The Lake

Bjr je voulais cette fille en VF si vous plaît

"The Lake" (2022) is a Thai monster film that presents a premise of a gigantic and bloodthirsty creature wreaking havoc on a town after its egg is stolen. Unfortunately, despite the anticipation I had while watching it, the film left me deeply disappointed. With a reported budget of 80 million baht, "The Lake" falls short and can only be described as a cinematic misstep. One of the film's major flaws lies in its screenwriting. The narrative lacks coherence and fails to make sense, leaving the audience puzzled throughout. As a fellow filmmaker, I couldn't help but question the choices made by the director. It's disheartening to witness such a film being released without apparent concern for quality or audience satisfaction. The most infuriating aspect is undoubtedly the ending, which leaves viewers feeling betrayed and questioning the purpose behind its lackluster resolution. Furthermore, the addition of a voiceover narration only adds to the film's shortcomings. Rather than enhancing the storytelling, it comes across as an attempt to impose unnecessary moral lessons or exposition upon the audience, resulting in a disconnected and disjointed viewing experience. While I urge you to watch "The Lake" to form your own opinion, I can't help but express my disappointment and warn against setting high expectations. This film serves as a prime example of missed opportunities and failed execution. As a filmmaker myself, I find it disheartening to witness a project with such potential fall so short of delivering an engaging and satisfying experience. "The Lake" is a film that fails to captivate or leave a positive lasting impression. With its weak screenwriting, perplexing storyline, and a disappointing ending, it's difficult to recommend this movie to others. As an audience member, I felt let down and even betrayed by the lack of consideration for the viewers. Let us hope that future films will learn from the shortcomings of "The Lake" and strive to deliver a more cohesive and fulfilling cinematic experience.

Someone mentioned to me that the 2022 Thai horror sci-fi movie "The Lake" was a good monster movie, so of course I tracked it down and opted to give it a watch. I had actually never heard about the movie prior to having it recommended, so all I knew about "The Lake" was that it was a monster movie of sorts. Writer Lee Thongkham, however, only managed to deliver a somewhat mediocre script and plot for the movie. Sure, "The Lake" was watchable, but it was not an outstanding gargantuan monster movie. The narrative was somewhat slow paced, and the contents of the storyline was rather simplistic, almost to the point of being non-existing. So you're not exactly in for anything grand here. The character gallery in "The Lake" was bland, so very, very bland. I can't honestly say that any of the characters throughout the 104 minutes that the movie ran for left a lasting impression on me. They were all essentially one and the same character; totally devoid of backstory, motivation and drive. Sure, "The Lake" was watchable and good enough entertainment for a single viewing. However, it was because of the good CGI and special effects in the movie. The CGI and special effects department that worked on "The Lake" surely managed to keep the movie afloat, despite of the somewhat lacking script. In fact, I will actually go as far as to say that the CGI effects in "The Lake" is definitely some of the best effects I have ever seen in a Thai movie. "The Lake" is the type of gargantuan monster movie that can easily sneak unnoticed under the radar, though I do believe that you should watch it, if you enjoy monster movies of this magnitude. My rating of directors Lee Thongkham and Aqing Xu's 2022 movie "The Lake" lands on a four out of ten stars, given the hollow storyline and zombie-like character gallery. The visual effects could only carry the movie so far.

So the film special effects are not that bad as we start on a good note. There are a lot of different textures to the creatures which is a little hard to keep up with. Are we looking at something big? Something human size? Sometimes it is just hard to tell what you are going to see next. A lot of the scenes, you'll notice, are straight from two Jurassic Park movies. The larger Mommy-like creature appears to be very photogenic in one of the scenes because it is 15 minutes of it just staring into the window of a much smaller truck (similar to Jurassic Park 1 where the kids are in the jeeps and have to stay still). I have a huge issue with the overall storyline. The eggs pop up randomly in the movie. You never really can tell if you are seeing multiple eggs throughout the film or just one. The characters' dialogue and background are very clumsy at best. It was hard to watch some scenes because the director kind of threw in emotional conversations at really odd times. Like times in which you probably shouldn't be discussing personal issues. There are large human-like creatures killing dozens of people in this village and you want to talk to your daughter about why she is acting out in school? The kid disappears near the beginning of the film then shows back up randomly (with a sudden understanding of what the creature is and how to act around it I might add) later on in the film. There are two scientists that are in the film maybe four times. They have access to hospital records, the commander of the police force is their best bud, and they offer to help "in any way they can". The two seem to be doing some sort of research on the lake but also seem like super spies. Overall, it wasn't the worse film. The creature looked pretty neat which is more to say than many creature feature films. The storyline, dialogue, ambiance, camerawork, and music, all need some work.

