Lake Mungo

Some people call this a classic.

We're talking about Lake Mungo, the 2008 psychological horror found footage film written and directed by Joel Anderson.

And yes, it's found footage, but this is just some elements.

It's more presented in a pseudo-documentary format.

the one i'm looking at it's like the

like a bit of a face yeah but even that's not really kind of

there's one here where it just looks like a on shadow it i think it's ai generated possibly um it's a shadow shot of alice standing on the lake but it's like a cartoon moon background and lake and then just has lake mungo but oh yeah i see it

yeah

This week was my turn to choose, and I went into just my list of things that I was curious about that is post-2000, because I thought you might appreciate a more recent film.

And this is 2008's Lake Mungo, which I had heard about, never seen before.

But it comes up every now and then people talk about it when they talk about creepy, unsettling movies that really bothered them or hit them hard.

And they talked about twists in it and maybe an ending that was a little unsettling or upsetting.

while.

Yeah, it's pretty long.

So whoever requested it's going to be very happy that we're doing Lake Mungo today.

This is the first time I had ever seen it.

Okay

... uh, Lake Mungo, Autopsy, Death Bell.

The, the list-

Man

The middle one.

It's very Lake Mungo.

Remember when we did Lake Mungo? Yeah, it is actually.

A single tragedy spirals out and uncovers all of these past traumas across the community.

Yeah, yeah.

Uh, I think it was, uh, God, I'm trying to watch check foolish optimist.

It says watch Lake Mungo.

I have, and I think it's, I think it's pretty good.

I didn't, I didn't love it on the first watch, but it was one of those I think that grows on you.

We got In the Loop, the funniest, foulest-mouthed film I can think of.

And then there's the horror films of 2009: Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell, Lake Mungo, The Road, Zombieland, Karyn Kusama's Jennifer's Body, and I think my favorite film of all time, Yorgos Lanthimos' Dogtooth.

Just reach your hand into the grab bag of 2009 and you are more likely to draw out a winner than any other year I can think of.

In fact, we drew one of those movies this week, Neill Blomkamp's sci-fi action allegory, District 9.

It's way too long is the biggest issue, but I think people who are really into found footage really like it.

It's kind of like Lake Mungo combined with the Blair Witch Project.

What is you guys' count for the year? 25.

Me too.

The pacing is the maze.

The author notes that directors have attempted cousins of this visual trickery before with films like Lake Mungo or certain high concept Black Mirror episodes.

But the critical difference here is the sheer tonnage of the dread.

A miniseries allows the darkness of the house to infect the viewer slowly.