*What is the saddest horror movie you've ever seen?* Let me know in the comments, especially if you've got an obscure recommendation. See you next week!
Ryan Hollinger I thought The Exorcism of Emily Rose was sad; but more disturbingly so. Also Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House, but that was more in the character study of Nell and Luke.
@holy macaroni Excellent choice. In all of his films (and TV show) Mike Flanagan does extremely well at building up the troubled family situations, before the supernatural horrors fully enter.
I know, that really weird that you said that, even though I don't believe in lingering spirits, it is really scary when they are just standing there, still.
@@natanmandala still better to stand still than to lunge. I'll take a chillin spirit anyday over a harmful one that moves around never knowing when or where it will pop out. At least with a stationary spirit you know which area to avoid altogether.
The idea that your afterlife could be you trapped in a house that is no longer your home, in a world that no longer has a place for you. Alone, ignored, afraid and sorrowful. Forever. That's a far more terrifying ghost to me than a vengeful, aggressive ghost.
The spookiest part to me was when Ally is telling the medium about her dream, she is literally describing being in her bedroom, her mother walking in and not seeing her, not speaking. This is exactly what her mother does after she has died...as if not only did she see her own corpse in premonitions, but her own future as a ghost, alone in the house, unnoticed. That's what hits so hard... they move away, able to move on, and she's left alone, the very thing she feared and saw in her dreams. It's super unsettling. Great storytelling!
**SEMI-SPOILERS AHEAD TO ANOTHER FILM** Great pick up Mushman - I watched this film last night and was trying to explain to myself why it was I was still feeling unsettled after the film - and it wasn't because of the reveal of Alice's actual ghost existing. There was a deep, harrowing sadness, and I think the fact that even in death her family didn't really know or see her (as mentioned in some of the other comments) is what makes this hit home. I compare this to a similarly unsettling film: 'Personal Shopper' with Kristen Stewart (highly recommend). Compared to the ending of Lake Mungo, I found the ending of Personal Shopper - another story where grief is the real ghost - almost uplifting.
The fact that nobody notices her, she's just stuck alone forever, her ghost is right in front of her mom and she will never see her; god this is such a heavy film.
This movie is fantastic, especially the ending. The family thinks that by solving the mystery like Alice wanted them to, they've put her spirit to rest, because she doesn't seem to be haunting them anymore. But the photo of her staring wistfully out at them standing on the lawn implies that her problems weren't solved at all. It's just that because her family has gotten closure and moved on that they can't feel her there anymore. Poor Alice.
Silvermoon424 It’s one of my favorite shots of all time. That slow zoom in made me cry the first time I watched wayyyy back. It’s a legitimate masterpiece.
Honestly the big question I have to ask is what the hell killed her? A fit young woman who saw a premonition of her waterlogged corpse has no business drowning in a completely calm lake. Maybe she still wants her family to figure that out.
HUMANS aintShit The neighbors snuck into the lake and dragged her underwater long enough to drown her and prevent her corpse’s discovery for over a day? I don’t think so. Sounds farfetched, not obvious.
i thought the same thing, i actually never felt that feeling of dread from a horror movie before that moment. I've never been afraid of going back and watching something, until now.
@@dougrattmann3554 It's a premonition. She's able to see her own future, like a warning of her fate. It's sort of supernatural, just like how we see her real ghost in the end, but not in the "spooky monster" kind of way.
YES! Lake Mungo FINALLY getting the respect it deserves. As a filmmaker it scares the HELL out of me that a low budget film that was so well made could be forgotten so easily. The director never made anything else after this, probably because of how few people saw and acknowledged his film. But as time goes on more and more people are discovering this and acknowledging how well made it is.
A film flops harder than a book, a painting or a sculpture. However, don't get discouraged. Good artists shouldn't care about anything but making good art. Have you read the short story 'Enoch Soames' by Max Beerbohm? It is about exactly that... and deals with the devil... and time travel.
Really loved that you did this video! Lake Mungo is one of the best and most frightening movies about grief and fear of dying that I've ever seen. You did a great job explaining not only what was happening but also showing the thought and effort that went into making the film.
Because its not so great, sadly, despite people liking it. The story meanders and the characters are not very convincing... and the climax comes out of nowhere and is deus ex machina. Its a cool experiment like Blair Witch was, but nothing remotely interesting to garner attention.
Wow, great video, but while I wholeheartedly agree that this is the saddest horror movie ever, I 100% disagree with your conclusion. Alice isn’t “with” the family at the end, or watching over them. The family moved on, and Alice is left behind. This is spelled out in one of the later scenes, when Alice is recounting her dream to the psychic, about her mother not being able to see her, spliced together with June’s present time walk-through of the house, feeling confident there is no ghostly presence remaining. This makes the movie much sadder and, in my mind, is the real source of its horror. The living move on. The dead are left behind
coreya603 I saw this as well! The way Alice talked about how her mom was leaving and didn’t seem to see her. THAT made me really sad. Like Alice is almost saying wait, don’t go, I’m being left behind. Depressing
Also I think it's interesting Alice, a 15 year old girl, was being staturorily raped by her neighbors and the parents didn't press charges when they found out. Perhaps her drowning was her giving up in life, and like you said the family moved on after hefreer death, leaving her behind in and the people who hurt her free
subscribe to PEWDIEPIE Well, I think they found the tape after the neighbors already moved, and no one knew where they moved. And even if they were found and Alice’s family wanted to press charges, they could claim it was consensual and have the charges dropped. The officer even said that in the film
I interpreted that final zoom-in on Alice's ghost completely differently. To me it means that even though the family is now at peace and move out of the house believing that Alice is at peace, she is actually still there in the house. The family has moved on and left her behind, dooming her to be alone forever.
100% agree, I don't think this film had a 'happy' ending at all. The family maybe believed everything was smoothed over and they were beginning to move on. But Alice was still there, and I think the fact she was in the images but unnoticed mirrored her life - she was not really known to anyone and its sad to essentially see her being overlooked in death also. There was ALOT going on this film, and I think it went a little deeper than even I can see, but I defiantly don't think this is a happy ending.
That is how I interpreted it as well. In the end, the medium talked to Alice and the Mom. Alice seemed to have a curse or gift of premonition, and she said that her mom walked into the room and did not notice her and left. Her mom said that she walked into Alice room, and it was empty. She left the room. I think that was how the scene went down. Just wow.
Right. That's what made it so good for me. It is that ending. My heart shrunked (not sure if that word is correct). It was so sad and so terrifying she jus being abandoned and forgotten, ignored. That's what terrified me, that feeling of un wellness when I watched it. She was calling her mom, but he rmom did not see her. She is damned to be alone in that house forever.
@@aror6480 Yeah. I would also add that the Mom never really knew her daughter. They were close, but she never really expressed her feelings to Alice. She did not want closure at first, and on and on. The video touched on that relationship a bit. Maybe Alice tried to reach out her mom in life, but was not noticed much? Suffice to say that this movie stayed with me for days after viewing. That is a sign of a really good movie to me.
Right. That's it. It stay for some days. That anguish and sadness I felt at the end it was there for some days. I really enjoyed it. I like this kind of horror. this one together with the Hill House episode that focused on the bend neck woman, and the ending of sharp objects produced in me the same reaction. Was some kind of wave through my whole body. It gave me goosebumps, it made my heart rate change and just sadness. They all stayed with me for some days
>A horror movie about a dead woman with the last name of Palmer found in a lake, and the struggle to figure out who she was, her hidden and turbulent life, and the mysterious supernatural mysteries surrounding it Director was a Twin Peaks fan, I think.
Ive seen about 5 minutes of this video. You have me sold on the movie. Ill finish this vid when ive watched the movie. A question in my mind: do i show this to my friends and siblings while convincing them its real, and possibly mess them up with the dead body pics? Or should i just tell them its fictional?
The cell phone footage is without a doubt one of the most terrifying things i have ever seen in a movie. Such an underrated movie, I'm glad it's finally getting some talk about it.
Agreed, I watched the movie during day, and it was quite spooky, but when the cell phone footage came in, holy hell. One of the scariest scenes in horror movies.
luckystardoom njeraxivyurielemental It’s free to watch on the Tubi app. My sister and I watched it just last night and both of us went to bed in existential crisis!
You know what kills the mood of this vid? When Ryan says "a bone chilling discovery... then this happens..." and an ad for the Lawnmower 3.0 comes up on cue
Could you imagine being haunted by your own dead self? I’m amazed this is the first movie who tackled it because the thought itself is fucking terrifying
The scene of Alice seeing herself at the lake is simultaneously the most startling jumpscare I've ever experienced AND the most haunting scene in horror I've ever experienced
I'm a huge horror fan, and adore gruesome imagery but the scene of the bloated corpse looming gives me a feeling I've never had before. Realism in horror (especially in realistic deaths) is hard to find, this perfected it.
I had a very different take on the ending. I felt it was showing that Alice was left behind, alone in their home, perpetually trapped. I also think that the mother lied in the interview; I think that she did see her daughter in the room, or felt her presence, and decided to leave anyway. I think she left either for the sake of her husband and son's mental well being, or because she was simply in denial and couldn't accept that her daughter was still there while she could do nothing for her, or darkest of all, because she realized that she never really knew her daughter anyway, that they were always just strangers.
I agree. I felt there was an intense sadness at the end of the movie. The family moved away and moved on with their lives, but Alice must stay tied to the house forever. Tragic.
They show that the mom is closed off from the daughter to a certain degree. If she did pretend not to see her, that was just one more final rejection to twist the movie's narrative knife.
@@SonicVision I've come to believe that grief is stronger than love, because it is love, compounded by loss. I hope you're finding purpose in each day.
I’m surprised he came to the conclusion he did. I thought the whole point was to show that Alice is abandoned and forgotten about. That everyone left her in the house.Not that she’s watching over them.
i think we can't really know how alice feels about them moving on, whether it upsets her or comforts her- it's another part of the themes of tragedy and uncertainty in the film. they couldn't fully know alice in life, and even now, having learned more they can't fully know her in death.
Damn, I can't get over how good the phone footage ghost scare was. The ambient atmosphere, the mysterious white presence slowly walking towards the camera, and alice's quote foreshadowing her fate really did make me back away from my screen. Scares like these are special to me, cause they can't really be experienced in a normal horror cinema. You gotta be cooped up in a dark room with fullscreen on to really get that feel
I took away something completely different... and now I think I have to go back and rewatch Lake Mungo. Spoilers below... 1) It's mentioned that Alice complains about having bad dreams about her family ignoring her and leaving her. Something about them moving out and no matter how much she screams they can't hear her. 2) it's revealed that her "ghost" was in the doctored photos the entire time. 3) the bad dreams Alice describes play out scene by scene as they show the family moving out of their house. Living Alice was seeing into her future and beyond her death. She not only had the encounter at Lake Mungo, but she was seeing how her family would be after her death... but she didn't realize it was "after her death" reactions she was foreseeing. Tragically, her ghost is haunting her family, but as they did in life they don't notice her.
Thank you! That's exactly how I interpreted it too, and it makes it even sadder as you imagine a girl desperately calling out to her family even after death and never being heard.
I thought about the same thing. The moment she saw her corpse she was dieing. Slowly moving twards death, then dead and becoming more dead and less alive till presumably fades to nothing. Like life and death overlapped.
Exactly. There’s also the scene where they intercut Alice’s session with the psychic and her mother’s session after Alice’s death. The mom sees herself in Alice’s room one last time as the family is moving out of the house and says, “Alice isn’t here.” Then she leaves. Alice says her mom walks into her room but “She doesn’t know I’m here.” The family moved on with their lives, even moved away. They left Alice behind. I love this movie. So many layers.
