Lake Mungo (1996)

Episode 505, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Todd: Hello and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd. 

Craig: And I’m Craig. 

Todd: This week was my turn to choose, and I went into just my list of things that I was curious about that is, uh, post-2000, ’cause I thought you’d might appreciate a more recent film. And this is 2008’s Lake Mungo, which I had heard about, never seen before, but it comes up every now and then.

People talk about it when they talk about creepy, unsettling movies that really bothered them or, or hit them hard. And they talked about twists in it and maybe an ending that was a little unsettling or ups- upsetting. So it had always been on my list for that reason. I believe this has been requested at least once over the years.

Craig: I think so too. 

Todd: Yeah, I didn’t go back to check our request list. I mean, it would be, it would’ve been years ago. Our, our request list, some of the things on there- It’s long … have been on there for a while. Yeah. Yeah, it’s pretty long. So whoever requested it’s gonna be very happy that we’re doing Lake Mungo today.

This is the first time I had ever seen it. How about you, Craig? You said you’d seen it before. 

Craig: Yeah, I had seen it, like, gosh, you know, 2008, right? That’s when it came out, I think. Seems like a long time ago, but I remember reading about it. I don’t know. I feel like people were talking about it for a little while.

I didn’t see it until later than that, and I just happened to come across it on some streamer. I recognized the title, and it sounded intriguing based on the description. It’s a found footage kind of mockumentary, I guess- 

Todd: Yeah … 

Craig: you would say. And it sounded intriguing. So yeah, I had already seen it, and I was surprised that you picked it.

It’s not your typical choice, but I think it’s a good one. 

Todd: Yeah. You’re right. This is… Usually I’m going for older stuff. We’ve got such a… I feel like we have an obligation to hit just these o- old ancient movies that there are just so many, but every now and then I surprise you. 

Craig: Yeah. 

Todd: This one, uh, I was surprised by this movie because I didn’t know anything else about it, and I went in to look it up and found out that the writer-director, this was basically his first feature film And he really hasn’t done much since or before this.

He did some shorts and, uh, he was in the script and continuity department for Late Night With the Devil. That’s about it. So I was actually kinda shocked. This is an Australian movie, and the first thing that struck me, I don’t know, about 10 minutes into this is just how incredibly well-acted it is. It is really well-acted.

We’ve done other movies like this before. Well, we’ve done other found footage movies, and we’ve done some documentary, mockumentary-type films. The one I was thinking of the most was that UFO one. 

Craig: Mm-hmm. 

Todd: Remember what it’s called? What was that called? There were two versions of it. 

Craig: I don’t know. I feel like maybe it was Lake something or- 

Todd: It was, um…

It was one where it had been done, like, in the ’80s, and it had been shot just on a shoestring by a bunch of… By a theater troupe, basically, and they didn’t really get much play or distribution for it. And it, it would’ve just sort of been lost to history except somehow the pre-release copies, I think the VHS copies that were sent to rental stores to try to get people to rent them, somehow they got copied over and copied over and got into the hands of some UFO people and distributed as though it was real.

And, uh, that became such a mythological thing that the original producer came out and said, “No, and you know, this isn’t real. I made it.” And because of the popularity of it, they were encouraged to remake it- 

Craig: Mm-hmm … 

Todd: in the early ’90s. And we watched that remake, and we ended up going ahead and watching… I think we independently were just so intrigued by it, we ended up going and watching the original, and we found the original so much better just because it had that air of authenticity that the remake didn’t.

It was because of the acting ability of the people in the… Well, I, I, I shouldn’t say acting ability. A- acting experience. It seemed like the acting experience of the people in the remake went against the authenticity of the film. It just felt more like people acting. 

Craig: Yeah, I remember. 

Todd: And especially for the new one, they had inserted little bits of interview, like they were interviewing people about the footage, and especially the interviews came across as really, really fake.

And it, you know, as an actor and a guy who’s… You know, for me, like, I do these, like, dumb mobile game ads, and they take a lot of different forms, and one of the forms that they’ve had me do a lot is that I’m the boss of some game company, and they’re interviewing me. Like, it’s like a clip from an interview showing me talking about our philosophy behind the game design.

And I often find that the hardest, to act like I’m just sitting there genuinely answering questions off the cuff from somebody even though I’m actually reading a script. Hmm. It’s so hard to come across as natural in that way. So I sympathized with and wasn’t even surprised that even the more seasoned actors when they came in and they were doing this interview style stuff, they just came across as fake.

It’s, it’s, it’s trickier than you’d think to act natural in that scenario. And this is all interviews. 

Clip: Mm-hmm. 

Todd: Everybody here is interviewed, and the actors are really, like, they didn’t do much after this. They didn’t do much before this. The director deliberately chose people who are very low-key and, and low-profile.

And God, they’re convincing. Don’t you th- Did you not think so? 

Craig: No, I did. I just didn’t really think about it very much because I, I feel like I’ve seen this type of mockumentary before. I, I, I think I saw something recently. I couldn’t remember it, so I was trying to look it up while you were talking, but I think it was called Strange Harvest: Soul Murder in the In- Inland Empire- Whoa.

which is a whole mockumentary. Uh, it’s from 2024. 

