This 95%-Rated Found Footage Horror Is So Good Mike Flanagan Recommends It to Everyone
This is the only work of the director who has produced one of the most important horror hits of the 2020s, Late Night with the Devil.
If you're looking for horror movies to watch but feel like you've seen them all, Mike Flanagan has come to the rescue with his top picks on Rotten Tomatoes.
The director and screenwriter of Doctor Sleep, Oculus, and The Fall of the House of Usher has put together 14 indie horrors that will surprise even hardcore fans.
Mike Flanagan Adores Joel Anderson's Lake Mungo
One of these recommendations is Joel Anderson's Lake Mungo, a true hidden gem that has an impressive 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes:
“I have been recommending Joel Anderson's unforgettable film to people for years and used to actually stockpile copies of it to give away. This wonderful ghost story presents itself as a documentary of a family's haunting, [...] but reveals itself to be something else entirely.”
Lake Mungo remains one of the most impressive found footage horror films on par with The Blair Witch Project and deserves no less attention.
What Is Lake Mungo About?
During a picnic, the Palmer family loses their 16-year-old daughter, Alice, who goes swimming at a local dam and never returns.
Her body is found a few days later, but soon her parents and brother begin to sense someone's presence in the house. Alice's silhouette appears in photographs and videotapes and seems to be trying to tell the family something.
The family is forced to seek help from a psychic. He discovers that Alice has been leading a secret double life. A series of clues leads the family to a local lake, where Alice's secret past is revealed.
Lake Mungo Is a Brilliant Mix of Found Footage Horror and Family Drama
Unlike most found footage horror films, Lake Mungo does not rely on shaky camera effects and a first-person perspective.
The movie looks like a serious documentary about a family struggling to come to terms with the death of their daughter. They doubt her death, call a medium, and place cameras around the house, hoping to capture the spirit of the deceased.
There are no evil poltergeists here, and there is only one jump scare in the entire movie. But the image of devastated people, unable to find a place for themselves in their grief, becomes even more frightening.
Lake Mungo Has Become One of the Cult Films of the Genre, Although the Director Never Made Another Movie
Lake Mungo immediately gained cult status among a small circle of fans of the found footage genre: against the backdrop of a growing number of pseudo-documentary horror films, the Australian work continued to look the most realistic.
As the years went by, it became even easier to believe that what was shown on screen actually happened.
To date, Anderson still has not made his second film – there are only Lake Mungo and an early short film The Rotting Woman. But in 2023, he became one of the producers of one of the biggest hits Late Night with the Devil.
Who knows, maybe after almost two decades the director will return with his second feature-length work. At least one person is waiting for it – Mike Flanagan.