For me, this movie is so scary because of how the past, present, and future all converge on this one girl and how she is a helpless spectator in her life and death, destined to be alone and forgotten. I found it very chilling after I finished the movie and still think about it every now and again.
Once I got to the scene where Alice sees herself, I felt a cold sweat and utter terror run down my back, that already makes it better than most modern horror movies. Edit: Thanks for the likes! And also there's a second scene that made me feel this and it's actually an after credits scene.
@@thederp9183 I don't know the exact time cause I don't have the movie on hand, but it is around the time when her and her friends are out in the outback or dessert and it is night time. She drifts off on her own for a second, and is recording herself walking, and she starts to see somebody in the distance. Thinking it's one of her friends or someone, she is filming on her phone and her camera comes up really close to her own image, all bloated up, white and puffy from the drowning. It's fricking terrifying. I would say it's about 2/3 through the movie. It's more towards the end I believe. That is one of the scariest moments in filming history to me, because I was watching this by myself when I first seen it. Watch the movie, you cannot miss it, cause a chill will run up your spine guarenteed, if you are watching it alone, in the dark.
Its so sad how the horror genre funds and advertises for the trash it's been displaying in the media, while these hidden gems remain for the true horror fans out there seeking that taste of thrill one more time. Bravo.
could you imagine if this movie got a wide theatrical release though? a majority of theater watchers would hate it. these types of movies aren't for the masses.
khai duo I think in general psychological horrors like The Witch, Hereditary, midsommar and It Comes At Night (which were mainstream) are not liked by the general theatre crowd.
The interweaving of the themes at the very end is storytelling perfection. This review is great but somewhat brushed past how great it is. The recorded sessions with the medium between the daughter and the mother and what they claim to see separately in Alice’s room is one of the most heartbreaking moments I’ve ever seen in a film. She was never truly seen in life and in death, not even by her own mother, who leaves her thinking she’s in peace.
I'm very late on this reply lol but yeah I kept hearing about how sad this movie was and honestly I was mostly just unsettled and disturbed up until that point. Once Alice said "someone is coming in my room" I just had instant tears because they're both there but the mom doesn't see her.
Idk why but for me the scene that hit the hardest was when they found Alice’s taped encounter with the neighbors... something about that just made my stomach turn and made me feel sort of uneasy. You think you know someone and then you find out something so shocking about them that you never otherwise would have imagined. And especially to have that sort of revelation whilst mourning someone and trying to preserve innocent memories ... that’s heavy.
same. i am so disappointed to see such little conversation about that subplot online. feels so gross and that tape was what stuck with me long after the movie was over. yes the cellphone footage was eerie, but watching two adults take advantage of a TEENAGER was horrifying.
So... I watched this movie thinking it was real. I was so upset that the family was exploiting the daughter. My husband couldn't figure out why I was so passionate about it. Then he explained to me it was faux found footage. I've never felt so stupid. But, watching it thinking it was real made for a damn good movie.
I went into it knowing it was fake, but I often wonder what it would have been like watching it without that knowledge. I'm a skeptical person, and don't really believe in the paranormal, but this movie is so well done, I'm guessing I'd have been questioning a lot of my beliefs by the end if I thought it was real. Oh well, still a great film/experience regardless, and deserves far more recognition, and praise than it received. Maybe then we'd get "horror" films like this, instead of "Saw 34", and "Annabelle 12", or whatever the hell they're on.
I want to call out some things I don’t really see elsewhere in the comments: This movie gets away with so many little details that are even creepier when you realize how unresolved they are. Here’s some details I found really creepy. - What was up with the bruises? - Whatever happened to the Tooheys? - What was up with the extremely strange behavior from the mom and the brother, was it just grief or is there more implied there? - Why didn’t the psychic tell the family she had been seeing him? Why didn’t he reach out to the family about her dreams? - What else don’t we know about her life? In most ways she seems like a lost, hurting, exploited girl - but in some ways she also seems a bit sinister, like there’s more to her own story - How did she manage to drown after all? Maybe some or all of these have explanations that can be pieced together in the details of the movie, but there’s ultimately this sense of dread and mystery and uneasiness that makes it all so unnerving.
I think the ambiguity ties into the theme of grief. When someone dies we're often left with questions that can never be answered, because the person to answer them is gone
I didn't want to be spoiled by it, so I paused the video and watched it. It's by far the most realistic horror movie I've seen. Everything is so convincingly portrayed and all of the elements are so grounded in reality that the ending really just shows that it's a family and girl pushed into a situation they couldn't explain. Thank you for pointing me towards this awesome movie, and great video.
One thing to mention is that throughout the film the daughter and mother relationship is shown as rocky, however during the entire film we do see that they’re actually more connected than anyone else in the family. With them both sharing the same dream of the mother seeing her daughter by the bed and the daughter dreaming of her being by her parents bed. Also obviously at the end of them describing the same exact vision / hallucination of the mother walking through the house into the daughter’s bedroom and the daughter being in the bedroom when her mother walks in. Sad thing to note, the family at the end think the “puzzle” is solved and her daughter is at peace but the very last photo they take shows her watching them from inside the house as they’re leaving her behind, by herself. I think the daughter still wasn’t at peace but far from it
It doesn't say that the relationship is rocky but it also doesn't show them connecting at all in fact the end of the movie happens because the mother fails to connect to the daughter psychically leading to the family moving. The movie says that like June's mother June has an emotional wall up that prevented her from letting Alice in and laments that she fears Alice might have died unsure about how much she loves Alice.
Strange how no one mentions that her mother truly had nightmares and they matched with Alice's dreams of her being at the top of thir beds screaing for help but being completely ignored.
But he did not mention in description that he took this music from silent hill 4. I have seen so many youtubers do that. They take music from someplace and never gives the credit. I don't care much about buying license or anything but atleast give the credit where its due.
@@prabhdeepsingh5642 Yeah, he definitely should have linked that song, and credited Akira Yamaoka (creator of this song) Silent Hill 4 (which is a brilliant game filled to the brim with brilliantly made soundtracks like this).
@@RyanHollinger like ten years ago i added akira yamaoka on Facebook and he accepted my fr and messaged me like "thanks for the friend request" it was so fuckin wild
You didn't mention the last and most important twist. While alive Alice was alreading seeing visions of what what her "ghost life" would be like. This is seen towards the end of the movie where alice is talking with the the psychic and she notes that her mom can't see her. It's the theme of the whole movie. She's always been able to see hints of not just her imminent death, but also what comes after. She just isn't able to put it all together until she sees herself at the lake that night. She is not looking over them in the backyard with the last picture... she is still there begging not to be left behind but knows she can't be heard. Now, as a ghost, she has the knowledge of her living past... and infinite lonely afterlife , but cannot change anything.
i remember this movie... nobody i know has ever seen it. great to finally find someone singing it's praises. as for what i consider the saddest horror movie... it's 'the road'. it's so dark and bleak and hopless with no chance of ending well for anyone... it is what i consider true horror... a dying world with no hopeful outlook.
@@henryedwards984 Yeah dude. It's got Viggo Mortensen in it and a cameo by Guy Pearce. It's pretty, well good probably isn't the word for it because it's absolutely soul-crushing, but it's extremely well made.
I have never felt terror having someone describe a horror movie until now, going from a ghost story to the realization that the neighbor was in the room, just thinking about it triggers my anxiety. The very real threat of someone being in your home without your knowledge is one of my greatest fears.
I have to say that you make some of the best video essays I’ve ever seen and these have gotten me through some pretty dark times. Thank you for everything you’ve done.
adam L I remember this movie. The phone footage scared me when I was younger. And the ending was really sad. Like, I don’t know. Like, knowing she as stuck there, it’s just a lonely feeling.
That scene made my skin crawl. Dreadful tingles on my shoulders and scalp, a sinking in my stomach. I can’t even remember another time when that’s happened to me. This movie really made my house feel creepy as hell afterward!
At night time it's the worst I feel like theres a ghost in every dark corner or wall way watching me in my house I have to leave some lights on when watching TV
Rose Red Dog Soldiers Lake Mungo Seriously, it's like you know *exactly* what underrated horror gems I want to see video reviews on and then you make them. I don't know how you do it. Lake Mungo is a chilling experience. If you like horror and haven't seen this movie, *DON'T* watch the video! You don't want to ruin an unforgettable experience you'll get going into this movie blind. I really hope this movie gets a bigger cult following in time. Hats off to you, sir.
Paused the video and went straight to the comment section just for a comment like this. Ill try and see if I can get my hands on it, and will report later lol
@@28Pluto Horror fans, probably. General audiences, no. I'm actually the only one of my friends who has seen Dog Soldiers, which is that rare movie that, IMO, gets a 10/10 on it's fun factor alone (it's also got the best "Squad" in a movie since Aliens and Predator).
As soon as I saw you did a video on Lake Mungo I stopped the vid and went out and saw it. It was really good. There were so many simple story beats that added so much. (Not really a spoiler) Like when they found her body and the car stalled so they had to drive home in reverse. It was like how they were no longer moving forward towards something, they were moving away from something slowly and reluctantly. Just a quick throwaway line and shot added so much depth.
Glad you noticed that! I’ve seen it 4 times and I always pick up on small details like that. Later on the father says he doesn’t believe in ghosts and tries to brush everything off as silly. Then at the end after the phone footage, he’s asked what he thinks she saw and he pauses, before saying “I think she saw a ghost.”
I have never heard a more exemplary use of “Room of Angel” even in Silent Hill 4. Extremely well done and I don’t think that this video would’ve scared me as much as Lake Mungo did had it not been used. There seems to be something incredibly epic about each one of Ryan’s videos.
*SpOiLeR tAg* Hereditary was in my opinion the saddest horror movie I’ve ever seen. Being forced to sit back and watch this family meet their violent and tragic ends with no control, along with the elements of grief and complex family dynamics was so jarring to me.
yeah. thats what stuck with me the most. The scary imagery and scarring imagery stayed with me for a couple of days but the emotional trauma that movie gave me didn't leave me for WEEKS.
That movie is strange in the way of how differently people perceive it. For some it is a disturbing horror movie, for you it is a sad horror movie, for others, including me, it is a subversive comedy. The way certain scenes are filmed hits beats that are usually found in comedy movies and other scenes, like when the headless body floats into the tree house, seemed as if they were supposed to have a laugh track playing over them. Apparently certain things the director and writer said in interviews, support that theory too, although I personally never read any interviews.
To me its just a very "disturbing" movie... I honestly don't know how to describe it, it definitely unsettles me but I can also find it funny at parts. Honestly a lot of movie don't scare me but Hereditary did for some odd reason
Absolutely loved it until the last ten minutes of the last episode, which literally undoes everything that comes before it and throws schmaltzy acoustic music over the top as it does. But everything in the middle episodes worked like gangbusters, especially Bent Neck Lady and Two Storms.
Losing a child is such a pain that only a parent could understand. That ending had me in tears, specially since none of them made it out of the red room. They all die.
Even sadder, the "fake" images and footage are shown again in the credits, zooming in on the *real* ghost that you can see in each picture. She really was there, trying to send a message but, much like in life, no-one noticed her.
@@BlackbirdMJ I'm not cruel. I still treat whores as people and would defend their human rights if need be. But I don't want to socialize with people who treat sex as something to play around with or sell. Sex is a fun activity with serious lifelong consequences. And people who so flippantly throw caution to the wind and fuck around.....well, they don't really come off as responsible individuals, do they? I realize that by this definition, 90% of the world's population are whores. But that's also why I don't like many people. It's me against the world, baby.