Todd: That’s a mouthful. Yeah. But I’ve heard of Strange Harvest. Yeah, uh-huh. 

Craig: Yeah. I didn’t know that I realized that it had a subtitle. I think I just found it under Strange Harvest. But it was much like this. Aside from fantastic things happening that seem out of the realm of possibility, it, it seemed, like, real.

Like, you could accidentally stumble upon it on television or whatever and, you know, think that it was real, and that’s kind of how I felt about this one too. So I guess that speaks to their authenticity, like, it feels real. 

Todd: Hmm. 

Craig: I, I think that I’m also just currently… I’ve been watching a lot of documentary, well, I guess documentaries and also, like, documentary series lately, like spooky creepy ones.

Mm-hmm. And so I’m just kind of immersed in that format- 

Todd: Wow … 

Craig: right now. So I think it was- … it felt immersive and like that. This is the type of movie that I can watch with Alan except for I- it’s risky. Like, either I don’t tell him it’s not real- … and then risk him getting mad at me when he finds out that it’s not.

Or I tell him it’s not real, and then he’s not really all that invested in it. 

Todd: Right. 

Craig: But, you know, he can sit through this ’cause it’s the type of format of some stuff that we watch anyway, so… And I think that those types of shows, like- Gosh, Netflix I’ve been watching. I watched… These are recommendations, by the way, if you’re into dark stuff.

I just watched one called Toxic Love Story that was one of the twistiest things I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Wow. I kept being like, “What? What?” But then after that we started watching this show. There’s a whole series of them. I think we watched Worst Neighbor Ever, and then there’s also like- Oh, 

Todd: yeah

Craig: Worst Ex Ever and Worst Roommate Ever and, like, all these. And they’re all these horrifying tales of- 

Todd: Right … 

Craig: things that have happened- True … in real life. 

Todd: True things, right? 

Craig: Yes. But it, but it is. You know, these are the actual people that experienced it in most cases. 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: Uh, of course here you’ve got actors, but I guess all that to say, I suppose I agree with your assessment that they were that good because it felt very- 

Todd: Yeah, I was really surprised.

And, I mean, consistently real across the board, like every single actor I, I believed. And just like you said, if I’d come across this on television, I would 100% think it was the real thing. Now maybe I just haven’t seen enough of these to know that just people can be really good at this, but I’ve seen some bad ones, you know?

I’ve seen some ones that just didn’t seem very real at all or that just didn’t have so much interview footage in them. This is very, very traditional documentary. This feels almost, you know, like a Ken Burns type documentary. It’s got lots of footage overlaying interview with… You know, so there’s a lot of voiceover.

There’s no, like, omniscient narrator or anything. It’s just all the voiceover of the people who are being interviewed and their answers to the questions, and they’re narrating the story as it happened to them. I also found the footage really convincing. I thought that it, it, it really follows the disappearance…

Well, it follows the death of a girl named Alice in, uh, Ararat, Australia, which is a real place, and it was actually filmed there. She’s a 16-year-old who goes swimming with her family at some dam. And as they’re getting out of the water she’s not there, and they immediately conclude that she might have drowned, and they send to call the police.

And the divers come and, and go in the water, and eventually by that evening they, I think… or the next day, I can’t remember, they do end up pulling up her body. And it’s pretty heartbreaking for them. And it moves pretty slowly. You’re just kinda wrapped up in this tale, this family that had this terrible tragedy happen to them.

That’s like the first 10, 15 minutes. There’s nothing spooky- Mm-hmm … there’s nothing out of the ordinary about it. And so I did find myself wondering, where is this gonna lead, and when is this gonna get spooky? Ultimately, I feel like the movie did not meet my expectations, but I think that was in a very good way.

Because it’s a little bit unlike a lot of these things we’ve seen before b- because it’s not trying to be sensational, in your face, jump scary- Mm-hmm … type stuff. It’s really trying to come across as something authentic, and in that I believe it really succeeds. I was thinking also of Ghostwatch. 

Craig: Yeah.

Todd: Again, not exactly the same, but that movie, you know, has moments where there’s the footage or there’s the interviewer or something happening, and then suddenly, boom, there’s something happening- 

Craig: Right … 

Todd: to them right then and there. Or you see something in the background and, you know, that jolts you- Right

or whatever, and this really doesn’t have that And I think that’s a strength of it. But, you know, it wasn’t what I was expecting, I’ll tell you that, when, when I just, you know, when I heard the hype around it. 

Craig: Yeah. Gosh, I was just thinking, I mean, you don’t have moments in the movie where a ghost jumps out at you or anything, but there are…

I think it was Ghost Watch or… But, I mean, it’s typical of these types of movies where they’ll show you something, and then later they’ll show it to you again and point out something that you missed the first time. Right. And I feel like that’s kind of typical of these haunting movies, but this one does it pretty well.

I, I think what makes this different than some of the other mockumentaries that I’ve seen like this is that often they seem very real up until a very specific point where something really crazy happens, and- Right, right … you know, the ghosts do appear or the monsters or the aliens or whatever and, and they’re captured on, on camera.

This is far more subtle. Like, this almost could… I- it is in the same category, I would say, as something like Blair Witch, where if somebody didn’t know this was real start to finish, they might think it was. Just didn’t know it was real- Yes … excuse me. 

