Due to tardiness on my part, I am watching the Ryan Grulich written and directed paranormal/true crime documentary The Lady of the Lake on the day that I plan to put up the review, rather than the preceding weekend so it is very much in memory as I edit this. This documentary visually had a lot to it, including actors recreating moments, and a primary investigator who also does her own share of acting. While interesting, I did feel it was a little bit style over substance, with not that much information really filling up the hour and a half runtime.
Lake Crescent, located in Port Angeles, WA is reputed to be haunted by spirits of various people who have drowned in the area over the years. In particular, as the title suggests, this documentary is concerned with one woman - Hallie Lilingworth, a local waitress who was murdered in 1937, but whose body wasn't discovered until it mysteriously rose to the surface of the lake from where it had been dumped several years later.
The first third of the documentary is more of a true crime piece than a paranormal investigation. It charts the life of Hallie, and the circumstances that may have led to her murder by abusive husband Monty. The middle segment then looks at the lake in general, with experts talking about various sightings of both the lady of the lake and other ghosts in the area over the years (the experts here including someone with the fantastic name of Dr. Harlan McNutt). The final third then follows paranormal investigator Amanda D. Paulson as she uses a spirit box and the 'Estes Method' to try and get in contact with the lady of the lake.
I think partly what put me off this was how old it made me feel. Paulson is a constant throughout the documentary, she appears to be in her twenties and looked so young. Other experts also appeared much younger than my forty two years, to my knowledge this is the first time I have been forced to confront my own mortality due to a documentary. I also felt it was a bit over produced, there doesn't seem to be more than a few moments before the next ghostly image or recreation is being superimposed over the screen. Many of the recreations came across as a bit pretentious, with the decision to display Hallie and Monty's relationship via interpretive dance really odd. I actually thought Nick Perry as Monty was great, it was just the method of the actors dancing out their scenes that I admit left me feeling a bit awkward. This also applies to Paulson. I thought she was great as the key investigator for the documentary, I loved how unimpressed she seemed about everything, but also liked how serious she always looked, leading to some artsy shots of her looking deep in thought that reminded me of the excellent Garth Marenghi's Darkplace.
I didn't really feel that there was too much information provided to the viewer, with the middle part in particular feeling a little disjointed from the rest (though it had some interesting moments, such as a serial killer saying they had dumped a body there). The third part with the spirit box was the most moody of the lot, I liked how spooky the locations looked, such as the Lake Crescent Lodge that looked like it was straight out of the video game Silent Hill 2.
One thing you cannot complain about The Lady of the Lake is how visually interesting it is, there is always something going on to make it not just people talking to the camera. As weird a choice as the dance-based recreations were, they made for a memorable style, that while not really appealing to me, did stand out. The Lady of the Lake is out now on Digital and VOD via Uncork'd Entertainment.
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