When I was watching the film, I found a convincing parallel between Alice Palmer and Laura Palmer (from Twin Peaks). How their bodies were discovered in water bodies, how they lived a double life without anybody else knowing about it, how their family had to deal with the untimely deaths, the impact they had on others' lives, etc; and to top it off, their surnames. I'd take a wild guess and say that the director was heavily inspired by Twin Peaks. Also, I thank Ryan for introducing us to this gem of a film. ❤
Charlie Hermansson You sir are on the level, I immediately lost interest in the first 30seconds and also wanted to talk about other things such as fruits and hot Filipino chicks in the comment section while the others figure out how sad the movie is or isn't. Don't care, never gonna see it.
Just watched this and this reminded me of Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House, particularly how it uses a horror context to explore the more real and terrifying theme of confronting grief.
@@trawlins396 what i meant when i said "netflix's the haunting of hill house" is the netflix miniseries adaptation of the shirley jackson book. I didn't specifically attribute netflix with the original story 🙂
People have said it but *Hereditary* is a horror film literally rooted in feelings of grief and anguish that we will all probably experience, and the horror part comes from knowing that Annie's emotions were an absolutely correct (though subconscious) response to the evil net closing around her family. The shot of Charlie's poor little head in the road, and Annie on her hands and knees screaming 'I JUST WANT TO DIE' like she's giving birth in reverse was the most shattering thing I saw in the cinema this year.
I saw it, I cried, I should add that I’m Australian and they really did a good job at making it feel like an Australian documentary, when they show news segments it feels very authentic.
This is one of my favorite mockumentaries, thanks for making a video of it. When you asked what was one of the saddest horror movies I've seen the first thing that came up was A Tale of Two Sisters (S.Korean). The melody is one that sticks in one's head, weeks after seeing it.
@@8yerbrain I've wanted to watch that film, but I'm more of a psychological horror person - it's not that I can't take violence, it's that I hate gratuitous gore... should I watch A Tale of Two Sisters, or does it lean more gory than psychological?
This movie, in my long career as a horror buff, is one of the few that also gave me night terrors. I bought it almost to say, "You win," but I haven't watched it since. Just the very dark, sad pall of the whole thing, culminating in some unexplained force of the supernatural dangling this girl's own death in front of her face as a specter in her clothes rushing at her, really fucked with me. It's so odd, because I would see screenshots of that climactic scene before I saw the movie and be like, "Okay, whatever," but then context made it almost unbearable to look at now. The only one that's hit me in a similar yet also different way ever since is Hereditary.
I actually had no idea of anything of the movie and the minute the screen froze and showed the face i actually like froze in fear that image burned into my mind and actually gave me fuckin nightmares. I pride myself on not being too scared by horror films, like jumpscares are whatever, you cant ever get used to that your brain is primed but everything else doesn't affect me. This movie was the first one to actually make me almost have a pure sense of just cold wash over me as my heart beat faster and faster.
@@jackpandora3160 "...you cant ever get used to that your brain is primed..." Probably because it's looks very similar to what a drowning victim(or any corpse for that matter) actually looks like. As someone who once had an interest in emergency medicine(former EMT student here), I've seen some graphic pictures of both injuries and dead people. The daughter's corpse sitting in this film is the most realistic dead body I've seen in a while regarding movies. Sorry if this fucks you up more.
I rewatched this movie after reading the theory that the brother killed her and that’s her unfinished business. It checks out. Their scenes together are strange.
I do think even all the credits scenes when they show where Alice really was, I think most of them corresponded with where her brother was (the Birthday, him walking next to the lake where she died, etc.), a subtle hint that it may have been him who killed her.
The saddest Horror movie ive ever seen is probably the blackcoats daughter. Just how alone, abandoned and desperate she is at the very end makes that film incredibly tragic for me.
I agree. I dont know if its more sad than this one since ive never seen this one. But when black coats daughter was over, i was like dang. All she needed was one real friend or a cat or dog or somethin. She was all alone :(
I just watched that movie. It ain't sad at all...I mean wtf she worships a devil and kills people. That priest was trying to help her and yet she killed him just to sacrifice his head.
This was great man. Very well done. It's interesting though how differently we interpreted the movie. You have this ending where the family moves on in this somber, tragic but ultimately positive ending in some ways. Where as I view it as a full-blown tragedy and in some ways terrifying. My interpretation of the movie is that while the family can move on from her death and get a sense of closure, Alice can not. Just as her problems were hidden from everyone in her life, she herself is now literally hidden from everyone in her death with her own family leaving her, incapable of seeing her. Adding to this horrifying interpretation is that we still have no idea what actually killed her. In fact, here you have a recording of her own future corpse meeting her, signaling that she will die. Which begs the question, what the hell was that? Some kind of intelligence that "chose" her? Was she haunted by something (perhaps from the Lake?). Can that "thing" choose somebody else? Regardless, we have no idea and more horrifyingly, Nobody (in the family at least) seems to care. They just move on. Either way, sorry for the long rant. It was a fantastic film and really made me think. Especially since if supernatural things were to happen, I imagine they would just ... happen and I feel that this movie captured that quite brilliantly. Anyway, subscribed.
The last shot of the movie isn't the photo of the family standing outside their former home. It's reserved for after the credits end. A strange, repetitive electronic beeping is heard ( Resembling the sound an ECG makes). Light flashes and we see Lake Mungo at night, the dark silhouette of Alice standing at the center; for a split second. Lightning flashes six more times and we see her standing still. There is an indication that time is moving fast while Alice is motionless (Clouds illuminated by flashes of light swirl by). No idea what it means but that is unsettling and probably supposed to further the movie's lore.
That scene after the credits reminded alot of Twin Peaks the return, especially the flashback episode that is all black and white. To me it is there to reinforce the theme that we will not understand what happened to Alice because we will never understand death. It shows she is still alive in the afterlife because she cannot come to terms with her fate, that she is dead, and her family is still trying to come to terms with her death as well as their own morality. And as viewers we struggle to come to terms with it as well. They will never truly forget her because how can you ever forget a family member who died too early? You can move on but their memory will keep her alive, in a sense, even if it is a painful one. Her death and encounter at lake Mungo being unresolved gives us as a viewer that same feeling. There is a whole world after we die that we can't understand. We will never understand death (until we die at least) which is terrifying. And death is certain. We will die some day as Alice did, we chose to not look at it. But she was forced to. This movie takes every ghost horror trope and turns it upside down. Literally we find out halfway through the photos are faked by her brother. It actively challenges us and plays us because we are so accustomed these tropes, probably why so many people are frustrated with this movie. But If it told us how and why she died we would have forgotten and moved on like what happens in most horror movies. This is a very self aware movie. From themes, to plot devices, technical creation (choosing to be documentary) it uses existing horror tropes to move the plot forward while also transcending them and subverting the viewers expectations. Referring to twin peaks, that show did the same thing, and is vital in my understanding of this movie. David lynch never wanted the killer of Laura palmer to be discovered but was forced to by producers and Frost. Becuase as soon as we find the murder everything gets wrapped up with a nice bow and we move on. But in real life, people cant just move on from a death of a loved one. A death like that cant just be forgotten. Lake mungo took this idea, it's understanding of grief and made an extremely effective horror movie that taps into to our fear of the unknown world of death and gives it an extremely realistic take on it. Really a fantastic movie that is extremely well crafted in subverting expectations, using horror tropes and red herrings to drive these themes home and challenge viewers to think, feel and derive their own personal understanding of grief to Alice and her family greifing. Also this scene after the credits is significant for viewers because it breaks the 4th wall. This is the only scene that isnt created by the fictional documentary crew or someone in the movie. Why would a film crew have footage like that?? Seems like a stretch. This is because now we are haunted by this lack of understanding as was the palmer family. The movie is self aware it is a movie, and that was the directors intention. Not only to blur fiction and reality but also characters in the movie and us as a viewer watching it. Ghosts lived in the photos and videos taken in the fictional world. Now Alices ghost is haunting us as viewers through that final scene. Transcending the documentary to our real world. A very nice touch to end on and very meta. The director was 100% a fan of twin peaks without a doubt. The ending scene was a very small detail but adds so much. Great film making in my opinion.
But is it really Alice? The dark silhouette could be anyone. I think it means this is the viewers silhouette staring back at them. The scene is very dark.
Glad to know you're feeling better! As for the saddest horror film I've ever seen, I think it's "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" from Creepshow. A man finds some kind of strange meteor, is covered in plant growth, and shoots himself to avoid a more painful death. He dies completely alone (as the title says), and he didn't know any better as to what it would to do to him. I feel for him when I watch it. Props to Stephen King's acting!
I remember that small episode in creep show. I felt supper bad for the guy. Not to mention kind of freaked out my self since I was young when it first came out.
oh my god i had watched that a few years ago when i was like 13 and it was just so sad to me. A man having to face a fatal situation without anybody to help him. It's just utterly depressing
the cell phone part actually gave me chills when the foreshadowed corpse jumps at the screen. i also like how after it happens Alice becomes really disoriented and it feels like she is under water trying to reorient herself.
I just watched this movie a couple of days ago. It was incredibly terrifying. As you said, it's one of the biggest pieces of existential horror I think I've ever seen. Also, in agreement with you, it's one of the saddest movies I've ever seen. I've lost people who, after losing them, I came to find out things about them that were just absolutely shocking. I really like your interpretation of the ghostly images revealed at the end, because I honestly wasn't entirely sure that was really a happy thing myself. My knowledge of ghosts is that if they continue to linger, there's still something keeping them from passing on. My thoughts were that, while the surviving family members have found peace and have been able to move on with their lives, Alice still hasn't and is trapped. It seems clear she didn't hold any denial about her impending death, she didn't seem to accept it either. It also calls into question what other secrets she had or continues to have, as well as her regrets.
I'm glad to see someone talking about this movie. Actually, Haunting of Hill House got me thinking about this movie again. Specifically, the ending of Episode 6 of HoHH reminded me a lot of the ending to Lake Mungo. Reminded me so much in fact, I actually wouldn't be surprised if Mike Flanagan was directly inspired by this movie.
I feel you left some important things out. For example, I can't stop thinking about that session with Ray in which she says she was watching her parents when they were sleeping and then started to cry. I mean, she is speaking of an event that already took place, cause she was alive in the tape, BUT that exact shot of her watching over her parents was one of the shots discovered in those tapes they planted AFTER starting to have some paranormal experiences. Another example is the Lake Mungo scene. She saw an anterior future self of hers. I mean, it's like Alice and her ghost (or whatever that was) broke what we know about time and space. This thought terrified me the most and I still can't fully comprehend what happened.
This film is a masterpiece and has, in my opinion, a lot of symbolism as well. I think that the encounter Alice had with the neighbors was not just a plot device that finally lead the parents to discover the phone and the truth about what happened. Maybe there was not consent after all and that deteriorated Alice's mental health which in combination with the fact that her parents were already emotionally distant broke her. Maybe the death was self inflicted. The ghost was a representation of her mental illness and maybe a sign that she had to do it. She buried her things as a funeral for herself, by herself because she felt alone. She then died surrounded by the people she loved as a final goodbye to them. The opening line was not just a bad premonition but what she was actually planning to do because she felt she had no other choice.
Few scenes have sent chills down my spine like the one filmed on the phone, at Lake Mungo at night near the end. So simple yet it holds so much weight and the soundtrack for it was perfect.
I saw this movie in a psychology class and we were presented it like a documentary by our professor. It was a good lesson for us in perception and framing.
1:45 Akira Yamaoka - Room Of Angel (Instrumental Version) Sung by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn. From the game Silent Hill 4: The Room. (Just in case anyone was wondering...)
I actually got to speak to him in Mexico on Twitter when he and Mary Elizabeth were doing a convention there. I couldn’t speak Japanese but we both could speak Spanish so it was a cool time.
What is saddest is that Alice's ghost most likely stayed in the house when the whole family left. Also, who else feels that the creator of Haunting of Hill House saw this movie first?