With a humongous and deliciously gooey-looking monster on a film poster, you can seduce pretty much every fan of old-fashioned horror! Purely based on the poster image, I fell for "The Lake" like President Clinton would fall for a plump intern secretary, and I did whatever it took to be present at the Belgian Festival premiere, even though I had just injured my leg. Isn't that dedication? Of course, being a horror fanatic since several decades already, I'm also very much aware that posters can be very misleading, and that even the most promising looking monster-movies can turn out to become massive disappointments. "The Lake" certainly isn't a massive disappoint, but I can relate to where the negative and harsh reviews thus far are coming from. Let's start with the good! The monster(s) look awesome! They can be best described as crossbreeds between Godzilla, the T-Rex from the original "Jurassic Park", the man-thing from "Creature from Black Lagoon" and the ugly beast from the low-budget flick "Zaat" (which probably nobody else has seen). And the monsters receive plenty of screentime, so you can admire them in all their glorious cheesiness! That's another big advantage of "The Lake", by the way, nobody in their right state of mind can claim this film is boring. The monster-action kickstarts right at the beginning and remains at a high and fast-paced level throughout the film. Purely speaking in terms of B-movie entertainment, "The Lake" undeniably delivers. Unfortunately, there's always a negative flipside as well, and the biggest deficiencies of "The Lake" are to be found in the scenario department as well as in the lack of experience/overview of the young & over-excited director Lee Thonkham. A creature-feature like this doesn't really require an in-depth or intelligent screenplay, but Thonkham nevertheless manages to ruin the basic standards. For some reason, he adds a sort of spiritual connection between the monsters and two of the lead characters, which doesn't bring any value whatsoever. Important characters keep disappearing and re-appearing, and the last 15-20 minutes of the film are a complete mess, and this easily could have been avoided. Secondly, and I blame Thonkham's young age and lack of experience for this, the editing is incredibly hectic and incoherent. At some points, "The Lake" is a non-stop spitfire of short shots (approximately 30 sec), clumsy handheld-camera footage, and completely unnatural camera angles. Perhaps a slightly too ambitious project for a beginning director, but I definitely want to see how he evolves. PS: two things I learned about Thailand by watching this movie: there is a lot of seriously heavy rainfall, and everybody drives a pick-up truck. Insightful!

The big monster looks PHENOMENAL. The smaller monster or monsters look cool too but the CGI is hit or miss. They showed the huge monster right off the bat in the first 5 minutes of the movie which I think was a huge mistake. The director did an awful job. The dialogue was terrible the editing was awful the score was crap. The movie was all over the place. There was a ton of Jurassic Park references like looking through the window with people in the car and the goat. The monster was so amazing looking especially in the rain and dark. I couldn't believe how great it looked for how bad the film was. The director has no sense of how to format a movie like this. They should never have shown the monster right off the bat. Show the point of view of the people and then show that they're missing or there are bodies but don't show the monster right away. Tease it and make the audience wait and let that build up and let the desire build and then finally when you show that big behemoth it will knock everyone socks off. The movie was all over the place it was really confusing. It's a shame because with a sweet monster like that and a good director with a quality script, and that could have been a really good movie. I would love to see Hollywood redo it with the same quality of the big monster, but with a director and writer that can tell a great story and actors that can do a much better job. I mean it was worth seeing just for the effects alone but everything else was absolutely horrendous.

