Overview: A teenager visiting her estranged father in Italy stumbles across the Neverlake, an ancient lake said to be guarded by the spirits of the dead. There she befriends a peculiar group of children who are each plagued by strange injuries. As she uncovers the horrific secrets behind the lake - and her new friends - she becomes haunted by disturbing visions that connect to her own mysterious past.

DVD Verdict: A teenage girl who was born in Italy, but raised in America (none of which explains her crisp British accent!) returns to Tuscany where her father, once a medical doctor, is now engaged in an archaeological project at an enchanted lake once worshiped by the ancient Etruscans. There she befriends a group of weird disabled children kept in a country asylum. Eventually a terrible family secret is revealed.

This is in some ways a ghost story like 'The Devil's Backbone' or 'The Orphanage,' but it also hearkens back to the classic European medical horror films of the early 1960's like 'Eyes Without a Face' and 'The Mill of the Stone Women.'

Like a lot of classic Euro-horror films this British-Italian co-production doesn't make a lot of logical sense but rather follows a kind of dream logic. The rational plot is often overwhelmed by powerful and striking visual images and kind of surreal mood reminiscent of Euro genre films of yore. This will no doubt annoy many of the terminal Americans out there unaccustomed to this kind of film making (really though, Hollywood films aren't any more "realistic", people are just more used to their brand of unreality).

The movie does have its flaws. The Etruscan mysticism and the medical horror don't really gel together very well, and all the characters remain rather opaque. Its strengths though lie in its atmosphere, its arresting visuals (especially the underwater scenes in the lake) and its use of the beautiful Tuscany countryside and some haunting poetry from British Romantic poet Percy Blysse Shelley.

Daisy Keeping who plays the protagonist is a strikingly beautiful young Brit actress who really complements the natural scenery and turns in a very decent performance (her unexplained British accent continually notwithstanding, of course!). This isn't a perfect movie, but I'd still definitely recommend it. [LZ] This is a Widescreen Presentation (1:77.1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs.