Slow and trying too hard to be artistic. Characters are bland. A painful watch.
19 Reviews
Bland, bleak, boring
adeleysim17 July 2020
Slowly sinks
ofumalow19 July 2020
This starts out well enough, despite immediately showing signs of falling into the usual traps--superficially written characters who behave inconsistently, lots of routine jump scares, etc. Still, the photography and scenery are very handsome, and the atmospheric elements are there for a good straight-up slasher at the very least.
But as it goes on, the film unravels, fumbling more and more right up to the fade-out. It raises too many supernatural red herrings that are then abandoned for something real-world yet entirely implausible given the way things have been staged. The scares are utterly cliched: CGI shadows passing in the background or foreground that the characters just miss seeing; repetitive nightmare "visions" in the realm of "Oh my god I am completely covered in blood oops I just blinked and now I'm not;" and other things that, apart from being silly, make NO sense at all when the story finally coughs up its convoluted and ridiculous resolution.
Frankly, a straightforward slasher would have been a lot better than this murky stew of ghost store, incest vibes, creepy-disappeared-brother (who's deaf, which somehow is supposed to be even more "creepy"--a pretty crass notion these days), and standard hot-young-folk-in-rural-isolation-peril stuff. I gather this is based on a much-earlier film and novel that are Norwegian classics, but that this incarnation made a lot of changes to "cater" to modern horror audiences. The result suggests that they either should have gone farther, or stayed faithful to the source material, because what "Lake" ends up being is a mixture of creepy and corny in which all the elements feel underdeveloped and compromised.
Whatever the original story was, it had to be better. Or if it was too old-fashioned to revive, then they should have just made something vigorously formulaic like "Cold Prey." Instead, this winds up never quite deciding what it wants to be, and getting tangled in its own net of not-particularly-complementary ideas until the movie goes under.
But as it goes on, the film unravels, fumbling more and more right up to the fade-out. It raises too many supernatural red herrings that are then abandoned for something real-world yet entirely implausible given the way things have been staged. The scares are utterly cliched: CGI shadows passing in the background or foreground that the characters just miss seeing; repetitive nightmare "visions" in the realm of "Oh my god I am completely covered in blood oops I just blinked and now I'm not;" and other things that, apart from being silly, make NO sense at all when the story finally coughs up its convoluted and ridiculous resolution.
Frankly, a straightforward slasher would have been a lot better than this murky stew of ghost store, incest vibes, creepy-disappeared-brother (who's deaf, which somehow is supposed to be even more "creepy"--a pretty crass notion these days), and standard hot-young-folk-in-rural-isolation-peril stuff. I gather this is based on a much-earlier film and novel that are Norwegian classics, but that this incarnation made a lot of changes to "cater" to modern horror audiences. The result suggests that they either should have gone farther, or stayed faithful to the source material, because what "Lake" ends up being is a mixture of creepy and corny in which all the elements feel underdeveloped and compromised.
Whatever the original story was, it had to be better. Or if it was too old-fashioned to revive, then they should have just made something vigorously formulaic like "Cold Prey." Instead, this winds up never quite deciding what it wants to be, and getting tangled in its own net of not-particularly-complementary ideas until the movie goes under.
Too flat
What-a-Punk15 November 2021
The setting is classical, visually it looks good, but it fails to deliver anything. A bunch of cliches which you see in every low-grade horror movie and then it ends, with an obvious ending you see coming from miles away. So all in all this movies is just too flat and too blunt, there's no real mystery or horror here. Although, you can see that there are some attempts to make characters act rational and more realistic than in all the classical cliche horror movies, but these attempts are so small and non-impactful, they don't succeed to add any depth to the plot.
You can enjoy this movie as a "same old thing", but if you're looking for anything unique, this one would be a waste of time.
You can enjoy this movie as a "same old thing", but if you're looking for anything unique, this one would be a waste of time.
Confirms every prejudice I have towards Norwegian film
roger-foss16 July 2020
This movie is bad. Really embarrassingly bad.
The lack of talent on display is staggering.
The acting is bad.Conversations feel stilted and unnatural, with each actor waiting their turn to say their lines. The lead actress has no idea whatsoever how to act, and carries one stare through the whole movie.