Todd: Yeah, yeah. If this were presented as real, there’s nothing so fantastic about this that would make you go, “Oh, come on, we know it’s not real.”

Craig: Yeah. If it were I mean, if it were, if, if it was presented to me that way, I would still obviously be skeptical. 

Todd: Skeptical, yeah. Me too. 

Craig: But Yeah. But, yeah, you, you never know. So, you know, obviously this whole family is very upset by having lost their daughter and, and sister. And another thing that sets this apart from the stuff that you would, I think, tumble across on, on cable television is…

A- and I feel like this is always a tell if it… Is when they show more than you would actually see in a documentary about real people. Because when they show this girl’s body, they don’t, you know, blur the images or anything. It’s, it’s, it’s very… And, and of her face, like- Yeah … bloated and mangled. And typically, I think maybe even just out of respect, uh, I don’t know, or just basic human dignity, they would not show that, I don’t think.

So when I see stuff like that, I’m like, “Eh.” And in the last one that I- the one that I mentioned earlier, the one from 2024, it’s, it’s about a serial killer kind of. I don’t wanna spoil anything, but there came points where they were showing the grotesque aftermath of the murders with the victims. I’m like, “No.”

No real show would ever show this stuff. So- Right … that’s kind of a tell on it as well. But basically, things s- I guess there are some kind of bizarre things from the very beginning. Like, right after the dad identifies the body, on the way home the car stalls, and they have to drive home backwards all the way.

That 

Todd: was weird. 

Craig: That was weird, and I didn’t know if it was supposed to suggest that something weird was going on, like something didn’t want them to leave or I don’t know. 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: But they also start hearing noises from Alice’s room. The mom’s having dreams about her. The dad says, and I don’t even think he thinks he was dreaming.

He says that he went into Alice’s room one night and sat down 

Clip: Before I could kind of work out what I was doing there, Allie walked in and she went over to a desk and started sharpening a pencil and then she looked like she was checking for a text message on a phone. And, you know, I was completely freaked out.

She was completely oblivious to my presence. And then I don’t know what happened. I must have, um, moved the bed or, you know, squeaked my shoes or something, but she went completely rigid And I knew then that she knew I was there. And she slowly turned around and she looked me right in the eye fully for, you know, what felt like forever.

And then she just came at me and stood up and said, “Get out, get out.” And I just, you know, got up and went out as fast as I could. 

Craig: So he left, and like that’s the end of the story. I’m like, that’s- 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: I, I, yeah. Matthew has like unusual bruises all over his body that the doctors can’t explain. Mm-hmm. And, and finally Matt, we find out that Matt is into photography, and he takes this whole series, like a time-lapse series of the fence in his backyard.

And ultimately in one of them on one particular night, an image of Alice seems to appear in front of the fence. 

Todd: And then another guy who’s taking pics of the dam, a guy who goes out surveying things. I get the sense that the father in this is also like a surveyor. 

Craig: I don’t know. 

Todd: I, I don’t know if it’s really clear.

He’s taking pictures of the, around the dam as they’re going out for one of their tests or their surveys or whatever, and he happens to notice a figure in the background that looks a bit like Alice. And so now the mom is convinced that Alice is alive. 

Craig: Mm-hmm. 

Todd: And now Jim is doubting that he identified the body correctly because Alice’s mom refused to look at the body, so it was really up to Jim to identify it.

Even though we saw these photos of this bloated corpse, Jim’s thinking, “Well, you know, I mean, maybe I just in my heart knew that it would be her, and so my brain just kinda told me it was gonna be her, so I jumped to the conclusion that it was her- Yeah … without really giving it scrutiny.” And I thought these elements were really good.

Now, it occurred to me about halfway, three-quarters of the way through this movie that this movie is just as much about how you deal with these kind of situations, you know? 

Craig: Yeah. 

Todd: The stages of grief and of doubt and denial and things as anything else. And the, the director himself came out and said he doesn’t even see it so much as a s- I mean, this is bullshit.

But he said he doesn’t even see it so much as a ghost story. He, he really intends for it to be more of a drama that is really examining the different facets of grief. And I could, I can definitely see that aspect in it. I was feeling it as I was watching it, and that is, I think, what made it feel so natural.

And so when these twists happen, they’re more… We say subtle, right? But I just say they’re more realistic. Like, this isn’t a, “Oh my God, suddenly we saw an image in a thing. We must be haunted.” 

Craig: Right. 

Todd: Now we’re starting to doubt maybe she’s actually still alive in some way, shape, or form and, and hanging around for reasons we don’t know.

So now we’re doubting ourselves and we- we’re hopeful. We want to believe she’s still alive, and so they g- they go through that. Because as I’m watching this movie, I’m thinking the same thing I’m thinking throughout all these found footage movies is, all right, somebody put this documentary together.

That’s what’s being presented to us. 

Craig: Mm-hmm. 

Todd: So it’s not gonna be like Ghost Watch, where suddenly in the middle of this documentary there’s something so extreme and so revelatory that just, like, blows everything out of the water. So in the context of that, how is this ghost story going to resolve? And so I thought it was really smart how subtle and how centered and focused around the family’s grief and their natural doubts and, and reactions to that, that this movie ended up being.

