THE LAKE
US, 1998, 90 minutes, Colour.
Yasmin Bleeth, Haley Joel Osment, Robert Proski, Marian Ross.
Directed by David S. Jackson.
The Lake is very much Dean R. Koontz territory. A young nurse returns to look after her estranged father in a remote town. She remeets a past boyfriend, the local doctor. However, she knocks down a man in an accident on the highway - the police do nothing and the next morning he is quite well. Then her father, an alcoholic, recovers and her neighbours turn strange.
It emerges that there is a parallel world to this one, the equivalent characters from the other world are entering into this one and sending the humans into the other world, destroying them in a vortex in the lake. The nurse and the doctor try to prevent any more destruction and with the help of the young boy (Haley Joel Osment from The Sixth Sense) they eventually have to come to the replicas of themselves and escape to freedom.
The film is a popular telemovie - but quite entertainingly done.
1.Popular thriller - the touch of science fiction and horror?
2.The Californian settings, the small town, the homes and hospitals, the shops, the lake itself and the special effects for the vortex? Atmospheric score?
3.The title and the focus on the lake, the vortex in the lake as the doorway between the parallel worlds? The characters being destroyed in the lake? The replicants coming out of the lake?
4.The plausibility of the plot? Audiences suspending disbelief? The realism of the vortex from one world to another being in a remote American lake?
5.Jackie and her work at the hospital, the initial operation, news about her father, the drive home, the alienation from him? The accident, the victim, the police not doing anything? Her concern, discussions with the doctor? Meeting her father, his offhanded manner? Her pursuing the case, meeting her friend the mayor? The interviews? Her friendship with Herb and his wife? Meeting Dylan and his mother?
6.The strange recovery of her father? Herb's wife worried about him after the fishing night? Her change of personality? Dylan and the replicant young boy? Everybody trying to get her to leave the town? Her examining the medical records? Her discovering more about the replicants?
7.The audience knowing more than Jackie - Herb on the lake, the police and putting him into the lake and getting his replicant? The mayor and her control, the police? A town full of replicants?
8.The chases, Jackie and her being pursued by the police, by her replicant self? Being tricked by the replicant Jeff and Dylan? The speech-making in the town and the townspeople in pursuit?
9.The final confrontation on the lake, the boats, Jackie being freed, in the water? Her replicant father and his loving her, wanting to save her, giving his life for her?
10.Popular ingredients for a thriller - human nature in response to alien experiences and horror?
