Horror Movie Review: Lake Tomahawk (2017)

Lake Tomahawk (as it is known in the UK, Lake Alice elsewhere) sees the Thomas family spending Christmas at their cabin the woods. The family are made up of husband & wife, Greg (Peter O’Brien) & Natalie (Laura Niemi), their daughter, Sarah (Caroline Tudor) & her new boyfriend, Ryan (Brad Schmidt).

This is Ryan’s first Christmas with the family & he is desperate to please Sarah’s parents. In particular the cold & unfriendly, Greg.

Around town the family don’t exactly get a warm welcome with Ryan in particular being singled out as a stranger. He’s got his own concerns though when Sarah’s ex-boyfriend, Tyler (Brando Eaton) enters the scene. With a snowstorm coming, the family set about holing up for a few days. Then strange occurrences start to happen around the cabin.

Is it just someone from the town messing with them or is it something more sinister?

At 75 minutes long, there really isn’t much time to find out. The first half of the movie develops characters well, sets up something sinister & builds tension nicely only to throw it all away in a standard, boring home invasion.

Lake Tomahawk is not a supernatural horror as much as it might try to trick you into thinking it is. Instead, the family come under attack by a number of masked psychos. Psychos whose identities are kept hidden until the final few minutes. Not that it particularly matters, it’s obvious from the moment a certain character is introduced that they are involved.

What was a tense & interesting watch at first descends into a boring, jump scare heavy semi-slasher flick. That in itself would be fine if it was doing anything good with it but it doesn’t.

A horror that is 75 minutes long shouldn’t feel like it is dragging but Lake Tomahawk does. It’s incredibly slow at times & any good will built up at the start is lost as it stumbles towards it’s unsatisfying payoff.