LAKE MUNGO (2008) Ending Explained
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 (dramatic music)
00:02 - Hey, how's it going folks?
00:06 And welcome to FoundFlicks.
00:07 On this is Explained, we're looking at the
00:08 especially spooky Lake Mungo.
00:11 Following a family who suffers a tragedy
00:13 when their daughter drowns.
00:15 Soon after, they start experiencing inexplicable,
00:17 potentially supernatural things in their home
00:20 and begin unraveling many surprising mysteries
00:22 regarding Alice.
00:24 I honestly feel like this movie is extremely underrated,
00:27 even though it does frequently show up
00:28 on many scariest movies of all times lists,
00:31 alongside other heavy hitters like The Exorcist
00:34 and Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
00:36 So maybe the question is, does this deserve
00:38 to stand along with those other titans of the genre?
00:41 To me, absolutely.
00:43 There's a way that this film really gets under your skin
00:46 that is especially unsettling.
00:48 It also stands out as being very unique
00:50 amongst the sea of similar found footage concepts.
00:53 Now this actually isn't technically found footage,
00:56 but more like a faux documentary.
00:58 It's very committed to its naturalistic style,
01:01 and I think that's a lot of what makes it so successful.
01:04 It unfolds more like a true crime documentary
01:07 than a typical horror movie.
01:08 That is until the possibilities of the supernatural
01:11 start seeping in.
01:12 It just feels very real.
01:13 And again, I feel that really helps to sell the whole thing.
01:16 It also winds up being a surprisingly complex
01:18 overall experience, interweaving the difficulty
01:21 of a family suddenly losing a loved one,
01:23 just what happens after we die,
01:25 as well as exploring the philosophical concept
01:28 of simulacrum.
01:29 The actual story itself also does leave us
01:32 with many questions, and we'll dive into
01:34 all of that as well.
01:36 So let's take a trip to Lake Mungo,
01:38 breaking down the story and its surprising twists,
01:40 along with the greater meaning of the movie,
01:43 and explaining the ending that gives us one last surprise.
01:46 Right out of the gate, there are several
01:47 countering concepts at play.
01:49 Over old spirit photography photos,
01:52 which are known to be hoaxes nowadays,
01:53 we hear the voice of a frightened Alice,
01:55 saying she feels something bad is going to happen to her,
01:58 as Alice's boyfriend dismisses the entire concept of ghosts,
02:02 assuming it must be to help people deal with loss.
02:05 But he doesn't understand why exactly.
02:07 Her friend Kim reveals that no one knew the true Alice,
02:10 as she was full of secrets.
02:12 It was during a nice family trip to the dam,
02:15 where teenage Alice disappeared mysteriously.
02:17 The authorities are dispatched,
02:18 and the news reports on the missing girl
02:20 and panicking family.
02:22 Rescue divers are sent in to search the waters,
02:24 but nothing turns up.
02:26 From what her brother Matt can remember,
02:27 the two are out swimming,
02:28 and as the water was getting cold,
02:30 he decided to head to shore.
02:32 Alice did not join him,
02:33 and a few minutes later, his dad Russell
02:35 asked about his sister.
02:36 They looked out, noticing the water was eerily still,
02:39 and they checked in the bushland behind the water as well.
02:42 Matt noticed that her towel was left on the ground,
02:44 meaning that she most likely never got out of the water,
02:47 and that was the last time he saw her.
02:49 In home video footage recorded that day,
02:51 there appears to be nothing suspicious at all,
02:54 and the family looks happy, having a great time.
02:56 Inevitably, they are told to go home
02:58 until something turns up in the search,
03:00 and mom remembers how strange it was
03:02 driving home with an empty seat.
03:03 She was there one minute, and then just gone.
03:05 June's parents came to stay with them,
03:07 and all they could do was wait for assumedly bad news.
03:11 There seems to be some distance
03:12 between the mother and daughter,
03:14 June feeling it weird that she's here,
03:16 and it didn't feel right.
03:17 Over the night, Alice's phone went off a few times,
03:19 but she never answered,
03:21 and she remembered just how neat everything looked.
