[Lake Dead]
Plot:Three sisters and a group of their friends take a trip to the home of the recently deceased grandfather -- who died a particularly grisly death -- to learn more about the promise of an inheritance, only to encounter a family of psychos who have taken up residence in the old man's cabin.

Cast:Cyrus Alexander, James C. Burns, Ryan Coughlin, Edwin Craig, Kelsey Crane, Jim Devoti, Tara Gerard, Lydia Hyslop, Pat McNeely, Alex A. Quinn, Malea Richardson, Christian Stokes, Carmen Thompson, Trevor Torseth, Vanessa Viola, Kelsey Wedeen, Dan Woods.

My Thoughts:Redneck babies!!!

Review:For those of you who hate retreads, let me be the thousandth person to warn you to avoid "Lake Dead". This is another movie that probably by mafia payoff, managed to make the list of After Dark Horrorfest 2007. The poor souls who paid and were witness to this trash, as opposed to those who were sent a free screener copy such as myself, are probably kicking themselves right now. "Lake Dead" follows two sisters and their friends who head up to visit some property the sisters inherited from their recently deceased granddaddy.

Unfortunately, because grandfather's bloodline had southern connections, cue up the deformed psycho redneck twins with a penchant for butchering good-looking young people, their mother who's equally insane, and the local sheriff who of course is part of the "evil redneck conspiracy". The film pretty much has nothing going for it from the get go other than some good looking females and alot of urban slang tossed around by a group of O.C. looking kids. It isn't long after their arrival at the property before the killing begins, and boy are these kills unoriginal.

The stuff in this film is pedestrian at best. The killers are bloody, but really lack any creativity whatsoever, and on top of all of that, the plot is enough to make any human begins stomach turn. We later find out as the film goes along that incest is apparently part of the redneck family's evil plan, and being that they are southern types...they of course are totally okay with this course of action. The city kids however are not, and er go...houston...we have a problem. A problem which will be rectified by either the redneck family killing all of the city kids except for the two sisters who share their bloodline, or the city kids fighting back, and defeating the evil redneck family so that they can go back to Laguna Beach or wherever they came from and live out the rest of their days in peace sippiing margaritas and having pool parties.

It seems that ever since "Wrong Turn" came out in 2003, many indie horrors have been quick to try and capitalize on and corner the market on the "killer backwoods people" subgenre. A subgenre which doesn't receive much attention because most sane people already know backwoods types are psychotic inbreds. So making film after film about them really doesn't make much sense. Besides...after "Wrong Turn", what can top the genre now? Ironically enough, this is the second killer hick horror movie to be released in the last 5 months, "Timber Falls" being the second.

And that movie atleast made an effort. "Lake Dead" just fails in every way imaginable. The films plot is stagnant and repetitive, and disgusting, the characters are eitherhateable, boring, or shallow and beyond one-dimensional. More like minus one dimensional in fact, and the ending is just a cry for help. A cry which I really hope is never answered...atleast not in my lifetime. But ironically enough, "Lake Dead 2" is indeed on the way.

See...it's like I said, the mob has got to be bankrolling these people to get a sequel to this tripe greenlit. "Lake Dead" is indeed just that...dead. This film is indeed offensive to southerners, but who cares? It's offensive to any viewer with good eyesight and a brain...regardless of their regional residence, religion, race, or anything else. This film should've been released absent of the After Dark 2007 banner. Maybe that spot could've then been used for something remotely decent.

Positives:Good looking women?

Negatives:Bad story, terrible dialogue, lame characters, uncreative kills, and a serious nausea effect with the incest storyline. A recipe for disaster indeed.

Overall:Disgraceful.





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