Lake of the Dead (1958) User Reviews

Pay attention Hollywood; it's a lesson in atmosphere!

[Coventry · 8/10 · 30 June 2010]

I stumbled upon "Lake of the Dead" rather accidentally, in the DVD collection of a friend of mine who's a devoted cinephile, but in spite of the sober cover illustration and laconic plot description, it looked intriguing enough to check it out. "Lake of the Dead" is a Norwegian thriller from the 1950's, and this superficial little production detail alone was quite fascinating enough for me. Norwegian horror is uprising nowadays (with instant classics like "Cold Prey", "Dead Snow" and "Next Door" to prove it) but, I suppose like the case with most people, my knowledge of Norwegian horror movies that are fifty years or older was rather non-existent. Even in case of a worldwide DVD distribution, I sincerely doubt this film will ever become an acclaimed genre classic, but still it deserves the recognition and respect of a much larger audience.

A group of matured and intellectual friends, including writers and psychiatrists, head out to the remote backwoods for a careless holiday full of hiking and spending time together. Upon their arrival, however, the group is confronted with the ancient folklore legend of Tore Gravik. Many years ago in these woods, this mentally unstable man killed his own sister (with whom he was in love) and her lover, before vanishing into the woods never to be heard about again. Soon enough, the group witnesses strange occurrences and sense an invisible presence. Prominent intellectuals like them naturally don't believe in urban legends. Or do they? The essence of this movie's powerful and everlasting impact lies within … surprise, surprise … its simplicity! "Lake of the Dead" tells a very rudimentary story and features ordinary and identifiable people as the main characters. These people show naturally common signs of fear and hypocrisy and they do what any normal person would do in perilous condition. Another brilliant quality is the use of the breathtaking sets and locations. Director Kare Bergstrom introduces the cabin in the woods and the nearby lake like additional and vital characters in the story and they demand more than a fair share of your attention. The tone of the film is continuously ominous and the overall atmosphere is creepy & unsettling beyond description. I've rarely witnessed a movie that grabbed my attention as profoundly as "Lake of the Dead". The conclusion of the film is psychologically astounding, although probably too talkative and/or convoluted for the modern film audiences that swear by nonsensical stuff like "Twilight" and "Van Helsing". But what the hell, they are not likely to ever track down a copy of this obscure treasure, anyway.

De dødes tjern (1958)

[SnakesOnAnAfricanPlain · 8/10 · 13 December 2011]

This wonderfully shot (and short), powerful film is a lost horror gem. The film focuses on a group of friends that travel to the woods. It all goes a bit terrifying as a brother is missing, people start sleepwalking, and the truth mixes with superstition. The film is quite dialog heavy in explaining itself, as we have a hypnotist that refuses to believe in ghosts. The scenes build up with a kind of quiet charm, and never fully reveal themselves, allowing our thoughts to intertwine with how the characters see it. The audience is really included in this film, with a lot of moments seeming as though the characters are trying to persuade us onto their side.

A Seriously creepy little film...with gobs of atmosphere

[nomoons11 · 7/10 · 28 October 2011]

This is a fine effort in the horror/thriller genre. Coming out in 1958 and from Norway you wouldn't think so but...it works...trust me.

First off, the acting in the first say...15 minutes or so...is pretty lame. I guess it's due to the "un-hollywood" like skills of the actors but after it dissipates, the rest of the story/film is a mystery until the end.

Basic premise is that 6 friends go to a cabin at a remote lake to meet up with one of their brothers to relax and have a good time. Turns out the lake they go to has a bad history and the rest of the film we learn about it's secrets. We also learn about most of the friends who show up while they sit a debate where the missing brother has gone or if he's dead or not. It's mostly a talky all the way until the end but it really does grab your attention. You may think of a Friday the 13th feel to this but what you won't get is blood and gore. What you do get is an intricate story that hold you to the couch right until the end.

This one is considered one of the top 5 Norwegian films made..and I can see why. If you give this one a chance you'll see why also.

Most disappointed

[Atreyu_II · 6/10 · 5 November 2011]

After reading marvels about this one, considered a norwegian classic by some, I expected great things, but I think my expectations were over the top.

First off, my lack of knowledge on norwegian cinema is... complete. This was nominated the 4th best norwegian film of all time. I can't make any judgments on that. I'm very far from knowing enough movies from Norway to say anything at all, although I do believe it "may" be one of the best from that country. But it's certainly far from being one of the best movies ever.

