There are movies that you expect to be bad even before you turn them on. That, of course, raises the question of why you're bothering with such a movie, but that's for another time and another place! "Clear Lake, WI" is a movie that you expect will be bad - and it lives up (or down) to those expectations.A film student decides to make a documentary on the side about something that happened in Clear Lake, Wisconsin 15 years before. Apparently there had been some sort of plague, several children had died and the town had been evacuated and no one had ever returned. As the deaths were happening, some local preacher gathered a bunch of high school kids around him (because high school kids are always attracted to local preachers) - and I guess they killed people, although that part of the story really wasn't explained well, except that the kids were under the preacher's control and they all got off, and the film-maker has re- united them all in Clear Lake to make her documentary. But something funny is going on, and of course the kids (except now they're adults, because it's 15 years later, start to be killed.) Yeah. To be honest, this was pretty boring. Very slow in developing and with nothing especially interesting until the very end, and even that didn't really stay with me.The only actor of note in this is Michael Madsen as the preacher. Frankly, he's a busy enough actor. Why he bothered with this I'm not really sure. I regret just having watched it. I can't imagine what it would be like to have it on your acting resume! (2/10)

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 actually don't remember too much about this film. We watched it 2 days ago, and I have already, thankfully, forgotten most of it. It was just a generic, slasher type film with nothing to offer. Unbelievable story, unbelievable acting, and unbelievably bad. I feel sorry for the good people of the real town of Clear Lake, WI that have to have this film forever associated with their fine town. Thankfully, not too many people ever even heard about this film. I also feel sorry for the actors who had to endure the freezing weather on location, for what I'm sure will be very little return for their efforts, especially Michael Madsen, whom I love as an actor. Why he lent his name to this horrible excuse of a movie is beyond me. What was he thinking? Thankfully, he was only in it for a brief period of time and I'm guessing that he didn't have to leave the comfort confines of California for any of the shooting.

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.