Vampire Lake (2024) – Film Review
Vampire Lake is a low-budget, independently-produced horror film that was released directly to the internet in December 2024. As the name suggests, the plot involves a vampire that resides near a lake. It’s basically a cabin-in-the-woods film that’s trying to be a little bit different.
Vampire Lake begins with a woman driving alone down a remote road. When her car breaks down, she gets on her phone to try and call for help. Unable to receive a signal, she leaves her car and walks around, trying to improve the reception, and is soon fleeing an unseen pursuer—presumably the vampire. But it’s still daylight, and later scenes make it clear that, in this film, vampires cannot walk in the sunlight; so Vampire Lake is already off to a bad start.
After the opening credits, the film proper begins by introducing Charity (Celeste Lee) and her friend Tree (Chelcie Sword), who have come up to the cabin for the weekend and are busy unpacking their groceries: a shopping haul that contains a generous amount of beer.
The two friends are waiting for Charity’s nieces, Amy and Kat, to join them, who are driving up to the cabin in a separate vehicle. During their journey, the two girls drive past a hitchhiker, who flips his finger at them, when they fail to stop. It’s pretty obvious he will turn up later on the film, and he does, but his presence adds no value, and he’s pretty much a throwaway character.
After the two sisters arrive at the cabin, meeting Tree for the first time, there’s a lot of talking and drinking, and Kat shares her desire to hike to the lake, and see if the vampire legend is true. Once there, she plans to burn a page from the Book of Genesis because the legend says doing this will cause the vampire of the lake to appear. If he does appear to her, Kat believes she will have the option of being “turned” or getting him to kill someone for her. Kat’s alleges she only wants to visit the lake because she is curious to see what happens. However, she has brought along a special pendant that allows vampires to walk in the sun, and plans to use it as a bargaining chip, suggesting she may want something from the encounter after all.
Surprisingly well-prepared, Kat has also acquired the Vatican’s Book of Salvation, and added her name to it, written in her own blood. In this film, vampires apparently know when someone has done this and are unable to hurt them unless their name is removed from “The Book”.
None of the others believe Kat will want to get up early the following morning and make the 5-mile hike to the lake, but she does, initially planning to take her sister along but heading off alone when she can’t convince her to get out of bed. When she arrives at the lake, Kat burns the page from the Bible, causing the vampire to appear a little distance behind her, standing under a tree. Offering him the amulet as payment, she strikes a bargain with the vampire, but providing the strangely-dressed guy with the pointy teeth with the ability to walk in the sun proves to be a big mistake.
Vampire Lake is not a great film. It has a lot of problems. The first and most obvious one is the camerawork. The footage is often shaky, many of the close-up shots are too close—much to close—and the skulls and skeletons that appear to litter the local woods are not even close to being realistic. Nor is the blood that’s shed when the vampire is feeding, and the repeated joke that the vampire sucks isn’t even funny the first time around.
One of the most ridiculous things about Vampire Lake is the vampire’s response to sunlight. Even before Kat gives him the pendant, he manages to stand under a tree that fails to cover him with shadow. Then, when he reaches out for the pendant, his fingers burst into flame. If he were reaching out of a dark cave, the scene may be credible. But he isn’t, and it’s not.
The acting is okay in places but fails to hit the mark during many scenes—especially those that are meant to be scary. Although there may be a few screams, nobody appears genuinely afraid, and the scene where Amy tries to ward of the vampire by brandishing a rubber-tipped spatula comes across as ridiculous, at best.
The vampire’s kill scenes are also pretty bad, with some of them looking like he’s trying to dance with his victims while attempting to give them a hickey.
Overall, Vampire Lake comes across like a lack-luster school project. However, the backing music is often on point, the film is not without aspects of humor, and the end scene is pretty good. There’s also an extra shot at the end of the final credits that rounds things of nicely and hints at the way things might have been with a bigger budget and a little more work.
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