03:23 Alice's friends were both in disbelief hearing the news,
03:26 Jason even calling her phone,
03:27 thinking that it had to be a joke.
03:29 Kim was in shock as well, not thinking it could be real.
03:32 She finds it odd.
03:33 Everything was the same as always, but she had drowned.
03:36 Asking Russell what he recalls from that night,
03:38 he knows that he left the porch light on,
03:40 and leaves it on still just in case, he chuckles.
03:42 When asked why, he blubbers that she still might come home,
03:45 seeing the pain and sadness in his face.
03:48 It's the not knowing that he still struggles with,
03:51 there's still that slim chance
03:52 that this could all just go away.
03:54 Though the writing is on the wall,
03:55 when a police video on Christmas Eve
03:57 shows divers discovering her body.
03:59 Russell remembers getting a call,
04:01 feeling that it was all very official and formal,
04:03 him having to sign a form of identification
04:06 for his daughter.
04:06 June elected to stay in the car,
04:08 which he thinks might have been a mistake,
04:10 as she didn't get the same closure that he did.
04:12 But she says she couldn't bring herself
04:14 to see Alice that way,
04:15 and didn't want to remember her in that state.
04:17 Sometime later, the news covers her funeral,
04:19 everyone gathering to pay their respects.
04:21 Kim remembers Alice as a happy, fun-loving girl
04:24 with a zest for life.
04:25 Yet as heartbreaking as all this might be,
04:27 their friend Georgie laments
04:28 that things were only going to get so much worse.
04:32 10 days after the funeral,
04:33 Russell kept hearing noises around the house,
04:35 and from outside the windows,
04:37 along with the door to Alice's room moving on its own.
04:40 So he rehung the door,
04:42 and got a pest guy to check things out,
04:43 but it didn't stop the strange occurrences from continuing.
04:47 The door kept slamming, and the noises kept happening.
04:49 In June, started having nightmares,
04:51 including a recurring one featuring Alice.
04:54 She would come down the hall,
04:55 still dripping from the water,
04:56 and just stand at the foot of the bed, staring at them.
04:59 She found this quite terrifying,
05:01 and the nightmares only got worse,
05:03 to the point that she would go on long walks late at night
05:05 to avoid sleep as long as possible.
05:07 Strangely, she would also randomly walk
05:09 into people's houses, not with any ill intent,
05:11 but just because she wanted to be inside
05:14 someone else's life for a while.
05:16 As for Russell, he dealt with things by diving into work.
05:18 He did feel guilty,
05:19 but he just wanted to get on with his life.
05:21 According to his longtime coworker, Frederick,
05:23 he never actually brought up what happened once,
05:26 which he found to be a bit troubling.
05:27 But he also knows people all grieve in their own ways,
05:30 and it is not his place to tell him what to feel.
05:32 Moving on will prove harder than he thought,
05:34 as one night, Russell has a seemingly supernatural encounter
05:37 with his daughter.
05:38 Hearing noises coming from a room,
05:40 he says he found himself taking a seat there,
05:42 and before he could work out why,
05:44 she walked in and did some general stuff,
05:46 not seeming to notice him.
05:47 Then he made a noise of some kind, and she went rigid,
05:50 him knowing now that she is aware he is there.
05:53 She looked right into his eye for what felt like forever,
05:56 and then shouted to get out.
05:57 They asked Fred about what he saw,
05:59 and he believes that he did see something,
06:01 as Russ is not the kind of guy
06:03 to make something like that up.
06:04 So he believes he definitely saw something,
06:06 whether it's a real ghost or something else entirely.
06:09 Georgie had hoped to get them help from the church,
06:11 but the Palmers aren't religious,
06:12 so they couldn't really do much.
06:14 Thanks, church.
06:15 She becomes more worried about Matt in particular,
06:17 as he spent so much time with his sister.
06:19 Strangely, he discovered at one point
06:21 that he had unusual bruises all over his body.
06:24 The doc tested him for all kinds of stuff,
06:26 but was unable to come to any real conclusion.
06:28 Even stranger, several weeks later,
06:30 all the bruises vanished without a trace.