Craig: Yeah. I, I, I agree with you and I, I particularly, you know, in this part where the dad starts to second-guess himself, I mean, I, I don’t know that you could help but second-guess yourself. I don’t even know if you could, you know, just live with the fact that your wife might second-guess you, you know, whether you second-guess yourself- Right

or not. I, it makes perfect sense that, uh, y- as sad and devastating as I’m sure it would be, they would have her body exhumed, which they do, but it was her. Like, they do DNA testing and, and it, it, it is her. So then, then they do start to wonder if maybe it’s a haunting, and- 

Todd: Right … 

Craig: and Matt sets up a camera in the hallway, and it catches what appears to be, like, a specter or a ghost crossing the doorway.

And all of this just keeps up, and it unfolds in a very documentary way, you know, just like these, these events are being narrated to us basically sequentially by the people who were there. So- Mm-hmm … then we meet this new guy named Ray, who is a radio psychic. 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: I think I kind of mis- yeah, I think he’s a radio psychic.

Like, people call him- This is very 

Todd: dated … 

Craig: I don’t know, right. But he’s Al- he’s well-known in the area apparently. 

Todd: Uh-huh. 

Craig: And so they call him, and he meets with June and does, like, hypnotherapy with her or something, and under hypnosis, I think she, like, sees Alice in her room, and Alice looks sad. And, and then they do a seance and, like, nothing happens during the seance, but when they watch the video back, Alice’s face kind of appears.

Anytime I see this, like, the camera footage is low quality. 

Clip: Yeah. 

Craig: And in order to zoom in on these supposed images, they have to zoom in pretty close, and it’s usually in the dark or in, like, a dark corner or something. So yes, it typically vaguely looks like Alice, but I don’t know. It’s also very, you know, soft focus.

Mm-hmm. If it didn’t happen repeatedly, it could almost just be a fluke, you know, like some fluke of the light or, or something. But it does happen repeatedly, so they set up more cameras, and then there’s more instances of her showing up. 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: And then’s when the first big twist comes, and that’s where things started to get a little bit iffy for me.

Todd: Yeah, exactly. Uh, this is where I was like, “What?” Although it does kind of follow the flavor of these modern-day documentaries where you’re like, “Really?” 

Craig: Yes, right. 

Todd: Like, this person did that? That is- 

Craig: Right … 

Todd: that is bonkers. The Withers video, right? The- 

Craig: Uh-huh … 

Todd: there’s a couple… Well, there’s a couple who was at the dam the same day that the photo was taken, and so I guess the idea is that once this couple learned about this photo, they were, like, going back through their footage of the dam.

And they’re like, “Oh, we saw that guy who took that photo in there. Oh, so we must have been there the same day. Let us peruse through our footage and see if we can see anything in there.” And sure enough, they see this figure, but for them, it’s very clearly Matthew. 

Craig: Yes. 

Todd: It’s not Alice at all. And now Matthew’s interview, Matthew says, “Well, actually, I was there, and I was wearing Alice’s jacket And actually I was responsible for all these other images, including the image For all of it in the backyard.

He did it all. And I mean, like, you’re, what is wrong with this kid? You know, like what was he hoping to do? And the movie doesn’t even explain it. Matthew’s real vague 

Clip: Mum kept, uh, talking about, she was always talking about getting Alice exhumed, and she was really, um, she was really keen on this idea that Dad had misidentified her body.

And so I knew that without more evidence it wasn’t gonna happen, so I Am I the photograph? 

Todd: But ultimately, June is devastated. The mother is devastated by this, and she’s like, “Oh, I don’t really know why he did it. He’s not really clear on it, and I’m not gonna push him.” So that was interesting. 

Craig: I know. It- gosh, I don’t know.

It just… At that point I was like, “What?” And I guess you’re right. I, I have said that many times recently, watching these real-life things, like it’s just… But it’s weird to listen to him narrate it as though it were real, that, you know, the, the, the images were showing up or whatever, and then just to be like, “Oh yeah, I faked it all.”

Like- 

Todd: Yeah 

Craig: Oh. 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: Okay, and, and, but he and Ray are still hanging around together and go leave- Go on a work trip … the house or something and, and leave some cameras just running in the house. He’s like, “Oh, I’d get at least 12 hours,” something. Okay, whatever. And then there are new images of Alice on the camera for- 

Todd: So- 

Craig: I think

Todd: why would he even do that? You know, I, I would think the jig is up, right? Like- 

Craig: Yes … 

Todd: why would he imagine, “Well, maybe there is actually a ghost even though I’ve been faking it this whole time. Let’s leave the cameras going”? Is it just because they legitimately heard bumps and had weird feelings about the house that he was just reaching kind of a- Oh.

I don’t know. Or like his guilt for doing that led him to try to prove that it actually happened? I, if 

Craig: I don’t know. But for some reason the mom wants to go back and review all the old footage that has already been proven to be fake or whatever, but she’s going back over it and in the video that we originally saw with Alice in it, she’s like, “And then I noticed in the corner there was somebody else in there.”

And sure enough, zoom into a different dark corner and there’s a silhouette of somebody else. And she’s like, “And I knew it wasn’t Alice because it was our neighbor, Mr. Tuey.” 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: And I, and I was like, “I don’t know how you could tell that because it just looked like a black vague silhouette to 

Todd: me.” It does.