The script is bad. I saw the original once many years ago, but can't remember to much of it. I feel like they've tried to modernize it a lot by throwing in every horror movie cliché they could remember.
The directing is bad. Right from the start there is exhibition - using one of the characters "explain" the background to the other characters. It's lazy. There are some attempts to create dream-like sequences, but it just comes of as amateurish. I'm guessing they are really happy with their lighting, but the end result comes of as silly.
There is so much that doesn't make sense. We follow the main characters to thos old worn-down house in the wood by the lake. Drama ensues. Weird things ensue. Yet for some reason, right after we're presented with a scene where two of the characters meet in between bedsheets flailing in the wind. Who thought it made sense that they would wash a lot of linnen in the middle of horror enfolding?
This movie confirms and justifies all the skepticism and ciritical view I've held against Norwegian film (I'm a Norwegian). It is just the worst.
To anyone else considering to watch this as their first Norwegian film, please DONT SEE THIS FILM. It is really bad, and any other Norwegian film will be better.
Watch Headhunters (2011) or Cold Prey (2006) or even The Wave (2015) instead.
I'm gonna give this a 2/10 just to be nice, but man this is probably 1/10.
The acting is bad.Conversations feel stilted and unnatural, with each actor waiting their turn to say their lines. The lead actress has no idea whatsoever how to act, and carries one stare through the whole movie.
The script is bad. I saw the original once many years ago, but can't remember to much of it. I feel like they've tried to modernize it a lot by throwing in every horror movie cliché they could remember.
The directing is bad. Right from the start there is exhibition - using one of the characters "explain" the background to the other characters. It's lazy. There are some attempts to create dream-like sequences, but it just comes of as amateurish. I'm guessing they are really happy with their lighting, but the end result comes of as silly.
There is so much that doesn't make sense. We follow the main characters to thos old worn-down house in the wood by the lake. Drama ensues. Weird things ensue. Yet for some reason, right after we're presented with a scene where two of the characters meet in between bedsheets flailing in the wind. Who thought it made sense that they would wash a lot of linnen in the middle of horror enfolding?
This movie confirms and justifies all the skepticism and ciritical view I've held against Norwegian film (I'm a Norwegian). It is just the worst.
To anyone else considering to watch this as their first Norwegian film, please DONT SEE THIS FILM. It is really bad, and any other Norwegian film will be better.
Watch Headhunters (2011) or Cold Prey (2006) or even The Wave (2015) instead.
I'm gonna give this a 2/10 just to be nice, but man this is probably 1/10.
Sort of 80's campy.
Patient44424 July 2020
Now I have to say I was not particularly impressed with this one, it only managed to bring some old school nostalgia, movies like Sleepaway Camp for example, thus I will start right off the bat, Lake of Death is...not that great.
For a late night horror experience or for a rainy, boring afternoon, it may, somehow fill the time properly, but this is as far as it goes. An addition to the horror genre, the camp in the woods type to be more precise, a touch of Goodnight Mommy and a final result that needed more tampering. It is slower at pace, does try to keep you guessing but I think it failed there and then you get to see what it was all about. Little bit of guess who mystery reminded me of how many clichees I noticed in this one, but it is foreign cinema, and I like to encourage it as much as I can.
The movie could have been a lot better but sadly it is not, I will not recommend it, it is perhaps, almost a decent effort but overall a swing and a miss.
Cheers!
For a late night horror experience or for a rainy, boring afternoon, it may, somehow fill the time properly, but this is as far as it goes. An addition to the horror genre, the camp in the woods type to be more precise, a touch of Goodnight Mommy and a final result that needed more tampering. It is slower at pace, does try to keep you guessing but I think it failed there and then you get to see what it was all about. Little bit of guess who mystery reminded me of how many clichees I noticed in this one, but it is foreign cinema, and I like to encourage it as much as I can.
The movie could have been a lot better but sadly it is not, I will not recommend it, it is perhaps, almost a decent effort but overall a swing and a miss.
Cheers!
complete disaster
alphadec-127 December 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Here in norway we have a saying "dont jump after wirkola". Wirkola was ski jumper that won everyhting so all others would fail.
And thats this movie, its a total fail. It uses the title from the same movie from 1958 "de dødes tjern" (Deads lake). Its a b&w movie that is based on a novel of the same name by author Andre Bjerke.
