While meeting his girlfriend Sarah's (Tudor) family for the first time, Ryan Emerson (Schmidt) must prove his intentions and win the approval of her father, Greg (O'Brien), while he masks his jealousy for Sarah's ex-fling, Tyler (Eaton). As the Thomas family settles in, things start to happen around the cabin; strange footprints by the windows, noises from outside, and a bitter animosity from the locals, including the law enforcement. As a blizzard descends on Lake Alice, so does the evil from behind the camera, as the Thomas family is hunted down one by one. The family struggles to stay alive as their power in numbers slowly dwindles.
With a synopsis about as generic as you can get for a slasher flick, Lake Alice doesn't pretend to be anything it's not.
What lake Alice does really well is set an atmosphere like no other. The awkward animosity coupled with the unnerving attitudes of the townsfolk are enough to set anyone on edge. The tension is real and constant, with the first half of the film leaving me perpetually (for lack of a better word) uncomfortable. The Thomas family are actually quite likable, unlike the majority of annoying millennial C-list fodder victims that permeate the sub-par films we are assaulted with these days. Peter O’Brien was easily my favourite; such a fantastic and underrated actor.
The film is not all peaches and cream though. The score and the audio editing were weird; sometimes having no background sound or music at all, other times sounding cartoonish or seemingly random. I'm not sure if this was meant to add to the unsettling nature of the film or if was my screener copy. It wasn't bad, but very noticeable and different. Also, once the killing starts, the film becomes chaotic and the editing very helter-skelter. I'm not sure (again) if this is intentional or not, but it is noticeable.
The film concludes pretty much as expected and was, for the most part, an enjoyable slasher flick. I did prefer the first half of the film more than the latter half as I'm generally more of a monster or sci-fi horror lover rather than the whole deranged psycho with a knife thing. I prefer my bad guys either supernatural or extraterrestrial rather than inbred or mentally unstable. If blade wielding lunatics and blood-splattered snow are your thing, then be sure to give Lake Alice a watch.
