DVD & BluRay

LAKE MUNGO

Second Sight, cert 15; Bluray £17.99

Following last week’s The Babadook, here’s another former collector’s Limited Edition boxset success for Second Sight that gets a sparkling standard Blu-ray release that’s still laden with enough extras to satisfy the film fan.

Lake Mungo is a great example of a movie that kind of crept out without fanfare in 2008 from Australia. Yet, today it is frequently named by actors, directors and the public as one of the best truly frightening horror films of all time.

Yes, strange things happen, and today many people will be delighted to get a superb Blu-ray re-working in a version that includes interviews and deleted scenes amongst the extras. It tells the story of Alice Palmer (Talia Zucker), a 16-year-old who tragically drowns while swimming with her brother Matthew (Martin Sharpe - pictured). It is told in true crime documentary style which adds authenticity while taking the viewer into the story and the characters. Alice’s body is recovered from the lake but a photograph taken later by her brother appears to show a ghostly figure that looks like the dead girl and then her mother begins to see Alice in her room at night. Or is she dreaming? Or could it be that Alice was mistakenly identified by her shocked father at the lakeside? Grief can do strange things to

people and everything about this film oozes loss, while being largely unscripted and the cast improvising dialogue makes it seem real and easier to relate to what this family’s going through. When Alice’s dark secret’s discovered, the film takes a surprise twist.