Lake Mungo (2008)

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Day 168 of Sobriety.  
 
Lake Mungo is a 2008 film by director Joel Anderson, who seems to have made this one feature and then vanished with scarcely a trace, which is a great shame because Lake Mungo is very good. It tells the extremely sad story of a family who lose their teenage daughter in a tragic drowning accident, and the uncanny events that follow in its wake. It is presented as a faux documentary—a “mockumentary”—and I think it is one of the best examples of that style that I have seen. 
 
The acting is absolutely convincing throughout. I found it very easy to “buy into” the mockumentary conceit and allow myself to be convinced that I was watching something real. Apparently, the actors were given scenarios, but no actual script, and so the dialogue (or more often than not monologue) is all improvised. 
 
Like several more recent films, such as Hereditary (2018), Midosommar (2019) and Talk to Me (2022), the exploration of bereavement and grief is a major element of Lake Mungo. Particularly about how we try, and sometimes fail, to move on after the loss of a loved one. 
 
While it does have some very chilling moments and a number of truly shocking plot twists, the film is—to me at least—more sad than frightening. One reviewer quoted on the film’s Wikipedia page describes it as “mournful and dreamlike,” and that seems like an apt description. The achievement of that dreamlike melancholy atmosphere through a mockumentary/found-footage format is something quite rare I think, and very skillfully accomplished. The soundtrack is great too—drawing on the (often lurid) tropes of such reality shows and documentaries, but being much more than that. 
 
My one small gripe would be that at the very end, there is an inter-credits sequence that pushes the boundaries of credulity just a little too far, considering the illusion of realism that has been skillfully developed throughout the movie, and breaks that fragile spell somewhat. But easily forgiven given the quality of the film as a whole.
 

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