Just Watched: Lake Fear (a.k.a. Cypress Creek) (2014)

wait...where's the lake??

One thing that sets horror films apart from many other genres is the ability to sell a movie to an audience that is full of unknowns. You don't need a big name director or stars, you just need to sell it with an interesting premise or some great art and you'll get people picking it up off of shelves and giving it a shot. Unfortunately this also leads to selling movies that are utter garbage. Lake Fear is an example of this.

Lake Fear tells, or so it says it does on the DVD case, the story of four girls who decide to visit this uninhabited cabin in the woods that they discover on you tube. When they arrive at the cabin, which is neither deep in the woods nor near a lake, it doesn't take long before things start to go wrong. Could it have something to do with that creepy doll in the cabin??

Apparently this cabin is deep in the woods

It becomes apparent really quickly that Lake Fear is not Evil Dead or Cabin in the Woods. While it has a fairly attractive cast it otherwise features rather uninterested acting and terrible sound featuring mostly irritating sounds and dialogue that is difficult to hear at times due to poor sound design or sounds playing right over the voices. Even when you can hear the voices they are muffled or echo.

What follows is what can best be described as random events with a lot of shaky cam, weird noises, some blood and poor special effects, evil looking teeth, ideas taken from Evil Dead and The Ring and no real semblance of a plot. The special effects are not quite as good as what you would see in a Facebook horror group with people showing pictures of stuff they have just done on themselves as they start having interest in horror make-up. Despite it's 82 minute run time it feels like it drags on forever.

This is a truly low budget feature shot on a budget of $8000 and it shows but even compared to recent low budget horror such as Die Die Delta Pi (2013) and Ghoulish Tales (2014) that also had poor sound it is really poor. Even fans of truly low budget films will be surely disappointed with this one as it really offers nothing worthwhile to anybody.

Uhh.. you're flying low??

Availability: Lake Fear is available on DVD with a very nice slipcover picturing an embossed and shiny cabin and lake with a skull complete with a commentary and trailer on the disc. The incredibly cheap looking menu is a hint of what's to come.

Whether you like low budget cinema or cabin in the woods type films, blood, gore, or any type of horror there is nothing here for you. With poor sound, acting , direction, and screenplay Lake Fear fails to offer value to anybody. Avoid at all costs.