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Someone mentioned to me that the 2022 Thai horror sci-fi movie "The Lake" was a good monster movie, so of course I tracked it down and opted to give it a watch. I had actually never heard about the movie prior to having it recommended, so all I knew about "The Lake" was that it was a monster movie of sorts.

Writer Lee Thongkham, however, only managed to deliver a somewhat mediocre script and plot for the movie. Sure, "The Lake" was watchable, but it was not an outstanding gargantuan monster movie. The narrative was somewhat slow paced, and the contents of the storyline was rather simplistic, almost to the point of being non-existing. So you're not exactly in for anything grand here.

The character gallery in "The Lake" was bland, so very, very bland. I can't honestly say that any of the characters throughout the 104 minutes that the movie ran for left a lasting impression on me. They were all essentially one and the same character; totally devoid of backstory, motivation and drive.

Sure, "The Lake" was watchable and good enough entertainment for a single viewing. However, it was because of the good CGI and special effects in the movie. The CGI and special effects department that worked on "The Lake" surely managed to keep the movie afloat, despite of the somewhat lacking script. In fact, I will actually go as far as to say that the CGI effects in "The Lake" is definitely some of the best effects I have ever seen in a Thai movie.

"The Lake" is the type of gargantuan monster movie that can easily sneak unnoticed under the radar, though I do believe that you should watch it, if you enjoy monster movies of this magnitude.

My rating of directors Lee Thongkham and Aqing Xu's 2022 movie "The Lake" lands on a four out of ten stars, given the hollow storyline and zombie-like character gallery. The visual effects could only carry the movie so far.

If you are looking for a good movie to show the quality of Thai Cinema and this is not it. It's such a mess I don't know where to begin. I can't blame the English subtitles - although they are a bit strange with English culturalisms.. like the police officer acknowledging a radio call by saying "roger that." So there is this monster that apparently lives in the lake and kills scores of people. Fairly decent EFX...but the story is well, full of holes and hard to follow. And the ending.. what the? There is a side story with two university researchers...who disappear after appearing.. and then come back in the end with the answer of what the monster is looking for. And somehow they are allowed into the hospital to view records and interview patients as well as access to the police chief... because they say they want to help? Every, and I mean every, confrontation scene with the monster is overlong.

Fortunately, I was able to watch this with original Thai Language (it defaulted to English dub on Prime Video and 30 seconds of THAT and I knew I HAD to switch). Sure, the story is pretty generic, with small slices of Jurassic Park (1993), The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and The Host (2006) and the character development is almost non-existent. But the monster has a cool design and the CGI and practical fx are pretty impressive for what, I'm assuming, is a smaller budgeted giant monster film. The acting is above average and the film is well-photographed, save for some quick cuts in the shrubs early in the movie. Overall, its not as bad as most "The Asylum" creature features you'll catch on SyFy & nowhere near as bad as its current IMDB rating makes it out to be. I enjoyed it, but urge folks to seek out the film in original Thai language, as I imagine the crappy English dub gives it an unintended "campy" tone.

They have a very interesting monster. The smaller one was probably a man in a rubber suit, but the larger one was CGI (or camera tricks) but done well. It was quick, agile and menacing. The movie is dubbed, and that is done badly. The movie would have been better served keeping the native language and using subtitles. The voices didn't seem to fit the actors, and the level was as if a teenager was talking. The moral is don't take the egg. The movie seemed very unpolished and amateurish. Crowd scenes didn't seem to be done very well, and the initial chase through the brush was very chaotic. There had to be some talent behind getting the movie done, but it didn't come across. I wanted to like the movie, having seen a sneak preview that got my interest but the movie didn't live up to the teaser trailer.

I was pretty hyped up for the film after I saw the trailer, unfortunately there wasn't a whole lot to back up my optimism. A lot of the dialogue is clunky and doesn't make sense, and it's pretty obvious whoever translated this put it through a machine without paying attention to the results. Some of the name changes were also very questionable like giving the characters American sounding names which honestly took me out of it. The plot is rushed but the movie itself is filled with plenty of filler scenes where the monster is just standing there. To its credit, that monster looks awesome and were well above many low-budget American monster movies so well done in that regard. Other than that, there's nothing to really keep holding your interest.