Wicked Lake (2008)
Johnny Butane
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Reviewed by Johnny Butane
Starring Carlee Baker, Eryn Joslyn, Eve Mauro, Robin Sydney, Michael Esparza, Marc Senter
Directed by Zach Passero
Remember those old movies they’d play on Cinemax back in the day? Movies with titles that sounded kinda like horror but when you sat down to watch them you realized the creators were more interested in getting their girls naked than killing anyone? Wicked Lake reminded me a lot of those kinds of movies for the first 45 minutes or so. Then everything changed.
Not that it’s anything to really complain about; the Wicked Lake creators managed to find some incredibly hot girls to be in various stages of undress, usually complete, for most of the film’s run time. It did detract a bit from the plot, however, as much as you can fault a movie for distracting you with beautiful naked girls. Which ain’t much.
The story follows four girls who are very, very close. Very. One of them is a nude model at a local college, and the opening scene starts with her in the middle of a room being drawn by wannabe art students. Not a bad way to kick off your film if you ask me. She’s approached afterward by the incredibly shy and awkward Caleb (Senter, about a million miles from his role in The Lost) who is scared away by one of her friends right as he’s about to reach a very happy place.
Caleb goes home to his abusive brothers and wheelchair-bound uncle, where he decides he’s going to make amends for coming home late by telling his incredibly horny family that he knows where some hot girls are going to be going for the weekend. How he has this knowledge is not clear, but it’s really a moot point since that scene is followed by one of the four naked girls making out for about 6 minutes. All troubles are forgotten for a while.
After a a run-in with some very nasty hicks and a cameo by Angela Bettis, the girls show up at a remote cabin for a weekend of God knows what. Caleb and his family show up shortly after. Soon things devolve as Caleb’s brother Palmer (Will Keenan) tries to force the girls to do some pretty nasty stuff, but there’s one thing he’s not anywhere near expecting; come midnight, these girls are no longer powerless damsels in distress, but rather blood-starved she-bitches whose only desire is to kill in the most painful and longest lasting way possible. And kill they do, friends!
Once the film shifts tonal gears about halfway through and the bloodshed really kicks in, you start to realize that Wicked Lake is actually a pretty damn fun film. Admittedly it did take me a while to come to that realization, despite some of the stranger things that keep happening (Caleb spends most of the film with a fire poker pinning him to the door, though never manages to actually die), but when it hit me I was in all the way.
These girls love their revenge, and they have some very inventive ways of making sure you suffer as long as possible. I really don’t want to give anything away; it’s too enjoyable to go in blind and see some of the sick shit they do, but I will say that Wicked Lake has some of the most original deaths I’ve seen on the screen in a long time.
Oh, I should also mention that while all this other craziness is going down, two cops (one of which is Dollman himself, Tim Thomerson) are following the trail of bloodshed to these girls’ front door. They really only serve as more blood for the bitches at the end, though you can tell screenwriters Adam Rockoff and Chris Sivertson were having fun with the rookie cop/old bitter cop stereotypes.
As you may recall, Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen handled the scoring duties on Wicked Lake, and while it doesn’t necessarily work in every single scene, overall it’s pretty cool and lends just the right amount of extra off-kilter atmosphere to give the film an even more bizarre feel than it naturally has. His covers are sure interesting, too…
The biggest issue with Wicked Lake is the same with most indie films; it’s in need of some serious trimming. They could easily lose about ten minutes and only help the film’s pacing, and that includes shortening the aforementioned lesbian makeup session. But all the acting is surprisingly good, especially considering how hot these girls are… damn, and there’s an overall sense of humor about it that lets you know you’re not being fed anything you should take too seriously.
Still no word on when Wicked Lake will be released or in what capacity, but keep one eyeball here (of course) and one on the official Wicked Lake site for updates!
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3 1/2 out of 5
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