Lake Dead

Three sisters, upon learning that their Grandfather that they never knew has recently died and left them a motel, decide to take a road trip with some friends to the property not knowing that some deviant lunatics are awaiting them there.

Imagine "The Hills have Eyes" and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre". Now imagine if those films had no wit, no finesse, and were deathly boring. OK now you have a good idea what to expect if you're forced to endure this crappy little film. Easily one of the worst of the second crop of "8 films to die for" that I've seen thus far (I've seen 4 of them including this)

Eye Candy: Malea Richardson provides the T&A

My Grade: D-

Hmmm ... just saw this piece at the Horrorfest and I wish I had used these 90 minutes for more useful activities, like shooting myself in the head or something ...

... but seriously, this is the dumbest plot since 'Slumber Party Massacre 17'. It shamelessly rips of 'Wrong Turn', and in a totally uninspired and lame way.

My rating in detail:

1 star for cinematography (ok, but barely) 1 star for the music (it didn't hurt) 2 stars for acting (sticks out because the rest of this film is so bad) -2 stars for the script

The only positive: James Burns obviously has tremendous fun playing the sadistic Sheriff - it's a pleasure to watch him

Makes for 2 stars overall - and that's generous. Save time and money and avoid this one.

Just to get it out of the way, I seem to be one of the only people here who understands that "low budget" isn't an actual criticism. A LOT of things can be done on a shoestring these days, and "low budget" doesn't mean a movie is bad any more than "big budget" means a movie is great.

That being said, I didn't think this was that badly done. Sure, you're working with no-name actors in archetypal characters who aren't particularly polished at their craft. And, of course, it's entirely predictable just like you know it will be simply by reading the synopsis of it before watching/renting. At least they when they shot "day for night" everything wasn't blue like in the first three movies I tried to watch tonight and stopped before getting 3 minutes in.

The problem with this movie - as was the problem was similar movies and others I've seen of late - is that they can't resist trying to slap a little epilogue onto the end of the film that makes no sense. For example, lets say you've been watching a movie where a female character has multiple rendezvous with men during the movie, and after everything is tied up at the end, they tack on a couple of minutes where it's revealed that the female is actually a guy, equipment intact. Because it's obvious that one of the guys earlier in the film would have noticed that, it makes that trick ending insulting to the viewer. This actual circumstance did not happen at the end of this movie, but something equally insulting did.

As in other films, I would have been perfectly happy to give this one 5 stars, but when the writer/director tries to be too cute at the end, I've invariably been left having to knock it down a notch or two.

A decent journey with an ultimately ridiculous destination leaves me no choice but to not recommend this movie.

Yes, a lot of clichés and a lot of ideas from other movies - "Wrong Turn", "Last House On The Left", "The Hills Have Eyes"... and many more... And of course all of them have one starting point: original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1974).

Anyway, scenes were solid, camera was OK, even acting wasn't bad. We have young, good looking girls and boys, we have sex and violence... funny and stupid scenes, gore, freaking family... everything you can expect from B-Movie slasher.

Anyway, not expect something special, and something new... but you can take some beer and you can enjoy in this movie.

"Lake Dead" 5/10

I found the concept to be pretty decent, but the execution is pretty poor. The story seems pretty interesting with a couple of teenagers inheriting a motel from their deceased grandfather only to discover a dark secret. Unfortunately, the reveal is pretty predictable and seems similar to the wrong turn movie. It doesn't do a good job on building up with the opening already showing what is going to happen in the movie. The movie itself isn't that interesting because it goes through the same tropes like any other movie and is predictable to guess what happened next. It also isn't suspenseful because things happen pretty quickly, and there's a lack of tension that happened in the movie. The climax itself is underwhelming and ends really disappointing. The ending is also generic.