Ensofter Overrated and overhyped

Infamousta brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Coventry "Neverlake" isn't necessarily a great horror movie, but one thing's undeniable: the plot contains more than enough potentially strong ideas to fill at least three movies! I almost overlooked this film because it looks so mundane and derivative, but then I discovered that it's Italian (my favorite country for horror movies) and that it stars David Brandon (semi-successful lead actor of "Stagefright", "Delirium: Photos of Gioia" and "Caligola: The Untold Story"). The film is reasonably well-made, but the script is too ambitious and director Riccardo Paoletti makes the rookie mistake that he desperately attempts to uphold the various mysteries for far too long. It's complex, with a lot of references towards Tuscan culture and particularly the Etruscan civilization, but also supernatural themes and mad surgeon twists. Gorgeous young teenager Jenny Brooks visits her father in his birth region of Tuscany, Italy, for the very first time since her mother died. Her father used to be an acclaimed doctor but now he's into archaeology and researching the nearby Etruscan Lake of Idols. Jenny was hoping to visit the beautiful region, but her father is always locked up in his study room or away on business, so she sets out exploring herself and meets a group of disabled children in a ramshackle hospital. Riccardo Paoletti builds up a lot of tension and mystery, but why, in fact? From the very first moment that Jenny's father walks into the screen, it's abundantly clear that he's malicious and unreliable. The atmosphere in "Neverlake" is admirably ominous and spooky and the filming locations and set pieces are often astounding, but the film could have used a better pacing and more frequent bloodshed. The finale, however, is terrific and reminiscent of the good old- fashioned Gothic Italian horrors of the fifties and sixties. The acting performances are quite good as well. Daisy Keeping looks like a slightly young version of Danielle Harris, which is always an example if you want to make it in the horror industry, and is even credible as the clever young girl who's a fan of Gothic poetry (Percy Shelley, Edgar Allen Poe, etc…)

fouregycats I'm a little different from many horror fans in that I appreciate a good story line within the genre without necessarily needing to be scared by it. Such is the case with Neverlake.Jenny comes to her father's Tuscany home from New York as a teenager, not having seen him since she went away to school. The house is near a lake with a rich history of Etruscan legends, which Jenny's father is researching.Soon she becomes bored because Dad tends to be elusive, his housekeeper is rather brittle and Jenny doesn't like her. One day she takes a walk and meets a blind girl who takes her to visit the orphanage where she lives. She tells Jenny, "It's fine, just don't let the grownups see you. They're bad." Jenny continues to visit, and one night she learns the full history of the lake and its power.Meanwhile, the relationship between Jenny and her father becomes stranger and stranger. One night, she faints, only to wake up in a hospital bed with her father explaining that she'd been sick with an infection and had needed surgery. A heavily drugged Jenny goes back to sleep to wake up back in her own bed.The story slows down a bit, and some viewers may become bored, but I found the film so atmospheric that it kept me engaged. Piece by piece, Jenny begins to learn of the powers of the lake and her father's involvement in the strange orphanage. The children send Jenny on a mission that brings the story to its very satisfying conclusion. I will say that it was the first time I felt like crying at the end of a horror film. And that wouldn't have happened without an interesting story, good actors and a rich atmosphere in which to tell this unusual tale. You won't find monsters or ghosts in this film, but you won't need them because the horror comes not from the dead, but the living. I recommend this film highly for those cold, dark nights when you want to settle in with a good story with both atmosphere and foreboding.

daggersineyes As usual I'm completely gob-smacked by the negative reviews. I read some of them and it's clear to me that some people don't bother paying attention when they're watching movies. Someone was sneering at a ghost supposedly being able to carve figures into walls - clearly they failed to understand that it wasn't ghosts who did that it was actual children, flesh and blood real life kiddies. I mean seriously, if you didn't bother to pay even a cursory amount of attention to understand that fairly basic yet important point how can your review have any credibility? I wish people who don't watch the movies properly would stop giving reviews & pretending they know what they're talking about. Clearly, if you didn't watch it you don't know. At least state that you didn't really watch it so it's honest (eg sometimes I skip whole sections of boring movies - and if I review it I'll say so! It's only fair).Sorry, rant over - it just infuriates me that really good movies, like this one, get undermined by people who haven't even had the decency to give them a fair viewing but go ahead and write slamming negative reviews anyway.This is a fairly slow-paced, dream-like and beautiful movie with some moments of shock/horror and a very nasty underlying story. Good acting, well written, excellent cinematography/direction/editing and some endearing child actors all add up to a movie worth seeing. With all the rubbish out there it's a crime that something like this is being rated so low. My score for it is slightly higher than it deserves but I wanted to balance out all those negative nellies who've given it a score WELL below what it deserves. It's probably a solid 7 in reality.

jmbwithcats Movie: NEVERLAKE, My Rating and review (8/10) So much better than the 5 rating and absence of reviewsI love a horror movie with a happy ending. It's so rare. The only two I can name from modern history are Fingerprints, and Haunting of Connecticut Part 2. This makes a worthy #3What an overlooked little gem of a movie. A refreshing, and effective take on the Frankenstein mythology. I love the poetry, the acting, the directing, the mood, the lighting, the pacing. It's a bit of a slower burn, but not disparagingly so. I enjoyed it immensely... and would recommend it.A nice surprise.