apartment. Some are collector’s editions, some come from Scream Factory, lots of them are gifts. Some come from the $5 bin at Walmart, and a lot come from library sales where they’re only $1. Or that time HMV went out of business and I bought their entire horror collection for like $100. And sure, I may have four copies of Carrie, but I regret nothing.
Unfortunately, obsessively picking up horror movies means there’s a lot I haven’t watched. Whether it be that I’ve never seen the movie before, or I haven’t seen this particular version, or I have never cracked open the DVD because the movie is streaming and I’m lazy.
How do I solve this guilt I have as I sit streaming Netflix while piles of DVD’s surround me, judging quietly? I made a TO BE WATCHED jar, or as my friend Zo named it; JAR OF FATE.. I went through my collection and wrote down all the movies I wanted to watch on little scraps of paper and whenever I want to watch something, I pull randomly from the jar.
The fourth random pick is Lake Mungo, a 2008 Australian mockumentary horror film.
I watched this quiet classic about 5 years ago and it was so unnerving that for the first time in a long time, I was scared of the dark. We lived in a haunted house in Richmond, we had this massive backyard which was great for the dogs. But after watching Lake Mungo, I stood outside having a smoke and couldn’t stop myself from peering into the dark corners of my garden, double checking there wasn’t a female figure standing there watching me.
I watched this for the second time and am happy to announce it is just as unnerving as the first time. Lake Mungo is not a jump scare buffet, it doesn’t have a tone of action, but it has a creeping dread that wraps itself around you in a suffocating hug.
Here’s what it’s all about:
In 2005, in the town of Ararat, a family is swimming at the damn when their daughter seemingly goes missing. The police search the dam and uncover her dead body, it seems she drowned accidentally. The family grieves but start to believe the young dead daughter, Alice, is haunting them. Their son, Mathew, sets up cameras and captures a string of appearances of Alice’s ghost. But when we find out Mathew faked that footage, something even more dark comes to light.
“Death takes everything eventually.”
Here’s what I loved:
The fucking twists. It’s so damn clever. You think this is your typical ghost caught on camera situation, only to find out pretty quick the grieving brother has faked it. But when he leaves town for a road trip, the camera captures what actually is Alice’s ghost. The mother then goes back through the footage and finds something even more terrifying – in one shot of Alice’s bedroom, her neighbor is creeping around inside of it. This is when the mother uncovers a horrifying tape that shows Alice having sex with the neighbors. And when you think that’s the twist and we’re headed for the end – NOPE. Footage shows Alice on a school trip to Lake Mungo burying something in the night. When the family finds the spot, they uncover her cell phone. On her cell phone is a video of what is her seemingly running into her dead self out in the middle of Lake Mungo. WHAT. And THEN as the credits roll, we realize that all of Mathew’s faked footage…which he indeed faked, actually did capture Alice’s ghost. She’s been there in the background the ENTIRE TIME. Now, take a deep breath.
Holy shit.
There’s something SO creepy about the ghost footage in this movie, even the one’s that are faked by Mathew. I think it’s because it’s so pixelated and really feels like a genuine home movie. Not a Paranormal Activity situation where somehow all the images are HD. You’re watching this footage that Mathew has taken and you’re squinting trying to figure out what you’re supposed to look for and then BOOM, zoom in on this ominous terrifying pixelated image of Alice. It’s completely unnerving and so well done.
The acting in this is really genuine. The director (and writer), Joel Anderson didn’t write out a full script, he gave the actors tidbits to work off of and then they improvised all of the scenes. And instead of coming off awkward, it feels so fucking real. There’s lots of “ums” and “ahs” and pauses, but that’s what a real documentary looks like. Outstanding work from everyone involved.
Lake Mungo – let’s get into it. This is where the story is not so clear cut. Alice goes on a school trip and when she’s out walking alone she sees herself come out of the darkness. This version of herself looks exactly like the dead version of her that the police pull out of the dam. And there’s never a clear answer given – but to me I think Alice saw that and knew she was going to die soon. Whether she knew how, or why, all that matters is, she knew. And that is so damn terrifying. Does this become a self-fulfilling prophecy? Maybe. Was she already suicidal at this point and this just tipped her over? Maybe. We don’t know for sure, because we won’t ever know if she drowned accidentally, or drowned herself on purpose.
“Ally saw a ghost, but she wasn’t to know it was her own.”
“Alice kept secrets. She kept the fact she kept secrets, secret.”
Ultimately, to me, Lake Mungo shows the horror of being a teenager. You feel so utterly alone as you move through your own pubescence, figuring out your life. Your family surrounds you but they don’t understand you because you don’t understand yourself yet. When Alice finds herself entwined with the neighbors, having sex with them and being filmed, it’s horrifying. This couple took advantage of their babysitter, and I’m sure had been grooming her for years. And this is all happening next door to Alice’s family. But this is so common in this horrifying world, especially with young adults who can’t process this type of trauma. Yes, it’s horrifying to see ghost Alice popping up in photographs and video footage, but the real horror is that a young woman was groomed by pedophiles and she was unable to articulate that to her family, and most likely drowned herself in the dam.
It is obviously a film about grief, and capturing that on camera, and how families and individuals deal with a death. How one death can spread out through a community like a never-ending ripple. But to me, Lake Mungo is about never truly knowing someone despite how close you think you are to them. And that’s hella dark. But fuck, it’s an incredible movie.
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