Synopsis
A group of friends travel to a cabin in the Norwegian forest. It's a rumour that at night a crazy man can be heard screaming at a lake nearby the cabin.
Lake of the Dead
1958 ‘De dødes tjern’ Directed by Kåre Bergstrøm
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Alternative Titles
Holt lelkek tava, Jezioro umarlych
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Lake of the Dead, a Norwegian horror film from the late fifties, depicts a group of friends who go to stay in a cabin near a lake - where local legend has it that a one legged ghost haunts the vicinity. The film is deliberately paced and dialogue heavy. The characters are all intellectuals and their conversations focus most interestingly on debate between the merits of spiritualism and rationalism. How challenging belief can shatter a world view, and how your reaction to horror will differ according to how you view the world. This forms the substance of the film, and it has an atmosphere to match. The wood cabin always feels isolated, while the titular lake is well featured. The…
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An atmospheric tale with not enough connection to really make it sizzle, Lake of the Dead follows a group of friends into a Norwegian wood where spirits and haunting intrigue fill every breathe. The film takes on an interesting angle (and perhaps purposeful homage) by framing the main story from the third person, at times going another layer deeper and having another story told within the story a la Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. To what means is this accomplished? That I'm not quite sure, but it has some effect in how the eeriness begins to loom, and one particular sequence, where a faded spirit "chases" the living is probably the highlight of the entire film. Sit back with a cold brew, a black cup o' joe, and a beer pretzel. The Norwegians are coming!
Viewed on Tubi.
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Hooptober 7.0, pt.18- A Quiet Lakeside Retreat
6/6 Countries- USA, Italy, Japan, Canada, UK, Norway (COMPLETE)
6/6 Decades- 1980s, 1970s, 2010s, 2000s, 1990s, 1950s1st Kåre Bergstrøm
Short review due to having to be a functioning member of society:
A curious little film that skirts the border between horror and thriller while delivering atmosphere in spades. Framed as a flashback, it tells of a group of people who travel to a lakeside cabin where one of their number has recently gone missing. Everything seems to suggest that he has been possessed by the spirit of a madman whose incestuous designs on his sister caused him to go insane. At the cabin, the missing man's sister begins to believe she's being…
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This is a creepy dark whodunit little film. a black and white Scooby doo if you will. It hits all it's beats of a horror with some mythology and plenty of Agatha Christie accusations and characters. I feel where this movie shines is really in it's location and unadorned production value which creates so much more dread in it's dry atmosphere. It really drags you into it's simple narrative that leaves you shivering as the stars shimmer upon the lake and you question it's hold on them as the story envelopes you. I'm glad I caught up with this and I hope you check it it out as well.
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Just as poor Lillian was drawn to the lake, I was drawn to this movie when I read the premise. Norwegian cabins, ghost stories, haunted woods... sounds like a perfect weekend, in my book.
The movie itself was... hmm, well sweet isn't the right word. Nor cute or lovely. But, to me, it kind of was. At times, it felt more like a stage play, with plenty of dialogue to fill the sub-80 minute run time. A few little curious moments when it came to plot point connections, but hey, it was 1958.
The cabin scenes fulfilled my wish to see such vintage-looking Scandinavian interior design and I did like this group of friends. For example, near the end, when…
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Solving mysteries with the cast of The Man from Earth but they're kind of boring and—worst of all—Norwegian.
6/10
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Great mood to this Norwegian horror, but the film never takes off. It's just characters talking and hypothesizing about the horror.
I thought the 76 minutes would make for a short, impactful runtime, but not when it all feels like one long first act.
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Norwegian mystery / psychological thriller / supernatural (folk) horror. Strange, verbose and compelling. A group of intellectual friends travel to a remote lakeside cabin to visit one of their members ('Bjorn'). They arrive to discover Bjorn is missing. The cabin itself bears the notoriety of the local legend of an incestuous madman - has Bjorn been murdered, or is there something spooky at play...? A neat, atmospheric and sinister 'whodunnit'. Boasting gorgeous monochrome photography, instances of stop-motion animation, interesting characters, and a good score. A genuinely creepy and haunting piece. Light on scares, but heavy in exposition - perhaps some things are a little over-explained? The beautiful and evocative build up ends on a less than satisfying climax.
All The Haunts Be Ours (Disc 5).
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Kåre Bergstrøm spins a captivating "cabin in the woods" yarn that combines the Scooby-Doo antics of a William Castle mystery with a haunting ethereal atmosphere ala The Innocents or Night of the Hunter. These vintage horror movies really getcha if you aren't on your guard. I went into Lake of the Dead with a certain set of expectations about the type of content I should expect from a 1950's horror movie that were not only met and subverted but also dabbled in murky territory you'd never find in Hayes-Code era Hollywood. This might even contain one of the most effective (and accurate) uses of lightning period, with a top-notch jump scare to boot!
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💧Daily Horror Hunt #22 – April Horror 2020💧
8. How isolated are you? Watch a film with a cabin in it and cosy in.These six friends couldn't of picked a worse time to go visit their friend's cabin in the woods! The cabin is sitting on an idyllic lake that's being haunted by a man who axed up his sister and her lover, and then drowned himself (don't ask why, you don't wanna know 😯). Now it's exactly 100 years after his death (how convenient!), and he's possessing them to come join him in the bottomless depths of the void. It's quite the setup for what was Norway's first horror movie, and definitely sets the spooky vibes from the…
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A decent cabin-in-the-woods horror from Norway which combines murder mystery with supernatural elements incredibly well. It's slow and talky like a lot of mid-century horror but never boring. The local legend, the mystery, and the psychoanalysis keep me intrigued with an interesting set of characters that's fun to watch and I really like how every supernatural occurrence is given a rational explanation. The atmosphere in this film is undeniably spooky, add to that ominous score and some stillness that gives you subtle anxiety.
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“I must know what happens when darkness falls upon me. I have to go. I have to jump in. I'm coming.”
Real Northwoods, Land of 10,000 Lakes in the summer vibes. We take our Cabin Season seriously up here, and we also have a lot of Scandinavians, so this spoke to my Minnesota soul. Starts strong with a train ride and ruck sacks and a cozy fire in a wooded cabin on the lake. But then it kind of slowly meanders like the ripples on said lake.
There's a ghost story about incest, jealously, an axe and the undertow of the bottomless lake. None of that is actually seen, though, and most of the exciting stuff takes place off screen,…