‘Lake Mungo 4K Collector’s Edition’ Review: An Essential Tribute to One of the Greatest Horror Films of the Century
There’s a case to be made that Lake Mungo is the greatest horror film of the 21st century so far, and for proof, you need only look at the long list of obsessives who’ve fallen under the film’s spell in the nearly 20 years since its release. Everyone from Mike Flanagan to Paul Tremblay to David Dastmalchian calls it a landmark, and when new fans find it, its prestige only grows and spreads.
Why is Lake Mungo so vital to the modern horror landscape? Everyone has their own reasons, but perhaps the greatest and most inarguable is the feeling that, no matter how many times you’ve seen the film, you’re never quite done with it. The vast, expanding maw of eternity is etched somewhere in this film, and yet rather than confounding you, it invites you to keep searching, keep digging, searching over and over for the same answers its characters long to find.
It’s fitting, then, that Umbrella Entertainment’s new 4K Collector’s Edition of the film feels almost equally endless. Like the film itself, this collection is rich, layered, and packed with the potential for re-exploration, making it a perfect companion to one of the most important genre films of the past two decades.
The Restoration
This edition, as well as other more affordable options also released by Umbrella, is headlined by a new 4K restoration of Joel Anderson’s film, and it’s here that the set clears what might have been the biggest stumbling block in its path.
Lake Mungo is a film driven by second looks. It’s all about the Palmer family’s efforts to work backward through the life of the departed Alice (Talia Zucker), excavating as they go amid a documentary film crew’s efforts to capture what they’re going through. Everyone in the film, from the actors playing the Palmers to the film crew shooting the faux-documentary, is leaning forward, looking again, squinting into the pixels to make out shapes. A 4K upgrade to this kind of story, particularly given Lake Mungo‘s reliance on the digital technologies of its era, could have easily sandblasted away these nuances. That didn’t happen.
Instead, we have a 4K transfer that highlights the film’s various layers, the veils of understanding that are slowly peeled back over the course of 90 minutes. The Palmer household has never felt warmer, with its amber sunlight streaming through windows and its patient tracking shots across hallways, bedrooms, and the surrounding town of Ararat. But at night, this world changes, takes on darker aspects both visual and thematic, draping the Palmer family in the shadows they’re so determined to explore. Mathew Palmer’s (Martin Sharpe) efforts to document the apparitions moving through the home in particular are rendered with subtlety and care, giving us a 4K that never robs the film of its intended experience. It’s gorgeous, and if anything, it only dares you to look closer.
The Documentary
The Collector’s Edition of Umbrella’s Lake Mungo 4K is brimming with special features, but the crown jewel is far and away Lake Mungo Revisited, a three-hour documentary exploring the making of the film and its impact on its creators, its fans, and the larger horror world.
These kinds of documentaries have become increasingly commonplace in the streaming age, when beloved genre films get prestige physical releases like this one, but often they have little new to say. That’s not the case here, as the film uses archival footage, photos, and old script pages to reveal that the process of building Lake Mungo was as magical and singular as watching it. Director Joel Anderson (who does not appear in new interviews for the documentary) formed Lake Mungo out of primordial, universal forces, and it took not only time, but also care. That this movie emerged from such a massive stew of ideas, personalities, and creators working often on pure instinctual drive is a miracle, and Lake Mungo Revisited shows us all of that and more, including reflections on the film’s legacy by a long list of horror luminaries. It’s an essential documentary for Lake Mungo fans.
The Features
The 4K restoration and Lake Mungo Revisited are more than enough to recommend this box set, but the dig through the depths of Lake Mungo’s secrets is far from done. The Collector’s Edition of Umbrella’s new release also comes with a complete shooting script, two different commentary tracks, a hefty hardback book featuring new essays and archival material, hours of additional extras, and, most intriguingly, a book of Mathew Palmer’s photos taken in the world of the story. It’s an entirely optional new experience, but it adds even greater depth and nuance to a film that thrives on them.
Lake Mungo is a film that we’ll never be done with. To watch it is to be part of a constantly evolving, endlessly unnerving search for a perhaps unreachable truth. It’s the search that haunts us most of all, and in this gorgeous 4K Collector’s Edition, we have even more reasons to keep searching. It’s an essential for physical media collectors, Lake Mungo fans, and students of the horror genre alike.
Lake Mungo 4K Collector’s Edition is available now exclusively from Umbrella.
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Lake Mungo 4K Collector's Edition
Summary
It’s an essential for physical media collectors, Lake Mungo fans, and students of the horror genre alike.
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