This essay by Mike Flanagan on his favorite horror movie is one of several contributed as part of Variety’s 100 Best Horror Movies of All Time package . When I find myself talking to someone familiar with Joel Anderson’s 2008 film (which isn’t often; it remains criminally underseen), our eyes usually go wide, our pitches rise and soon we’re giddily gesturing and speaking in half-thoughts like two people who share a great secret. It’s a humble film on the surface, a faux documentary chronicling a grieving family who may or may not be experiencing a haunting after the accidental death of their teenage daughter, Alice.
It forgoes scares and startles for an ephemeral, inexplicable sense of dread that immediately seeps into the viewer, and I feel it just as acutely today — 20 viewings later — as I did the first time I wandered into Anderson’s deceptive labyrinth of tension, grief and horror. Alice’s story is not a simple one, and there are several surprises along the way that make you question what you’ve seen — but it all culminates in one of the most horrifying and devastating moments in horror history. It’s a moment that, on my first viewing, made me leap involuntarily from my couch and pace in my living room.
.. not just because of how viscerally frightening it is (and trust me, it is), but because of what it means.
The horror of “ Lake Mungo ” is quiet, but as the emotional truth of Alice’s tragedy sinks in, we are left utterly shattered. I don’.