So this movie that has stolen everyhting from the 1958 movie but fails in about everyhting it tries.
1. Why does it has danish and swedish actors in a norwegian movie. (I needed subtitles to understand anything they was talking about). 2. story, there is zero or try to replicate the story from 1958, but fails.
The whole thing is so bad that I dont have words, apart from the fact that I guess it target audiance is "teens".
This movie should be forgoten.
And thats this movie, its a total fail. It uses the title from the same movie from 1958 "de dødes tjern" (Deads lake). Its a b&w movie that is based on a novel of the same name by author Andre Bjerke.
So this movie that has stolen everyhting from the 1958 movie but fails in about everyhting it tries.
1. Why does it has danish and swedish actors in a norwegian movie. (I needed subtitles to understand anything they was talking about). 2. story, there is zero or try to replicate the story from 1958, but fails.
The whole thing is so bad that I dont have words, apart from the fact that I guess it target audiance is "teens".
This movie should be forgoten.
Agatha's Bulletin Board: Has anyone seen the director?
emgotm13 September 2020
Very good scenery, nice musical background, cute actors but ... WHERE IS THE DIRECTOR??? Acting is no good, editting is no good at all, and I completely burst into laughter when during the final scene, the scene where the lady (protagonist) struggles between life and death in order to survive, she does not forget to ... pull down her dress in order not to show her boobies! What a fake scene ... BTW, Has anyone seen anywhere the director? Because he or she does not seem to be there at all :-)
Holy cow, beatifully shot but still a stinker
Jonas-Wolcher28 January 2024
Warning: Spoilers
I had so much expectations regarding this movie. I am sorry to say this but I've never been so furious after watching a movie since the horrible Silent Scream. DE DÖDAS TJÄRN has a beautiful photo however the DP seems to have watched too many TV shows. It's boring and the script itself is thin as ice during springtime. The director has watched too many scary movies and used every trick in the book. The characters are totally unimportant because we can't feel for any of them. Even if the actors and actresses are working their asses off in every scene it doesn't matter because of the characters are badly written from the beginning. They are not believable to the audience. One of the best moments in the movie was when the main character ran on the jetty and fell into the water.
An old school horror deserving of a higher rating
paul_chambers6927 July 2020
I watch a LOT of films, but rarely do I leave a rating. This time I felt compelled to leave one as this film deserves more than the 4.2 it was when I watched it. Horror films always rate lower I find (why IS that) and many non-niche subtitled foreign horrors even less by default. Don't be deterred from pressing play on this badboy, a this film was really enjoyable. It was old skool, enjoyable, cabin in the woods/by a lake, cellar door type horror. I immediately referenced Evil Dead and Cabin Fever and so did the characters in the film! It's not arthouse, it's having fun. This was clearly made by someone who loves the genre, and it was made well on a tiny budget. Good creepy build up, a little twist at the end, and overall, a decent horror all round. Give it a go if you like horror and can handle subtitles like an adult.
Not my cup of tea!!
Guanche4822 December 2022
I didn't like the movie but I did want to see it until the end, there's a certain tension that's quite interesting. It's the only good thing.
For the rest, it is veeery slow and it seemed unrealistic to me, because this group of young people seemed very boring to me. There's no music , fun or interesting dialogues. They are worse than an asylum where they do have fun. The main actress is pathetic, and I understand the trauma she has but she is very strange and not at all communicative. What a shame they didn't do an analysis of her from the beginning to better understand what is happening. Further..the movie is also very predictable and halfway you already know the end.
For the rest, it is veeery slow and it seemed unrealistic to me, because this group of young people seemed very boring to me. There's no music , fun or interesting dialogues. They are worse than an asylum where they do have fun. The main actress is pathetic, and I understand the trauma she has but she is very strange and not at all communicative. What a shame they didn't do an analysis of her from the beginning to better understand what is happening. Further..the movie is also very predictable and halfway you already know the end.
old school
tuvaschaaning17 July 2020
This is a visually stunning old school psychological thriller.
It took me back to the days of Rosemary's baby,
Love the nostalgia and its shot on 35mm. Amazing!
Sure, if you only want blood and gore this might not be for you.