Ever had minimal expectations for a movie and still come out disappointed? That's what I got for "The Lake", a giant monster movie from Thailand. I remember seeing the trailer months ago and thought it looked nice. Too bad the nice shine is from a shallow pool. The plot is simple: an egg is found along with a human-sized amphibian creature that goes on a killing spree before being captured. Big momma shows up to find both, throwing the townsfolk into chaos. The most positive thing about this film is the effects. There's a great blend of CGI and practical effects with the big creature in particular primarily displayed via a massive animatronic reminiscent of the T-rex from "Jurassic Park", all of which looks impressive. The design isn't bad either, slightly humanoid but mostly having fish-like traits. Can't say the same for the rest of the film. There's a smidge of potential with the human characters, who have strained relationships with their families, which contrasts the creature trying to save its offspring. Too bad none of the characters are worth a crap since we barely know anything about them or have time to let them breathe. The constant screaming from the crowds gets so annoying it makes Ann Darrow from "King Kong" seem soft spoken by comparison. Aside from the initial attack scene, there's hardly any action and the beasts do very little; the big monster doesn't even smash any buildings or fight the authorities. Most crippling of all is the horrendous pacing. The movie's 90 minutes long yet it feels twice that much with multiple scenes going on far too long and being uneventful. It bored me out of my mind. There's an English dub, but it's pretty sloppily executed compared to other East Asian films I've seen. Also, the story doesn't really take place on a lake, much less make it a major focus, so add misleading title to the list of sins. "The Lake" is yet another example of how good effects can never top good writing and direction. Give this a hard pass. If you want a better version of a story where a giant rampaging monster seeks to save its young, watch the 1961 British flick "Gorgo".

First of all, I'll preface this: watch this movie with subtitles! The dubbing is absolutely horrible and the dubbed lines are played *over* the sound effects, drowning them out and making the whole thing take on the notes of an early 2000's comedy. Dialogue is still a bit stunted in original Thai but at least it's tolerable. With that out of the way, this movie is sadly a wreck. A lot of the other reviews here have already mentioned the fact that the editing is wild and unfocused. It is, but they've said that enough I won't go into detail on that again. Instead what I'm going to say is that this movie is inane and pointless. It has absolutely no focus. Worse, it clearly had a half thought idea of a moral, ripped entirely from better movies, that it manages to get wrong. Long story short, it tries to play the monsters in the standard Gorgo style "leave them in peace, not so different from us" moral while wholly ignoring that the monsters were killing people left and right without provocation. There's no generic B-movie excuses even; no moral of humans encroaching too far into nature, no ancient cave opened by weapon testing, no impact of ecosystem pollution. They just show up due to the rain and start killing. You *cannot* try for the sympathy angle with river monsters (yes, river, there is no lake in The Lake) that hunt and eat people or kill just for fun. You haven't *earned* it and all you had to do was copy the SparkNotes from any other movie to get this right. The sad thing is that this one moral would be the only way to stitch together the incredibly loose threads vaguely about family and staying together. Not that literally any of those were done well either but at least then you could make a token attempt with parallels - instead you're left with a half dozen undercooked ideas, none of them pan out, none are exciting and frankly no part of this was worth watching if you're even slightly sober. And it's a bloody shame because all of the pieces were right there in front of them! Like people have said, there's a scene ripped nearly wholesale from Jurassic Park and the only difference is that the humans are oblivious and the editing is terrible so it has absolutely no tension. It's like if you cheated on a test by copying someone's answers then still failed because you wrote it wrong - just embarrassing. And I didn't even mention the dumb parts, like the inexplicable psychic link, the cops lying to protect the monsters, the complete and total lack of stage direction. But in short it's bad. Everything good was in the trailer and you can have more fun watching that on repeat. If not for the monster design and the alright Thai acting I'd go even lower on the rating but those are great so I'll leave it at three.

If you are looking for a good movie to show the quality of Thai Cinema and this is not it. It's such a mess I don't know where to begin. I can't blame the English subtitles - although they are a bit strange with English culturalisms.. like the police officer acknowledging a radio call by saying "roger that." So there is this monster that apparently lives in the lake and kills scores of people. Fairly decent EFX...but the story is well, full of holes and hard to follow. And the ending.. what the? There is a side story with two university researchers...who disappear after appearing.. and then come back in the end with the answer of what the monster is looking for. And somehow they are allowed into the hospital to view records and interview patients as well as access to the police chief... because they say they want to help? Every, and I mean every, confrontation scene with the monster is overlong.

So Sad... Why you this Director wanna publish such a movie if you are not ready. Director showing a short cut movie to customer, wasting times with many pointless scenes. Audio low class, Video low class, Visual low class. Sound Effect editor low class. Too many closed video capturing. Director presenting too many no point scenes, Wrong camera angles, trying to cover up the skills of a director. Story telling not bringing wondering aspect . This movie can be better, if director and team really want to go far beyond. Should not publish this movie 1st. Wasted of Low budget on D-rated score. My point of view only. Sorry Director.