06:32 A bandmate of Matt's and his best friend Steve
06:35 did notice that he became quieter after Alice,
06:37 but nothing really set off any alarms.
06:39 He did start pursuing his photography hobby
06:41 with more passion, and even met up
06:43 with a professional in the field, Clive.
06:45 There, he learned all kinds of stuff,
06:46 from equipment to lighting and techniques,
06:49 leading to Clive even offering him a job at the studio.
06:51 We learn Matt has been doing a kind of series
06:54 of photos over time, taking pictures of his backyard
06:56 in the same spot every few months
06:58 for the past several years.
06:59 Then in one, he spotted something surprising.
07:02 Amongst the same overall shot appears to be
07:04 a ghostly Alice standing against the fence.
07:07 They zoom in closer on her face,
07:09 and for some reason, every time they do this gimmick,
07:12 it gives me the heebie-jeebies.
07:14 Woo, it's creepy.
07:15 The interviewer asks about the family's reaction
07:17 to this development, and Matt wouldn't call
07:19 the mood necessarily good,
07:20 but it at least was better than before.
07:22 They had hoped for a change.
07:24 There's more potential evidence discovered
07:26 by a man who was down by the dam,
07:28 and it appears that he too caught a glimpse
07:30 of Alice amongst a brush.
07:31 June was especially floored by this,
07:34 and there became enough reasonable doubt for her
07:36 to start thinking Alice could possibly be alive.
07:39 Russ, while admitting that he couldn't explain the pictures,
07:41 knew something his wife didn't.
07:43 He had seen Alice's body.
07:45 There is no way she could be alive,
07:47 but June became so convinced
07:48 that even he started having doubts,
07:50 thanks to the overwhelmingly compelling circumstances.
07:53 This led to the family asking for Alice's body
07:56 to be exhumed and a DNA test to be performed,
07:58 so there is no question as to the body's identity.
08:01 The test confirmed that it is indeed Alice's body,
08:04 and after this, Russ came to realize
08:05 just how much he wanted it to not be her,
08:08 that he had made some kind of mistake.
08:10 Anybody else, as long as it wasn't Alice.
08:12 Well, so we know for sure that Alice is dead,
08:15 but there's still the question of those pictures.
08:17 Matt continued hearing noises at the house
08:19 and decided to set up a camera to try to see anything.
08:21 Then on the night of June 13th, he did catch something.
08:25 A shadowy figure passes by the frame,
08:27 and again, we zoom in on the creepy dark visage.
08:30 (groaning)
08:32 These strange events are enough for June
08:34 to try to reach out for a different kind of help
08:36 from psychic consultant Ray.
08:37 He explains most of what he actually does
08:39 is dealing with the sick or dying
08:41 and allowing them to think that death is not the bitter end.
08:44 It's a consolation to give them, he says,
08:46 and besides, we don't know what happens after we die.
08:49 That's a big theme of the whole movie here, obviously.
08:51 June acknowledges that public opinion
08:53 on his authenticity is divided,
08:55 but when meeting him, she liked him right away,
08:57 sensing nothing fake or spooky about him.
09:00 Ray records their meeting and kind of hypnotizes her
09:02 to imagine herself outside of her house
09:04 and describe what she sees.
09:06 She enters the front door going towards Alice's room.
09:08 He beckons her to enter the room,
09:10 and she sees Alice sitting in a chair
09:12 at the end of her bed, looking sad, she says.
09:15 It's clear that June is the one pushing the psychic angle,
09:18 and it was suggested by Ray to try a seance.
09:20 Russell initially refused
09:22 until Matt convinced him otherwise
09:24 and also suggested to film it.
09:26 Ray does say he feels a strong presence in the house,
09:29 but they ultimately didn't make any connections
09:31 and called it quits after about an hour.
09:33 Though when reviewing the footage,
09:34 they discover another image of Alice there,
09:37 right when Ray asks the presence to make itself known.
09:40 For the skeptical Russell,
09:41 this new footage is different than before.
09:43 It's more detailed and less ambiguous,
09:45 less impossible to dismiss as digital noise and shadow play.
