User reviews

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

Wow. This movie is painful. Unfortunately, the best performance comes from the former Reality TV star. The acting is awful. I kept getting the feeling that this movie was made by a few guys who wanted to get some chicks naked, play with guns, and screw around with fake blood. This movie is what gives the horror genre such a bad stigma. It strives to be camp, but only succeeds at being terrible. To make matters worse it's completely unoriginal. The guys that made this seemed like they just wanted to recreate some of their favorite slasher horror scenes, then just threw a couple of rape scenes in for that extra shock factor. I'm two into 2007 Horrorfest, and I have yet to be impressed. Maybe they changed judges because this movie is nothing compared to any of 2006 8 films. Don't watch this movie, it may ruin your day.

I look forward to Horrorfest each year, and I always expect a few clunkers in the group, but this one was truly awful. You can see the plot points coming a mile away, and it clearly plays to the teenage T&A crowd. While I don't mind a dose of that in a movie, the horror elements also have to be there for me to enjoy the flick, and in this case, there is just nothing there.

The deaths are a bit creative but, again, nothing that hasn't been done 100 time already. Also, there are enough plot holes to drive a truck through, and a few of the scenes and lines had the audience laughing out loud.

Wait for them to show it on TNT.

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-

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.

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.

The Lake sisters - Brielle (Kelsey Crane), Kelly (Kelsey Wedeen) and their step-sister Samantha (Tara Gerard) - receive a surprising inheritance from their unknown grandfather that has just deceased. Brielle and Kelly join a group of friends and travel in a RV to visit the Lake Motel and decide what to do with the property. Sooner they finds that their unknown relatives are deranged psychos.

"Lake Dead" is an average slasher B-movie and has an unoriginal story that I have seen many times: "The Hills Have Eyes", "Wrong Turn", I can not count many movies with stories similar to the original "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" plus a collection of clichés of the genre (naked women, friends surrounded and under siege by psychos etc.). Even the incestuous relationship among relatives is not original - "Timber Falls" is better and better. But entertains, and my vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Lago da Morte" ("Lake of the Death")

Hearing of an inheritance, a group of friends heading out to check on a family-owned motel learn the owners are trying to force their incest-based beliefs on them and forces them to try to stop their murderous advances.

There's a lot to like here but it does have some pretty troubling factors in this. Perhaps the biggest issue is the films' rather cloying practice of keeping the hero's alive simply to provide for a plausible rescue later, despite everything else rational and logical in the story. If the family was that intent on ensuring their successful traditions, leaving the boyfriend alive is quite irresponsible and illogical on numerous levels. It contradicts their own rules about not leaving witnesses, causes the family to look incredibly incompetent and forces the final half to descent into a series of captures and escapes which is highly repetitive throughout this which makes this stick out quite well. As well, the concept of the family engaging in incest doesn't make them seem all that more imposing or frightening by engaging in this activity when their logic is belted out simply with one line about tradition which is inherently lame and ridiculous. After these elements, though, there's not enough to really beat this one down with its good points keeping this one somewhat interesting. The fact that there's the need for the constant boyfriend kidnapping means there's some great action here as the need to escape and getting caught again brings great scenes along. The first encounter in the woods with the couple being ambushed, the later attack on the RV and the numerous confrontations inside the house where the different brawling and shootouts occur are a lot of fun which manage to get some rather interesting times with this one as the focal point for the action is usually based on the kids having to outwit the familiar who always try to simply overpower them. Beyond the action, this produces nicely with some really enjoyable suspense scenes here with the opening attack in the motel room, the dive in the lake among the dead body and the final revelation about the family's incest-filled past being pretty chilling. Along with the rather brutal and bloody attack scenes in here, these are the film's good points.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity, a sex scene and strong themes of incest.

I would first like to open this review by stating one of the funniest and best lines out of the entire movie: "That's how you f***k, family." With that out of the way, this was an interesting film that caught me off guard. I expected a movie that was worse than Ghost Lake or Zombie Lake. Boy I couldn't be further from the truth. This movie is about three four sisters who inherit the Lake Hotel from there newly found grandfather, their dad did not tell them about him for "security" reasons, and the sisters soon realize that their grandfather was murdered and that there are these men who are trying to kill them. I will say that this movie had some pretty okay acting and the scares somewhat there. You'll also see that this movie was influence by some earlier movies that had the same premise.

