When you think of found footage horror movies, you probably jump right to The Blair Witch Project, and for good reason, but let me tell you of another found footage horror film that’s even better than that Appalachian-set terror, Lake Mungo. Found footage horror might scare me more than any other subgenre.
I know it’s often low-budget, with amateur actors and small sets, but watching a horror scene go down from the point of view of those directly affected is as unnerving as it gets. The Blair Witch Project scared me more than any found footage film for years, but that was until I watched 2008’s Lake Mungo​​​​.
What Is Lake Mungo About?
Lake Mungo is an Australian found-footage film that combines found footage and docufiction to investigate a story about 16-year-old Alice Palmer (Talia Zucker). When the Palmer family of four goes swimming one day at a dam in Ararat, Victoria, Australia, Alice suddenly disappears. Days later, her bloated body is found floating in the reservoir.
Beside themselves with grief, the Palmers begin experiencing strange occurrences in their home, and Alice’s brother, Matthew (Martin Sharpe), puts cameras around the house to capture what he believes is Alice’s spirit attempting to contact the Palmers. This spark of hope leads the Palmers to start looking into things they should just let rest.
Lake Mungo is very much in the same vein as found footage films from previous years. There are obvious influences from The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, and Rec, but Lake Mungo adds something crucial to the story that sets it apart; it’s heartbreakingly sad. Those other found footage horror films struggle to paint any emotions beyond terror.
That’s one of the wonderful things about found footage horror movies: they are kind of like dark rides at an amusement park. You get on them, you get scared, and the ride ends. The story is negligible. In Lake Mungo, you feel the Palmers’ despair, and it makes you as desperate to watch the footage as they are.
Lake Mungo combines the terror of great found footage horror films with a story worthy of any acclaimed traditional horror movie. In a lot of found footage horror movies, a part of you wonders why these people don’t shut off the cameras, why do they keep going deeper into a horrific mystery?
In Lake Mungo, you understand why the Palmers want to watch, searching the corner of the screen for an apparition. It would almost be a relief to be terrified, because that would mean Alice is still there. Lake Mungo’s greatest trick, then, is to remind the audience why, even at your most desperate, it’s best to turn off the camera.