And this is a huge leap, right? Okay, so a neighbor broke into your house and you didn’t know? Right. You know, like while you were l- there? Who would do that? 

Craig: It’s almost frustrating in hindsight, like we had seen that. Like, that had been one of the major pieces of evidence of, you know, Alice’s ghost or whatever, and that silhouette had been there all along.

Our attention hadn’t been drawn to it. Yeah. And now all of a sudden it is. And now… And again, here comes huge twists number two- … that comes so far out of left field. It’s wild. 

Todd: Yeah. She’s like, “Well, what is he doing in here?” So- She goes into her room. She’s like, “He must’ve been searching for something,” and she finds her daughter’s safe?

Craig: Some- like a lockbox or something, yeah. 

Todd: I guess, and pulls it out, and starts going through it, and she finds her diary and some videotape, and realizes what she was looking for. And when she plays it, it’s a sex tape- 

Craig: Yes … 

Todd: of Alice and her neighbor, and is it her neighbor’s husband or wife? 

Craig: Yes. 

Todd: It’s like a threesome.

It’s 

Craig: the couple next door. Yes, it’s the c- it’s like a… Yeah. It’s a kinky threesome with the couple next door whose kids she babysat. And at first I was like, “Well, gross,” but, you know, big deal, whatever, until I realized she was supposed to be 16. I was thinking she was older for some reason. Yeah. I was thinking she was like 18, 19, but no, she’s 16.

No. So that is gross and creepy. But, like, this guy came out of nowhere, and they’re like, “So we tried to find the Tuoys, but we couldn’t. The end.” Like, what? 

Todd: And we’re done with the Tuoys now. 

Craig: Yeah. 

Todd: Like, are you kidding me? Is it really that hard to find this couple? Like- Right … it’s a family. They moved six months ago.

Oh my God, so weird. So- We 

Craig: never hear about them again, really. 

Todd: So 

Craig: weird. And they ask Alice’s boyfriend, like, “Did you know about the Tuoys?” Like, “No, I didn’t know anything.” “I, I thought we were fine.” It’s- Now- So weird … 

Todd: I think that the concept is solid, though. The family has to now come to terms with the fact that they didn’t know Alice 100%.

Nobody knows anybody 100%. 

Craig: Right. 

Todd: Your closest family members, there’s an inner world that they’re living that you don’t have access to and never will. 

Craig: Right. 

Todd: And so this kind of thing could happen to any of us. You will discover something mildly shocking or extremely shocking about any person, no matter how close they are to you.

And I’ve often thought about this, you know, in death. Like, you know, you die suddenly, and you leave behind a whole house full of stuff. You know, who knows what embarrassing things y- when people are going through your stuff. I… That actually guides my life. This principle keeps me on the straight and narrow.

I’m like, “I don’t want anybody to be going through my hard drives or, or be going through my drawers or anything like that.” And when, you know, because I died in a car accident tomorrow, and be like- … “Oh my God, this changes our perception of Todd entirely.” You know what I mean? So I get this. I mean, I understand how this could happen.

Now, it’s a clever twist and it, realistic at its concept, but you’re right, it’s a little weird and a little far-fetched that this family can’t be found. That would be a huge… I mean, a normal investigation would be like, “And now we put out an APB,” and there was around the clock search across the country to every p- you know, police station to find these people because they created child pornography.

Craig: Yeah. 

Todd: And they were having sex with a minor. I mean, this is a big deal. It’s a big deal. Way bigger. Yeah. 

Clip: I don’t know. It’s Australia. 

Todd: And the parents will 

Clip: be furious. Wouldn’t those parents be up in arms? 

Craig: Right. They are. Oh my God. Yes, well, especially because, like, Matt says he’s so mad because he feels like the dad that she was sleeping with or whatever was responsible for her death because he thinks that she killed herself- 

Todd: Because of her guilt or-

Craig: because of the guilt or whatever, which- Mm-hmm … hadn’t even occurred to me that this might be a suicide, but apparently he thinks that now. 

Todd: That’s understandable. 

Craig: And then out of no- again, we never really hear about them again, but randomly, God, this is so weird, I guess the mom is just constantly going through her stuff.

Randomly the mom is going through Alice’s calendar and finds Ray the radio psychic’s business card in there, and it turns out that the two of them had met before, and he just didn’t tell them because he wanted to protect her privacy. She’s dead. I don’t, like this doesn’t make any- Oh … sense to me. 

Todd: That’s so much bullshit.

I, I did not believe this for a second that- 

Craig: No, it was stupid. It made me wonder how they filmed this and, like, how it was written. Like, d- did Ray know when he was filming those earlier, earlier scenes that he actually knew this girl? 

Todd: Hmm. 

Craig: I don’t know, but- … apparently he did, and he’s like, “Yeah, yeah, she met with me, and we talked about a whole bunch of shit.

I just, I was trying to… I didn’t say anything ’cause I was trying to protect her privacy.” 

Todd: Come on. What kind of a dick are you? But also, I mean, it could be explained away that this guy really is a bit of a dick, and it also casts some question onto him and his character. Does he have something to do with this now?