Let me get started by stating that story was heavily influence by a warm house blend of Wrong Turn, The Hills Have Eyes, "Home" from the X-Files and the Texas Chainsaw. You'll notice why it incorporates these films because of two main concepts presented in this film. One being deformed brothers, who wear jumpsuits, running around and murdering/raping teenagers (Wrong Turn, Hills, Home) and secondly the biggest concept I will not say since it involves a twist ending but that ideas includes movie like Texas Chainsaw and Hills. The storyline was somewhat tiring, you figure that these teens have to be beautiful people with hot bodies or this would never work, furthermore, they have to inherit a house or hotel that comes with killers. Kind of tiring. What turns this already milked story into original is the twist and subtext of the movie, which I will not say. It can become over the top and points and even to melodramatic. I could compare this movie to an A&E special or Cold Case reenactment gone horribly wrong, but than I would contradict myself, since I obviously like this movie.

That acting was good, but in parts. The beginning of the movie seemed like it was an afternoon soap opera like General Hospital. This being that the dialogue seemed scripted and painfully dramatic. Malea Richardson, who plays the foul-mouthed drunk sister, who, for my taste, swore too much. In one short scene she says about 10 F bombs, and even for a movie of this caliber, it was unnecessary. There were some okay jokes and at points the teens reacted to minor details as being life threatening, even before they got to the lake. Plus there is a random unnecessary drug scene and an unwanted sex scene. However, when the first murder takes place, that's when his TBS drama turns into a Fright Night. When the sisters begin to display real emotion, when the male character becomes the hero and villains become more real and into their characters. Half of the movie was okay acting and the other half was great horror acting.

Scares were not big in this movie, but when they did appear, it was okay. The parts where those 6ft brutes blast down camper doors and appear out of nowhere and asphyxiate their victims where a bit scary, and I admit that I jumped here or there. Of course I saw this in a darkened theater during Horror Fest. What was scary was not only just those deformed Billy brothers but the family in which they come from, again I will not say since this is a twist and I don't want to ruin it, but that realization is far more disturbing than those evil twins. There is a point when the killer pickaxes a girl in the ear and she cries blood as her eye turns red, yeah, a great example of classic slasher horror.

Overall, this movie was good for what it was worth, in fact, I sort of like this movie. There were some over dramatic parts to it, the scares where okay, there was great twist and a disturbing subtext, the actors where okay in the first half and excellent in the last half and the story seems to keep you on the edge. Despite that it was a low budget and that this style had been done and redone so many times, it was okay. I would recommend this movie to horror fans since this is a newbie of horror and I think that it should be given a chance. I like it, and again, I wish I could tell more but I would be giving away too much sensitive information.

Lake Dead (2007), directed by George Bessudo. 90 minutes.

Plot:

A gaggle of good-looking 20-somethings take a road trip up north to a motel which was recently inherited by about a half dozen or so sisters (none of which even remotely resemble one another) within the group. While they have fun getting stoned in their RV, listening to terrible screamo and taking their clothes off at every opportunity, some grim looking fellows set out to put a wrench in the whole thing. Or a spike. Or a hatchet. Something. I don't know. They have sex. They die. You know the score. Something something Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Something something Friday the 13th. Lather, rinse, repeat. Please pass the bottle, this is going to be a long 90 minutes.

Writing and Directing:

I would say this movie was poorly directed, but that would be an insult to directors in general. To his credit, George Bessudo can at least frame a scene and capture his actors and their actions clearly. Shame he can't breathe any life into the turgid, stale script. The only element that sets this time-waster apart from the average slasher/backwoods horror flick is the heavy-handed and ridiculous soap opera that plays out in the first fifteen minutes. If you sit around the house all day watching shows like "Days Of Our Lives" and "The Young And The Restless" and think "Gee, this is great, but a couple buckets of fake blood and some gratuitous T & A would really make it sparkle!" then this may be the flick for you.

Acting:

Acting is virtually non-existent. Two people named Kelsey. Someone named Tara. Who cares? At least the bad guys seemed to be trying and, subsequently, the actors portraying them look like they had a little fun with it. For the bulk of the cast, you get the sense that the producer, reeking of hair gel and Axe body-spray, just called in some friends and was all like "Broseph, I got this film! You got to come down and be in it! You can be my lead! We got these girls who are willing to take their tops off for us!" It's actually a bit depressing that perfectly decent looking women took their clothes off for THIS.

