Fantastic!

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Had much higher hopes for this film based on the trailer...but the film simply didn't deliver. The acting of "Kyra" and "Reed" was horrible. I suggest they take lessons or at least don't OVER-ACT or force it. I could have done a better job acting. And I'm not an actor. The story has SOME interesting facets except that the writers/director do not fully explore them. Had they done so, the film would actually have had a chance. No idea where the contamination of the town came from, this isn't properly explained in the film and neither is most of what is seen in the trailer. The film drags on, and on, and on...and on. I hesitate about calling this a horror or thriller because it doesn't really have these elements. The film simply doesn't deliver, on all counts.

CLEAR LAKE, WI is one of those low-budget movies which actually would have benefited from the Hollywood scourge of "too many chefs" which plagues many big-budget flicks. Specifically, the absence of top-notch film editors and script supervisors from the crew of a movie like CLEAR LAKE sometimes allows the primary plot twist to get lost in the shuffle. Maybe the twist is ADDED in post-production, through a patchwork of throwaway material better LEFT on the cutting room floor. Maybe the twist was left for the last day or two of filming by rookie writers\directors who didn't know any better--not realizing that their project inevitably would fall three or four days behind the shooting schedule, leaving little or no time to actually put the pivotal scene of their story on film. CLEAR LAKE seemingly suffers from this syndrome, as the identity of the real killer for the plot's first set of murders is revealed by Michael Madsen's imprisoned bogus "Reverend" character in a postscript line of dialog captured on a hand- held a year after principle filming wrapped (according to the DVD featurettes). Bottom line: the best to be hoped for from this CLEAR LAKE is that it will become Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's OWN PRIVATE ELBA after he's recalled later this year (i.e., an island of exile for a deposed emperor).

I just want to comment that I watched this movie at a theater downtown in Minneapolis, MN and absolutely thought it was a great independent film. I think the story plot was complex and interesting. It was more than just another indie film. The actors did an awesome job acting their parts. I believed and felt their horror especially Beth's character played by Carla Toutz. I really felt the pain she was harboring for 15 years and fell in love with her character. Furthermore, Dustin Booth's character Reed had an interesting twist. I don't want to give it away, but lets just say he doesn't turn out to be who you would expect. This is a great film traveling around Wisconsin and Minnesota. If you have a chance to see this film I would definitely recommend it.

I had an opportunity to see and advanced screening of this film along with Q&A and I must say as a film buff, especially in the genre this film falls in, they did a pretty good job for what they had to work with. No real money, shooting in a small town far from any city with a handful of crew people and dealing with the elements. The films pacing only seems to suffer because of the lack of funds to add to the overall horror effect that we are so accustomed to seeing in movies today. Sure every once in while you get a Blair Witch and Paranamormal that explodes at the box office and delivers, but for everyone one of those you get hundreds with bigger budgets, actors that fail miserably in every facet, including acting and storytelling. This film wasn't bad; it won't go down in time as one of the best or even super memorable, but kudos to these guys who didn't sit on their ass and went out there and did it and for the most part using what they had, which wasn't much, delivered a pretty decent project with good production value.