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Overall Rating : 2/10
Directed By : George Bessudo
Alex A. Quinn (Curse of Alcatraz)
Kelsey Crane
Tara Gerard
Sean Astin (General Hospital (TV) )
Supplied By : Lionsgate Films
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : March. 20, 2008
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| PLOT Three beautiful sisters discover they have a long lost grandfather, but only after the news of his grisly death. When they learn about an inheritance, they decide to travel with their friends to their grandfather’s home in the back country. When they arrive, they find their inherited property occupied by a psychotic family that is engaging in a murderous rampage. As the family’s twisted motives unspool, the sisters discover a new level of terror worse than death. |
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| THE REVIEW The plot for LAKE DEAD is simple. There Sisters have just inherited a motel from a Grandfather that they never knew that they had, Even though they never knew him, they see his place as a means to make some quick money by selling it for profit. The girls and a few of their friends decide to go check it out for themselves. When they do arrive, at first the motel seems ideal, mostly because of the beautiful man-made lake out back. but their views of the Motel being a form of a dreamland are tarnished, when they are stalked one by one by a group of deformed inbred, all of which would bring about the truth regarding a secret that the side of the family the girls never knew, has been hiding for years. I've said this many, many times before about a movie, but LAKE DEAD is yet another film with a plot, that if you are an avid Horror fan, you've seen it all before. This is another film that tries to make the whole inbred family fascination that some of us have, shocking. And while films like WRONG TURN and it's sequel, have actually made good films using the gimmick, it's usually low budgeters like LAKE DEAD, that fail miserably. I mean, we have seen the same old story time and time again, a group of friends end up somewhere in the backwoods of rural America, only to be stalked and killed by someone or some thing. Our setup for LAKE DEAD is the standard setup, with a few things changed, hoping to make us believe that it's original. Here, we have a couple of sisters, whom happen to inherit a motel, and when they go to check it out, they bring a couple friends along - and surprise, the group begins to be stalked and killed by an inbred clan. Honestly, LAKE DEAD is a paint-by-numbers, nothing happening type of film, to the point where everything about it seems generically plain and pointless. There is almost next to no substance or suspense driving the story here, so when characters are getting killed, it just seems like a bunch of college friends decided to make their very own slasher flick, so they got a camera, some fake blood and filmed a few of them running around being chased by a couple more of them donning supposedly scary make up. The film does try a little however, as near the film's ending it throws in a twist explaining the whole point of the film, but there is a problem in that the film never really catches one's attention through out, so the filmmakers would be lucky to still have the viewer fully with them at that point. Besides, the twist is not too hard to figure out anyway, and by the time it is revealed to you, you're not shocked, which I am guessing that is what the filmmakers wanted. The film's overall failure is not because of it's budget or any other technical problem, because appearance wise, it looks ok for it's budget it is the other areas, such as it's story, camerawork, effects, and work of all... it's acting. The acting here, is simply put, horrible. The actor's gave very little emotion to the character's they played, whether they were portraying a victim or - killer - it just wasn't there. These characters were obviously meant to be taken seriously, but you just can't, as their lines are delivered so unbelievably, and unrealistically. The acting by everyone in the film, to me, was on the level of acting you'd find on a daily Soap Opera or worse. But that would be an insult to Soap Operas as the acting found there, is for better than that displayed in this film. To close, LAKE DEAD has absolutely nothing to really offer the Horror fan that has seen it all, and is a Horror film that is more than likely to be forgotten by those same fans as well. |
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| GORE
METER 2/10 A few CGI created gunshots to the head, a bitten off finger, and a bloody corpse, nothing too great |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 2/10 I thought the score did not work well with the film Sometimes the music was ok, while other times, it just seemed totally out of place and unnecessary. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM I have not reviewed the entire After Dark Horrorfest 2007 set just, yet, but i'm going to already go out on a limb and say that LAKE DEAD is the worst of the set. It seems to also be one of the ones from the set that has received the most negative feedback, and I have to agree. Honestly, this film seemed as if it took very little thought in the plot department, as it does nothing more than barrow from other films and very thinly tack on a few minor "twists". It's a wonder how films like this one get chosen for Horrorfest, when in reality they'd be lucky if they even went direct to DVD |
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