Is he hiding something as well? As improbable as it is, I mean, I watch Tiger King. That, that gets weird and wacky and goes off in all kinds of crazy directions. You’re like, “How could you- That’s 

Craig: true … 

Todd: make these decisions?” It’s not 100% out of the ordinary for a very out of the ordinary kind of experience, I guess.

Craig: Fair enough. 

Todd: Life gets weird and complicated. But still, ironically, if this were presented to me as fiction, I would be like, “This is bullshit. This is bullshit. I don’t buy it. It’s fake.” 

Craig: Well, right. And the only thing that comes of that really is that she’s having these weird dreams, and I don’t even remember what they are at this point.

Todd: But they would be relevant enough for him to bring up in some capacity- Yeah … when he’s helping the family. Totally. Come on. 

Craig: I mean, just the fact that she was acting weird, right. And then seemingly out of nowhere, Jason, Alice’s boyfriend, just decides to tell the mom about some cellphone footage that one of Alice’s friends had or something from a trip that Alice and her friends took- to Lake Mungo, which I guess, I don’t know a lot about it.

It’s a, a dry lake in Australia, and I think it’s got some history, but I don’t know much about it. They found, like, ancient dead people there or something. 

Todd: Yeah. Something like that. They did. 

Craig: Like, the oldest human remains or something. 

Todd: Yeah. It’s pretty significant. Like, a 40,000-year-old woman, and then later another man.

Uh, so yeah, I mean, it’s pretty significant, but- 

Craig: Yeah … 

Todd: it doesn’t have anything to do with this story. 

Craig: N- no, but it’s, you know… They, they, they go there, and it’s, it’s just fairly typical footage of young girls just goofing around in the desert or whatever. But they notice that though everybody else looks super happy, Alice, you know, looks forlorn.

A- and there’s footage of her- Thank God. It was caught on footage, some of her burying something- … under a tree. 

Todd: They’re lucky. 

Craig: So they go to the desert and find that tree. 

Todd: There’s only one. It’s so easy. 

Craig: Oh my God. 

Todd: Oh, yeah. They’re lucky. 

Craig: And they dig it up, yep, and there’s a bag, a plastic bag with Alice’s ring and necklace and watch and her phone.

Todd: Are you about to say what I was g- I think you’re gonna say? I don’t know. I love how they pull out her phone. It’s a little Nokia, right? 

Craig: Yeah, yeah. 

Todd: Now, it’s a Nokia. I don’t think it had a screen on it. I don’t think a phone- No … like that could record video ever. 

Craig: I don’t either. 

Todd: But anyway, they dig it up and the dad plugs it in.

It was like, “It was low on battery.” I’m like- Yeah … “This battery should be dead.” Yeah. “What are you talking about?” Oh 

Craig: my gosh. I know. I remember that. 

Todd: It’s, like, a magical phone that you buried, that she buried months ago. It’s still- 

Craig: Yeah. 

Todd: Then again, that, those were the days. Phones lasted longer ’cause… 

Craig: God. And there is video footage on her phone.

Todd: Oh. 

Craig: And it shows her, like, shooting footage around the desert in the dark, and she’s scared, I guess. And she encounters what appears to be a, a person that when the camera zooms in, appears to be her dead- Mm-hmm … face that… And, and the dad recognizes it ’cause he was the one that- Identified her, and we recognize it from the photos 

Todd: Now, can I just say that if you had this encounter and you were freaked out, and maybe you’re even mentally unstable, who knows, do you think your first instinct would be to bury your possessions?

Craig: No. What is the… I don’t get that at all. 

Todd: Somebody says some throwaway line like, “Oh, well, she was preparing for death,” or whatever. No, like, she came home. 

Craig: Yeah. 

Todd: She came home from the trip- 

Craig: And acted 

Todd: normal … and just said that she lost her stuff and acted normal for a while. So that doesn’t ma- I, I think that’s so contrived.

Craig: Yeah, and they think, they, they, they, they believe, the whole family believes that she saw her own ghost and knew the future was coming to get her. 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: But I guess that that’s all Alice’s spirit wanted because then everything calms down. They don’t hear things in the house anymore. They start getting along better as a family.

Like- 

Todd: I guess … everything’s- They start communicating a little better. Yeah. I hope Matthew stopped screwing around with 

Craig: photos and- Stopping all the weird … 

Todd: videos. Jesus. 

Craig: Yeah. And, and because of that, the mom says that she thinks that Alice just wanted them to know who she really was. I guess she really wanted her parents to see her getting banged in that video.

Todd: Right. “I just want you to know- 

Craig: Oh, God … 

Todd: I was banging the neighbor.” Oh, my God. Oh, my 

Craig: God. I mean, and the, I, I guess really contextually w- we shouldn’t laugh. It’s abuse. It’s child abuse. It’s just… It- a- and I think that they said even that part of the reason that the police didn’t pursue the Tuohy’s More is because that they would’ve argued that it was consensual.

Again, I don’t know what- 

Todd: He’s 16, though. 

Craig: Yeah, I know, but this is Australia. I don’t know what the age of consent is in Australia. 

Todd: Oh, you’re right. You’re right. It could very well be. I don’t know. I’m gonna look that up. 

Craig: But anyway, gross, whatever. So they start to feel better. Ray comes and visits them. I guess they’re friends with him again and, and they decide to move to put it behind them, and they pack up the house, and we see all the footage of them packing up the house and stuff.

