You need to watch the found footage classic, Lake Mungo

Found footage movies are tough to pull off. For every classic like The Blair Witch Project or Rec, there are 100 movies like Slender and Megan Is Missing that are, at best, forgettable, and at worst, an affront to the very concept of cinema. My personal favorite, though, is Lake Mungo, a slow burn mokumentary with found footage elements that manages to be both creepy and emotionally wrenching. Oh, and it’s gloriously concise at under an hour and a half.

Lake Mungo is, first and foremost, one of the most convincingly realized mokumentaries ever made. If you told someone it was a legit documentary about a supposed haunting, there’s a chance they’d believe you. The style is spot-on, the performances pitch-perfect, and it never overreaches. Other horror films in this style eventually go too far, resorting to bombast, like the BBC’s Ghostwatch (which is also excellent). But Lake Mungo remains understated, even when it shows purported footage of a ghost.

Director and writer Joel Anderson hasn’t helmed a feature film since. Though he has found work in the film industry recently, including on 2023’s Late Night with the Devil, after an over 10-year absence.

The story follows the Palmer family as they struggle with the loss of 16-year-old Alice Palmer, who drowns while swimming in a lake. Mother June wanders her neighborhood late at night, unable to sleep, father Russell buries himself in work, and brother Matthew throws himself into his art. As you’d probably expect from this type of horror film, the family starts experiencing strange things — sounds, mysterious bruises, and even a full-on confrontation with an apparition.

From here, the film takes several twists and turns that elevate it above your typical “pots and pans” horror, which I will avoid spoiling. But its grainy, haunting segments and emotional interviews with the family get under your skin. There’s no jump scares, no gore, just expert tension building that eventually reaches a terrifying conclusion. The image at the climax of the film is one of the most haunting single frames of cinema ever.

The choice of Palmer as the last name here feels like an intentional nod to Twin Peaks, which also deals with the death of a young girl in a small town with secrets. Along the way, you discover more about Alice and the life she lived. She struggled to be seen for who she truly was, both in life and death. And just as the family finally finds closure and decides to move on, the film makes its final big reveal.

Because the movie spends its limited run time getting you invested in the characters and building backstory, the ending hits hard. If you want a horror film that packs an emotional punch, this is it. It’s definitely a downer of a flick, but one you’ll want to rewatch immediately.