Customer Reviews

Lake Dead - After Dark Horror Fest

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Is it cutting too fine of a line to say that I did not like this movie but I enjoyed it for the sick, twisted, and demented film that it is? Of all of the films in the 2007 After Dark Horrorfest collection, "Lake Dead"(which for some reason is stuck in my head as "Dead Lake") is the real groaner. But to give credit to the first time effort by director George Bessudo and writer Daniel P. Coughlin, they want you to groan when you see one of the most twisted screen kisses of all time and they want you to bang your head against the wall when the final double entendre is offered as the smoke clears and the final body count is established. This is not a movie so bad that it is good, but a horror flick that revels in coming up with a disgusting situation, without resort to disgusting amounts of blood and gore.

The film begins with a murder out at the lake, the context of which is conveniently cryptic. The victim turns out to be the grandfather of pretty young Brielle (Kelsey Crane), who did not know that her paternal grandfather was alive until now that he is dead. It seems grandpa has left Brielle, her sister, and their half-sister, a motel in the woods in the middle of nowhere (but near a lake). Their estranged father warns them not to go, but the girls and their friends jump in a camper and head out to the lake, where they manage to stay alive until shortly after the film's one nude scene. People start getting killed, things go from bad to worse, and when we find out what is really going on, then you can feel free to start groaning away.

All that being said, for me at least, living in my own little universe, "Lake Dead" has several things going for it. First of all, the title does a nice little bit of misdirection, because corpses might go into this particular lake, but they do not come out. So there is no way from looking at the title of this film that you can guess the specifics of this particular horror film (the cover art says either ghost film or splatter flick, but even if you guess right things are too general). Second of all, and more importantly, once things hit the fan the victims are not scared stupid (once again in the realm of stupid people doing everything they can to insure horrible deaths, I would point you to most of the cast of the remake of "House of Wax," who truly go out of their way to ask for it and then get it). Scared, yes, but they actually come up with some actions to help insure their survival (at least for the short term). When you are sending the psychic message "go, go, go" to characters in a horror film and it actually means something different than "run for your lives, idiots," then that is a good thing. This is not to say that the characters are fleshed out as human beings, because they are not; but if you can take somebody out while tied to a chair, I am going to be impressed.

Ultimately I would say that "Lake Dead" fits in the mold of the traditional exploitation film, because that is the cinematic niche where taking a taboo and running with it (usually into the ground) is the name of the game. I know that "Lake Dead" is the consensus pick as the worst one of last year's crop of 8 films 2 die 4, but it ended up being one of the most memorable ones for me (not that that is necessarily a good thing). It might be because once again I saw the best film first (that would be "Borderland" and everything has paled in comparison, but this one actually got a response from me several times. True, those responses were "Ewwww," "Eewwwwww," and "EEEWWWWW," but at least it got me to respond, and that becomes my justification for rounding up on this 2007 film (but I do not feel good about it, if that helps you swallow my rationale).

As is the case with all but three of these octet of films all you get for bonus features on the DVD are the same Miss Horrorfest Contest webepisodes includes on all of them. Yes, it was a bit much with the 2006 Horrorfest films when they came out on DVD and each one started off with the trailers for all of the other movies in the series, but at the very least they could have tossed the trailers for each film on the DVD. I know "Lake Dead" had one and at the very least it should have been included. Horrorfest 2007 is a notch below what we saw with the original films and that is reflected in the bonus features on the DVDs as well.

If you like the feel and entertainment of 80's Slasher Films, then you'll enjoy this entirely. It's fun. It's campy. It has a plot. The necessary elements are there. I believe most of the goals were accomplished when comparing the intent and finished product of the film. I had fun watching it, because I'm a fan of the slasher genre.

After Dark has led me astray with films before. I have been disappointed in the past. This time though, I saw the synopsis and wanted to try it out since I adore movies about camping, horror, inbred family torturers, etc... This film wasn't too bad at all. It surprised me, I was expecting the usual implication of death but NO SHOW of gore that After Dark is known for, but nope. It showed the gore, it had a great plot, and it kept my attention. To describe it in my own way I'd have to say Hills Have Eyes meets Wrong Turn meets Motel Hell. Pretty good, pick it up for Friday flick and have some friends over, you won't be disappointed! ;) 3.5 I'm hoping for a part 2, it certainly left itself open for one.

If you liked the grind house movies of the 70's then you will love lake dead if you don't you will probably hate it.

Lake Dead got a lot of bad Reviews stating it was the same ole same ole..
Oh well,I like a familiar formula with my Slashers.I don't like the Did that really happen or was it a dream,is that a real person or a ghost type of Slasher,YES.give me a good ole mutant inbred family of maniacs that live out in the sticks and slice and dice people up and I'm happy.I of course like characters that are interesting and aren't all stupid or Bimbos,but those are ok sometimes as well.
Again,it's a slasher movie people,not rocket science,It's not up for an Academy award~!
The best Horror/Slasher movies ever made are based on these formulaic principles.
I thought the scariest scene was when the son french kissed his mother..That's Scary.
I liked the twins Cain and Able,I thought they were interesting and loved the first scene where they put hooks through the adopted sisters feet then chained concrete blocks to it and threw her in the lake.The Lake family wanted to keep there blood "pure" as they put it..Incest is always a touchy somewhat taboo subject that's why these type of films can use them more readily than say a drama because with a slasher or horror movie anything goes.
If you haven't seen it and like the Inbred mutant maniac slasher,check it out.

