LAKE OF DEATH (2019)

 

(Director/screenwriter: Nini Bull Robsahm)

Storyline

A year after her twin brother’s mysterious death near their family cabin, Lillian and her friends return to the lakeside abode where he expired. Weird events and an expanding black rot─real or imagined?─impel the fragile sister toward another edge.

Review

DEATH is a loose remake of Kåre Bergstrøm’s 1958 Norwegian film, LAKE OF THE DEAD (based on André Bjerke’s novel, published under the nom de plume Bernhard Borge). In this slow (a generous viewer would call it “slow burn”) remake flick, a young woman (Lillian, played by Iben Akerlie), haunted and traumatized by the mysterious drowning death of her brother (Bjørn), returns to the lakeside family house where it happened.

Of course, she has friends─who bring their own bickering, weird energy to the trip─and strange things occur. Someone─nobody seems to know who─makes and sets out a big breakfast for them; Lillian’s dog (Totto) is found tied up in a barn; the friends discover a hidden basement with creepy photos and dolls, revealing Lillian’s family cabin to be that of a legendary old man in the 1920s who killed his family and drowned himself after staring at the lake for hours; Lillian, who sleepwalks, sees a black, disease-like rot spreading on everything, especially the temperamental Harrald, one of her friends who almost drowns in the lake when an unseen something tries to pull him under; doors open by themselves while several characters watch.

Director-screenwriter Robsahm creates a strong atmosphere of distrust and eerie unease, and the actors range from good (Akerlie’s Lillian) to solid (most other actors). The old man’s multi-language, pictures-of-creepy-wet-people diary is especially effective in adding a supernatural nuance.

Unfortunately, the film is overlong, with too many Lillian dream sequences and too much lag time between worthwhile scenes. By the time Lillian faces her fears─embodied, real or not, by Björn─it’s underwhelming, a too-little-too-late climax, with a sequel-friendly, typical ending. While the ending fits theme and set-up, it feels too overt, too pat, given the often-nuanced events that precede it. If you’re a fan of languid, mood-piece cinema, DEATH may appeal to you. If you prefer your horror to be faster paced, more plot- and character-driven, you may want to pass on this one.