Interesting Set Up, but Doesn't Do Anything New
Reviews_of_the_Dead17 December 2020
This was another of those movies that seemed to hit Shudder as part of a group of 2020 releases. Many of them were foreign, which I'm always glad to see since I like to be well rounded when making my year end list and just in general for the genre. I did know that this was inspired by a classic film from Norway and a sort of remake of that. The synopsis here is Lillian (Iben Akerlie) and some friends travel back to the remote cabin by the little lake, where her twin brother died last year. Soon after arriving, strange things start happening.
We start this with a couple in a boat. They are brother and sister, with the male being Bjørn (Patrick Walshe McBride) and his sister is Lillian. It appears that Bjørn is deaf and is speaking with sign language. She responds back and it appears their time is running short. Lillian is leaving soon with Kai (Ulric von der Esch) and this seems to bother her brother.
The movie then shifts us 1 year into the future. A group is going to the cabin that belongs to Bjørn and Lillian. The problem is that last year, after she left is appears that he disappeared. The assumption is that he killed himself. They never found the body so there's a possibility it is in the lake. Lillian is finally going back and she wants the people that are coming with her as support. Some more information here is that they both came up in the foster system. This cabin is the only thing that was left to them from their real parents, so Bjørn dying really makes it hard for her to go back.
She isn't going up alone as her friends are trying to help her get over the trauma. Her friend of Sonja (Sophia Lie) is going with her boyfriend Harald (Elias Munk). It appears that Lillian is now seeing Gabriel (Jonathan Harboe) who is joining along with another friend of Bernhard (Jakob Schøyen Andersen). He has a podcast and wants to do an episode on the lake they're going to. There seems to some lore that is spooky surrounding it. On top of that, he has some solid horror movie references that he drops, but his friends don't seem to appreciate them like I do.
As the synopsis states, some weird things start to happen once they get here. The story of the past involved Gruvik who killed his family. Lillian's dog of Totto goes missing almost immediately. She is seeing these weird marks on her friends that seem to be spreading like a poison. Kai disappears as do their cellphones. The question then becomes, is there something supernatural going on here or is there another explanation?
That's where I think I'll leave my recap of this. What I will start off saying here is that I thought we had an interesting set up. There were quite a few characters, which I found to be intriguing. The back-story that we slowly learn about with Lillian and her brother of Bjørn also works for me. It is tragic as we learn that their go in foster care, much like many others, didn't go well. There is some guilt there that Lillian is dealing with as she got adopted and left her brother, but I can't entirely fault her.
The movie does well in establishing all of our characters where they are all distinct from each other. It also plays with something else that I liked in that they become distrustful pretty quickly. Bernhard is disliked at first, because they think he's messing with him for the sake of his podcast. He also makes some inappropriate comments at times and just does things that rub the others the wrong way. Harald isn't that much better. He comes off a bit standoffish and really targets Bernhard, making him a villain to me. What I like though is that it doesn't take long for this distrust to grow amongst them as the tension builds.
I know this movie is based off a classic from the country of the same name. My problem is that the reveal wasn't all that shocking to me. I do have to blame Shudder a bit here for the category they list the movie in as it gave away the ending to me. Even if that didn't happen, it wasn't as much of a shock as some movies that I've seen. It is just a troupe that we've seen before and it doesn't really do anything to stand out. There is even a movie that has a similar reveal that was quite popular a few years ago. I like they establish that Lillian is having nightmares and that she's unreliable for the things that she's seeing. The including of folklore of the lake was something that worked for me, since that is something that really interests me to learn more about with foreign films. The problem again though, we've seen this quite a bit so you have to make yours stand out where I think this falters.
Where I think I should go next would be the acting. I will give credit here to the fact that everyone is pretty distinct and that is something that is needed when having a cast as large as we get here. McBride isn't in this movie a lot, but what we learn about him from his performance and more from the back-story, it makes since for the character of Bjørn. Akerlie is different from him, but I like the unreliable character she plays. Esch is solid, but he's another one that doesn't get a lot of screen time. Harboe, Munk Andersen and Lie are all really good in building the tension at the cabin and again, being distinct characters.