The Haunting of Hill House is based on a book by Shirley Jackson written in the 1950s. If ANYONE copied, it was the Mungo writer. HoHH is very very old.
@@trawlins396 there's a show on shudder called 101 scariest horror movie moments where they discussed this movie and the creator of The Haunting of Hill House admitted he took that scene from lake mungo he actually said he copied it
Great movie, the interviews with the family are so haunting and ethereal, especially the interviews with the brother, definitely the most frightening horror film I've seen in decades.
Do an analysis of Eyes Without A Face, Ryan. Another great classic horror masterpiece that not enough people know of. Other than that, try Don't Look Now, Picnic At Hanging Rock or Night Of The Hunter. These are deep, unique & brilliant movies I'd love to hear your thoughts on.
@@cleoldbagtraallsorts3380 Yeah, mine too. Also, I'm just about to put on Dead Ringers & pretty much any of Cronenberg's body-horror titles would make for fascinating study pieces.
@@TheAutistWhisperer One of the most beautifully shot films in cinema history. The way the film is lit & framed is unlike any other. Charles Laughton's one & only directorial effort but its an outstanding one.
Spoiler: I'm not sure why, but when I realized that alice isn't moving toward the corpse, it's coming towards her, that little detail made it somehow even more horrifying than I already found it. Top 5 scares I've ever gotten easily
*SPOILERS* Did anyone else feel like the whole neighbour thing was actually a lot more disturbing and dark than most of the ghostly stuff in the movie (not counting the cellphone doppelgänger scene, that shit traumatised me) she was babysitting for about 2 years, she died at 16 so therefore she started at around 14, we don’t know how many encounters she had with the neighbours and how long it was going on for, plus, in the tape they found, you don’t see/hear much but it sounded like she might’ve been crying, it’s not clear but it opens up the possibility that maybe they were sexually abusing her, and even if they weren’t, she was still underage, it just made my skin crawl and it was frustrating and sad when they got away with it, i understand it’s not a massive part of the movie and I may be way off but that just shows how great and disturbing this movie is, there’s so many things to talk about, mainly how she actually died, I feel like because that was never really looked into that much, she actually wasn’t free at all in the end, the family moved away leaving her spirit unrested, I had to remind myself that it’s just a movie when I finished watching because of how well it was done, it definitely left a hollow and unnerving feeling
Yeees, i dont know the laws of australia, but in my country a girl of 16 having a trio with his neighboors and possibility grooming BOOOI thats not consensual at all!!!!!. The part where the police told the family about consent and the family was like «alright» was so surreal it pulled me out of the movie.
By the time the movie ended, I wanted to see the neighbors killed. What they did was disgusting, and the fact that they got away with it is disturbing. It made me feel like the neighbors were the reason Alice couldn't find peace, whether because they killed her, or just because of the guilt and shame she would have been left with. It seemed like the only way for her to have found peace would have been for the neighbors to have been caught and brought to justice. But that didn't happen, and I'm left with the feeling that Alice would never have been able to be at peace, and that angers me to the point that it's genuinely painful.
I actually felt (at that point) that the movie was ruined for me, but not because it was a bad twist but because it was so horrible that I felt like throwing up and just give up on the film. Not even kidding.
I guess I didn’t pay close attention to her age at the time but I couldn’t get over the fact that footage of the sex existed and that Alice somehow acquired it. I can’t think of any reason why it’d be filmed and that Alice would have been given a copy of unless all parties consented which as you say doesn’t seem likely based on the circumstances. It doesn’t make sense.
Man that film caught me off guard. It exceeded my expectations with its horror as it was the first time in a long time I was genuinely intimidated by the zombies on screen. But more importantly, the multiple emotional moments that showcase the true loss and pain that comes with any disaster, in this scenario the disaster being rather extreme.
oneoneup I was caught off guard, too. I expected it to be, for lack of a better word, more fun and not nearly as poignant. I felt genuine emotional investment in the characters and their plight, and my tear ducts could not cope.
God, yes, the ending was where I lost it. I watched it with a friend in an indie theater with tables instead of the stadium seating, and at the end, we looked across the table and just tears 😭
Don't remind me. SOMA had me in my feelings for weeks. Took a long while trying to emotionally recover from that ending. That game actually makes you THINK about the _permanent_ end of humanity. It also made me think about how lucky and fortunate, and thankful I am to be alive while the world is still beautiful now. I'm not even kidding.
Triangle. I'm not gonna spoil the movie, just gonna say that A) the plot didn't go the way I thought it would, and B) the ending hit me hard and it left me with conflicting feelings towards the main character and her situation. Well worth looking into
Oh wow! I forgot about this movie. I rented it through Netflix when they still mailed DVD's. That was the time loop, Bermuda triangle ship movie right?
*What is the saddest horror movie you've ever seen?*
Let me know in the comments, especially if you've got an obscure recommendation. See you next week!
Hereditary was pretty sad.
Ryan Hollinger I thought The Exorcism of Emily Rose was sad; but more disturbingly so. Also Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House, but that was more in the character study of Nell and Luke.
Haven't watched many so lights out 😂
I know I know
@holy macaroni Excellent choice. In all of his films (and TV show) Mike Flanagan does extremely well at building up the troubled family situations, before the supernatural horrors fully enter.
Alright, who’s the one going to bring up the ending to The Mist?
honesty peaceful and sorrowful ghosts are more scary and painful to watch than vengeful ones
I know, that really weird that you said that, even though I don't believe in lingering spirits, it is really scary when they are just standing there, still.
@@natanmandala still better to stand still than to lunge. I'll take a chillin spirit anyday over a harmful one that moves around never knowing when or where it will pop out. At least with a stationary spirit you know which area to avoid altogether.
guitarman0365 true that
The idea that your afterlife could be you trapped in a house that is no longer your home, in a world that no longer has a place for you. Alone, ignored, afraid and sorrowful. Forever. That's a far more terrifying ghost to me than a vengeful, aggressive ghost.
True tradegy of ghosts is that you cannot hug them :(
The spookiest part to me was when Ally is telling the medium about her dream, she is literally describing being in her bedroom, her mother walking in and not seeing her, not speaking. This is exactly what her mother does after she has died...as if not only did she see her own corpse in premonitions, but her own future as a ghost, alone in the house, unnoticed. That's what hits so hard... they move away, able to move on, and she's left alone, the very thing she feared and saw in her dreams. It's super unsettling. Great storytelling!
Yup this particular scene made me sad and terrified at the same time 😭
Yeah I always want to cry piecing those parts together. Its a proper helpless situation it makes you feel so sad watching
Exactly, that's what's so sad to me, the fact that her family moved on, but she didn't
Yes, it's the last scene. It's how it was edited. That's literally exactly what they're trying to say.
**SEMI-SPOILERS AHEAD TO ANOTHER FILM** Great pick up Mushman - I watched this film last night and was trying to explain to myself why it was I was still feeling unsettled after the film - and it wasn't because of the reveal of Alice's actual ghost existing. There was a deep, harrowing sadness, and I think the fact that even in death her family didn't really know or see her (as mentioned in some of the other comments) is what makes this hit home. I compare this to a similarly unsettling film: 'Personal Shopper' with Kristen Stewart (highly recommend). Compared to the ending of Lake Mungo, I found the ending of Personal Shopper - another story where grief is the real ghost - almost uplifting.
The fact that nobody notices her, she's just stuck alone forever, her ghost is right in front of her mom and she will never see her; god this is such a heavy film.
This movie is fantastic, especially the ending. The family thinks that by solving the mystery like Alice wanted them to, they've put her spirit to rest, because she doesn't seem to be haunting them anymore. But the photo of her staring wistfully out at them standing on the lawn implies that her problems weren't solved at all. It's just that because her family has gotten closure and moved on that they can't feel her there anymore. Poor Alice.
To be fair, we can't really say one way or the other.
Silvermoon424 It’s one of my favorite shots of all time. That slow zoom in made me cry the first time I watched wayyyy back. It’s a legitimate masterpiece.
Honestly the big question I have to ask is what the hell killed her? A fit young woman who saw a premonition of her waterlogged corpse has no business drowning in a completely calm lake. Maybe she still wants her family to figure that out.
HUMANS aintShit
The neighbors snuck into the lake and dragged her underwater long enough to drown her and prevent her corpse’s discovery for over a day? I don’t think so. Sounds farfetched, not obvious.
They moved on and left her behind.
I'm not easily unnerved or scared, but the phone video of Alice encountering her own corpse gave me the creeps.
i thought the same thing, i actually never felt that feeling of dread from a horror movie before that moment. I've never been afraid of going back and watching something, until now.
So.. is there actually something supernatural going on? How can she see her own corpse? I'm confused by that.
@@dougrattmann3554 It's a premonition. She's able to see her own future, like a warning of her fate. It's sort of supernatural, just like how we see her real ghost in the end, but not in the "spooky monster" kind of way.
Same, I'm not easily scared, but this - this just got to me. Imagine that being the last thing you see before you die. Knowing what'll happen to you.
Deadnsd nah it’s A24 garbage I know people who believe they are superior for liking boring shit.
The bit where the dad talks about leaving the porch light on for her always really gets me
it reminds me of the show hill house- "porch light means it's time to come home." an amazing show with some other parallels to lake mungo
A lot of families with missing loved ones do that.
YES! Lake Mungo FINALLY getting the respect it deserves. As a filmmaker it scares the HELL out of me that a low budget film that was so well made could be forgotten so easily. The director never made anything else after this, probably because of how few people saw and acknowledged his film. But as time goes on more and more people are discovering this and acknowledging how well made it is.
A film flops harder than a book, a painting or a sculpture. However, don't get discouraged. Good artists shouldn't care about anything but making good art. Have you read the short story 'Enoch Soames' by Max Beerbohm? It is about exactly that... and deals with the devil... and time travel.
Really loved that you did this video! Lake Mungo is one of the best and most frightening movies about grief and fear of dying that I've ever seen. You did a great job explaining not only what was happening but also showing the thought and effort that went into making the film.
It's not really forgotten. It's shown regularly in film schools.
That scene at Lake Mungo is just one of the best scene in a horror movies genre.
Because its not so great, sadly, despite people liking it. The story meanders and the characters are not very convincing... and the climax comes out of nowhere and is deus ex machina. Its a cool experiment like Blair Witch was, but nothing remotely interesting to garner attention.
Wow, great video, but while I wholeheartedly agree that this is the saddest horror movie ever, I 100% disagree with your conclusion. Alice isn’t “with” the family at the end, or watching over them.
The family moved on, and Alice is left behind. This is spelled out in one of the later scenes, when Alice is recounting her dream to the psychic, about her mother not being able to see her, spliced together with June’s present time walk-through of the house, feeling confident there is no ghostly presence remaining. This makes the movie much sadder and, in my mind, is the real source of its horror. The living move on. The dead are left behind
This, a thousand times this. The final family photo with her forlorn face in the window is so powerful.
But will this post get the beloved "Loved" comment marker? I doubt it.
coreya603 I saw this as well! The way Alice talked about how her mom was leaving and didn’t seem to see her. THAT made me really sad. Like Alice is almost saying wait, don’t go, I’m being left behind. Depressing
Also I think it's interesting Alice, a 15 year old girl, was being staturorily raped by her neighbors and the parents didn't press charges when they found out. Perhaps her drowning was her giving up in life, and like you said the family moved on after hefreer death, leaving her behind in and the people who hurt her free
subscribe to PEWDIEPIE Well, I think they found the tape after the neighbors already moved, and no one knew where they moved. And even if they were found and Alice’s family wanted to press charges, they could claim it was consensual and have the charges dropped. The officer even said that in the film
I interpreted that final zoom-in on Alice's ghost completely differently. To me it means that even though the family is now at peace and move out of the house believing that Alice is at peace, she is actually still there in the house. The family has moved on and left her behind, dooming her to be alone forever.