09:49 Even he is now convinced
09:50 there is something inexplicable in their house.
09:53 For Ray, this is unfamiliar territory,
09:55 and he teams up with Matt to set up time-lapse cameras
09:58 all around the house on 24 hours a day.
10:01 There was some speculation around town
10:03 as to what Ray's intentions were with the family,
10:05 but it was more about not knowing anything
10:08 that led to more gossip.
10:09 He defends himself as not out to make a quick buck
10:12 and honestly thought that he could help
10:13 a struggling Matt in particular.
10:15 It's not long before they seem to capture
10:17 more haunting images around the house,
10:19 spotting her in a mirror in a room
10:21 and then in another out in the hall.
10:23 Before the family can even process
10:24 these latest startling developments,
10:26 things go into an unexpected, entirely new direction.
10:30 As we remember the guy that caught Alice
10:31 in a photo at the dam,
10:33 it turns out there was also a dude out there
10:35 with a video camera that day,
10:36 well, pretty busy at the dam,
10:37 and he caught the same figure.
10:39 But when he looked in closer,
10:41 what was thought to be a female figure
10:43 was neither a female or Alice,
10:45 but in fact, actually Matthew.
10:47 What?
10:48 He brushes off the appearance.
10:50 Sure, he was wearing Alice's jacket
10:51 and wandering around the bush.
10:52 It's not strange at all.
10:53 When his dad asked if he had done anything else,
10:55 he spills that he had quite a hand
10:58 in things up to this point.
10:59 He basically faked everything we've been seeing
11:01 regarding the spirit of Alice appearing,
11:03 using classic spirit photo techniques
11:05 to superimpose two images together.
11:07 When it comes to the video,
11:08 that is a bit more complicated.
11:10 He set up old home video footage of Alice
11:12 and recorded it in the mirror
11:13 that helped to cover up the screen.
11:15 So it was actually Alice, but her on a TV.
11:18 Here we are seeing that same idea
11:19 of the footage taking on new meaning.
11:21 He's repurposing old home video footage
11:24 and shooting it, creating something else entirely.
11:27 So that is a pretty big surprise.
11:29 I definitely remember watching this the first time
11:30 and was pissed.
11:31 I was like, what do you mean there's no ghost?
11:33 They convinced me of that all the way up to this point,
11:35 but now I realize that's the actual point.
11:38 It's about how what we believe in an image
11:41 can turn out later to be a lie.
11:43 It's a definite manipulation from the filmmakers,
11:45 and this is actually pushed even further
11:47 as they even change the footage.
11:49 The first time we see the spirit,
11:51 it is definitely the actress that plays Alice there,
11:54 and yet after the reveal of Matt being behind it,
11:56 it is now him in her place.
11:58 Pretty smart, actually.
11:59 And guess what?
12:00 This is not the last time they pull a fast one on us.
12:03 Although at least for now,
12:04 anything supernatural seems to be off the table,
12:07 though we still don't know what happened to Alice.
12:09 Matt defends his actions,
12:11 saying that he did not try to trick anyone,
12:12 but thought that something is better than nothing,
12:15 reminding us of that opening quote
12:16 about people creating ghosts to give them a kind of hope.
12:19 Again, death isn't really the end in all that.
12:22 When asked if his actions made things worse for his mom,
12:25 he admits that they probably did,
12:27 but still says that wasn't his intention.
12:29 Yeah, it did make them dig up his sister's body,
12:31 but that only confirmed what was already pretty obvious.
12:34 After this, the public eye turned to their curious case.
12:37 However, they thought it was most important
12:38 to protect Matt and the family,
12:40 along with Alice's memories.
12:42 And they do find it admittedly strange
12:43 for something so personal to them
12:45 being thrust into the world's view.
12:47 June was devastated at finally having to let go of Alice,
12:50 yet they also acknowledged
12:51 that she would never actually admit to this,
12:54 as there is a kind of guarded or private nature to June
12:57 that seemed to carry over to Alice.
12:59 Fred didn't think that they got along too well,
13:01 but believes that it was actually
13:02 because they were so similar.
