Lake of Death (2020)
94 min.
Release Date: July 16, 2020 (Shudder)
A loose remake of 1958’s “Lake of the Dead,” Norwegian horror mystery “Lake of Death” works at the bare minimum. Technically handsome and full of attractive worm fodder, the film is a mixed bag on almost every other level when writer-director Nini Bull Robsahm can’t generate too much tension. Robsahm does dare to make her characters shout-out mouthpieces to “The Evil Dead,” “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” “Misery,” and even Eli Roth’s cult favorite “Cabin Fever,” but these are just amusingly self-aware, one-and-done nods that don't add much to the bigger picture. One big red herring that teases supernatural goings-on (or is there a slasher among them?), “Lake of Death” turns out the lights and has shadowy figures walk past the screen, but these honored tropes are somehow rarely, if ever, creepy. What is truly missing are characters worth giving a damn about.
The fragile Lillian (Iben Akerlie) returns with a group of friends to the lake house where her twin brother Bjorn (Patrick Walshe McBride) disappeared a year ago. Along for the train ride are ex-boyfriend Gabriel (Jonathan Harboe), competitive-swimming couple Sonja (Sophie Lie) and Harald (Elias Munk), and urban-legend podcaster Bernard (Jacob Schoyen Andersen). Kai (Ulric von der Esch), Lillian’s other ex-boyfriend, gives the group a ride to the house and spooks them with a tidbit of murderous history in the area. Apparently a trip to the lake house should give Lillian closure, but she has sleepwalking episodes, hallucinations of black water bleeding down the walls, and dreams of the lake. There have been break-ins in the area, but how to explain someone setting the table and having breakfast prepared for all of them one morning? Is someone or something trying to pick them off one by one, or is this all in Lillian’s splintered psyche?
Shot on 33mm by Oscar-winning cinematographer Bob Murawski, “Lake of Death” looks terrific that it’s a shame its visual splendor is in the service of not much. It’s no true fault of any of the actors, but Lillian comes off more as a wet blanket than a sympathetically damaged protagonist, and the relationships between her and her friends are never properly developed enough to care (why is her ex-boyfriend who clearly still pines for her along for this trip?). If this is supposed to be a slasher pic, there's so much wheel-spinning that the first official victim doesn’t get their send-off until the first hour (although there are plenty of false-alarm jolts before that). Or, if this is supposed to be a mystery, the gag is more quickly apparent than much of a shock. Though it ends with a few additional revelations, “Lake of Death” as a whole amounts to an overly familiar shrug. It makes one want to go back to the 1958 source and see what the fuss was all about.
Grade: C
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