100% agree, I don't think this film had a 'happy' ending at all.
The family maybe believed everything was smoothed over and they were beginning to move on. But Alice was still there, and I think the fact she was in the images but unnoticed mirrored her life - she was not really known to anyone and its sad to essentially see her being overlooked in death also. There was ALOT going on this film, and I think it went a little deeper than even I can see, but I defiantly don't think this is a happy ending.
That is how I interpreted it as well. In the end, the medium talked to Alice and the Mom. Alice seemed to have a curse or gift of premonition, and she said that her mom walked into the room and did not notice her and left. Her mom said that she walked into Alice room, and it was empty. She left the room. I think that was how the scene went down. Just wow.
Right. That's what made it so good for me. It is that ending. My heart shrunked (not sure if that word is correct). It was so sad and so terrifying she jus being abandoned and forgotten, ignored. That's what terrified me, that feeling of un wellness when I watched it. She was calling her mom, but he rmom did not see her. She is damned to be alone in that house forever.
@@aror6480 Yeah. I would also add that the Mom never really knew her daughter. They were close, but she never really expressed her feelings to Alice. She did not want closure at first, and on and on. The video touched on that relationship a bit. Maybe Alice tried to reach out her mom in life, but was not noticed much? Suffice to say that this movie stayed with me for days after viewing. That is a sign of a really good movie to me.
Right. That's it. It stay for some days. That anguish and sadness I felt at the end it was there for some days. I really enjoyed it. I like this kind of horror.
this one together with the Hill House episode that focused on the bend neck woman, and the ending of sharp objects produced in me the same reaction. Was some kind of wave through my whole body. It gave me goosebumps, it made my heart rate change and just sadness.
They all stayed with me for some days
>A horror movie about a dead woman with the last name of Palmer found in a lake, and the struggle to figure out who she was, her hidden and turbulent life, and the mysterious supernatural mysteries surrounding it
Director was a Twin Peaks fan, I think.
Ive seen about 5 minutes of this video. You have me sold on the movie. Ill finish this vid when ive watched the movie.
A question in my mind: do i show this to my friends and siblings while convincing them its real, and possibly mess them up with the dead body pics? Or should i just tell them its fictional?
Nick Es I told my sister to watch it straight on without telling her it’s fictional, you know, for the culture!
@Ghost Kai Exactly what I thought watching it. Also, had some strong Silent Hill vibes throughout.
I also saw the Twin Peaks parallels! got a little House of Leaves vibes too
I noticed that too!
The cell phone footage is without a doubt one of the most terrifying things i have ever seen in a movie. Such an underrated movie, I'm glad it's finally getting some talk about it.
Was about to comment this. Don’t know what it is, but that scene induces so much dread.
I have never seen this movie and this video is the first time I am exposed to the movie........ Holy smokes am I getting chills.
I'm confused... so Alice saw her own dead body, recorded it, and then buried for her family ro find?
Agreed, I watched the movie during day, and it was quite spooky, but when the cell phone footage came in, holy hell. One of the scariest scenes in horror movies.
luckystardoom njeraxivyurielemental It’s free to watch on the Tubi app. My sister and I watched it just last night and both of us went to bed in existential crisis!
You know what kills the mood of this vid? When Ryan says "a bone chilling discovery... then this happens..." and an ad for the Lawnmower 3.0 comes up on cue
What are you talking about? Lawnmowers are fucking terrifying.
They are like oml they like to eat babies
Same here but with a deluxe BBQ that works on gas....lmao
Consider yourself lucky, I had to endure the horror of seeing a chewing gum that had antacid in it !
🤣🤣 thought i was the only one
That scene when Alice encounters her own corpse is one of the most terrifying scenes I've seen in cinema
Could you imagine being haunted by your own dead self? I’m amazed this is the first movie who tackled it because the thought itself is fucking terrifying
@@DisDatK9 the haunting of hill house did just that
The whole thing of her dead daughter creeping around the place because she had unfinished business just fucked me
I seriously burst into tears the first time I saw that scene. Straight Chills 😶
It's so fucking unnerving the way it just slowly comes closer to the camera
That mobile camera video was pure horror....
it literally gave me chills
And I just HAD to watch this video at 3 am smh ... scared the shit out of me
The scene of Alice seeing herself at the lake is simultaneously the most startling jumpscare I've ever experienced AND the most haunting scene in horror I've ever experienced
**SPOILER ALERT**
That doppelganger scene is one of the most chilling things I've ever seen and it still gets to me to this day.
Aspie Mt69 oh that’s freaky, I saw someone who looked exactly like me at the market the other day lmao
The name of the movie??
@@cristaljustice4534 Lake Mungo
@Aspie Mt69 well recorded? It isn't real mate. Supernatural doesn't exist.
@Aspie Mt69 could I get a source on that
I'm a huge horror fan, and adore gruesome imagery but the scene of the bloated corpse looming gives me a feeling I've never had before. Realism in horror (especially in realistic deaths) is hard to find, this perfected it.
Completely agree. It happened to me too. I never really overcome that escene
I had a very different take on the ending. I felt it was showing that Alice was left behind, alone in their home, perpetually trapped. I also think that the mother lied in the interview; I think that she did see her daughter in the room, or felt her presence, and decided to leave anyway. I think she left either for the sake of her husband and son's mental well being, or because she was simply in denial and couldn't accept that her daughter was still there while she could do nothing for her, or darkest of all, because she realized that she never really knew her daughter anyway, that they were always just strangers.
I agree. I felt there was an intense sadness at the end of the movie. The family moved away and moved on with their lives, but Alice must stay tied to the house forever. Tragic.
@@DannBP1 100% this, intense sadness, for me. I have lost a child and now I don't know if I will ever move from the home we lived in.
They show that the mom is closed off from the daughter to a certain degree. If she did pretend not to see her, that was just one more final rejection to twist the movie's narrative knife.
this is my new favorite interpretation
@@SonicVision I've come to believe that grief is stronger than love, because it is love, compounded by loss. I hope you're finding purpose in each day.
11:22 "where the real ghost of Alice stands staring, watching over them, in peace."
- *ghost is sitting down*
- *ghost does not look at peace*
'k.
I know, right.
*Watch video instead of movie to not get spook*
*gets spooked anyways*
G_Boy you can never escape the spooks
That's how horror works
HOOOOLD ON I keep seeing people like you with the profile picture where did you come from and why
@@payden0_086 Oh yeah yeah yeah, go watch Max. Oh yeah yeah
on god broo 😂
I’m surprised he came to the conclusion he did. I thought the whole point was to show that Alice is abandoned and forgotten about. That everyone left her in the house.Not that she’s watching over them.
i think we can't really know how alice feels about them moving on, whether it upsets her or comforts her- it's another part of the themes of tragedy and uncertainty in the film. they couldn't fully know alice in life, and even now, having learned more they can't fully know her in death.
Damn, I can't get over how good the phone footage ghost scare was. The ambient atmosphere, the mysterious white presence slowly walking towards the camera, and alice's quote foreshadowing her fate really did make me back away from my screen. Scares like these are special to me, cause they can't really be experienced in a normal horror cinema. You gotta be cooped up in a dark room with fullscreen on to really get that feel
I took away something completely different... and now I think I have to go back and rewatch Lake Mungo.
Spoilers below...
1) It's mentioned that Alice complains about having bad dreams about her family ignoring her and leaving her. Something about them moving out and no matter how much she screams they can't hear her.
2) it's revealed that her "ghost" was in the doctored photos the entire time.
3) the bad dreams Alice describes play out scene by scene as they show the family moving out of their house.
Living Alice was seeing into her future and beyond her death. She not only had the encounter at Lake Mungo, but she was seeing how her family would be after her death... but she didn't realize it was "after her death" reactions she was foreseeing. Tragically, her ghost is haunting her family, but as they did in life they don't notice her.
That is a great (and depressing) analysis.
Thank you! That's exactly how I interpreted it too, and it makes it even sadder as you imagine a girl desperately calling out to her family even after death and never being heard.
I thought about the same thing. The moment she saw her corpse she was dieing. Slowly moving twards death, then dead and becoming more dead and less alive till presumably fades to nothing. Like life and death overlapped.
I remember thinking when I saw the movie that maybe it was Alice who was psychic, and was seeing her own future.
Exactly. There’s also the scene where they intercut Alice’s session with the psychic and her mother’s session after Alice’s death. The mom sees herself in Alice’s room one last time as the family is moving out of the house and says, “Alice isn’t here.” Then she leaves. Alice says her mom walks into her room but “She doesn’t know I’m here.”
The family moved on with their lives, even moved away. They left Alice behind.
I love this movie. So many layers.
For me, this movie is so scary because of how the past, present, and future all converge on this one girl and how she is a helpless spectator in her life and death, destined to be alone and forgotten. I found it very chilling after I finished the movie and still think about it every now and again.
Once I got to the scene where Alice sees herself, I felt a cold sweat and utter terror run down my back, that already makes it better than most modern horror movies.
Edit: Thanks for the likes!
And also there's a second scene that made me feel this and it's actually an after credits scene.
When
Oh my goodness, tell me about it.
@@natanmandala when is that part?
@@thederp9183 I don't know the exact time cause I don't have the movie on hand, but it is around the time when her and her friends are out in the outback or dessert and it is night time. She drifts off on her own for a second, and is recording herself walking, and she starts to see somebody in the distance. Thinking it's one of her friends or someone, she is filming on her phone and her camera comes up really close to her own image, all bloated up, white and puffy from the drowning. It's fricking terrifying. I would say it's about 2/3 through the movie. It's more towards the end I believe. That is one of the scariest moments in filming history to me, because I was watching this by myself when I first seen it. Watch the movie, you cannot miss it, cause a chill will run up your spine guarenteed, if you are watching it alone, in the dark.
@@thederp9183 I found it. Look up Lake Mungo Scene, it is the youtube video about 2:07 long, with a pale white face in the dark. Beware!
Its so sad how the horror genre funds and advertises for the trash it's been displaying in the media, while these hidden gems remain for the true horror fans out there seeking that taste of thrill one more time. Bravo.
Naima Said But then shit like The Nun becomes mainstream lol
The name of the movie???
Almost like lack of funds fuels creativity or something
could you imagine if this movie got a wide theatrical release though? a majority of theater watchers would hate it. these types of movies aren't for the masses.
khai duo
I think in general psychological horrors like The Witch, Hereditary, midsommar and It Comes At Night (which were mainstream) are not liked by the general theatre crowd.
The interweaving of the themes at the very end is storytelling perfection. This review is great but somewhat brushed past how great it is. The recorded sessions with the medium between the daughter and the mother and what they claim to see separately in Alice’s room is one of the most heartbreaking moments I’ve ever seen in a film. She was never truly seen in life and in death, not even by her own mother, who leaves her thinking she’s in peace.
That part was really interesting. I wish it would've been longer.
I'm very late on this reply lol but yeah I kept hearing about how sad this movie was and honestly I was mostly just unsettled and disturbed up until that point. Once Alice said "someone is coming in my room" I just had instant tears because they're both there but the mom doesn't see her.
Idk why but for me the scene that hit the hardest was when they found Alice’s taped encounter with the neighbors... something about that just made my stomach turn and made me feel sort of uneasy. You think you know someone and then you find out something so shocking about them that you never otherwise would have imagined. And especially to have that sort of revelation whilst mourning someone and trying to preserve innocent memories ... that’s heavy.
same. i am so disappointed to see such little conversation about that subplot online. feels so gross and that tape was what stuck with me long after the movie was over. yes the cellphone footage was eerie, but watching two adults take advantage of a TEENAGER was horrifying.
