Lake of Death
shudderOn the one hand, Nini Bull Robsahm's Lake of Death has a sense of alluring nature to it regarding its gothic Scandinavian roots and intriguing plot. On the other hand, it is the very buoyant narrative that succumbs to a dense, bitter and uneventful climax that unfortunately questions if the viewer’s time has been well spent.
There is nothing necessarily new here in Robsahm's feature. However, such a precedent is not a cause for concern as the writer-director makes Lake of Death as compelling and engaging as possible, even with severe limitations on offer. Considering said severe limitations – which sour into tropes – Robsahm's film just about stays afloat for most of the runtime, but that's with a heavy emphasis on ‘most’.
Iben Akerlie does a fairly decent job as scream queen, Lillian. Granted, Akerlie has little to nothing to do aside from provide a stoic and often silent portrayal of a mixture of grief and trauma. Both are themes the film hardly examines, aside from the increasingly opaque genre convention that comes thick and fast with a myriad of dream sequences and cut-a-ways, all of which do little to infer its point effectively..
Throughout, Robsahm struggles with narrative direction. The film itself seems to be fine and accepting of its tropes, only for the last four minutes to jump ship. Not only does it become a different film entirely, but it takes an embarrassing turn in which the new layer becomes an undeserved and unneeded element for shock. Ultimately, such a narrative decision not only becomes contextually confusing but thematically affects all emotional pull regarding specific arcs and reveals. Ultimately, including said ‘reveal’ belittles the audience and undoes the progression the film devises and crafts Lake of Death into a pitiful and hollow beast.