The last thing that I'm going to go over would be the effects. We get some interesting ones for sure. There is some blood that looks solid to me. They also play with the idea of blood coming out of the sinks or at least a dark color substance that looks similar. That is interesting to play with as we don't know if that is real or not. There is some CGI with things 'growing' on people or on walls. This is fine. We really don't focus on it too much so that helps me. The cinematography I would also say is well done for what I could tell.
So now with that said, I thought there were some interesting things that we were getting here, but they are also things we've seen before. The setting is good with the backdrop of stories behind our lead and her missing brother. There is a bit of folklore that gets mixed in there as well. I would say the performances are good. The effects and how it was shot are fine. The soundtrack fit for what was needed as well. The movie is just lacking a bit of originality that really stuck with me unfortunately. It is just concepts playing out we've seen done better elsewhere. Overall I still enjoyed this, I'd rate it as just over average. Can't recommend it to everyone and I'll also warn you, this is from Norway. I watched it with subtitles on, if that's a problem, I would avoid this one.
We start this with a couple in a boat. They are brother and sister, with the male being Bjørn (Patrick Walshe McBride) and his sister is Lillian. It appears that Bjørn is deaf and is speaking with sign language. She responds back and it appears their time is running short. Lillian is leaving soon with Kai (Ulric von der Esch) and this seems to bother her brother.
The movie then shifts us 1 year into the future. A group is going to the cabin that belongs to Bjørn and Lillian. The problem is that last year, after she left is appears that he disappeared. The assumption is that he killed himself. They never found the body so there's a possibility it is in the lake. Lillian is finally going back and she wants the people that are coming with her as support. Some more information here is that they both came up in the foster system. This cabin is the only thing that was left to them from their real parents, so Bjørn dying really makes it hard for her to go back.
She isn't going up alone as her friends are trying to help her get over the trauma. Her friend of Sonja (Sophia Lie) is going with her boyfriend Harald (Elias Munk). It appears that Lillian is now seeing Gabriel (Jonathan Harboe) who is joining along with another friend of Bernhard (Jakob Schøyen Andersen). He has a podcast and wants to do an episode on the lake they're going to. There seems to some lore that is spooky surrounding it. On top of that, he has some solid horror movie references that he drops, but his friends don't seem to appreciate them like I do.
As the synopsis states, some weird things start to happen once they get here. The story of the past involved Gruvik who killed his family. Lillian's dog of Totto goes missing almost immediately. She is seeing these weird marks on her friends that seem to be spreading like a poison. Kai disappears as do their cellphones. The question then becomes, is there something supernatural going on here or is there another explanation?
That's where I think I'll leave my recap of this. What I will start off saying here is that I thought we had an interesting set up. There were quite a few characters, which I found to be intriguing. The back-story that we slowly learn about with Lillian and her brother of Bjørn also works for me. It is tragic as we learn that their go in foster care, much like many others, didn't go well. There is some guilt there that Lillian is dealing with as she got adopted and left her brother, but I can't entirely fault her.
The movie does well in establishing all of our characters where they are all distinct from each other. It also plays with something else that I liked in that they become distrustful pretty quickly. Bernhard is disliked at first, because they think he's messing with him for the sake of his podcast. He also makes some inappropriate comments at times and just does things that rub the others the wrong way. Harald isn't that much better. He comes off a bit standoffish and really targets Bernhard, making him a villain to me. What I like though is that it doesn't take long for this distrust to grow amongst them as the tension builds.
I know this movie is based off a classic from the country of the same name. My problem is that the reveal wasn't all that shocking to me. I do have to blame Shudder a bit here for the category they list the movie in as it gave away the ending to me. Even if that didn't happen, it wasn't as much of a shock as some movies that I've seen. It is just a troupe that we've seen before and it doesn't really do anything to stand out. There is even a movie that has a similar reveal that was quite popular a few years ago. I like they establish that Lillian is having nightmares and that she's unreliable for the things that she's seeing. The including of folklore of the lake was something that worked for me, since that is something that really interests me to learn more about with foreign films. The problem again though, we've seen this quite a bit so you have to make yours stand out where I think this falters.