So... I watched this movie thinking it was real. I was so upset that the family was exploiting the daughter. My husband couldn't figure out why I was so passionate about it. Then he explained to me it was faux found footage. I've never felt so stupid. But, watching it thinking it was real made for a damn good movie.
Lol
If you wanna watch another "Fake Faux Found Footage" try the 4th Kind.
I was so pissed it wasn't real because it was so convincing.
Rene Aensland , thank you! Will do!
Well then that means the film did its job didn't it?
It's so convincing it left you thinking it was real
I went into it knowing it was fake, but I often wonder what it would have been like watching it without that knowledge. I'm a skeptical person, and don't really believe in the paranormal, but this movie is so well done, I'm guessing I'd have been questioning a lot of my beliefs by the end if I thought it was real. Oh well, still a great film/experience regardless, and deserves far more recognition, and praise than it received. Maybe then we'd get "horror" films like this, instead of "Saw 34", and "Annabelle 12", or whatever the hell they're on.
I want to call out some things I don’t really see elsewhere in the comments:
This movie gets away with so many little details that are even creepier when you realize how unresolved they are. Here’s some details I found really creepy.
- What was up with the bruises?
- Whatever happened to the Tooheys?
- What was up with the extremely strange behavior from the mom and the brother, was it just grief or is there more implied there?
- Why didn’t the psychic tell the family she had been seeing him? Why didn’t he reach out to the family about her dreams?
- What else don’t we know about her life? In most ways she seems like a lost, hurting, exploited girl - but in some ways she also seems a bit sinister, like there’s more to her own story
- How did she manage to drown after all?
Maybe some or all of these have explanations that can be pieced together in the details of the movie, but there’s ultimately this sense of dread and mystery and uneasiness that makes it all so unnerving.
All good questions/points!
The Tooneys moved away.
I think the ambiguity ties into the theme of grief. When someone dies we're often left with questions that can never be answered, because the person to answer them is gone
Why exactly did she bury her items? It wasn't only her phone for the video evidence, also e.g. her bracelet. What did she believe this would do?
I didn't want to be spoiled by it, so I paused the video and watched it. It's by far the most realistic horror movie I've seen. Everything is so convincingly portrayed and all of the elements are so grounded in reality that the ending really just shows that it's a family and girl pushed into a situation they couldn't explain. Thank you for pointing me towards this awesome movie, and great video.
@Pills here Here I paid for an online rental through Amazon.
Its on tubitv for free
Your narration gave me chills.. this was the scariest for me!
I absolutely hate the picture on the monitor thank you very much for having that there :))))))
not gonna lie this video scared the shit out of me
yeah i dont get spooked easily but there's something about this movie that creeps me the fuck out
Yeah, tell me about it. Probably the most terrifying movie I've ever seen. It has a uniquely oppressive atmosphere.
ok glad i’m not the only one experiencing genuine fear watching this, which is not a feeling i experience easily.
at least you didn't decide to watch this at night 😓
Mai Calk i watched before bed 😅
One thing to mention is that throughout the film the daughter and mother relationship is shown as rocky, however during the entire film we do see that they’re actually more connected than anyone else in the family.
With them both sharing the same dream of the mother seeing her daughter by the bed and the daughter dreaming of her being by her parents bed.
Also obviously at the end of them describing the same exact vision / hallucination of the mother walking through the house into the daughter’s bedroom and the daughter being in the bedroom when her mother walks in.
Sad thing to note, the family at the end think the “puzzle” is solved and her daughter is at peace but the very last photo they take shows her watching them from inside the house as they’re leaving her behind, by herself. I think the daughter still wasn’t at peace but far from it
It doesn't say that the relationship is rocky but it also doesn't show them connecting at all in fact the end of the movie happens because the mother fails to connect to the daughter psychically leading to the family moving. The movie says that like June's mother June has an emotional wall up that prevented her from letting Alice in and laments that she fears Alice might have died unsure about how much she loves Alice.
Strange how no one mentions that her mother truly had nightmares and they matched with Alice's dreams of her being at the top of thir beds screaing for help but being completely ignored.
“I’m not gonna cry at this.”
*Mary Elizabeth McGlynn’s “Room of an Angel” starts playing*
*cries uncontrollably*
But he did not mention in description that he took this music from silent hill 4. I have seen so many youtubers do that. They take music from someplace and never gives the credit. I don't care much about buying license or anything but atleast give the credit where its due.
@@prabhdeepsingh5642 Yeah, he definitely should have linked that song, and credited Akira Yamaoka (creator of this song) Silent Hill 4 (which is a brilliant game filled to the brim with brilliantly made soundtracks like this).
Amazing song!
ok, breaking out the silent hill music again, i see you ryan
Special occasion!
@@RyanHollinger I love Silent Hill one's Fear of the Darkness.
You are the best Ryan.
@@RyanHollinger like ten years ago i added akira yamaoka on Facebook and he accepted my fr and messaged me like "thanks for the friend request" it was so fuckin wild
What's the song in this video I can't find?
Berserker Guts, It's "Room of Angel" from Silent Hill 4
You didn't mention the last and most important twist. While alive Alice was alreading seeing visions of what what her "ghost life" would be like. This is seen towards the end of the movie where alice is talking with the the psychic and she notes that her mom can't see her. It's the theme of the whole movie. She's always been able to see hints of not just her imminent death, but also what comes after. She just isn't able to put it all together until she sees herself at the lake that night. She is not looking over them in the backyard with the last picture... she is still there begging not to be left behind but knows she can't be heard. Now, as a ghost, she has the knowledge of her living past... and infinite lonely afterlife , but cannot change anything.
i remember this movie... nobody i know has ever seen it. great to finally find someone singing it's praises.
as for what i consider the saddest horror movie... it's 'the road'. it's so dark and bleak and hopless with no chance of ending well for anyone... it is what i consider true horror... a dying world with no hopeful outlook.
Agreed
They made that into a movie? Hrmm. I read the book but never knew about the film version. Gonna have to check it out sometime...
@@henryedwards984 Yeah dude. It's got Viggo Mortensen in it and a cameo by Guy Pearce. It's pretty, well good probably isn't the word for it because it's absolutely soul-crushing, but it's extremely well made.
If you like The Road, I have to recommend Threads. It devastated me, and I don't get too emotional during movies.
@@nightmarefanatic1819 You've instantly sold Threads to me
I have never felt terror having someone describe a horror movie until now, going from a ghost story to the realization that the neighbor was in the room, just thinking about it triggers my anxiety. The very real threat of someone being in your home without your knowledge is one of my greatest fears.
Apparently that was a consensual relationship.
The choice to use “Room of Angel” as the background music made this video *that* much better. And it’s already a fantastic video
is it from Silent Hill? the vibe kinda reminds me of the series
@@mcromance257 Indeed it is! It’s from “Silent Hill 4: The Room”
@@neotheresa RIP Silent Hill
I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who noticed "Room of Angel". Silent Hill is a horror masterpiece and so is Lake Mungo
@@ismaill-0819 I wonder what a late 2000's early 2010's game created by the original developers would have been like
I have to say that you make some of the best video essays I’ve ever seen and these have gotten me through some pretty dark times. Thank you for everything you’ve done.
Good luck!
I watched lake mungo before watching this video and it was definitely worth it. The ending works so well with the entire film it's utterly chilling
adam L I remember this movie. The phone footage scared me when I was younger. And the ending was really sad. Like, I don’t know. Like, knowing she as stuck there, it’s just a lonely feeling.
so how did she die?
@@chloe41120 have you seen it
@@adaml1867 no, I'm trying to find a copy online.
Chloe i was trying to find a copy online too, but then I searched on facebook and they have it there so I watched it in facebook. Hope this helps
That scene made my skin crawl. Dreadful tingles on my shoulders and scalp, a sinking in my stomach. I can’t even remember another time when that’s happened to me. This movie really made my house feel creepy as hell afterward!
At night time it's the worst I feel like theres a ghost in every dark corner or wall way watching me in my house I have to leave some lights on when watching TV
Rose Red
Dog Soldiers
Lake Mungo
Seriously, it's like you know *exactly* what underrated horror gems I want to see video reviews on and then you make them. I don't know how you do it.
Lake Mungo is a chilling experience. If you like horror and haven't seen this movie, *DON'T* watch the video! You don't want to ruin an unforgettable experience you'll get going into this movie blind. I really hope this movie gets a bigger cult following in time. Hats off to you, sir.
Paused the video and went straight to the comment section just for a comment like this. Ill try and see if I can get my hands on it, and will report later lol
Dog Soldiers is considered underrated??
Rose Red is underrated for a reason. It's shit.
And Dog Soldiers is pretty well known among horror fans.
@@28Pluto Horror fans, probably. General audiences, no. I'm actually the only one of my friends who has seen Dog Soldiers, which is that rare movie that, IMO, gets a 10/10 on it's fun factor alone (it's also got the best "Squad" in a movie since Aliens and Predator).
Too late :/
Love this movie. The climax is one of the few scenes in a horror movie to actually leave me chilled. Not frightened, but deeply unsettled.
It still think about it to this day, some 6+ years after seeing it.
"a boring movie about a crazy mother and her crazy daughter who dies." - Google Reviews hahaha
Okay, I laughed - Google provides.
True
That could also be a pleb review for Hereditary which is kind of funny.
That review is stupid lol
neither of them was crazy what
As soon as I saw you did a video on Lake Mungo I stopped the vid and went out and saw it. It was really good. There were so many simple story beats that added so much. (Not really a spoiler) Like when they found her body and the car stalled so they had to drive home in reverse. It was like how they were no longer moving forward towards something, they were moving away from something slowly and reluctantly. Just a quick throwaway line and shot added so much depth.
Glad you noticed that! I’ve seen it 4 times and I always pick up on small details like that.
Later on the father says he doesn’t believe in ghosts and tries to brush everything off as silly. Then at the end after the phone footage, he’s asked what he thinks she saw and he pauses, before saying “I think she saw a ghost.”
Forrest Livengood sir if that is you in your pfp your moustache is amazing
I'm so glad you pointed the car stall scene, just seeing the car reverse slowly was so symbolic, I agree with your points
Where can I find this movie? Is it on a streaming service
@@handmakingtv I watched it on 123moviestime.com
I had to go watch this video 10 steps away from my computer and leave the lights on.
Preaching to the choir, pal
I had to play a comedy video on my laptop while I watched this on my phone
I have never heard a more exemplary use of “Room of Angel” even in Silent Hill 4. Extremely well done and I don’t think that this video would’ve scared me as much as Lake Mungo did had it not been used.
There seems to be something incredibly epic about each one of Ryan’s videos.
*SpOiLeR tAg*
Hereditary was in my opinion the saddest horror movie I’ve ever seen. Being forced to sit back and watch this family meet their violent and tragic ends with no control, along with the elements of grief and complex family dynamics was so jarring to me.
yeah. thats what stuck with me the most. The scary imagery and scarring imagery stayed with me for a couple of days but the emotional trauma that movie gave me didn't leave me for WEEKS.
That movie is strange in the way of how differently people perceive it. For some it is a disturbing horror movie, for you it is a sad horror movie, for others, including me, it is a subversive comedy. The way certain scenes are filmed hits beats that are usually found in comedy movies and other scenes, like when the headless body floats into the tree house, seemed as if they were supposed to have a laugh track playing over them. Apparently certain things the director and writer said in interviews, support that theory too, although I personally never read any interviews.
My whole family went and watched it...when it was over, we were just laughing.
To me its just a very "disturbing" movie... I honestly don't know how to describe it, it definitely unsettles me but I can also find it funny at parts. Honestly a lot of movie don't scare me but Hereditary did for some odd reason
That movie was ass.
