Lake Bodom (2016)

The Finnish slasher film starring Nelly Hirst-Gee as Ida-Marie, who is enduring a harsh rumor spreading about her regarding nude pics seen after being drugged at a party, going on a trip with her best friend, Nora (Mimosa Willamo), and two guys from their school, Elias (Mikael Gabriel) and Atte (Santeri Helinheimo Mäntylä), takes place for a majority of the running time at a lake notorious for discovered bodies of a killer that was never found. Atte is obsessed with the case, seeing a resemblance between Ida and the blonde girl found dead at Lake Bodom. The film takes place mostly at night, with Ida and Nora upset at the guys for lying about there being no cabin to sleep in. Instead there is a tent and campfire. Elias actually had a crush on Ida, wanting to tell her on the trip. Nora seems totally devoted to Ida (later determined to be romantic and sexual), while Atte wants to spend time talking to Ida. Elias inspires Nora to have a night swim, while the two then go to the tent...it is assumed they might be having sex, but both party are into Ida so they later refute that. Atte, with Ida, is stabbed in the back with a spear, and the film's slasher plot is set off as a result...but how Elias is taken out, when that twist is revealed isn't even the whole story. The film includes a flashback to what actually happened, with Nora explaining to Ida how jealous she was of Elias, willing to commit quite a horrible series of lies in order to have Ida all to herself. That really gets fucked up, especially after Ida dives into the drink quite deep to get keys from a body bag. Then the creepy guy (never fully shown, mostly carefully silhouetted by dark or camera placements) with the tow truck enters the picture once Ida and Nora come to a kerfuffle. Some slasher violence, and a reminder of the mid 2000s "Wolf Creek", with teen angst thrown in for a rather familiar cocktail. I think it is well made, even if I wasn't all that personally awestruck by the content. Highly stylized camerawork and lighting, and the acting isn't bad. I thought Nelly's dour, sad face for the entirety of the film fit exactly what she was going through while playful Mimosa's emerging darkside is well hidden until it is eventually revealed. I thought the flashback, a lot of it in slow motion and set to a moody score, getting to the bottom of a lot of why the film goes where it does, is especially noteworthy. Again, this didn't knock me for a loop and the second twist (another killer surfacing late to add punch to the Lake Bodom past unsolved murders) does seem added for that "Aha!" effect, though I think what happened as a result of Nora's actions was enough of a potent punch. The last fifteen minutes really feels as if the creative of the film felt there was a need to fulfill an obligation based on Atte's obsessive interest in the Lake Bodom murders of the past, considering he talks about it at great length, even with Ida. 2.5/5