Ghost Lake Controversy
A message from Phil…
‘Dear horror fans,
As some of you may have noticed, I was recently quoted on the cover art for a movie called Ghost Lake.
To my complete amazement, there has been some controversy surrounding my quote, and I have been asked to post a news item to clear up any confusion.
Ghost Lake was released here in the UK in December 2004. I rented it, watched it and enjoyed it. My review was posted here at the Horror Asylum on the 15th of December 2004.
I was contacted in early 2005 by the American distributor, to say that they had read my review and were happy that I had enjoyed the film. They also informed me that it would be out in America and Canada in May.
A little while later they kindly asked if they could perhaps quote my review of the film for their box art. They told me that they couldn’t really put ‘One of the best straight to video b-movies I’ve seen this year’ on the cover, (after all if your little movie was competing against Spiderman 2 for shelf space at Blockbuster, you would want to give it the best chance possible wouldn’t you?) and asked instead, if they could change ‘straight to video b-movies’ to ‘horror movies’ and I agreed.
The film was released May 17th and I began receiving e-mails from readers of the site, expressing their anger towards the people who had misquoted me to apparently con them into renting a film that they ultimately did not enjoy.
Since then, people I do not know have complained to the distributors on my behalf, posted comments on public message boards and there has even been a review which speculated that I must have been paid a huge sum, or even inebriated to have said that about the movie.
I can only apologise to anyone who rented the film due to my quote on the cover. I had no idea my opinions were so influential. My understanding of the situation was that the distributor wanted to promote the film as best they could, but they did not intentionally try to con anyone into renting
it.
I certainly never thought that there would be such dramatic repercussions regarding a nice gesture. I stand by my comments regarding the movie which I made in my review, and apologise to anyone who feels that they were cheated by my quote.
As always, my reviews contain my opinions of a particular film and they are intended only to be taken as that when read by visitors to the site.
I hope that this now clears the matter up, and that people will start watching movies because they want to see them and not because someone else said they personally enjoyed it.
Thank you,
Phil.’
You can read Phil’s review below…
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‘I should probably mention straight away that this film’s cover art deserves 5 stars all on it’s own, as it has better cover art than many recent cinematic horror releases. The film centres round Becky Haster, a young woman who has put her life on hold to help her mother take care of her disabled father. Becky’s parents encourage their normally quiet girl to go out one night and she reluctantly agrees.
Becky has the time of her life and forgets about the time, but as she gets deep down and dirrty in the back of a car her parents are killed by a gas leak. Haunted by feelings of guilt, Becky flees to her parents summer cottage, but things are about to get even more scary for Becky as she begins to witness horrific events.
Fearing for her sanity, Becky begins to investigate the towns history, and uncovers a curse that must be stopped before the residents of Rushford Lake are taken to a watery grave. The film gets high marks for it’s aesthetics, as it benefits from wonderful lighting, great photography and excellent editing. I can’t remember anyone putting split screen to such good use since ‘Carrie’.
The cast are quite good but have their off moments, and the locations are very good also. The story is alright but there are moments that feel very out of place. The CG effects are relatively good for a low budget film and the make-up effects are really good too.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Ghost Lake is an interesting little film. It has a very complex story with many layers to it, but it suffers slightly from an uneven pace and an overlong conclusion. Although the film was not amazing in terms of excitement and a gripping story, it is definitely one of the best straight to video B-movies that I have seen this year.’
Thanks to Phil
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