Not a movie but the recent Haunting of Hill House Netflix series is heartbreaking, especially in the characterisations of Luke and Theo
Absolutely loved it until the last ten minutes of the last episode, which literally undoes everything that comes before it and throws schmaltzy acoustic music over the top as it does. But everything in the middle episodes worked like gangbusters, especially Bent Neck Lady and Two Storms.
@@sleepingdogpro yeah, that's what I immideatly thought about, except the "bent-neck lady" story arc more specifically
Although I agree the ending was rather weak, it doesn't ruin everything that came before it... Unless you're just dumb and missed the point.
I’m almost sure that I’m the only person who did not enjoy that show at all.
Losing a child is such a pain that only a parent could understand. That ending had me in tears, specially since none of them made it out of the red room. They all die.
I believe Alice’s spirit is left behind at the end when the family moves out. Closure for them, but sadly not for Alice. Heartbreaking stuff.
This is one of the best mystery movies ever made. It's short, sweet, and insanely well done. It is a crime this movie doesn't get more recognition.
Which film are you talking about, because it certainly wasn't Lake Dumbo.
teppolundgren H03
@@b1ggestslut Damn you Internet slang! I actually Googled that shit in case it was a film...
teppolundgren teppolundgren more like teppolundumb
That last shot of the actual, real ghost. Just... damn.
Even sadder, the "fake" images and footage are shown again in the credits, zooming in on the *real* ghost that you can see in each picture.
She really was there, trying to send a message but, much like in life, no-one noticed her.
@@AlienWithABox Whatever. As soon as she spread her legs for her middle-aged neighbour, she lost all my sympathy.
@@SpaceCattttt Whoa there edgyboi!
@@SpaceCattttt Holy shit! I can't believe people as cruel as you actually exist. O_o
@@BlackbirdMJ I'm not cruel. I still treat whores as people and would defend their human rights if need be. But I don't want to socialize with people who treat sex as something to play around with or sell.
Sex is a fun activity with serious lifelong consequences. And people who so flippantly throw caution to the wind and fuck around.....well, they don't really come off as responsible individuals, do they?
I realize that by this definition, 90% of the world's population are whores. But that's also why I don't like many people.
It's me against the world, baby.
When I was watching the film, I found a convincing parallel between Alice Palmer and Laura Palmer (from Twin Peaks). How their bodies were discovered in water bodies, how they lived a double life without anybody else knowing about it, how their family had to deal with the untimely deaths, the impact they had on others' lives, etc; and to top it off, their surnames. I'd take a wild guess and say that the director was heavily inspired by Twin Peaks.
Also, I thank Ryan for introducing us to this gem of a film. ❤
And also the doppelgangers
Mungo sounds like a fruit you would find at a shady fruitstand in south america
Mango??
@@floofyowls8989 true true
Look up Munggo
Charlie Hermansson You sir are on the level, I immediately lost interest in the first 30seconds and also wanted to talk about other things such as fruits and hot Filipino chicks in the comment section while the others figure out how sad the movie is or isn't. Don't care, never gonna see it.
The name of the movie??
in short:
family is haunted
family is not haunted
family is haunted
Family’s haunted.
@@burgbass oh no
@@burgbass uh oh
More like:
Family is haunted
Family is not haunted
Family is kinda haunted?
Family is not haunted
Family is haunted (kinda)
Family exploit their dead daughter and her privacy instead of grieving her death. They way they smiled says it all 🙄
Just watched this and this reminded me of Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House, particularly how it uses a horror context to explore the more real and terrifying theme of confronting grief.
Haunting of Hill House doesn't belong to Netflix. Shirley Jackson wrote that ghost story way back in the 1950s.
@@trawlins396 what i meant when i said "netflix's the haunting of hill house" is the netflix miniseries adaptation of the shirley jackson book. I didn't specifically attribute netflix with the original story 🙂
People have said it but *Hereditary* is a horror film literally rooted in feelings of grief and anguish that we will all probably experience, and the horror part comes from knowing that Annie's emotions were an absolutely correct (though subconscious) response to the evil net closing around her family. The shot of Charlie's poor little head in the road, and Annie on her hands and knees screaming 'I JUST WANT TO DIE' like she's giving birth in reverse was the most shattering thing I saw in the cinema this year.
Wow, giving birth in reverse... great wording.
nah, the whole cult thing near the end ruined it.
I found my dead pet rat a much more horrifying experience
DylanTheSmylan the cult themes permeated the entire film though
Great usage of Silent Hill 4's "Room of Angel" in this review. That track really suits the tone of this movie.
I saw it, I cried, I should add that I’m Australian and they really did a good job at making it feel like an Australian documentary, when they show news segments it feels very authentic.
This is one of my favorite mockumentaries, thanks for making a video of it. When you asked what was one of the saddest horror movies I've seen the first thing that came up was A Tale of Two Sisters (S.Korean). The melody is one that sticks in one's head, weeks after seeing it.
GREAT movie!
Hear, Hear! A tale of two sisters is damn near a masterpiece.
@@8yerbrain I've wanted to watch that film, but I'm more of a psychological horror person - it's not that I can't take violence, it's that I hate gratuitous gore... should I watch A Tale of Two Sisters, or does it lean more gory than psychological?
@@oldmoviemusic Definitely psychological.
Check out 3 extremes
This movie, in my long career as a horror buff, is one of the few that also gave me night terrors. I bought it almost to say, "You win," but I haven't watched it since. Just the very dark, sad pall of the whole thing, culminating in some unexplained force of the supernatural dangling this girl's own death in front of her face as a specter in her clothes rushing at her, really fucked with me. It's so odd, because I would see screenshots of that climactic scene before I saw the movie and be like, "Okay, whatever," but then context made it almost unbearable to look at now. The only one that's hit me in a similar yet also different way ever since is Hereditary.
i felt the same thing when watching, i almost couldn't look at the screen
I actually had no idea of anything of the movie and the minute the screen froze and showed the face i actually like froze in fear that image burned into my mind and actually gave me fuckin nightmares. I pride myself on not being too scared by horror films, like jumpscares are whatever, you cant ever get used to that your brain is primed but everything else doesn't affect me. This movie was the first one to actually make me almost have a pure sense of just cold wash over me as my heart beat faster and faster.
@Pills here Here it's on netflix
@Pills here Here unlucky
@@jackpandora3160 "...you cant ever get used to that your brain is primed..."
Probably because it's looks very similar to what a drowning victim(or any corpse for that matter) actually looks like. As someone who once had an interest in emergency medicine(former EMT student here), I've seen some graphic pictures of both injuries and dead people. The daughter's corpse sitting in this film is the most realistic dead body I've seen in a while regarding movies. Sorry if this fucks you up more.
I rewatched this movie after reading the theory that the brother killed her and that’s her unfinished business. It checks out. Their scenes together are strange.
I do think even all the credits scenes when they show where Alice really was, I think most of them corresponded with where her brother was (the Birthday, him walking next to the lake where she died, etc.), a subtle hint that it may have been him who killed her.
Literally at the very beginning of the movie, I got that vibe too.
It was either the brother or the adults who broomed her.
The saddest Horror movie ive ever seen is probably the blackcoats daughter.
Just how alone, abandoned and desperate she is at the very end makes that film incredibly tragic for me.
soerry2 I agree. To be so alone that you yearn for a demon to take you over... that’s awful.
soerry2 yes, that one’s sadder.
I agree. I dont know if its more sad than this one since ive never seen this one. But when black coats daughter was over, i was like dang. All she needed was one real friend or a cat or dog or somethin. She was all alone :(
That’s a great movie..
I just watched that movie. It ain't sad at all...I mean wtf she worships a devil and kills people. That priest was trying to help her and yet she killed him just to sacrifice his head.
This was great man. Very well done. It's interesting though how differently we interpreted the movie. You have this ending where the family moves on in this somber, tragic but ultimately positive ending in some ways.
Where as I view it as a full-blown tragedy and in some ways terrifying. My interpretation of the movie is that while the family can move on from her death and get a sense of closure, Alice can not. Just as her problems were hidden from everyone in her life, she herself is now literally hidden from everyone in her death with her own family leaving her, incapable of seeing her.
Adding to this horrifying interpretation is that we still have no idea what actually killed her. In fact, here you have a recording of her own future corpse meeting her, signaling that she will die. Which begs the question, what the hell was that? Some kind of intelligence that "chose" her? Was she haunted by something (perhaps from the Lake?). Can that "thing" choose somebody else?
Regardless, we have no idea and more horrifyingly, Nobody (in the family at least) seems to care. They just move on.
Either way, sorry for the long rant. It was a fantastic film and really made me think. Especially since if supernatural things were to happen, I imagine they would just ... happen and I feel that this movie captured that quite brilliantly. Anyway, subscribed.
The last shot of the movie isn't the photo of the family standing outside their former home.
It's reserved for after the credits end. A strange, repetitive electronic beeping is heard ( Resembling the sound an ECG makes). Light flashes and we see Lake Mungo at night, the dark silhouette of Alice standing at the center; for a split second. Lightning flashes six more times and we see her standing still.
There is an indication that time is moving fast while Alice is motionless (Clouds illuminated by flashes of light swirl by).
No idea what it means but that is unsettling and probably supposed to further the movie's lore.
That bit truly messed me up. I didn't expect that.
I think it refers to the family moving on and leaving her behind, abandoning her.
That scene after the credits reminded alot of Twin Peaks the return, especially the flashback episode that is all black and white. To me it is there to reinforce the theme that we will not understand what happened to Alice because we will never understand death. It shows she is still alive in the afterlife because she cannot come to terms with her fate, that she is dead, and her family is still trying to come to terms with her death as well as their own morality. And as viewers we struggle to come to terms with it as well. They will never truly forget her because how can you ever forget a family member who died too early? You can move on but their memory will keep her alive, in a sense, even if it is a painful one. Her death and encounter at lake Mungo being unresolved gives us as a viewer that same feeling. There is a whole world after we die that we can't understand. We will never understand death (until we die at least) which is terrifying. And death is certain. We will die some day as Alice did, we chose to not look at it. But she was forced to.
This movie takes every ghost horror trope and turns it upside down. Literally we find out halfway through the photos are faked by her brother. It actively challenges us and plays us because we are so accustomed these tropes, probably why so many people are frustrated with this movie.
But If it told us how and why she died we would have forgotten and moved on like what happens in most horror movies. This is a very self aware movie. From themes, to plot devices, technical creation (choosing to be documentary) it uses existing horror tropes to move the plot forward while also transcending them and subverting the viewers expectations.
Referring to twin peaks, that show did the same thing, and is vital in my understanding of this movie. David lynch never wanted the killer of Laura palmer to be discovered but was forced to by producers and Frost. Becuase as soon as we find the murder everything gets wrapped up with a nice bow and we move on. But in real life, people cant just move on from a death of a loved one. A death like that cant just be forgotten.
Lake mungo took this idea, it's understanding of grief and made an extremely effective horror movie that taps into to our fear of the unknown world of death and gives it an extremely realistic take on it. Really a fantastic movie that is extremely well crafted in subverting expectations, using horror tropes and red herrings to drive these themes home and challenge viewers to think, feel and derive their own personal understanding of grief to Alice and her family greifing.
Also this scene after the credits is significant for viewers because it breaks the 4th wall. This is the only scene that isnt created by the fictional documentary crew or someone in the movie. Why would a film crew have footage like that?? Seems like a stretch. This is because now we are haunted by this lack of understanding as was the palmer family. The movie is self aware it is a movie, and that was the directors intention. Not only to blur fiction and reality but also characters in the movie and us as a viewer watching it.
Ghosts lived in the photos and videos taken in the fictional world. Now Alices ghost is haunting us as viewers through that final scene. Transcending the documentary to our real world. A very nice touch to end on and very meta. The director was 100% a fan of twin peaks without a doubt.