And then June, the mom, has her final confer- consultation with Ray, and again, he kind of puts her under hypnosis and, and walks her through the house. But we see it played kind of side by side, clip by clip with his consultation with Alice about her dreams, and it appears that they align. 

Todd: Yeah. That’s an interesting idea.

Craig: Yeah. Like Alice- Yeah … Alice sees her mom walk… Alice is sitting on her bed in, in her dream and, and she sees her mom walk into the room, but it seems like her mom doesn’t know she’s there. And then the mom talks about walking into Alice’s room, but there’s nobody there or something. I don’t know. They align.

Todd: I as- I assume this is this concept that Alice, Alice’s ghost from the future basically haunted her So this is supposed to be like she had a vision of the future where her mother would be coming into the room and- 

Craig: Right … 

Todd: unknowingly her- she is there as a ghost in the room and, and, and the ghost… I, I actually wrote a story once about this idea.

I thought it was super original, but I’ll bet there, there’s, this has been done before about being haunted by your future ghost trying to warn you about what’s gonna happen, but it is going to happen or else the ghost wouldn’t be there, so it’s just fated to happen anyway. 

Craig: Interesting. It is an interesting idea.

Todd: It wasn’t as sophisticated as this, but I thought it was a clever concept. I’ve yet to see it. I’ve, I’m throwing it out there in case anybody wants to steal it. I mean, obviously it’s been done in this movie some way, so you know, it’s not super original. I wrote mine in, uh, 2000 and, uh, s- it would’ve been around the same time as this movie, I guess, 2006, 2007.

There, 

Craig: there must’ve been something in the air, yeah. 

Todd: I guess so. 

Craig: In 2007. But yeah, I, I, you know, I guess the mom, when she walks into the bedroom, she doesn’t see anything. She sa- you know, Alice in her tape says, “I don’t think she knows I’m here,” and the mom in hers says, “Alice isn’t here.” 

Todd: Mm-hmm. 

Craig: And, and so they leave.

So, like, it seems like the family is at peace. I mean, that Alice foresaw this in her dream is spooky and, you know, kind of … It begs the question that I think the final twist attempts to answer. 

Todd: Hmm. 

Craig: But again, it’s, it’s, it’s kind of frustrating because they, you know, they drive away, everything’s great, whatever, and then it goes back to the family photo, the very first family photo that we saw of the parents and Matthew standing in front of the house.

You know, th- this was the first thing we saw when we were introduced to the family. But now the camera zooms into the dark window in the background. Alice’s ghostly specter appears in the window. So I guess Alice was there all along. 

Todd: Yeah. Well, then it does a, a clever thing where then the credits start rolling, and after every two or three credits it shows another thing that we saw and shows us that Alice was there.

Oh, that’s right. So, like, it shows that photo of the backyard w- that he had faked with him on the left side, but then it zooms in on the right side and you see there’s actually Alice there against the right side of the photo And I think it does the same thing with the dam one and, and something else. So it’s leaving us with this impression that it’s layers upon layers of deception.

Yeah. Even in these deceptive things and these things that we’ve been looking at this whole time, she was also still there. 

Craig: She was there. 

Todd: I think it’s, it’s so understated that it works so well, and I really like this ending. And I think it’s because of this that people were talking online about how unsettling the movie was.

This would be the kind of thing that… I mean, look, I don’t believe in ghosts, so I’m very skeptical about all this kind of stuff. If some- if something like this was presented to me as real, I’d be like, “They’re faking it.” 

Craig: Right. 

Todd: But, you know, otherwise, it’s real enough seeming that if you believed that this were possible and you wanted to believe it, this leaves you with a, a, a sense of creepiness that, I don’t know, it stuck with me a little bit longer than I thought it would, the movie.

It got me thinking. And I think some of it had to do with, again, like, the family’s grief felt so real, and the twists and turns of their brains trying to cope with this, and the weirdness of some of the relatives and the different ways that they coped with it, like the kid faking photos. 

Craig: Mm-hmm. 

Todd: The weirdness of the n- of the Ray kind of, like, not bringing it up because he had some weird…

You know, everything about it is just so strange that it actually felt kind of authentic. Mm-hmm. ‘Cause real life just isn’t usually so tight and clean as a Hollywood movie. 

Craig: That’s true. 

Todd: And, and people are messy and people are odd, and we even do things and we’ll go back and go like, “Why did I even do that?”

You know? 

Craig: Sure. 

Todd: So there was enough of that in the movie Just at the right level that I just absorbed all that as a s- general sense of creepiness and, and I really liked it. I mean, I didn’t find it scary, but I did find it unsettling. And, and for that I, I, I thought it was worth the watch. 

Craig: Yeah, IMDb says that Jordan Peele has said that this is a movie– one of the movies that scared him the most.

I, I, I didn’t find it really that… I didn’t find it scary at all. No. It, it was f- you know, I don’t feel guilty anymore about forgetting to give spoiler warnings. People know what we do . 

Clip: Yeah. 

Craig: Right, right. Um, but, but really if you’ve listened to the… I, I, I feel like the twists are kind of what keeps it from being- Interesting

mediocre. I, yeah- Yeah … I mean, that’s, that’s what makes it interesting. And like if you already know that going in, I mean, uh, like I said, I’d seen it before, so going in this time I knew the twists. I remembered that, that the brother was faking it. I remembered that she was in some weird sex thing with the neighbors.

