Lake Mungo

"If you've never seen a ghost... look closer."

2009 1h 27m EN

😐

6.1

MID

★6.1TMDB · 742

HorrorThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

After 16-year-old Alice Palmer drowns at a local dam, her family experiences a series of strange, inexplicable events centered in and around their home. Unsettled, the Palmers seek the help of a psychic and parapsychologist, who discovers that Alice led a secret, double life. At Lake Mungo, Alice's secret past emerges.

“If you've never seen a ghost... look closer.”

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Cast

Rosie Traynor
June Palmer
David Pledger
Russell Palmer
Martin Sharpe
Mathew Palmer
Talia Zucker
Alice Palmer
Tania Lentini
Georgie Ritter
Cameron Strachan
Leith Ritter
Judith Roberts
Iris Long
Robin Cuming
Garret Long

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Joel Anderson
Writers: Joel Anderson
Languages: English
Countries: Australia

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

87 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $2.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 17 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Joel Anderson, shot by John Brawley. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by David Paterson. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Bill Murphy shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Rosie Traynor and David Pledger and Martin Sharpe carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "If you've never seen a ghost... look closer.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Joel Anderson directs. John Brawley behind the camera. David Paterson scores. Bill Murphy cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in Australia. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

187 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
2Shot for just $2.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
3Released 17 years ago.
4Directed by Joel Anderson, shot by John Brawley. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by David Paterson. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Bill Murphy shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Rosie Traynor and David Pledger and Martin Sharpe carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "If you've never seen a ghost... look closer.".
9IMDB entry: tt0816556 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 18 themes, including "australia", "drowning", "supernatural", "paranormal phenomena".

The technical file

Cinematography: John Brawley
Original score: David Paterson
Editing: Bill Murphy
Production design: Penny Southgate
Costume design: Michael Chisholm
Makeup / hair: Jo Fletcher
VFX supervisor: Mathew Mackereth
Sound: Craig Carter
Runtime: 87 min · 1h 27m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $2,000,000
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Lake Mungo (2009)

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

prabhushakti2018-03-06
★ 4/10
This review contains spoilers. A documentary style film, as the director visualised in his mind, and a cheap belief of what it is based upon. I absolutely lost my patience while watching this movie, because I wanted to see a good movie and all it had is how it wanted to be, which I appreciate but unfortunately I hatred it because I was thinking why is it not in some informative channel's stupid shows than a movie? I thought about Häxan - 1922. A film, I love so much because not only it is entertaining but also very well shot and represented. I also thought about "it follows" which I believe is another great horror film in the history of cinema. While watching this Australian director's film, I could not see what else it has that there never have been before or is it important as long as the film is good at it. Does this movie show us anything we have never seen? I absolutely hated the poor direction of how the characters were told to talk about the tragedy! What I hated the most is the blend of dialogues and music. The cheap creepy background music was so high, that you absolutely have to feel the poor suspense the director forces us to feel so desperately, but it was so painful and disgusting far from disturbing. I only felt bad about the privacy of the family involved in the film, if it is based upon the real story which I don't wish to research on. I will tell you my analysis about the first creepy photo of the dead body and last same living video of the creepy faced body: A saddist murdered or psychopath did the horrible things to her face, who had all her possessions, and before killing her, he/she recorded her sadism and buried it in the ground so nobody could find it. Maybe he has been giving her drugs and raping her, which caused her to go through anxiety or depression of death and all those nightmare. Maybe the sadist is not anymore than the Hungarian hypnotiser. Now irrational but dumb people would like it, and some cheap people would spend some bucks to turn it to the most horrible horror film. I want to explain here - a lot of people like the end creepy footage - I found it absolutely horrible because again the cheap creepy sound gave me a headache
Wuchak2021-11-06
★ 4/10
Docudrama concerning the possible ghost of an Australian girl A 16 year-old girl disappears in the water in a rural area of Australia and family members & others claim they see apparitions of her while various secrets are slowly unveiled. “Lake Mungo” (2008) is a mystery Indie with a bit ’o horror, but in the style of a mockumentary, aka fake documentary. Like "Curse of the Blair Witch,” which was released three weeks before the found footage hit “The Blair Witch Project” in 1999, “Lake Mungo” consists of fake interviews with several people about the central topic, as well as examination of some found footage. "Curse of the Blair Witch” worked because it only ran 44 minutes whereas this one is twice as long and the fact that it’s all an act pretending to be a documentary can’t sustain interest. I suppose if you thought it was real it might be more compelling. The brother’s revelation (no spoilers) is odd in that it takes away from what the docudrama is trying to do. For me, the first 53 minutes of constant phony interviews is pretty tedious. Thankfully things perk up in the final 34 minutes. Although the first revelation thereof goes nowhere, the second one (the one that occurs at the titular lake) is well done and certainly creepy, not to mention an intriguing concept. I’m sure everything ties together if you reflect on it, but IMHO it’s not worth the effort because the flick just isn’t compelling for the bulk of the first hour. And the payoff isn’t enough to make it worth the investment UNLESS maybe you’re a devotee of mockumentaries or found footage flicks. Add to this the aggravation of the pendulum swinging back-and-forth regarding the nature of the paranormal happenings (she is a ghost; she isn’t a ghost, ad nauseam). That said, the movie is well made for what it is, the actors are convincing and I enjoyed seeing that part of southeast Australia. The film runs 1 hour, 27 minutes, and was shot in Ararat, which is a 2 hours’ drive west of Melbourne, and Mildura, which is 3.5 hours north of Ararat. GRADE: C-/C (4.5/10)