The ending scene was a very small detail but adds so much. Great film making in my opinion.
@@oreogazmic991 Great comment.
No need to ask why Alice's last name is Palmer.
But is it really Alice? The dark silhouette could be anyone. I think it means this is the viewers silhouette staring back at them. The scene is very dark.
Glad to know you're feeling better! As for the saddest horror film I've ever seen, I think it's "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" from Creepshow. A man finds some kind of strange meteor, is covered in plant growth, and shoots himself to avoid a more painful death. He dies completely alone (as the title says), and he didn't know any better as to what it would to do to him. I feel for him when I watch it. Props to Stephen King's acting!
I remember that small episode in creep show. I felt supper bad for the guy. Not to mention kind of freaked out my self since I was young when it first came out.
oh my god i had watched that a few years ago when i was like 13 and it was just so sad to me. A man having to face a fatal situation without anybody to help him. It's just utterly depressing
Glad someone is finally talking about this movie, it’s honestly one of the most terrifying and effective horror films of the last decade.
the cell phone part actually gave me chills when the foreshadowed corpse jumps at the screen. i also like how after it happens Alice becomes really disoriented and it feels like she is under water trying to reorient herself.
This honestly creeped me out. This movie sounds genius. I'll have to buy the movie if I can find it
It is free in youtube
You can watch it for free with ads on Tubi TV
well it’s on amazon prime for free and it’s only available on dvd
Dude, Lake Mungo is such a great film. It is so eerie and the ending took me completely by surprise.
I just watched this movie a couple of days ago. It was incredibly terrifying. As you said, it's one of the biggest pieces of existential horror I think I've ever seen. Also, in agreement with you, it's one of the saddest movies I've ever seen. I've lost people who, after losing them, I came to find out things about them that were just absolutely shocking.
I really like your interpretation of the ghostly images revealed at the end, because I honestly wasn't entirely sure that was really a happy thing myself. My knowledge of ghosts is that if they continue to linger, there's still something keeping them from passing on. My thoughts were that, while the surviving family members have found peace and have been able to move on with their lives, Alice still hasn't and is trapped. It seems clear she didn't hold any denial about her impending death, she didn't seem to accept it either. It also calls into question what other secrets she had or continues to have, as well as her regrets.
if your scared or sad just imagine the lake name is lake mango
one chompey boi thank u
The name of the movie??
This actually made me feel better and laugh thank you
10q
🥭
I'm glad to see someone talking about this movie. Actually, Haunting of Hill House got me thinking about this movie again. Specifically, the ending of Episode 6 of HoHH reminded me a lot of the ending to Lake Mungo. Reminded me so much in fact, I actually wouldn't be surprised if Mike Flanagan was directly inspired by this movie.
I feel you left some important things out. For example, I can't stop thinking about that session with Ray in which she says she was watching her parents when they were sleeping and then started to cry. I mean, she is speaking of an event that already took place, cause she was alive in the tape, BUT that exact shot of her watching over her parents was one of the shots discovered in those tapes they planted AFTER starting to have some paranormal experiences. Another example is the Lake Mungo scene. She saw an anterior future self of hers. I mean, it's like Alice and her ghost (or whatever that was) broke what we know about time and space. This thought terrified me the most and I still can't fully comprehend what happened.
The saddest horror movie I've ever seen is "the wailing". Also, "the mist".
The Wailing is brutal, such an underrated gem.
It's very depressing
Yeah, the Mist got to me
The mist hits you hard coming out of nowhere. The wailing is like a thousand cuts and then rips your heart out
@@raam726 Well said.
Nice use of silent hill
4s theme song at the beginning
Perfectly fitting!
I sort’ve wish it was Lisa Garland’s theme...but, oh well...
This film is a masterpiece and has, in my opinion, a lot of symbolism as well. I think that the encounter Alice had with the neighbors was not just a plot device that finally lead the parents to discover the phone and the truth about what happened. Maybe there was not consent after all and that deteriorated Alice's mental health which in combination with the fact that her parents were already emotionally distant broke her. Maybe the death was self inflicted. The ghost was a representation of her mental illness and maybe a sign that she had to do it. She buried her things as a funeral for herself, by herself because she felt alone. She then died surrounded by the people she loved as a final goodbye to them. The opening line was not just a bad premonition but what she was actually planning to do because she felt she had no other choice.
But it shows her in the video consenting. The Dad even says that.
That footage just gave me so much anxiety omg
Few scenes have sent chills down my spine like the one filmed on the phone, at Lake Mungo at night near the end. So simple yet it holds so much weight and the soundtrack for it was perfect.
I saw this movie in a psychology class and we were presented it like a documentary by our professor. It was a good lesson for us in perception and framing.
1:45
Akira Yamaoka - Room Of Angel (Instrumental Version)
Sung by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn.
From the game Silent Hill 4: The Room.
(Just in case anyone was wondering...)
Dave Beaudoin One of my favourite songs.
I was looking over the comments to see if anyone had mentioned it. I love that man's music.
Good ol' Yamaoka. ❤️
Akirasan
I actually got to speak to him in Mexico on Twitter when he and Mary Elizabeth were doing a convention there. I couldn’t speak Japanese but we both could speak Spanish so it was a cool time.
What is saddest is that Alice's ghost most likely stayed in the house when the whole family left. Also, who else feels that the creator of Haunting of Hill House saw this movie first?
The Haunting of Hill House is based on a book by Shirley Jackson written in the 1950s. If ANYONE copied, it was the Mungo writer. HoHH is very very old.
@@trawlins396 there's a show on shudder called 101 scariest horror movie moments where they discussed this movie and the creator of The Haunting of Hill House admitted he took that scene from lake mungo he actually said he copied it
Great movie, the interviews with the family are so haunting and ethereal, especially the interviews with the brother, definitely the most frightening horror film I've seen in decades.
Do an analysis of Eyes Without A Face, Ryan. Another great classic horror masterpiece that not enough people know of. Other than that, try Don't Look Now, Picnic At Hanging Rock or Night Of The Hunter. These are deep, unique & brilliant movies I'd love to hear your thoughts on.
You've just named some of my all time favourites, I'd add the original B&W film, "The Haunting,"
@@cleoldbagtraallsorts3380 Yeah, mine too. Also, I'm just about to put on Dead Ringers & pretty much any of Cronenberg's body-horror titles would make for fascinating study pieces.
Is that in any way related to The Face Without Eyes? Because that was a fantastic biopic about Ray Charles, hats off to.the filmmmaker.
Night of the Hunter is one of my favourite films, very unnerving film.
@@TheAutistWhisperer One of the most beautifully shot films in cinema history. The way the film is lit & framed is unlike any other. Charles Laughton's one & only directorial effort but its an outstanding one.
Spoiler:
I'm not sure why, but when I realized that alice isn't moving toward the corpse, it's coming towards her, that little detail made it somehow even more horrifying than I already found it. Top 5 scares I've ever gotten easily
The Orphanage comes to mind as the saddest horror film I’ve ever seen for sure
It's definitely up there. When you find out the truth about what happened, god fucking damn, right to your heart!
The Descent is pretty sad. The incident in the cave is an allegory with the depression of the main character.
It is by far the saddest horror movie I've ever seen. It's sadder than Lake Bungo.
I didn't even think of it like that.
The descent is such a shit movie tho
The original ending is pretty sad.
@@weirdguy4948 In my opinion it was a great film.
*SPOILERS*
Did anyone else feel like the whole neighbour thing was actually a lot more disturbing and dark than most of the ghostly stuff in the movie (not counting the cellphone doppelgänger scene, that shit traumatised me) she was babysitting for about 2 years, she died at 16 so therefore she started at around 14, we don’t know how many encounters she had with the neighbours and how long it was going on for, plus, in the tape they found, you don’t see/hear much but it sounded like she might’ve been crying, it’s not clear but it opens up the possibility that maybe they were sexually abusing her, and even if they weren’t, she was still underage, it just made my skin crawl and it was frustrating and sad when they got away with it, i understand it’s not a massive part of the movie and I may be way off but that just shows how great and disturbing this movie is, there’s so many things to talk about, mainly how she actually died, I feel like because that was never really looked into that much, she actually wasn’t free at all in the end, the family moved away leaving her spirit unrested, I had to remind myself that it’s just a movie when I finished watching because of how well it was done, it definitely left a hollow and unnerving feeling
Yeees, i dont know the laws of australia, but in my country a girl of 16 having a trio with his neighboors and possibility grooming BOOOI thats not consensual at all!!!!!. The part where the police told the family about consent and the family was like «alright» was so surreal it pulled me out of the movie.
By the time the movie ended, I wanted to see the neighbors killed. What they did was disgusting, and the fact that they got away with it is disturbing. It made me feel like the neighbors were the reason Alice couldn't find peace, whether because they killed her, or just because of the guilt and shame she would have been left with. It seemed like the only way for her to have found peace would have been for the neighbors to have been caught and brought to justice. But that didn't happen, and I'm left with the feeling that Alice would never have been able to be at peace, and that angers me to the point that it's genuinely painful.
I actually felt (at that point) that the movie was ruined for me, but not because it was a bad twist but because it was so horrible that I felt like throwing up and just give up on the film. Not even kidding.
I guess I didn’t pay close attention to her age at the time but I couldn’t get over the fact that footage of the sex existed and that Alice somehow acquired it. I can’t think of any reason why it’d be filmed and that Alice would have been given a copy of unless all parties consented which as you say doesn’t seem likely based on the circumstances. It doesn’t make sense.
16 is the age of consent in most states of Australia, including Victoria, the setting
I full cried in a public theater watching Train to Busan, which is inexplicably getting a probably terrible American remake.
The zombie horror movie? I remember I did get teary eyed watching that, but I can't remember why.
Man that film caught me off guard. It exceeded my expectations with its horror as it was the first time in a long time I was genuinely intimidated by the zombies on screen. But more importantly, the multiple emotional moments that showcase the true loss and pain that comes with any disaster, in this scenario the disaster being rather extreme.
oneoneup I was caught off guard, too. I expected it to be, for lack of a better word, more fun and not nearly as poignant. I felt genuine emotional investment in the characters and their plight, and my tear ducts could not cope.
Oh God yes! Several emotional moments but god damn that ending!!! If I even see a clip of it or hell hear a clip of it I cry!
God, yes, the ending was where I lost it. I watched it with a friend in an indie theater with tables instead of the stadium seating, and at the end, we looked across the table and just tears 😭
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.
Really really sad.
Might not get read but Ryan is the single most underrated channel on youtube
Me: *getting sad for real*
Ryan: It's completely fictional
While not a movie, the game SOMA really asks some hard questions and has one of the saddest endings I've ever seen.
...please don't leave me alone...
Don't remind me. SOMA had me in my feelings for weeks. Took a long while trying to emotionally recover from that ending. That game actually makes you THINK about the _permanent_ end of humanity.
It also made me think about how lucky and fortunate, and thankful I am to be alive while the world is still beautiful now. I'm not even kidding.
Another sad game ending is crossing souls really good if you like 80s nostalgia
soma was amazing.. played it twice and felt the same emptiness and despair inside both times..
Play life is strange: before the storm and then tell me there is a more sad ending in video game history
6:30 "And then this happens..." **Wal-Mart ad**
Triangle. I'm not gonna spoil the movie, just gonna say that A) the plot didn't go the way I thought it would, and B) the ending hit me hard and it left me with conflicting feelings towards the main character and her situation. Well worth looking into
Oh wow! I forgot about this movie. I rented it through Netflix when they still mailed DVD's.
That was the time loop, Bermuda triangle ship movie right?
@Ivan Drago oooh, That I'm unaware of. I'll have to do some digging. Curious.
@Ivan Drago no hes talking about the one Kolby mentions