Thoughts from the committee
There are several films in our 2026 programme about characters who disappear, and the loved ones they leave behind. Lake Mungo is this narrative at its rawest, the nexus between the pain of grief and the horror of unanswered questions. Rather than jangling the nerves, the film builds a relentless, gnawing gulf of unease.
A ‘found footage’ film in the tradition of The Blair Witch Project, Lake Mungo takes the form of a documentary about a family mourning the loss of teenage girl Alice after she is found to have drowned in rural Victoria. Alice’s family members grapple with the loss in different ways and become convinced there is more to the story. Through home videos, DNA tests and séances, they refuse to stop picking at the psychic wound in their family.
Over the last decade, horror films have often used ‘grief’ as a crutch—a ghost from the past representing something much more specific and banal. But the reputation of Lake Mungo has only increased over the same period, partly because it never tries to contain the infinite pain of losing someone with narrative cop-outs and therapy-speak. Many filmmakers have tried (the work of fellow-Aussies the Philippou brothers comes close) but few get as close as Joel Anderson in depicting the immediacy of grief.
“This is the only film of its kind that evokes Twin Peaks more than anything else; its melancholy is worth a hundred shocks to the nervous system.” – A.A. Dowd, Vulture