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Sunday Night at the Movies: Lake Mungo

Lake Mungo is one of those horror movies I'd heard a lot of buzz about but had a hard time getting my mitts on. Of all the diamonds in the rough Shawn and I have sought out during our six seasons, this was one of the hardest diamonds to find. Yet I was determined.

So I spent a considerable amount of coin purchasing this flick for the simple pleasure of seeing what all the fuss is about. Can a pseudo documentary about the ghost of a dead girl live up to the hype? Stick with me!

Yeah, in a world of found-footage horror movies, Lake Mungo is that odd duck that is actually presented as a legitimate documentary as opposed to a they-died-but-their-footage-lives-on kind of flick. But that is actually what makes Lake Mungo work, and work well.

I knew I was watching a work of fiction, but writer/director Joel Anderson does such a fine job that I was seriously creeped out by what I was watching -- because I believed it. I rarely become that invested in a movie, but Lake Mungo had me by the balls. To call it unsettling would be an understatement. It ruined my evening in the best possible way.

Lake Mungo succeeds on multiple levels. It's a dark drama about a family grieving over the death of a child -- something no parent should experience. But it's also a spooky ghost story and a disturbing "true" crime tale. Put all these pieces together, and you've got a unique viewing experience. And we're made to believe it's all real. Wonderbar!

This flick is well made, well acted, and well produced. I have zero complaints about what I saw, and I can almost never, ever say that. This is the real deal of Basement cinema, and I hope more peeps check this movie out after reading my non-review. You'd be doing yourselves favour.

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