Nobody puts baillee in the corner

When I was a teenager, I was obsessed with After Dark’s 8 Films to Die For. I made all of my friends watch them as soon as Blockbuster released them. They were the movies of choice for many a birthday movie night. I couldn’t wait to get my little, adolescent hands on their covers.

I didn’t care if they were good or bad – I just wanted to watch them. I wanted to absorb all of the horror I could. Lake Mungo was no exception. However, I wouldn’t realize how good Lake Mungo was until many years later. Being a teenaged fan of horror is very different than being an adult fan of horror, at least for me.

I was much pickier as a teen (although I did recognize the brilliance of Jennifer’s Body at the ripe, old age of 17), so there are some movies I harshly judged. I remember kind of liking Lake Mungo but being more of a Hamiltons girls. After watching Lake Mungo again a few years ago and today for the 31 Day Horror Challenge, I’ll gladly recant the opinion of my youth.

This movie is absolutely brilliant. It’s a ghost story, but it’s also so deeply sad. It subverts found footage/documentary in a way we haven’t really seen before. The Blair Witch Project will forever be one of my favorite horror movies of all time, but it doesn’t have the melancholia of Lake Mungo.

Although it’s been over seven years since the last round of movies was released, the 8 Films to Die For will always have a special place in my heart. I’ll always snatch them up when I find them at thrift stores. I’ll always pop them on when I’m feeling exceptionally sentimental. Most importantly, I’ll always write about them whenever I can.