For a horror movie and from what I read, I expected a scary or at least a tense movie with some atmosphere. I'm sorry, but the truth is that this movie hardly has any suspense at all, let alone scariness and real terror/horror. It lacks real atmosphere, being mostly about a group of adult people spending time with each other in an isolated but beautiful place where they experiment a few but brief tense moments. There is some gorgeous norwegian cinematography - the forests and the big lake which look stunning even in black and white.

Probably the best Norwegian movie ever.

[MartinSa · 10/10 · 25 May 1999]

For younger generations of Norwegian film enthusiasts, Andre Bjerkes "De dødes tjern" is held to be one of the best Norwegian films ever to be made. This film-noir is a "must see" for everybody with a liking for classic cinema!

My vote: 10 out of 10

Don't be scared away from seeing this film!

[halfan · 9/10 · 4 July 2006]

Don't let the previous poster scare (no pun intended) you away from seeing this film. It has a very good cast made up of seasoned Norwegian actors (including the writer himself, Andre Bjerke), and the plot is very good acted out. Now, it would be really unfair to compare Norwegian films made in the 1950's with their Hollywood counterparts then and now - they were made on very tight budgets and usually played for a limited audience. However, this film (made in creepy black and white) has some outstanding scenes that made me (at least) really very uneasy. It's really a very good attempt to make an exiting movie out of a brilliant psychological thriller novel. I think it still - even by today's standard - has a very high entertainment value, just as it had about 50 years ago. No CGI effects here - just good, solid acting!

Fair supernatural mystery

[ofumalow · 5/10 · 31 August 2023]

This was a bit of a disappointment after having heard very intriguing things about it. A group of friends go to a lakeside rural cabin that has "mysterious disappearance"/haunting-type legends attached to it, and where one visitor's brother was last known to be--but he's seemingly disappeared. The setup is fine, but the movie plays a bit like a television omnibus hour from the era (like "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" or "Suspense") in that its generic, overlit professional craftsmanship doesn't really suit the material--nor does the over-emphasis on character comedy. There's way too much talking, and when all is finally explained, it's a garrulous muddle of the pedantic and the fantastical that is offered in the undifferentiating lecture tones of a science class. This would actually be a better movie if it were less slickly produced--but then, others found it highly "atmospheric," while I thought that was its worst lack, so go figure.

If Agatha Christie was Norwegian

[boundlaw · 8/10 · 29 June 2022]

This mystery is classified as horror because of the supernatural elements, a century old ghost story centered upon the cabin in the woods where this group of people came to stay with its missing owner. I won't ruin it with spoilers, but I saw this as a classic whodunit with a paranormal element. Filmed in glorious B&W which adds to the starkness, this film has a couple of spicy elements which must have been quite scandalous in its days: the big reveal about the twins and the revealing, see-through neglegee Liljan, the female twin wears. It is more cozy now, with an endearing group growing more suspicious of each other as the events unfold. This will take you back, yet with a fresh take on where the whodunit and horror genres meet.

Dødes tjern,de

[lyn-kr · 4/10 · 29 August 2006]

Dødes tjern,de is considered to be a Norwegian classic. It tells the story of a group of young people staying in an isolated cabin situated in a forest. I have seen this film more than once as it is a regular on Norwegian TV. Its fun in a way to watch Norwegian movies. Not too may are made and the ones that are, are usually very bad. This one is an exception. The story in itself is quite good, but as usual, to anyone not Norwegian it is an amateur attempt at film making. Norwegians do not have film actors, only theater actors, something that is obvious when watching the film. The actors overact, the camera lingers much too long on certain shots and the dialog is spoken in a way no Norwegian would speak. In spite of this criticism one cannot help but be intrigued by its ghostly story. Each time I have watched it I am in turn embarrassed that we cannot make a better film from a good manuscript, and the enjoyment I get from laughing at the exaggerated character acting. Perhaps my criticisms will not be so obvious to a non Norwegian as they'll be to busy reading the subtitles to notice the aforementioned faults. I make no excuses for it being made in 1958. Casablanca was made long before and it is as watchable today as it was when it was made.I'd love to see this film remade today by an American studio. It could be a box office success.

It scared me to death.

[Kinetic · 9/10 · 22 February 2002]

This is the only movie that have scared me so much that I had to stop watching. Not many will find a norwegian black&white movie to be interesting, but this movie makes all those sucky american horror movies look just like sucky american horror movies. Enough said.

