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Stranger by the Lake Reviews
Very slow and boring with no real story apart from men cruising until 1 gets murdered. No real repercussions. Very lacking in cinematography and story until the last 5 minutes. Story could have been told in half an hour. Only positive is the real sexual imagery which the story was about in the 1st place. Reviewing 12 years after the fact so probably irrelevant but wouldn't sit through again 😔
Absolutely hated it. I only watched to the end to see if the ending had a surprise twist that may redem this awful film. The end itself was a ridiculous non ending. It's like the film maker couldn't be bothered and just quit and I can't blame them. Easily one of the worst movies I've ever seen.
I don't like it.....This movie was disappointing
If there was a lifeguard in this film he could have waved all the red flags
Beautiful cinematography for a porn flick. Oh yeah, there's a lame murder thrown in as a subplot.
🇫🇷 🏳️🌈Dans un lieu de détente pour hommes, niché au bord d'un lac, Franck tombe amoureux de Michel, un homme séduisant, puissant et mortellement dangereux. Franck le sait, mais il succombe à sa passion. A stunning erotic thriller with a fantastic cinematography and a very compelling and intriguing plot. Very spot-on acting by the main characters, especially because of the limited dialogue. The slow pace allows for an entertaining view and it might be a bit explicit at times, but the suspense of the story and the reflection on loneliness and isolation are far more interesting.
This film is not what you're expecting, in both good and bad ways considering it's more stylish-than-not directing and it's sometimes unnecessary writing and pacing. 5.7/10, C
The story is quite interestingly impressive. A unique mix of gay erotic romance with a hint of thrilling carnage. The acting and directing in this film are outstanding. Making the film all in all a great experience.
It's basically porn with a haphazard serial killer plot. Not very filled out, but I did enjoy the friendship between Henri and Franck. However, like I said, it's very VERY sexually driven, with not much outside of that. So if you want an excuse to watch gay porn and see a lot of dick without it actually being labeled PORN, watch this film.
The atmosphere of this movie is phenomenal without any use of soundtrack. It's minimalistic and feels the most natural despite the strange aura of it. A must!
Ever noticed how much of a kink watching gay film gets? No judgement, but let's be honest: we're all here for the moustached smooches and the tragedy omens (yup, I said it). Why? Why give ourselves to such flashy satisfactions? Well, L'Inconnu du Lac just happens to calmly talk about some mindless impulses in a way that gets both increasingly gay and increasingly gruesome, without losing its route. After all, desire is in fact that glowing night lamp that burns to the touch and makes everyone fly around -- sometimes too near.
lacks imagination and kinda dull, characters dont have much depth found them too mysterious for my liking the movie was okay but cant see how it got such a high score.
93% on Rotten Tomatoes. What? I have no idea how a movie can have 3 murders and this much dick (including an actual cumshot) and be so boring. This emperor has no clothes. Neither do any of the actors, but you can watch actual porn for that.
Intriguing and solid gay themed thriller which deals with themes like 'loneliness, love, lust and desire' wrapped in an erotic tensed scenery. We explore the gay cruising scene in a very realistic way, in order to lead us to an unexpected plot twist. The simplicity and natural feel of the movie makes it easy to watch (if you're not homophobic) and at the same time more shocking when the story takes an unexpected turn. Interesting fact that all the gay characters were portrayed by straight actors, which is the case more often. Probably because of the distance between real life and film straight actors can portray gay men better and in a natural way. There is not much dialogue in this movie and it sets a certain mood of realism. At first you get the feeling you're watching a movie about an encounter between two guys, but then it throws in a thriller element which no one sees coming. From that point you're glued to the screen. The ending? Well, you need to see it for yourself. Not completely satisfied with an open ending, but if you watch the movie more than once you can appreciate it in a different way. Overall this is one of the best gay themed movies out there with outstanding acting performances and a good script. @Korben_Dallas on Twitter
I have no idea how this received excellent reviews. I love foreign films, indie films and even films that end up to be one giant confusing metaphor. But this? This was horrible. If you removed all the hard core gay sex scenes, money shots, close ups of oral, close up perspective angles of anuses and cum splatter images, there's about 10 minutes of actual dialogue and movie, although still absent of a story line. When the USA makes a movie that isn't rated X for adults and we incorporate sex scenes, we do include some nudity...what we don't include is a minute-by-minute play of hardcore porn including money shots. We don't need to see some guy's bare dick penetrating someone else (unless we actually want to watch pornography.) This is a very basic story with NO SUBPLOTS and a lot of hardcore - yes, I said hardcore - pornography. I have no clue how this arrived to Netflix. I suffered through the entire thing. My husband, who usually likes adult themes became bored (perhaps because he isn't gay, but I did not ask why he fell asleep.) His only words to me were, "Since when do you like gay porn -with subtitles and no story line?" Anyway, the story is: Attractive man in his young 30's cruises a known gay lake and makes a friend with whom he chats daily. Said attractive man develops a crush on another man who is a good swimmer. Said attractive man stays late one night following one of the thousands of gay trysts that the film focuses on more than it does on dialogue or plot, and witnesses his crush commit a murder but keeps said information to himself and engages in risky gay sex with the murderer anyway until said murderer kills two others in his presence. Reviews said this is similar to Hitchcock. I'm a diehard Hitchcock fan and can attest to the fact that Hitchcock wrote STORIES WITH PLOTS that were MYSTERIES. This is the OPPOSITE. This film had no plot and no twist, let alone a reasonable story. It was ALL close-up gay sex scenes. That's it. I've actually seen pornography with more plots than this and porn is famous for being plotless because no one watches them for the story. This movie was stupid, and incredibly gross. I had watched it because I thought these great reviews might be true. I'm fairly certain they're fake.
Weird. Interesting film from the perspective of the gay cruising culture, which, as a gay man, was very true to life. Also, graphic nudity and simulated sex, with only two or so X-rate scenes. SPOILER ALERT So, going beyond all the gayness, the murder that is at the heart of the film and the character Franck's subsequent actions is a real stretch of credibility. It then acts as the launching pad for the rest of the movie, so if you can't believe it, everything that follows become inane. That being said, there are definitely subtle and not so subtle anti-gay undertone through out the movie. And then - the ending - well it just goes completely off the wall. To me, at least, it almost negates the whole film. An intriguing film, but really left me in a place of both liking and not liking it.
Director Alain Guiraudie simultaneously evokes idyllic nature and a pit of despair. Throw in some erotic, Hitchcockian suspense and Stranger is a superior thriller.