Music:

Stale, standard score. Nothing impressive. I think the producer's cousin (his name is probably Derrick, and he probably has black, spikey hair and wears short-sleeved button-up shirts all the time) and his screamo/pop-punk band provided the rest of the soundscape. I hear they almost got to play the parking lot at the Warped Tour back in 2005, but it didn't work out. Keep shooting for the stars, guys!

The Bottom Line(s):

This movie is terrible and virtually irredeemable. Tolerable if left on in the background while you do more important things like, say, scooping your cat's litter box or picking lint out of your bellybutton. The standard T&A and buckets of red stuff offer a slight bit of relief, but for the most part, this one deserves to be left at the bottom of a lake. I had more fun writing this review than I did watching the movie, if that tells you anything.

Lesson Learned:

Don't bring a wallet with you when you go swimming. To paraphrase the great Dr. Zoidberg: "Your movie is bad and you should feel bad!"

In the monster category, go past vampires, werewolves, zombies, giant reptiles and put a check mark next to "incest freaks" 'cause that's what you're dealing with in this lame movie. It's about 2 sisters who inherit a hotel in the backwoods somewhere where, unbeknownst to them, there are 2 murdering incest freaks running around in the same location. The movie never really explained the gratuitous brutality of these two. If you want to see a weak movie with some cruel scenes then this may be for you. The rest of you: "Staaay the hell awaaay!!!" Love, Boloxxxi.

P.S.

Props to the nice ass of the brunette sister(Tara Gerard). She deserved better.

Never watched the Horrorfest DVD; saw Lake Dead after Saw wanna-be See No Evil on the Sci-fi Channel. Between the two, I rate "Evil" nine; "Dead" flat-line zero.

Horror movie only in its disrespecting women. How I regret not heeding the warning as I watched the drunk gal in film's first ten minutes. TA, woman held down and taped up, girl apparently in of the mentality can't do better hence putting up with a cheater. Began thinking those responsible concocting the "story" shallow perverts. Second bend over I got nauseated and angry--stop "The Making of Girls Gone Wild, the PG-13 version!" Bless the RV men with an eighth a brain; dumb fiancé and dumber frat philanderer! Not being sexist here both men and women deserved equal allocation to a special prize called commonsense. Funniest instance involving the male morons, the fiancé of one of the sisters complains eyes itching yet he dives into murky water. What too lazy to get water in close-by RV??? IMO, most interesting characters were the killers; I don't like feeling this way watching a horror film. More importantly looks STILL don't carry a plot less film and horrible acting but so far.

Oh woe is me! It was said by an actor in the "making of" featurette "Lake Dead is not your average horror film" Huh?! The f**k it isn't! This is THE most mind-numbingly average piece o' s**t horror film I've seen outside of anything Rob Zombie's put his plagiarist hands to. A half an hour into this film I wanted to kill the cast myself! This film is also another perpetrator of what seems to be a big, conscientious theme in American horror and that is MAJOR gender issues, American males cannot show fear, it seems. What, I wonder, would actual jocks/frat boys do in extreme situations like the ones shown in this film? They'd s**t their 3/4 shorts, I'm sure! Instead, in films like this, you get slightly anxious action men, f**k off! I'm not covering every grievance I have with this title as I'm a rambler and subsequently a space filler, my one piece of advice is DON'T watch this film, don't give douche bag film makers like this more encouragement, look what happened with Michael Bay!! The guys that made this film obviously just watched Deliverance and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre(both brilliant horror films) too many times and decided that they'd try and capitalize on the themes but with much poorly executed accentuation, this film is abhorred.

Despite its low budget lake dead proved to be a thrill ride and the overall appearance seemed to add to the drama. Some of the conversations between the cast i thought sounded like my partner and i chatting away, or i thought mmm missus would say that... combine that with all the one liners that were present and it seemed to add an almost comic element to the proceedings. I also felt that the sound was all over the place but you can only ask so much from an inexperienced cast and production team.

All in all an enjoyable romp with a Freudian twist.

I'll give you £10 towards the next film :D

I enjoyed this flick although many hate it. Don't think that you are going to see something original. It does look sometimes like Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Wrong Turn or other hillbillies gone mad flicks but it worked out fine for me.

George Bessudo the director only made two flicks so far, both horror, Farmhouse(2008) and this one a year earlier. So having in mind that it was his first attempt he did really well. It was also Daniel P. Coughlin first writing and I guess they both know their stuff. It's a mediocre flick which have to get it from the suspense built. The acting was okay and you do get involved with the sisters. Naturally with horror becoming mainstream they had to add something for the youngsters so there is a bit of gratuitous nudity in it. We have the pis*ed and proud sister walking around in her underwear and showing off to her sister's boyfriend. We have a love scene were nothing is revealed although they are naked but one scene in the woods do has it's gratuitous nudity.

