Customer Reviews

Ghost Lake

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

'Ghost Lake' is the latest direct-to-DVD horror flick that has sodomized both me and my DVD player. When will I ever learn to stop renting stuff like this?

The story(or what passes for one)goes something like this: a local slut(Tatum Adair, who looks like a low-rent Russian version of Naomi Watts)is out getting nailed in the backseat of her car while her loving parents are at home dying from a gas leak. I'm serous. This is actually how the movie begins and is unfortunately the highpoint of its two-hour running time. So the Slut feels guilty, leaves town, and drives to her family's lakeside cabin. Along the way she picks up some dude alongside the road(Timothy Prindle, who looks like a homosexual Lorenzo Lamas)and takes him to her cabin...I told you she was a slut. Once there, the cute couple uncover a horrible mystery about dead people rising from the lake to kill again. Throw in a sheriff who resembles Judge Reinhold with a lisp, an annoying little girl with incredibly large teeth, and you have got one crappy film.

I try to give low-budget flicks the benefit of the doubt, but 'Ghost Lake' just doesn't deserve it. The acting is putrid. Every bit of dialogue uttered is horrible and the script is pathetic. My favorite line in the film is when the Slut says "I can't be with anyone right now...you know, sexually." and then nails Lorenzo Lamas a minute later. Hilarious. There is not one single moment of decent acting in this entire film. As for the special effects: I could've done better with some scotch tape, a bed sheet, and a bottle of cranberry juice. They're pathetic.

'Ghost Lake' is honestly one of the most putrid(and boring)films I've ever had the displeasure of seeing. There are so many gaps in logic and plot that it seems like a series of unconnected scenes rather than a coherent narrative. The acting is absolutely awful as is everything else in this crapfest. But probably the worst of all is the terrible(and confusing) editing. Moments go by and you have no idea what is going on. And by the end of the film you'll have no idea why it was even made.

Avoid 'Ghost Lake' like it was naked pictures of your mother.

I think this movie had a lot to offer in terms of creativity, but over played the question of "are these real ghosts" or am I just a crazy person. That being said, considering how traditional this portrayal is of someone who thinks they are seeing ghosts, the Rebecca character does a good job of adding drama to the mix. I didn't think it was as bad as I thought it would have been. The special effects are a bit under developed, but it you can tell that these folks are capable of doing something with nothing. Jay Woelfel does a fine job of making the most of what he has and covers a lot of the inadequacies of a low budget with crativity and "quality over quantity" thinking.

The acting is fine, the directing is one of the best that I've seen in low budget horror and I'm hoping that the DVD comes with some good extras to give horror fans some of the insights that they love to see. Definitely worth a rental...even a buy if the price is right.

I'm still not really sure what this movie was about.. I thought it was going to be a 'B' science fiction movie when it began and the blonde tramp got out of her dress to have sex in a car. I figured she was obviously a minor character who was going to be served up as fodder for whatever bad thing was lurking later in the movie. She was someone who obviously the audience could feel would make the world better by getting ravaged by some evil force. It turned out that this slut was actually the main character who we were supposed to sympathize with and cheer for....OH oh, this was a bad sign!!! The actress who played this plum role was Tatum Adair (apparently even Tara Reid has her standards). The plot has something to do with dead people in a lake who need to fill a quota to either ease their pain, end the curse or put the curse on to some other unsuspecting folk..something like that anyway. I gave this movie 2 stars because I made it all the way through without shutting it off and did not feel totally ripped off by watching it. The movie wasn't great...not even good but it was somewhat diverting. As for special effects...Well, I think most people could do better in their basement with a video camera, some fishing line, a few plastic models and a nylon stocking....Think about it. Anyway, don't buy this piece of work, but if you don't mind some mind numbing special effects and some really bad acting, it is kind of fun...One more thing. Another reviewer stated that the child actress who played the little kid is perhaps the worst child actress of all time.. Perhaps is being kind..That kid was horrible.

