Lake Mungo

Subtle, effective, and unnerving mockumentary. Like all good ghost stories, it's just as much about tragedy and grief as it is about scares. Underrated.

Very low-key and not really that filled with scares, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The story changes just often enough to remain interesting and I have a soft spot for ghostly apparitions. Well, not really a soft spot, more like a 'goosebumps on places where they shouldn't be' type of discomfort. As such, the few moments that were meant to be disturbing had the right effect. The deathly apparition appearance in particular was surprisingly creepy. Nice cinematography too.

It's like the Where's Waldo series focused on the woman in the "painting" from Dario Argento's Deep Red. You unlock a life achievement if you watch a documentary about the making of this film.

There's only one moment that doesn't work, when it jumps to J-Horror for all of three seconds. It's completely at odds with the rest of the film. There may be something there, but I can't see it. Other than that, it's haunting and beautiful and moving from start to finish. I've never seen the combination of ghost story and family documentary so richly realized, and as a reflection on the intersection of human nature, memory, and the photographic/cinematic process over and above a ghost movie.

I figured this was an everyday thing in Australia. I don't get why they're all so worked up.