Here's a rare example of an indie film that should've been made by a studio. It's THE LAKE HOUSE as a horror story. Mary finds an old rotary phone in the apartment she's just moved into. Soon, an elder lady starts calling her...from 1979. The lady is psychotic and her actions in 1979 start to have disastrous effects on Mary's life.
The script is there. Matthew Parkhill's direction though kills whatever chance it had of being a hit. Parkhill is incompetent. His scenes are boring. He doesn't know how to build suspense, he doesn't know how to tell a story visually, he's incapable of sustaining any sense of dread.
The cinematography by Alexander Melman is criminal. Everything's too dark. It looks as if he was in a drunken stupor while shooting. He and Parkhill ruin the story.
Stephen Moyer does a good job. He easily slips into the skin of his character and shows sides that are totally different from Bill on TRUE BLOOD.
Rachelle Lefevre is miscast as the lead. She cannot carry a film. The part calls for more range than she can deliver. She doesn't have any screen presence and her performance hurts the movie.
If you had cast Natalie Portman and had a good, visual director, the film could have done some damage at the box office. It's a shame this wasn't a foreign film which could now be remade by a studio.
Sergio Casci's script deserved a much better fate. He's a writer to keep an eye on.
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