13:04 It became especially clear after Alice's death
13:06 that they both shared a sense of privacy,
13:09 even having private lives,
13:11 which they chose to share or not.
13:13 It appears that this goes back even further in the family,
13:16 as Iris, June's mom,
13:17 admits that she had doubts as a mother,
13:19 and felt that she was never able
13:21 to fully give herself over to her kid.
13:23 Well, sounds like that ended up
13:24 rolling down the generations to Alice,
13:26 and having those walls up did play some role
13:29 in her untimely demise.
13:30 Ray and Matt's friendship grows stronger
13:32 as they pair up to do some consultations out on the road.
13:35 It's only now that he realized just how much he missed Alice
13:38 and even in a way feels as though he's one of Ray's clients,
13:41 wanting to make contact with someone lost.
13:44 After they left, they kept two cameras set up,
13:46 still certain there is something in the house,
13:48 and wound up afterwards
13:50 with a day and a half worth of footage.
13:52 After poring over it, they see what looks like Alice,
13:54 but this time Matt wasn't around,
13:56 so he could not have faked it,
13:58 again casting doubt on what's really going on here.
14:00 As a result, they went back through
14:02 all of the old footage taken,
14:04 and noticed something new amongst the images,
14:06 again re-examining the meaning of them entirely.
14:09 They notice a second figure, not Matthew,
14:12 squatting in the dark in Alice's room.
14:14 They realize that it was actually their neighbor, Brett,
14:16 wondering what the heck he was doing
14:18 in their daughter's room six months after her death.
14:20 Here we start peeling back a bit of the layers
14:22 to that secret life of Alice alluded to,
14:25 when June pilfers through her safe.
14:26 There she finds a tape,
14:28 and she knows that this must have been
14:29 what Brett was looking for.
14:30 She details how they met,
14:32 Alice acting as a babysitter for their two younger boys,
14:35 and then they understand what they have
14:36 is a sex tape between her and the couple,
14:39 and it doesn't appear that she is quite into it.
14:41 Yikes, well, definitely got some secrets, eh Alice?
14:44 As for Russell, seeing this makes him feel,
14:46 in a way, more complicit in her death,
14:47 tying back to that privacy thing down the generations.
14:50 If she hadn't felt the burden of that secret,
14:52 or felt so isolated,
14:54 she would have been able to talk to them about it,
14:56 and potentially prevented this from ever happening.
14:58 Alice's friends remembered Brett as being nice,
15:00 and they used to swim there during the summer,
15:02 which takes on a pretty gross connotation in retrospect.
15:05 They were completely shocked once more about Alice,
15:07 not even knowing she had been with somebody,
15:09 let alone doing something like that.
15:11 There is a kind of power in the tape,
15:13 especially in her death.
15:14 They must have been living in fear of being found out.
15:17 They did get charges filed with the police,
15:19 and the sergeant was confident that they would be found.
15:21 Yet the leads dried up, and the investigation stalled.
15:24 So they are left with even more unanswered questions.
15:27 Why was Alice involved?
15:28 Was she in love with either of them?
15:30 They will likely never know,
15:31 as the family moves soon after Brett
15:33 tried to ransack Alice's room.
15:35 Kim considers the level of secrets Alice kept
15:37 as though there were all these different versions of her,
15:40 the one around her friends, or around her mom,
15:42 and on her own.
15:43 She honestly feels that it changes her perspective
15:45 on someone when you know
15:47 that they've been hiding things like this.
15:49 Naturally, that's only the tip of the iceberg
15:50 for Alice's secrets.
15:51 June coming across Ray's business card in her journal.
15:54 Turns out she actually reached out to him
15:56 five months before her death,
15:57 having heard him on the local radio.
15:59 Ray is asked why he didn't tell the family earlier,
16:02 and he says that it wasn't about keeping a secret,
16:04 but honoring client confidentiality.
16:06 Besides, if he had told them right off the bat,
16:08 he wouldn't have been able to help them now.
16:10 Regardless of his defense on the matter,
16:12 the family felt betrayed,
16:13 especially because he failed to see Alice's imminent demise.
16:17 I mean, you're a psychic, right?