Where I think I should go next would be the acting. I will give credit here to the fact that everyone is pretty distinct and that is something that is needed when having a cast as large as we get here. McBride isn't in this movie a lot, but what we learn about him from his performance and more from the back-story, it makes since for the character of Bjørn. Akerlie is different from him, but I like the unreliable character she plays. Esch is solid, but he's another one that doesn't get a lot of screen time. Harboe, Munk Andersen and Lie are all really good in building the tension at the cabin and again, being distinct characters.
The last thing that I'm going to go over would be the effects. We get some interesting ones for sure. There is some blood that looks solid to me. They also play with the idea of blood coming out of the sinks or at least a dark color substance that looks similar. That is interesting to play with as we don't know if that is real or not. There is some CGI with things 'growing' on people or on walls. This is fine. We really don't focus on it too much so that helps me. The cinematography I would also say is well done for what I could tell.
So now with that said, I thought there were some interesting things that we were getting here, but they are also things we've seen before. The setting is good with the backdrop of stories behind our lead and her missing brother. There is a bit of folklore that gets mixed in there as well. I would say the performances are good. The effects and how it was shot are fine. The soundtrack fit for what was needed as well. The movie is just lacking a bit of originality that really stuck with me unfortunately. It is just concepts playing out we've seen done better elsewhere. Overall I still enjoyed this, I'd rate it as just over average. Can't recommend it to everyone and I'll also warn you, this is from Norway. I watched it with subtitles on, if that's a problem, I would avoid this one.
Worth your time.
tannerbarkley21 January 2021
Excellent!!
bre-4856618 July 2020
4 out of 10 is a disgrace to this film. Well-paced, well-acted, suspenseful and a somewhat original plot (see for yourself) with a few good twists and turns. The very most parts of the film take place in the woods, and the solid nature definitely builds up a true horror atmosphere to the film.
"Lake of death" also has this great unsettling "nerve" to it, which reminds me of some of the best classic 80s horror flicks like "Just Before Dawn" and "The Burning".
"Lake of death" also has this great unsettling "nerve" to it, which reminds me of some of the best classic 80s horror flicks like "Just Before Dawn" and "The Burning".
Not good but not bad either.
jp_9116 July 2021
"De dødes tjern" is a remake of the film of the same name, I have not seen the original version but this new one has influences in retro horror films about cabins but it doesn't achieve the same effect. The performances are good, the cinematography is awesome and the filming locations are atmospheric. The main problem here is the weak script, confusing and predictable. Not a good film but not bad either.
Wasted potential, becomes just decent
kannibalcorpsegrinder10 September 2020
Returning to her childhood home, a woman visiting her old townspeople brings some friends along to a lakeside cabin to pay respects to her deceased twin brother, but when they start to experience weird happenings in the cabin are forced to confront a deadly menace living in the area to get away alive.
On the whole, this was a decent enough genre effort. One of the big attributes here is the constant mention of mythology and local legends to help build a fine atmosphere about the location. Filled with stories and group retellings about the various incidents that have taken place in and around the lake, it all manages to bring about a fine underlying tone to the area. When mixed alongside the tranquility and peaceful, lush surroundings, this makes for a rather enjoyable effort here. As well, the film also has a lot to like with the well-done slow emergence of the true dread involved. The innocuous beginnings of her seeing the strange marks on her friends, the hallucinations of strange figures from her past or dreaming of the spectral encounters with her walking out to the lake all manage to bring about a fine atmosphere and build-up to an enjoyable finale. Featuring the revelation about the true culprit behind the strange disappearances, this leads into the rather chilling chases around the house which feature the different encounters throughout the rooms and hidden passageways before the final encounter out by the lake which covers some sleazy subject matter quite nicely. These are where the film has some quality aspects to it since there are some flaws to be had here. One of the main sour points here is the rather unimpressive attitude most tend to take regarding the events that play out. Strange events are brought up frequently that aren't right or natural, only for her to ignore it and pretend to be fine or just never be brought up again in the film, making them seem inconsequential and meaningless which not only downplays a lot of the suspenseful setups but making it rather difficult to follow the characters along throughout the film due to this issue. The other real downside to this one is the stilted and bland pacing which is the result of so many useless cliches and subplots. The idea of what transpires with the lack of interest for her behavior is a start here, but the whole scene of them getting high after having a day filled with misadventures and weirdness seems incredibly unrealistic. Considering what happens in the finale regarding all the false red herrings that are completely done away with due to worrying how to blindside that by throwing references to other genre films of the past simply to throw off the viewer which doesn't make any sense at all. This comes completely out of the blue and makes for a disjointed and rushed finale with no connection to anything that's already happened. These are what hold this one down the most.
