"Landing Lake" is a sci-fi thriller written and directed by Cesare Pollacci Libardi di K. The film stars Victoire Vecchierini, Emma Bown, Aaron Stielstra and Phil Zimmerman. It is a psychedelic exploration of madness and otherworldly contact.
A team of satellite technicians enters the woods to repair a communication station but they are forced to rescue the crew of an airplane that crashed near a lake. They quickly realize that something may be coming from the lake that is affecting their minds and the passing of time. As they lose their inhibitions their most primal desires take hold. Lured on by the unseen entity it seems that only one of the team is permitted to bond with it and so be reborn in a new physical body. A terrifying game of strategy not to survive, but rather to die with the promise of life anew.
The story, in theory, is a fun, and chilling way to approach first contact tropes in sci-fi horror. I have seen it done well in movies like "Yellow Brick Road" and "Star Lead". Unfortunately "Landing Lake" never coalesces fully enough to marry the dreamscape psychedelia and core sci-fi aspects. It all plays out like a wilderness mushroom high but weren't all tripping the same.
The fault doesn't fully fall with script or direction. Not that there isn't some issues in both, it just seemed that too many concepts came into play without proper structuring. The acting is decent, some characters really came out strong. A couple were just so---ugh! They just made it impossible to fully succumb to the movie's experimental theatre vibe enough to wanna like this madness.
Now on a positive note, the cinematography is great. And on its own, the whole surrealism, arthouse style was- at times impressive. Sadly the foundation of the story and continuity just didn't come together to allow the audience to make sense of the going-ons. Another cool aspect is the creative, throwback score. (2/5)
No comments:
Post a Comment