16:19 What the heck, dude?
16:19 June continues reading from the diary,
16:21 and comes across an entry that has a strange parallel
16:24 to her own nightmares regarding Alice.
16:26 She describes waking up from a nightmare,
16:28 but the feeling didn't go.
16:30 She felt sick and confused,
16:31 and went to her parents in their room.
16:33 When watching them sleep,
16:34 she was overcome by sadness that turned to fear.
16:37 She stood there, motionless, paralyzed,
16:39 realizing there was nothing that she could do anymore.
16:42 She describes feeling so utterly alone,
16:44 and started thinking that something must be wrong with her.
16:47 Again, this is a strange mirror
16:48 of what June was describing earlier.
16:50 Alice there is still wet,
16:52 and standing at the foot of the bed,
16:53 starting to possibly imply something else
16:55 entirely going on here,
16:57 a kind of connection through dreams,
16:59 as well as across time.
17:01 This becomes further established
17:02 when June comes across Lake Mungo written in the diary,
17:05 relaying that it was a school camping trip
17:08 that Alice was on for a few days back in August.
17:10 All that they can recall of her return
17:12 was her saying she had a good time,
17:14 but oddly, she lost her mobile phone,
17:16 favorite bracelet, and watch.
17:18 And that was all they knew.
17:19 That is brought into a whole new light
17:21 when the kids divulge that they recorded
17:23 some of that time on their camera phones.
17:25 And yes, they do in fact have the dedication
17:27 to film this entire chunk of the movie
17:30 on absolute crap camera phones from 2006 or whatever.
17:34 Would be quite different nowadays.
17:35 4K everything.
17:36 Kim shoots them all drinking
17:38 and everyone having a good time.
17:39 That is, except for Alice,
17:40 who's looking quite forlorn.
17:42 This led June to get worried,
17:43 convinced something must have happened to her.
17:45 Later that night, the girls spread out,
17:47 and they spot Alice in the footage
17:49 down in the bottom of a frame, kneeling under a tree.
17:51 Only after several viewings did they figure out
17:54 she was burying something out there.
17:56 Kim only knew that she had lost her phone and was upset,
17:58 but it didn't seem too serious in the context at the time.
18:01 They were all just kids having a laugh.
18:03 They see her walking off by herself,
18:05 knowing something was distressing her.
18:07 So the family saddles up to visit Lake Mungo themselves,
18:10 knowing at least that she had buried something out there.
18:12 And they do have some idea of where to look,
18:14 having tracked down a tree from the video.
18:16 After some digging, June unearths a plastic bag
18:19 containing all of her missing items,
18:20 the necklace, ring, watch, and mobile phone.
18:23 The family is even more baffled.
18:24 These are her most precious things,
18:26 wondering why she would leave them out here.
18:27 We then get another peek of Alice's session with Ray,
18:30 asking if she's afraid of dying.
18:32 She says, of course she is,
18:34 and it's here that she expresses her worry
18:36 that something bad is going to happen.
18:38 It hasn't reached her yet,
18:39 but it's on its way and getting closer.
18:41 After charging Alice's phone,
18:42 they witness the final chilling moments
18:44 recorded out in Lake Mungo.
18:46 She comes across a frightening figure
18:48 that steps out towards her out of the darkness.
18:50 Russell is immediately able to recognize the face,
18:53 that of which he ID'd at the dam.
18:55 The waterlogged Alice lunges at her,
18:57 sending her phone reeling.
18:59 Yeah, guess what?
18:59 Once more, everything we understood is put into question.
19:02 After that supernatural tease earlier,
19:04 there is no denying what we're seeing here.
19:06 It's as though Alice encountered a vision
19:08 of her own impending death,
19:10 and her actions since then have been a result
19:12 of knowing that her death is looming,
19:14 but not knowing when.
19:15 Frantically reacting in a way
19:16 to try to understand what's happening.
19:18 However, both sides of the argument
19:20 are still presented with the Palmers.
19:22 June doesn't see any rational explanation for the footage,
19:25 and she fully believes Alice knew that she was going to die.
