An Interview with the Writer/Director... (Haters should read too)

http://reviews.media-culture.org.au/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2788

Very interesting read.

The things that deserve pointing out.

John: Personally, I saw it as a film about grief, as opposed to the tag it's been given, which is 'supernatural thriller'.

Joel: Yeah, I'd agree. I don't think it's a supernatural thriller. I think it's meant to be an exploration of grief. That's why we shot it like a documentary, so we could look at different characters and how they responded to a situation.

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John: Well it had the effect on me; it frightened the heck out of me. Unlike a Hollywood film, where's there's a 'big scare moment' ever three seconds, your film builds.

Joel: Yes, it does have a long build.

John: Which makes it scarier.

Joel: Well, that's good. I wouldn't be surprised if it frustrates some people. I don't know. But I do like the idea of just disquiet. I don't find the 'jumping out of the closet' moments scary.

John: Not after the seventh or eighth time.

Joel: We didn't set out to make a really scary film. I think we wanted to make a film that would be somehow a curiosity. I love it when I see a film, and Paul Thomas Anderson is a good example, he's a mainstream filmmaker but I think his films are very unpredictable. I don't think they all work necessarily, but from moment-to-moment you're really not sure where it might go. So you might come out and say 'I didn't like the film much or it didn't work for me', but you don't say 'it was phoned in'. You know there was someone very alive behind it. So, I'm thinking if Lake Mungo is unpredictable, people aren't sure where it's going or why, that's what we set out to do at the most basic level. I think we were thinking it'd be nice if we could make a film that was kind of a curiosity, but if you saw it years from now you wouldn't know anything about where it came from. You'd be wondering—is it real, is it not real?