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Titus13
Reviews
Ghost Lake (2004)
Evil Rises, I fall asleep, wake up due to friends laughter
I enjoy a good horror movie and read a review for this one by some fellow who recommended it. Ghost Lake starts out with the Haster family, consisting of Rebecca, ma, and pa. Pa is in a wheelchair, and ma looks as though she had just been dug out of a hole which she had been intentionally placed. These two actors appear to have just discovered the English language, and are now putting it to use in Ghost Lake. ButRebecca is our main focus in this tale. She takes care of her parents,and does not go out to the local pub or dance club as much as she might like. Well, this night she's going out. She puts up mild refusals, but ma and pa aren't having anything to do with it. They demand that their daughter go out and have fun. As Rebecca is out dancing the night away with some goofy boy, the parents fall victim to a gas leak in the house. They die, and Rebecca blames herself for going out and having a good time. Rebecca then goes out to a summer home, where she meets a guy, falls for him, people start dying because of some lake, and ghosts/zombies begin to appear.
Aside from the storyline, which may or may not make sense (and I don't care to find out) the biggest problem in this picture is the acting. American pictures mostly seem to follow the same guidelines. Cast pretty, and everything else will fall into place. This one is no different, as the people who made it obviously chose looks over talent. The 3 main characters are tragically awful. Rebecca shuffles around the picture with one eye raised (the entire time) and part of her lip curled (the entire time) all the while keeping that distant "oh dear what's going on" look on her face. It doesn't work. Not for an entire film it doesn't. She's stale as ever, and not good looking enough to make up for any of this. The love interest in the film, Stan, may be worse. He tries to put into use every Hollywood cliché I've seen (the actor squint, the low whisper) but it just comes off as laughable. Not to mention he's got a somewhat rugged appearance at first, which is completely waved away when you hear his effeminate voice. Then there is the character of the sheriff, and I swear to you I thought we were going to find out that he was a robot. There actually is no other explanation for him. I first thought, good, this character here is much like the character Yul Brynner once played. They're both gun wielding robots. Same emotional range and everything. Nope. There's also a part towards the end where he changes his voice to seem more imposing and evil...I won't go into it....but a touch before that I had fallen asleep, and my flatmate woke me up with side-bursting laughter from this section. When Sta and the Sheriff get together, it's time for a smoke break. There's a little girl in it too, and her character, I suppose, it actually very important to the story, but I couldn't understand a word she was saying. The other characters sort of mingle around, and there are two of note. The only two people in the picture that one could derive any enjoyment out of. First there's the doctor, who keeps it light throughout and fills his screen time with nice little touches. The other is the nasty younger fisherman that Rebecca meets first. His part is divided into two actually, as he's a bit of a jerk when Rebecca first meets him, then dies and comes back as this gooey, evil fisherman thing. He was the first one to grab my attention during a scene between him and Rebecca, both on the other side of a screen door, where he turns the film up a notch, and he supplies the only actual scares throughout the movie. There is an older fisherman, but he's barely in it, and with good reason.
This will bring me into the next problem I have with the movie....the special f/x. They vary from bad to terrible. Makeup f/x to computer. The younger evil fisherman's on screen time is hampered by shaky makeup f/x, and it's really a shame. There are quite a few zombies in the film and most have a pale, ghostly look to them (although there are two that come out of the lake to get two sunbathers that look pretty cool) and some talking skeletons that range from decent to obviously fake. There's actually very little blood, if any, in the picture. It relies more on performances, atmosphere, makeup f/x and music. Unfortunately, really none of these work. I haven't seen any of this director's previous work, and unless he changes his ways, I will not seek out anything else.