Mysterious and eerie Norwegian horror.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 9/10 · 27 June 2009]

"Lake of the Dead" is the story of a six young friends who travel from Oslo to Østerdalen in order to spend a few relaxing days in a cabin deep in the woods.Once they arrive,the brother(who had gone to the cabin some time before)of one of the women appears to have disappeared.A local legend claims that a one-legged man who died 100 years ago still roams the woods and hypnotizes people to drown themselves in a small lake.He murdered his sister and her lover,then drowned himself in the dark waters.Despite its age "Lake of the Dead" still managed to creep me out.The mystery of the lake is interesting and the climax is truly creepy.There is an eerie legend,a one-legged crow and the lake itself that easily could have been a murderer.The film has some striking similarities to Sam Raimi's "The Evil Dead",but I strongly doubt that Raimi has seen it.It's a crying shame that "Lake of the Dead" is so unknown and still unreleased on DVD.9 out of 10.

Disappointed

[CammieinOz · 4/10 · 7 April 2022]

I've read many good reviews about Lake of the Dead, supposedly considered one of Norway's best films. I was expecting it to be in the calibre of Carnival of Souls or Dementia 13 but was very disappointed. The two movies I mentioned are low-budget, B grade but offer so much more in terms of plot, atmosphere and overall intrigue.

I give it a healthy 4 star for the cinematography, and the locations were pretty.

Gorgeous

[michle53 · 10/10 · 11 June 2022]

This is a beautifully shot, marvelously acted film populated by intelligent, well-written characters. The civility! And it's basically a B movie. The black-and-white is masterfully art directed.

Somber and otherworldly

[drownsoda90 · 9/10 · 23 December 2021]

"Lake of the Dead" follows six friends who travel from Oslo to stay at a remote cabin in the forest along a picturesque lake. Their friend, whom they are supposed to meet there, is mysteriously absent. The group are soon individually drawn to the lake, which is the subject of a local legend involving a man who murdered his sister and her lover before committing suicide by drowning himself.

This seminal, elegant Norwegian horror film plays out almost like a Scandinavian precursor to something like "Carnival of Souls," though in some ways it's more conventional than that film--but still, an essence of otherworldliness, or the uncanny, pervades both.

The influence "Lake of the Dead" has had on horror cinema is fairly evident from the beginning, and it is the ostensible progenitor of the "kids in a cabin in the woods" setup that has become a cliche at this point, but what makes "Lake of the Dead" so watchable is that it is also filled in with sophisticated, almost at times Hitchcockian dialogue, laid out in intellectual conversations between the characters. The writing is smart and rarified, and there seems to be a philosophical bent to the screenplay in which the lake itself becomes a proverbial (and metaphysical) void for the characters to be summoned toward, like moths to a flame. The photography is stunning--the piney woods and lake setting are wonderfully shot, and the whole film is seeping with atmosphere. The sparse sound design adds another layer of eeriness and desolation.

All in all, "Lake of the Dead" is an accomplished horror film that still plays effectively today. Despite its minimalist locations, it is a very elegant film that boasts intelligent dialogue, unique characters, and a somber atmosphere that is at times intoxicating. It matches its whipsmart dialogue and esoteric themes with equally impressionable visuals, and consistently leaves the viewer feeling as though they may be on the edge of something otherworldly. 9/10.

An overall highly enjoyable supernatural thriller

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 9/10 · 11 October 2021]

Taking a special trip together, a group of friends heads out to the Norwegian countryside to visit a friend staying at their cabin in the woods and catch up with each other, but the longer they stay the more they come to believe the legends about the area being haunted and try to keep it from continuing.

This was a fantastically chilling and enjoyable effort. Among the films' bright spots is the engaging and fantastic atmosphere that manages to run throughout here. Given that the majority of the film is based on the cabin, with the picturesque lake shimmering in the reflected sunlight that's surrounded by lush trees creates an effectively eerie sense of isolation that takes the films' actions into fine context. It all comes off far more ominously than what it should with the setup employed. As we're also given an effectively eerie and chilling backstory about the origins of the haunted lake and why there are so many tragic accidents that have been present at the lake, the constant conversations about whether there's a supernatural or rational explanation for everything, and a fantastic revelation that puts everything quite nicely into perspective, the atmosphere of the film comes off incredibly well. That this setup gives the film a chance to play with some unsettling and creepy ideas to further those aspects also comes across rather nicely. With the main venture at first are the group seeing strange reflections in the lake and their strange desire to be near it while in a trance-like state, this one starts off quite nicely with its action scenes helping to enhance the supernatural themes within the story. As it progresses and the supernatural antics are more overt, this one has a lot to like with the recreation of the legend around the lake intercut with the story about what happened to the brother which creates a rather fine sense of menace to go along with the storyline features on display. These features make the film incredibly fun and hold it up overall. There isn't much that brings this down but it does have some minor drawbacks. The main flaw here is the sudden abrupt ending that just comes out of nowhere with the wholly underwhelming way it finishes. When the plan is put into motion to trap the guilty party and it plays out as they expected, the fact that we're just as in the dark about these factors as the participant makes the whole scene just feel quite chaotic and confusing. The whole thing is taken up even further with the guilty party seeming to get away with everything by disappearing into the forest without incident and taking the route of escaping the incident without getting any true comeuppance for what's going on. That also causes the secondary issue where the reveal at the end manages to make the earlier incidents and disappearances around the lake seem that much more curious about what's going on which all manage to bring this down slightly.

