Review of "Landing Lake” by The Headless Critic

Landing Lake – 2017

Production by: Filmblast
Distribution by: High Octane Pictures



A team of four satellite technicians head deep into the woods to repair a station they stopped receiving signal from when they find an airplane crashed and a group of trapped survivors inside. With their sense of time becoming incoherent and the healing of their wounds happening at an alarming rate, the group suspects something may be coming from the nearby lake that is affecting their minds. As their primal desires take over their lives become a battle against an unseen entity that’s trying to lure them into a lake of death and rebirth.

“There’s something in that lake you don’t want us to know about and it’s not earthly.”

With a similar premise to The Thing, a group of co-workers head to a remote location where they find more than just survivors to rescue, they find an otherworldly entity threatening their survival. Cesare P. Libardi di K.’s debut film is a surreal journey of lighting and sound that will play on your senses as you lose your inhibitions. An overuse of artistic expression with color coding film takes away from the natural beauty of life and lake sending the viewer on an acid trip journey into the characters madness. Color correction is so excessive it will make you feel like you’re wearing novelty glasses while a psychedelic score sets an ominous tone that does becomes repetitive.

I’m notoriously hard on Brit flicks and Landing Lake will be no different. I think first time feature writer and director Cesare P. Libardi di K. is successful at what he wanted to do with Landing Lake but what he succeeds at isn’t a story based, driven feature. It's to make his audience feel the film, which it does but that alone isn't necessarily good. While the film does a good job of playing on your senses the use of color filters is overplayed. The score succeeds at making an ominous, repetitive tone of dread but that's not good in this case either as it's too repetitive to the point of annoyance.

Melt fans will be happy with a few characters demise while other horror fans will find the ending a little too sliding in the lake simple. Actor Lee Ravitz drones on for so long his character becomes annoying which is done intentionally but makes you not to want to watch any further more than just hate his character.

Available Now on VOD

2 out of 5 Headless Critics