This film is just as effective as any of the really good high dollar films. I was very impressed with this movie - it's different than I was expecting and a lot better than I anticipated. If you liked the films The Others, The Conjuring, The Orphanage or The Woman in Black then you might like Neverlake! I was blown away by how good this film is.I really can't talk much about the film or I will give it away. It's one of those films you will just have to watch for yourself. What I can say is it's a good ghost story (the souls of the lake), a girl with a very strange father and his housekeeper and it has one heck of a great twist so it's more than just a ghost story! That's all I will tell anyone so I won't ruin the movie for first time viewers.This is one of those films that proves you don't need lots of money to create a very effective horror film... all you need is a great writer, cinematographer and actors. I really enjoyed this film.9/10

It's hard to talk about this movie without giving away the ending, so spoilers to anyone who wants to see this movie (which is probably nobody). The story revolves around Jenny, who is staying with her father and step mother in Italy (even though the majority of people in this movie are British). We start to get little bits of information as the movie progresses but it all has to do with the lake in the middle of the woods. Jenny meets a bunch of orphans and she visits them regularly in secrecy. But we learn there might be something sinister in the lake, something that might want to get Jenny... Oh no wait, turns out the creepy octopus monster in the lake has nothing to do with the story at all. The father is the real villain because he was using Jenny this whole time to harvest her organs so that he could save his first daughter, and the orphans are actually Jenny's siblings and the father has Jenny's mother tied up in the orphanage and didn't actually die. Oh, and apparently he removed statues from the lake and through stones into it so that the magic of the lake can save the dying daughter. Also one of the orphans is a handsome boy who can summon the octopus lady for some reason. Also the orphans are ghosts. Or not, they really didn't explain that part of the movie very well. So, let's get right down to it, the ending makes no sense. Why didn't the father just ask Jenny to donate her organs, she seemed like a nice girl, she'd probably do it. Why did Jenny need to retrieve the stones and statues? Why couldn't the ghosts do that? We see that the ghosts can infiltrate people's dreams and crave drawings into walls with nothing, so who's to say they can just float into the house, take the statues, through them into the lake, float down to the bottom of the lake and retrieve the stones? Also, why was the Octopus Lady trying to scare Jenny this whole time if she was a benevolent spirit? And why did the father need Jenny and the Orphan's organs if he has a magical lake to save the dying daughter? Can't the "magic" cure the illness she has? And why didn't it? Why did he need the organs? And were we really supposed to be happy when the Jenny gets the last stone and kills the poor girl? She didn't do anything wrong, I feel more bad for the father than Jenny and those dumb orphans. This movie promised so much and yet delivered so little. This is not the worst movie I've seen, but it definitely has the worst ending. I'll give three stars for the great cinematography, but's that's about it. The acting is wooden, the writing is bland, and the story is awful.

There are pretty straightforward pros and cons to this movie, and to me it seems to really be stretching things to call it "horrible" or "great storytelling.The story itself - overall - wasn't that bad and, in fact, I enjoyed the ending. It was darker than I'd thought it would be, and definitely not entirely predictable. Ironically, that's also part of the problem. There wasn't really enough story development in the first 70 minutes of the film to lead you to predict much of anything, and by that time you're almost a little apathetic. Very little seems to be holding together what is presented during this stretch, and much of it isn't really that necessary.A lot of the bad reviews I've read include phrases like "I couldn't make it half-way through" and "I turned it off with 20 minutes left." Because the story is so back-loaded into the conclusion of the movie, their reviews (to me) are rendered almost completely irrelevant. But because of the glacial pace I definitely understand where they're coming from.Before I get the usual condescending "Most people (who aren't as smart as I am) who expect explosions and non-stop action/killing/slashing just won't 'get' this type of artistic storytelling (and are not worthy to cast eyes on the film like I am)," I beg to differ. I don't need nonstop action, especially in a horror/psychological thriller movie. But in lieu of action there needs to be story/character development to keep you engaged. And in this film that all came at the end, with only fairly disjointed bits and pieces for the first 70 minutes.I give this a better-than-average rating because it IS better than most of the low-budget garbage out there. It is, indeed, watchable. But your life will not change. You'll think, "Hmmm. Didn't quite see THAT ending coming," then get back to your housework.

This film does have a few head scratchers, like how the children are being kept and operated on without anyone knowing and how one of them is surviving without a heart.The children come across as a little creepy at first, but you realise that there's more to them and the really sinister people are some others.Daisy Keeping is an amazing actress, and not to mention very easy on the eye too! Her portrayal of Jenny as someone who wants to reconnect with her biological father is quite touching, which makes it worse when you find out the real agenda. Still, Jenny is a fighter and doesn't just roll over and meekly accept things. The only possible criticism of Daisy is that her character speaks with a clear (and lovely) Welsh accent, but is supposed to be American. I don't see how that works, nevertheless, everything else about her is great.The film is suspenseful, but you know from the outset that something is not right about two characters: a father who invites his daughter to live with him but keeps shunning her (for a very sinister agenda), and a stepmother who has an unhealthy obsession with feeding Jenny vitamins and supplements.I was shocked as to the real twist, though I was surprised that Jenny wasn't told honestly from the beginning. The film does end abruptly, but I hope there is a sequel of some sort.Clearly, Daisy Keeping has talent and I would love to see more of her (Welsh accent or not!).