Today's Rating-Unrated/PG: Violence.

"Beware of the currents of the lake.It's dangerous to dream. Stay awake."

[morrison-dylan-fan · 8/10 · 19 April 2020]

A few months ago I was speaking to fellow IMDber manfromplanetx, who told me about a Norwegian Horror,which so intrigued me that I picked it up on DVD,only to misplace the disc later!

This week:

Whilst annoyed that I could not find the title as I was taking part in ICM Nordic and 50's Cinema viewing challenges, I a few days ago was moving some books, and was shocked to see it appear in the middle of the pile. This led to me at last taking a dip in the lake.

View on the film:

Simmering on top of the lake as a narration pours out of Sonja reading out the first draft of her husband Bernhard's occult novel, writer/director Kare Bergstrom & cinematographer Ragnar Sorensen cloud the lake with eerie Gothic Horror smoke on the water, going far-back in order to cover the screen in the isolated forest, where beams of lights across the cabin dwellers cast a ripple of the reflecting horror lit in misty superimposed images.

Swimming towards Bernhard's novel, Bergstrom takes it out of the lake and into a Old Dark House atmosphere, where the confined large cabin setting is surrounded by excellent rustling outdoor sound effects, and wide, tightly-held corner shots light the cabin fever.

Based on lead actor Andre Bjerke (great as the slow-burn Mork) own novel,Bergstrom's adaptation delightfully carves into Norwegian wood thumbnail sketches of the tensions each group member brings to the cabin, with Liljan being given given a enticing, ghostly figure quality which the others in the cabin can't get too close to. Paging from Bernhard writing his novel to the story itself unfolding, Bergstrom merrily plays on the mythical element of Gothic Horror cinema, with a book-ending which rationalizes the occult myths which came out from the lake of the dead.

Black-and-white classic from Norway

[myriamlenys · 8/10 · 10 February 2023]

A group of friends travel to a distant cabin in the woods. Much to their surprise, their host Bjorn is absent. His twin sister Lillian, who has always shared a close mental bond with him, feels especially worried. The general mood is not lightened by the many sombre folk tales that swirl around the cabin and the nearby lake...

Quite a good movie, this one. "Lake of the dead" is probably best described as a mix of psychological horror and mystery thriller. Cunningly, much of the story is set not in some decrepit shack but in a cosy, roomy, comfortable cabin. A fine fireplace provides warmth, a well-appointed kitchen allows for the preparation of charming bucolic picnics and bright tapestries cheer up the walls. As a result there's a real sense of jangling disquiet or insidious transgression when something strange DOES happen.

Filmed with a great deal of skill and imagination, that pretty lake too becomes impressively creepy - a mirror-smooth surface, strewn with water lilies, that might hide God knows what horrors or marvels. At times the lake looks like a giant mirage ; at other times it looks like a gate into another world, or into hell itself. One can well imagine a primitive tribe throwing sacrificial offerings in the water, including screaming victims.

As the events unfold, various characters disclose their ideological attitude towards the uncanny, the supernatural or the paranormal. Some of these discussions are quite interesting.

If you, dear reader, like a hair-raising and atmospheric watch, "Lake of the dead" is your man.

Northern Hitchcock

[nick121235 · 8/10 · 20 May 2021]

This genuinely scared me.

I've been a fan of horror for a long time and I can count on my fingers the number of times i've been scared by a movie or a book. I think the last time I was scared by something was 8 months ago when I read Kerfol by Edith Wharton. This is an honestly scary movie... not the ghost, but the entire thing, the situation, the atmosphere it created.

This is gorgeously shot, the landscape and setting is just beautiful, and this honestly came across at the very beginning as a higher tier film despite obviously not having a massive budget.

This is a good film, and I really didn't expect much out of it. Luckily, it exceeded my expectations. I guessed the solution very early on :D if anyone cares.