Rated Unrated/R: Violence, Language, Brief Nudity and drug use.
On the whole, this was a decent enough genre effort. One of the big attributes here is the constant mention of mythology and local legends to help build a fine atmosphere about the location. Filled with stories and group retellings about the various incidents that have taken place in and around the lake, it all manages to bring about a fine underlying tone to the area. When mixed alongside the tranquility and peaceful, lush surroundings, this makes for a rather enjoyable effort here. As well, the film also has a lot to like with the well-done slow emergence of the true dread involved. The innocuous beginnings of her seeing the strange marks on her friends, the hallucinations of strange figures from her past or dreaming of the spectral encounters with her walking out to the lake all manage to bring about a fine atmosphere and build-up to an enjoyable finale. Featuring the revelation about the true culprit behind the strange disappearances, this leads into the rather chilling chases around the house which feature the different encounters throughout the rooms and hidden passageways before the final encounter out by the lake which covers some sleazy subject matter quite nicely. These are where the film has some quality aspects to it since there are some flaws to be had here. One of the main sour points here is the rather unimpressive attitude most tend to take regarding the events that play out. Strange events are brought up frequently that aren't right or natural, only for her to ignore it and pretend to be fine or just never be brought up again in the film, making them seem inconsequential and meaningless which not only downplays a lot of the suspenseful setups but making it rather difficult to follow the characters along throughout the film due to this issue. The other real downside to this one is the stilted and bland pacing which is the result of so many useless cliches and subplots. The idea of what transpires with the lack of interest for her behavior is a start here, but the whole scene of them getting high after having a day filled with misadventures and weirdness seems incredibly unrealistic. Considering what happens in the finale regarding all the false red herrings that are completely done away with due to worrying how to blindside that by throwing references to other genre films of the past simply to throw off the viewer which doesn't make any sense at all. This comes completely out of the blue and makes for a disjointed and rushed finale with no connection to anything that's already happened. These are what hold this one down the most.
Rated Unrated/R: Violence, Language, Brief Nudity and drug use.
Either you love it or you hate it!
geirlarsen-8405218 July 2020
A pleasant surprise
annesvendsen17 July 2020
If you are a true horror fan that likes more than the mainstream gore you will really appreciate this one.
It is very well shot and it takes you on a journey through the magical Norwegian wilderness.
Iben Akerlie that portrays Lillian does an amazing job and has this Lolita esque quality that keeps you guessing.
The shadows of Norwegian folklore are everywhere and you can feel the haunting of ghosts and dark matter in almost every frame. It's very sensual without being over sexualied and I found the nerve and rhythm of the film to be so different and very hypnotic. It has this foreboding and disturbing tension that grips you from start to end. Reminded me of the suspense films of the 70s and 80s. Right from the getgo you get introduced to the twins and the reflections that are a recurring theme throughout. The reflections of themselves and their past is layered everywhere but is still subtle enough to keep it interesting. The twins Lillian and Bjorn are what made the film for me. A very tragic and dark story that makes you think about nature VS nurture.
You can tell that it's made by someone who truly loves the genre. It's beautiful, nostalgic and very suspenseful. I admire the fact that it's brave enough to be about what you don't see as opposed to what you do see. A true classic!
The shadows of Norwegian folklore are everywhere and you can feel the haunting of ghosts and dark matter in almost every frame. It's very sensual without being over sexualied and I found the nerve and rhythm of the film to be so different and very hypnotic. It has this foreboding and disturbing tension that grips you from start to end. Reminded me of the suspense films of the 70s and 80s. Right from the getgo you get introduced to the twins and the reflections that are a recurring theme throughout. The reflections of themselves and their past is layered everywhere but is still subtle enough to keep it interesting. The twins Lillian and Bjorn are what made the film for me. A very tragic and dark story that makes you think about nature VS nurture.
You can tell that it's made by someone who truly loves the genre. It's beautiful, nostalgic and very suspenseful. I admire the fact that it's brave enough to be about what you don't see as opposed to what you do see. A true classic!
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