19:28 She thinks the burying of her stuff was a kind of ritual
19:31 in response to seeing that figure, a kind of omen for her.
19:34 Russell, however, doesn't see things the same way.
19:37 While he agrees that everyone has morbid thoughts,
19:39 he still doesn't think that Alice knew she was going to die.
19:42 Matt, too, believes she recorded a legitimate ghost,
19:45 a recording of her grim future coming to get her.
19:48 This reminds us of the kind of dream connection
19:50 between June and Alice,
19:51 a moment existing simultaneously across time.
19:54 It's important to consider just what Lake Mungo is,
19:57 tied to 40,000 years of native history,
20:00 along with our own current situation,
20:02 which is being represented on that of a cell phone camera.
20:05 It's a collision of so many different things
20:07 occurring at once, that it does stand to reason
20:10 that this is what allows Alice to see her own future self.
20:13 Unlike before with Matt's goof,
20:15 here it feels like they do go out of their way in the story
20:18 to show the seemingly impossible
20:20 is actually occurring out at Lake Mungo.
20:22 This has a profound impact on the family,
20:25 feeling their house was different when returning,
20:27 more calm than before.
20:28 They think that Alice perhaps just wanted to show them
20:31 more about her true self so she could move on.
20:34 After some time,
20:35 they started feeling like a real family again.
20:37 Sure, shaky and wounded,
20:39 but a family once more all the same.
20:41 The healing continues when they decide
20:42 to bury the hatchet with Ray,
20:44 each feeling a kind of closure
20:46 or sense of peace to a degree.
20:47 They also do acknowledge all their actions
20:49 didn't actually help Alice or change anything.
20:52 It's as though they collectively all agreed
20:54 that it was simply time to move forward
20:56 and also literally move out of the house
20:58 to really reiterate that fresh start.
21:00 Even June knows that it will be difficult,
21:02 but she is finally starting to forget
21:04 that Alice isn't coming back.
21:05 And things aren't so cut and dry as they think,
21:07 leading to more of the supernatural
21:09 time is interconnected thing.
21:11 In an extremely eerie sequence,
21:13 we flash back and forth between one final session
21:15 with June and Ray,
21:16 sometime after the previous one,
21:18 and that of the session with her daughter
21:20 months before her death.
21:22 And it starts sounding like once more
21:23 they are tied together in a way.
21:25 They both enter the house and June enters Alice's room.
21:28 Unlike before, Alice sees her mom and doesn't say anything,
21:32 as though she can't see her.
21:33 A twist on that earlier encounter with her dad.
21:35 As for June, she doesn't see Alice and she leaves the room.
21:39 Now, June clomps around the empty house
21:41 as Alice continues saying that her mom is leaving the room,
21:44 watching them pack up and drive off.
21:46 This makes it seem that Alice in the past
21:48 is kind of seeing this occurring now
21:51 with her family leaving for good.
21:52 Alice cries that they're gone now,
21:54 and we re-examine the family photo from the opening.
21:57 Once more, we zoom into unseen things in the background,
22:00 spotting Alice looming in the house's window.
22:03 We are then represented with more footage
22:05 we've already seen, but is now given a whole new meaning.
22:08 As we see throughout the entirety of everything,
22:11 Alice's spirit was actually there
22:13 at many moments throughout.
22:14 No trickery from Matt or anything like that.
22:16 It really does look like after the Topsy Turvy experience
22:19 and surprising rug pulls, that Alice's spirit
22:22 was actually lingering in the house
22:24 and there are supernatural activities afoot.
22:26 What's even more interesting to me though,
22:28 is that the family has been so desperate
22:30 for a way to contact Alice.
22:31 Ultimately, she was there right in front of them,
22:34 as seen in the various images,
22:35 but at this point, they seem to have all moved on
22:38 and kind of don't care anymore.
22:39 They collect the decision to move on as they phrase it.
22:42 They had grieved as much as they could and had to let go.
22:46 This is one very important layer to the movie.
22:48 It's a representation of how a family reacts
22:50 when they unexpectedly lose a loved one.
22:52 They hold on to every kernel of hope and ounce of doubt
22:55 that somehow Alice isn't really gone.