Saw it at the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, south of France
Great acting by Tara Gerard, Alex Quinn and Vanessa Viola
Good movie for all Horror Fans!

A trio of sisters and their friends take a trip to check out a piece of property they inherited from a grandfather they never met. The twist is that the grandfather and his family are inbred mutant rednecks...And so are the sisters!! Sounds interesting enough in theory. And actually it was very watchable for the first 30 minutes. However, the movie goes downhill after a very fake looking rape scene jars the viewer back to his senses and reminds us that this isn't a very good movie. From this point on the bad guys commit a number of incompetent blunders and the heroic male lead shows us his superhuman strength and tenacity a number of times.
The movie takes a more comical turn which ruins any suspense that may have built up previously and leaves the viewer wishing for better days...

Checked this out on Sci-Fi Channel and was rather surprised to see it made the final cut (pun definitely intended) of the After Dark HorrorFest.

The story: Three sisters - two by blood, one adopted - learn that their grandfather has died and they have inherited a backwoods lakefront hotel he owned. They go along with some friends to check the place out (most likely to sell it for a profit for themselves).

Problem? Well, Grandad was shot because he wanted to leave and renounce the family tradition of incest. When the sisters show up, they meet a sweet old lady who claims to have been hired forty years before to help run the hotel. Truth is, she's their Grandma, and she is determined to continue the family tradition of inbreeding (keepin' our blood pure, she would call it), which means that everyone who is not related to the Lake family (that's right, the family name happens to be Lake; how clever) by blood must go, and the two remaining sisters (their adopted sister is taken care of not long into the film) must be forced into sex with the local lawman, who is also their uncle. Of course, you can't have a movie about incest without some gnarly deformed people in it, and that obligation is fulfilled here by Cane and Abel, two brothers who are forbidden to touch the two sisters, lest they pass their deformity on.

They are scary-looking and acting enough, and there is some gory enough killing, but the scariest moment by far is when Grandma (a little old gray-haired lady) tongue-kisses the much younger lawman, who happens also to be her son. That made my Yuck-O-Meter go off the charts.

Anyhoo, the husband (boyfriend?) of one of the sisters manages to survive, and, along with the girls' father (who had long ago left the whacked-out "family" himself), he rescues the girls. In fact, it is actually the father who shoots his own brother before he can rape one of his nieces, and after doing so, delivers the films best line: "That's how you f*&K family".

All's well that ends well for the non-psycho portion of the Lake family, but we have the usual "killer comes back" ending, with a new group of unsuspecting young people being stalked by one of the aforementioned deformed brothers.

Yawn. I could name any number of movies that handled the same formula much better, but you probably know them already.

Unless you are a HUGE genre fan, this one probably won't do much for you.

Bad, Bad, Bad movie!

The 8 Films to Die For series REALLY needs to be a little more selective with the movies they choose for there horror anthology. It seems like they either get it really right (Frontier(s), Borderland), or really really wrong (Penny Dreadful, Nightmare Man, Dark Ride, Etc.)...

This was DEFINETLY one of the wrong ones.

The movie starts out with a trio of sisters inheriting a motel out in the woods (i have no idea where it was set) from a grandfather they knew nothing about. There father warns them not to go to the motel, he pleads with them to, but they are frustrated and angry with him for not letting them know they even HAD a grandfather with a motel to begin with...so they venture out to see what they can do with the inheritance. They bring along a fiance, a slutty friend, and a man-whore and his slutty girlfriend with an attitude.

The main problem with the film was the casting. I feel dirty for even saying this, but it felt like watching one of those softcore cheesfests they play late night on Skinamax. The actors all looked like they were cast specifically for a porno!

It was really difficult LIKING any of them. Even the two main characters were hard to watch.

There really isn't much more to say about this film, other than to reiterate just how awful it was.

Definetly worth avoiding at all costs!!!

I have absolutely no idea why the reviews are so negative for this one.... The movie is totally sick, depraved, disgusting, disturbing, incestuous, without any moral values and above all......So nicely done!! Not as shocking as the human centipede but definitely as entertaining.

I think that once again, the reason for the poor reviews is probably because some of the scenes in there goes against moral values and what is "borderline" acceptable for most people. As for me......i didn't really care.....you know me........this is a horror movie.....not a comedy starring Adam Sandler..... the characters in here are just actors.....nothing more......this is NOT based on true events....and this sick family is not a real family......

Three sisters just found out that their grandfather passed away and he left them a motel near a lake in his will. Definitely excited and in need for money, they decide to go up there with their friends to see what the motel looks like and what they should do with it. They will soon realise that the motel is owned by a very sick family and they already have their own plans for the motel's future and the 3 sisters future as well......... The plot is Ok, the acting is good and the cinematography is just perfect. We also have some pretty twisted killing scenes that will sometimes remind you of WRONG TURN......and that should bring a smile to any horror fan's face!!...lol

5 Stars well earned for a real shocker!!, there was enough action and suspense to satisfy me and it has a lots of sexy moments...one of them i suspect was the main reason for the poor reviews but hey........thats all good......BTW, check out those AFTERDARK HORROR FEST - 8 FILMS TO DIE FOR releases, some of them are really good and worth checking out!! I think they have 5 volumes by now...........interesting stuff!!....

ENJOY!!!