So with the nudity hanging over the beginning and POV shots from the killer it was a bit of going back memory lane. I dare to say that it reminded me of the old horrors from the eighties. It will never be a classic, for that reason their are to many rip-offs of other horrors like I mentioned before.

There are a few killings going on and a few shots aren't for the squeamish. You will figure it out for yourself which one they are. It's a bit low on the red stuff but as I said, the suspense gives you enough thrills to watch this flick.

Another flick in the hillbillies look-a-like going berserk with a little twist. It's one you can watch with two pints of lager and a packet of crisps.

Gore 3/5 Nudity 1,5/5 Story 3/5 Effects 3/5 Comedy 0/5

The organizing department behind the After Dark Horrorfest clearly didn't base their movie choices on plot originality; otherwise "Lake Dead" never would have made the final selection. This is a remotely entertaining little effort, but quite possibly also the most clichéd horror movie I ever watched and it's derivative of at least a dozen genre classics, including "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (original and remake), "Friday the 13th" ,"Psycho" and "The Hills have Eyes (original and remake as well). Every prototypic twist you expect to happen in a backwoods horror slasher really does happen here, and at the exact moment you predicted it too, and every stereotypical character you anticipate to make an appearance also really does make an appearance at one point or another. Personally I have a high level of tolerance for the use of dreadful clichés, but if you're exclusively looking for horror movies with innovating and daringly creative formulas feel free to skip this one, because it features absolutely nothing you haven't seen a hundred times before. The plot primarily revolves on two attractive blond sisters, Brielle and Kelly Lake. Their last name is either a lack of scripting inspiration or a truly lame pun, because they actually inherit a lake and complementary lakeside motel somewhere in the middle of hillbilly nowhere. The girls gather a group of horny friends and decide to go camping in the area they inherited. Needless to say the testament was only a trick to lure the girls back to their family's roots, where they're required to continue an uncannily bizarre family tradition. There's a revival of backwoods/inbred redneck horror movies going on lately, but somehow these newer films can't accomplish the raw and nihilistic atmosphere of their 70's colleagues. "Lake Dead" tries hard, but the film never evokes the slightest frights and not even the explicit gore has a shocking impact. The bloody make-up effects are nifty, but there's too little variation in the characters' deaths and the film definitely also needed a couple of authentically perverted gimmicks. Incestuous sub plots and maniacal old ladies don't upset anyone anymore nowadays, so "Lake Dead" is actually rather soft by today's standards. The film stars an impressive number of sexy chicks (Kelsey Crane, Tara Gerard, Malea Richardson…), but I sincerely doubt long and fruitful careers are awaiting any of them. Oh, and now that our list of little complaints is quite long already, I don't think the titular lake actually qualifies as a lake. It's more like an over-sized pond, if you ask me.

Lake Dead is clearly a rip off of much better films such as The Last House on the Left and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; but to be honest some of my favourite films are rip offs of those films so I wasn't too worried going into it. That was until I realised that most of my favourite rip offs (films like The House on the Edge of the Park and Death Weekend) were made during the heyday of horror when even a talentless bunch of hacks could churn out something good with a decent location and a fistful of film stock. Unfortunately the makers of Lake Dead weren't able to follow suit; but to the film's credit, it's entertaining enough stuff and I cant really criticise it too much considering the type of film it is. The plot focuses very simply on three sisters who go with their friends to check out a motel left to them by their grandfather; who just so happened to have died a rather grisly death. The sisters have their eyes on a big sale price; but get a surprise once they arrive at the motel when they discover that their long lost relatives are a bunch of psychos...

Anyone with more than a passing interest in this type of film will have seen most of what happens here many times before, which is a bit of a shame because the director obviously had good intentions and the film might have been decent with just a little bit of originality. The characters are all very samey and clichéd and thus hard to care about, or follow. The three sisters are very nice looking at least...but this novelty wears off pretty quickly. The setting is good however and the cinematography is nice and crisp...although actually a gritty style would have suited the film better. The psychotic relatives are not all that interesting either and pale in comparison even to the family in the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The gore is well used and fairly realistic and there's a fair few death scenes featuring including one that sees someone have his face caved in with the blunt end of a shotgun. However, it's the lack of originality that ultimately condemns the film and if you're looking for something you haven't seen before; feel free to look elsewhere.