THINGS GOING AGAINST THIS MOVIE:
1. Gregory Lee Kenyon who plays the sheriff was in the even worse DEMONICUS.
2. Jay Woelfel practically did EVERYTHING in this movie: wrote, directed, did the score, edited, casted, etc.
3. Aforementioned Kenyon was also credited as "grips" in the final credits.
4. The movie's plot is so engimatic it doesn't make sense.
5. Timothy Prindle DOES look a lot like Lorenzo Lamas, but can't act nearly as good, which is bad because Lorenzo's not very good anyway.
6. Poor Azure Sky Decker (as the twin girls) is probably the worst child actress I've seen.
7. The meager special effects are pretty bad even for a low budget movie.
8. It's just not scary and it's too long.
Not worth it.

If you are in the habit of considering cover quotes when making a decision to rent/purchase, you should know that the reviewer endorsement on the cover of this movie misquotes Phil Davies Brown of Horror-Asylum.com as saying "One of the best horror movies I've seen this year" when his review actually says "One of the best straight-to-video B-movies I've seen this year." You be the judge as to which statement is most likely to help sales and rentals.

As for the movie, in my opinion, it's poorly acted, it lacks plot coherency and pacing, and is just plain boring and dumb. Further, it seems to be a good example of how relatively low cost, highly available digital technology is redefining B movies -- and not necessarily in a good or worthwhile way -- opening up the doors for obscure production companies with a few production and marketing dollars to package products and get them on the shelves.

Unless your expectations are as low as this movie's production values, consider another use for your time and hard-earned money. And I say that as a longtime horror fan who understands that "low budget" is not necessarily synonymous with cheesy and bad.

That being said, there is only one other thing of note to credit this movie with. It contains one of the fastest "off with the dress" in history. The door to the backseat of the car had hardly closed when, "whoop!", up and over the head it came and out they bounced!! It was all downhill from there, however, with a complicated and ridiculous "plot" (I'm still confused), laughable special effects, and poor acting. I thought the little girl who played the twins was cute, however, but can you believe she was actually reading her lines from a cue card in certain scenes?

This movie created a new class of bad. As a lover of horror films, I have enjoyed many low budget films. As hard as I tried to find something to like, Ghost Lake is perhaps the most amateurish, poorly acted movie I've ever seen in this genre. Their budget must have been really low. One car played numerous different roles. Most of the actors never changed their clothes. They stood in the rain for hours without a drop of water on them. The so-called ghosts looked like Halloween costumes from Wal-Mart. As for the acting, it was like watching a 5th grade school play. In several scenes, the actors would just get angry for no apparent reason. I'm not exaggerating. This movie was just plain horrible. How it ever made it to DVD is beyond me.

I agree with most of the other reviewers, which is pretty easy with this one since this movie is so totally bad that it is almost laughable (if it wasn't so painful). Whatever you do, do not spend a penny on it. I accidentally just rented it for a second time (I guess I forgot that I'd seen it before - I think that was my brain trying to spare me from the post traumatic stress of having seen it previously). If you enjoy movies that are so bad that they are good, you'll still hate this one.

Just by way of background, and while other reviewers seems to prefer to reveal much of the story and plot, I think that sort of ruins the film in many cases. So, you'll want to look for other reviews and reviewers if that is what you are looking for...

Please do not waste your money, take that $22 and buy a good movie or wait till one comes out there are plenty out there. Or just wait till July 24th and go see " land of the dead", anyway.

The acting- 1 of 10 stars so damn laughable and cheesy I couldnt stop laughiung and watching. Some of these lines are just silly as hell, you have to see it to believe it." Hey Rebecca, I brought over supper"- That one line had me dying with laughter. When you see what this dude looks like and the way he says it, oh man.

Directing-Crap 1 out of 10.

FX- 2 out of 10, the cover looks great but when you see the make up effects or computer effects they are so stupid and funny.

- This an attempt in many ways to make a scary horror movie, he tries so hard to succeed and just does not at all. You must admire the effort. This movie brings nothing to the table, at all. For the first 45 minutes of the movie it makes absolutley no sense, then 45 min in he tries to make it seem so serious which is such a joke.

So listen take my advise and rent it if you want a good laugh. the only thing good about this movie is the lead girl, and its not the acting thats good, its her being freely open about showing her breasts in the begining of the movie, a beautiful body with nice "C-Cups", pretty hot chick. So thats about as enjoyable as the movie gets.

Ghost Lake looks like a movie put together by a couple of high school students. Bad acting, bad special effects, stupid dialog and the list goes on and on. Dont become a victim of dvd marketing people. Ignore the cover and read the reviews!