‘Lake Mungo’ (2008): The Oral History

January 31, 2024 3:40 AM

Lake Mungo made a modest impact when it was first released in 2008. It premiered at the Sydney Film Festival, screened at South by Southwest in 2009, and premiered in the United States as part of the After Dark 4 horror anthology in 2010. Yet residencies on Tubi, Shudder, and Amazon Prime exposed new audiences to this sad, frightening, and fascinating film more than a decade after its release, and its explorations of grief fit more comfortably with a horror landscape influenced by The Babadook (2014) and Hereditary (2018) than the 2000s post-Blair Witch Project (1999) found footage explosion.
posted by cupcakeninja (17 comments total)

It’s a very powerful film, especially in the way it sneaks up on you. Like an MR James story, it deals more in dread and unsettled uncertainty than outright scares, and the addition of grief as the central theme holds the whole thing together. If you haven’t seen it, and you are open to slow burn “gentle horror,” make it a priority.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:02 AM on January 31 [12 favorites]

Yeah, this one stayed with me for a while. I’m not much of a horror fan but it has this veeery effective, mesmerising sense of foreboding. Just seeing the title made the hairs on my arms stick up, despite the 14-year gap.
posted by Lesser Spotted Potoroo at 4:44 AM on January 31 [4 favorites]

The article also rightly mentions the important role of the landscape in this film. It's almost like another character.

Wandering around an old, rural Australian town late at night - especially if it’s clear but slightly windy - can feel creepy-as! I remember at the time there were a few moments where the film captured that sensation perfectly..
posted by Lesser Spotted Potoroo at 5:46 AM on January 31 [5 favorites]

Without dropping spoilers, I will say that one of the most impressive parts of the film is how a rug is pulled out from under you at one point, then the floor below that rug is also removed. And you can go back and watch the whole thing again and they were not only playing entirely fair the entire time, but the fact that you hadn't noticed only reinforces the movie's themes.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:00 AM on January 31 [12 favorites]

I really need to see this. My favourite (now currently defunct) horror podcast reviewed it and really liked it, despite it being a movie that wasn't as straightforward as assumed.
posted by Kitteh at 7:36 AM on January 31 [2 favorites]

ok this sounds right up my alley but I'm dealing with a pretty major load of real life grief right now. is this film gonna break me? (I mean, that scene towards the end of Barbie, when B is holding ghost creator's hand, made me cry on a plane just hunched over weeping)
posted by supermedusa at 8:24 AM on January 31 [2 favorites]

It's desperately sad. And not in a maudlin way. It's sad in an oblique way, that wedges itself under your fingernails.

It's actually first in this list of the ten saddest horror films, according to reddit.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:35 AM on January 31 [7 favorites]

supermedusa, if I were in your shoes, I would not watch this film at this time. I have been in that position before—wondering about a grief-y horror film while grieving—and this one is a film that would not have been helpful to me. I would have been able to enjoy it a couple years later. (Or, at least, I was able to watch things like this on that timeline.)
posted by cupcakeninja at 9:18 AM on January 31 [5 favorites]

It’s hard to say. LM keeps edging you into the sadness, like you know it’s sad when it starts, but you keep wading deeper as the film goes on. It could be cathartic, I suppose, but it doesn’t sound like it for you at this time? You don’t get hit over the head with sadness, but it does get all over you.
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:21 AM on January 31 [2 favorites]

I will definitely add this to my watchlist, for some time later, or if I need a good cathartic cry.
posted by supermedusa at 9:52 AM on January 31 [2 favorites]

It's such a quiet and intense film. We were very surprised by it and appreciate the whole.

I agree with GenjiandProust about the MR James vibe. Which is a great thing to achieve.
posted by doctornemo at 9:58 AM on January 31 [2 favorites]

The director of this film has not directed anything since.

He did, however, help produce Late Night with the Devil which will see theatrical release March 22 and then will stream on Shudder starting April 19. David Dastmalchian stars as a 1970's late night talk show host. As a sweeps week stunt, he airs a live event investigating claims of paranormal activity surrounding a 13 year-old girl recently escaped from a cult. I saw it at Chicago Film fest and I can assure you everything goes great and it ends with everyone high-fiving in freeze frame. (Not really.)
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:23 AM on January 31 [10 favorites]

I may have to finally get that Shudder subscription….
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:24 AM on January 31

If you do, ping some of us nerds on FF and we'll make you a list. I know I would and miss-lapin probably would, too.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:28 AM on January 31 [2 favorites]

Evan Dorkin and Paul M Yellovich discussed Lake Mungo on their great horror podcast Tear Them Apart. I've still not seen it, it's one of the very few times I regret having a story spoiled. Hopefully by the time it makes its way to Tubi I'll have forgotten enough.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:23 AM on January 31 [2 favorites]

When I watched the movie, I assumed Lake Mungo was the lake Alice drowned in, but it's not! This interview mentions this, and it turns out Lake Mungo is an ancient dry lake bed ringed by dunes, and also a paleolithic archeology site. It's the otherworldly landscape where the last events we learn about in the movie unfold, where Alice has an encounter. The place with those bizarre outcroppings of stone and dirt. So Lake Mungo itself is a sort of ghost lake and a haunted place.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 9:29 PM on February 1 [2 favorites]

Ooh I saw this somewhere around 2014 and loved it. Later on I had a conversation with a co-worker where we discussed our favourite horror movies and I talked up "Lake Mungo" (without giving anything away about its twists in twists.) He returned on Monday and gave me a side-eye and never asked for my recommendations again, ha! I'm happy to find there are others who actually enjoyed it. I bought the DVD in case it ever disappears from streaming. Have to wait 2-3 years between watches so I can forget some of the details but yeah, great stuff.
posted by kittensyay at 10:59 AM on February 4 [2 favorites]