Since the beginning of cinematography, horror movies follow the same universal steps. Of course, there are some exceptions and usually the exceptions are the ones that stand out, but mainly, an immense percentage of horror movies are following one quite successful recipe. First of all, a group of teenagers are trapped in the middle of nowhere (always in the middle of nowhere!), without having any means of contacting someone to come and help them. Always there is a house down the road where the group can get help, without knowing that they are walking directly to their deaths. The owner of the house is a creepy guy that speaks in a particular way, looks odd and has a dirty little secret. In this case, when we say skeletons in his closet, we are not saying it as a euphemism. Then, a woman that is in fact a daemon or some unknown monster comes creeping around the house and the group and starts whacking one person at a time in different places and in many different ways. Classic! The ending is sometimes different and there are two main possibilities: the first possibility – one or maximum two of the members manage to escape and are terrified and these are the means of a sequel, or, everybody dies and the evil force is seen waiting for its next victim.
Ozlem Altingoz’s short is quite an experience. From a technical point of view we can easily say that is really adequate, creating a mood that can give the viewer real and untainted goosebumps. Whilst making a horror movie it is very easy to fail at some point and make the whole project be in vain. Usually this happens when the director insists on using as many special effects as it can get. In this short everything is natural and this is part of the charm; the special effects used in 'Daughter of the lake', are extremely subtle. And we all know what they say: when the movie is believable and all in all undisguised, it becomes way more shocking than one can expect because this may happen to you.
'Daughter of the Lake' is following this path in a cool way, being everything a horror movie should be: scary, intriguing, quite predictable and all in all great nightmare material.
Written by Vlad A. G