22:58 Matt taking things really far with that fake ghost thing,
23:00 all in the name of somehow providing them
23:02 with the hope she could still be alive.
23:04 Then of course, there's all the loose ends
23:06 and questions left about someone after they pass.
23:08 Things you will never know.
23:10 After their exhaustive search for answers,
23:12 ultimately none of what they do is able to help Alice,
23:14 as they point out.
23:15 It's more about the family going through
23:17 their stages of grief and after everything they experience,
23:20 they can finally let go and move on.
23:22 The ghost here then more represents
23:24 Alice's lingering memories.
23:26 There is in a way, a part of her that will always be tied
23:29 to the house and the years that they spent there.
23:31 It's never really gone for good.
23:32 When it comes to ghosty things and what have you,
23:34 there is still some debate within the family
23:36 about Alice's vision out at Lake Mungo.
23:38 The ending really seals the deal that not only
23:41 did she see a future of her own death,
23:43 but also that her spirit is still at the house.
23:46 As is considered throughout,
23:47 no one knows what happened after we die.
23:49 And that's what makes death scary to so many.
23:52 They only see it as the end.
23:54 But we know with Alice, that isn't the case after all.
23:56 There is at least some kind of afterlife presented,
23:59 which makes it kind of a bummer
24:00 she has to spend it all alone without her family.
24:03 Ah well, probably healthier to move on
24:04 than things turning into a predictable,
24:06 wacky ghost family situation.
24:08 Then there's the even more broader meaning
24:10 and motivation behind the movie.
24:12 The aforementioned simulacrum concept.
24:14 It all stems from a Greek word meaning likeness or semblance
24:18 and is defined as a representation
24:20 or imitation of a person or a thing.
24:22 Any work of art or movie could technically
24:24 classify into this category because it is an imitation,
24:27 a false reality up on screen.
24:29 With Lake Mungo, it is presented to us
24:32 as a very realistic documentary,
24:34 attempting to convince us as the audience that it is real.
24:38 This is a real case that actually happened.
24:40 That's the entire intention of the movie.
24:42 There's actually two kinds of simulacra
24:44 the movie plays with.
24:45 The first is all about creating a faithful reproduction
24:48 or precise copy of the original.
24:50 In this case, trying to be as real as possible.
24:53 Conversely, there's also intentionally distorting something
24:57 in order to make the copy appear correct to viewers.
25:00 As the idea developed over many years,
25:02 it evolved that simulacrum is not simply a copy of the real
25:06 but actually becomes truth in its own right.
25:08 The hyper real.
25:09 Thanks Wikipedia.
25:10 That's where the various twists
25:11 and narrative rug pulls come into play.
25:14 It's all essentially about tricking the viewer
25:16 into believing one thing through what we see
25:19 only to completely change the meaning
25:20 through some development later.
25:22 The truth changes even with the same footage.
25:25 The story does this constantly,
25:26 always toying with us about what we believe
25:28 is really going on.
25:29 And even at the end, there's one more big rug pull
25:32 and it makes us completely re-examine everything
25:34 we've seen up to that point.
25:35 It also seems that the family doesn't actually see
25:38 these many other sightings of Alice.
25:39 It's in fact us as the viewer
25:41 or thanks to whoever is making the documentary
25:43 you're watching.
25:44 It's a very interesting game the movie plays with
25:47 regarding all of this.
25:48 And I really think it takes the movie
25:49 to an even more intellectual and interesting level.
25:51 That brings us to the conclusion of this ending explain
25:54 for "Lake Mungo".
25:55 And don't forget before we go,
25:56 you can send me requests for any movies or TV shows
25:59 you'd like to see me explain
26:00 by sending them my way on any of my social media accounts
26:03 at FoundFlicks.
26:04 What do you think of "Lake Mungo" and its ending?
26:06 Do you have a different interpretation than me
26:08 about everything that goes down?
26:09 And what do you think are the scariest movies of all time?
26:13 Leave your thoughts down in the comments below.
26:15 Make sure to like, subscribe and follow.
26:16 Thanks for watching FoundFlicks.