Neverlake
- 2013
- 1h 26m
On a trip home to Italy to visit her father, Jenny is thrown into a world of mystery, horror and legend as she is compelled to discover the truth behind all his secrets and lies.On a trip home to Italy to visit her father, Jenny is thrown into a world of mystery, horror and legend as she is compelled to discover the truth behind all his secrets and lies.On a trip home to Italy to visit her father, Jenny is thrown into a world of mystery, horror and legend as she is compelled to discover the truth behind all his secrets and lies.
Photos
- Jenny
- (as Daisy Ann Keeping)
- Olga
- (as Joy Allison Tanner)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaDirector Riccardo Paoletti lost seven kilos during the shooting due too the difficulties of making ends meet with a really low budget.
- Quotes
[first lines]
Jenny Brooks: [narrating] The garden once fair, became cold and foul, like the corpse of her had been its soul. Which at first was lovely, as if in sleep, and slowly changed 'til it grew a heap, to make men tremble and never sleep. Shelley, my favorite poet. He was English, but he wrote these lines right here in Tuscany. My father thinks that poetry is for people who haven't yet reached, or just lost the gift of reason.
The story itself - overall - wasn't that bad and, in fact, I enjoyed the ending. It was darker than I'd thought it would be, and definitely not entirely predictable. Ironically, that's also part of the problem. There wasn't really enough story development in the first 70 minutes of the film to lead you to predict much of anything, and by that time you're almost a little apathetic. Very little seems to be holding together what is presented during this stretch, and much of it isn't really that necessary.
A lot of the bad reviews I've read include phrases like "I couldn't make it half-way through" and "I turned it off with 20 minutes left." Because the story is so back-loaded into the conclusion of the movie, their reviews (to me) are rendered almost completely irrelevant. But because of the glacial pace I definitely understand where they're coming from.
Before I get the usual condescending "Most people (who aren't as smart as I am) who expect explosions and non-stop action/killing/slashing just won't 'get' this type of artistic storytelling (and are not worthy to cast eyes on the film like I am)," I beg to differ. I don't need nonstop action, especially in a horror/psychological thriller movie. But in lieu of action there needs to be story/character development to keep you engaged. And in this film that all came at the end, with only fairly disjointed bits and pieces for the first 70 minutes.
I give this a better-than-average rating because it IS better than most of the low-budget garbage out there. It is, indeed, watchable. But your life will not change. You'll think, "Hmmm. Didn't quite see THAT ending coming," then get back to your housework.
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Озеро идолов
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 26 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix