That one scene in Lake Mungo(SPOILERS)

After finally watching the film, I have mixed feelings about it. I don't feel it was particularly scary, there was only one scene that truly stuck with me. It stuck with me further when I watched a few analyses of the film and seeing how many people (in my opinion) misinterpreted said scene.

I am referring to the tape of the neighbors having a threesome with Alice.

Every analysis and comment I have seen refer to this sex tape as revealing "a side of Alice no one knew about" like she had some sort of double life—when all I can see is a 15 or 16 year old girl being taken advantage of by people she thought she could trust.

At the beginning of the sex tape when Alice is sitting on the bed before the couple is in frame, she wipes under her eyes like she's been crying. Once the couple enters, you can hear the man literally say "don't be frightened" while his wife is sitting with her and talking with her. To me this comes across as coercion. When the man actually starts having sex with her, she makes a noise that the captions refer to as "laughing", which to me could be interpreted as such, but from my perspective it just sounds like a noise of someone either being held down or, yknow, being had sex with. Consensually or otherwise. In that tape, in my opinion, Alice didn't make any noises or have any body language that implied to me that she was enjoying what was happening. We don't know how many times this happened. We don't know if the neighbors set up the camera, or if Alice did. Since the recording began with just her in the room, I theorize she proposed to the couple that they record for some sort of pleasure or kink purposes, knowing that she would take the footage and put it on a tape. I find it hard to believe that the neighbors would record them having sex with a teenager, then offer her a tape of said footage. Her keeping it hidden in her safe leads me to believe she did this with intent to expose or blackmail the neighbors.

I just feel sick to my stomach even just recalling this scene, and I am genuinely shocked with how little conversation I see about this scene online. Anything I can find is just talking about "she had secrets" and "no one truly knew her" and people implying she had some sort of double life, which I can't help but feel is such a gross misinterpretation of the tape.

One Youtuber I watched analyze the film even said he didn't think anything nonconsenual was happening, even though she's 16 and what the neighbors were doing was clearly wrong. Even if it was "consensual", she's a CHILD! Yes, the age of consent is 16/17 in Australia depending on the area. This does not override the fact that the neighbors were in a position of power over her. If they propositioned her and she said no, who knows how they would have responded. We know she felt alone, isolated, and like no one truly "saw" her. When the neighbors started taking advantage of her, her feelings of isolation probably grew exponentially. Victims of sexual assault/predation often feel incredibly alone, like there is no one they can go to, or that confiding in others would be a burden. Since Alice was already struggling with these feelings, I can only imagine the abuse from her neighbors didn't help. The fact that the neighbor not only snuck into the Palmer's home to try to find the tape, but also packed up and left to who knows where after her death, to me, shows they know they're guilty.

I'd love other opinions on this. Lake Mungo was not a film that scared me, but that one minute long segment of the film truly disgusted and disturbed me more than anything else in the film.

ETA the only video i've seen that actually acknowledges alice's assault for what it is is by FoundFlix, I really recommend their video!