I remembered all of that. So, eh, it, it w- it, it- Yeah … it loses its shine after the first watch. But, you know, I, I think it’s good. I, I get why people were talking about it, too. I think it’s well done and well made. It’s for this type of movie, and if you like this type of movie, I think that this is a good one.

I think that you would like it. I don’t… Aside from the fact that ultimately I just found it difficult to believe, I don’t really have any cri- criticisms of it. But like you said, I mean, I… Even the ones that I mentioned earlier, uh, in, in the podcast, these, these stories that did happen in real life, like, I find them unbelievable, too.

Yeah. So if, if those things can happen, some of them, the ones that I’ve seen recently, are fucking way wilder than this . It’s true. So- It’s true … so I guess if those kinds of crazy things can happen in real life, I’m like, you know, I’m skeptical about the supernatural, but I don’t know. You know? Who knows?

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: So I’m skeptical, but it’s, you know, it’s, it’s spooky, it’s creepy Whatever. Yeah, I, I, I give it two thumbs up. I would, I would definitely recommend it, though if you haven’t seen it and you’ve listened to this at this point, apologies for spoiling 

Todd: the fun. Don’t bother. By the way, I did just look it up, and the age of consent in Australia is between 16 and 17, so it’s not quite as scandalous as we- Yeah

as it would’ve been in the US. 

Craig: Yeah. 

Todd: Still pretty young, though. I don’t know. 

Craig: Yeah. 

Todd: Still. Well, there you have it, Lake Mungo. Are we toward the end of the barrel as far as these kinds of found footage or mockumentary-type horror movies? There can’t be too many more out there that we haven’t already seen, could there?

Craig: I don’t know. I told you that, that one I just watched from 2024 was pretty good and, you know, good enough that I think we should talk about it at some point. 

Todd: We should. 

Craig: They’ll- people- they’ll- I, I… No, I don’t, I don’t think we’re at the end of them. In fact, I think that they will grow in popularity because I think true crime, especially bizarre true crime stuff and these types of documentaries, are really popular right now.

Like- Well, 

Todd: that’s true … 

Craig: the ones that I’ve mentioned are in the top 10 on Netflix all the time. There, there’s a huge audience for these. I’ve been eating them up. Another– I think I already mentioned it, but another one, Maternal Instincts, uh, I recently watched. Like, th- they abound. That’s true. And because that audience, because that audience already exists, I can’t imagine that filmmakers wouldn’t capitalize on it, and I think they would be smart to.

So no, I don’t think that it’s I, I, I do not think that the well has run dry on these at all. 

Todd: But it does run into that problem, right? That, like, what could you come up with that’s crazier and weirder and more shocking than all of these real dr- documentaries end up being. You know what I mean? 

Craig: Yeah. 

Todd: We- for a lo- for a while, Liz and I were really addicted to those, like, religious sex cult documentaries and, you know, you just couldn’t believe- 

Craig: Yeah

Todd: the stuff that people would do and to each other and were willing to go along with. I mean, it just blows your mind. You know, like I said, you see it in a fictional movie and you’re not gonna, you’re not gonna buy it, you know? You’re like, “Someone needs to write this better.” It’s only when you see it in real life that you’re just like, “I cannot believe it.

This is un…” It, it’s so shocking. Uh. It’s ironic, but kinda funny that way. So in, in the other sense, y- it’s a pretty high bar to cross- 

Craig: Right … 

Todd: to come up with something like this, that’s not just gonna end up being, like, a ghost story or an alien story or something that, where we’re really asked to suspend our disbelief, you know?

Craig: Ooh, well, there you go. I mean, that’s, then that’s, that’s where this movie- That’s where it’ll be … v- you know, well, do you go the, the route of this movie and go with something if you have any inkling of belief in the supernatural that is potentially plausible, or do you really go way over the top? I mean, I suppose anything is plausible.

You mentioned aliens. Like- 

Todd: Yeah … 

Craig: sure, I guess aliens could come, and if they did, I’m sure somebody would catch them on their cellphone camera. But, you know, for me- … there, there’s, there’s a line. I think the ghost line, I can almost… I, you know this. I told you I saw Blair Witch before it had come out, that it was not real, and I totally thought it was real.

So- Right. I could, I can be convinced. But you’re right, I do think, uh, people who are, i- i- if people are gonna continue to make these mockumentaries, the bar is pretty high in terms of h- how far you can, uh, press our willing suspension of disbelief. Anyway. 

Clip: Yeah, I suppose so. 

Todd: Well, check out Lake Mungo if you haven’t already, and let us know what you thought about it.

Just find us online and drop us a note. Let us know some of these other horror d- mockumentaries that we might be missing that would be kind of fun for us to do, whether involving aliens or ghosts or murders or whatever. We’re always on the lookout for new and interesting stuff. Find us at chainsawhorror.com.

Google us at Two Guys and a Chainsaw Podcast. Find our Patreon, patreon.com/chainsawpodcast. Until next time, I’m Todd. 

Craig: And I’m Craig. 

Todd: With Two Guys and a Chainsaw.