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.
