Sam’s Lake DVD Review

Many people are strangely and charmingly named Horatio or even Moon Flower after little-known relatives or their parents’ whims, but few are named after a lake! This christening seals the fate of Sam, capably played by actress Fay Masterson, who returns to her watery namesake in the hinterlands with a group of city-dwelling friends in Barnholtz/Liongate Entertainment’s April 21st DVD release of Sam’s Lake, written and directed by Andrew Christopher.

But what’s in a name? There’s more to it than that – Sam feels drawn to the wilderness for a secret reason. Tense undercurrents of impending doom in the music created by Gary Chang follows fiery-haired and incredibly calm (for someone whose father was killed in a hunting accident in that very forest) Sam around everywhere she goes. She treats her gaggle of city slickers to the pleasures of country life – grilling outdoors, sunbathing, hearing the cries of the loons, and noticing the unbelievable “quiet”. Her friends have all been ousted from their families for a variety of societal infringements – being gay, taking drugs, loose morals or just general weirdness. Since this is a horror story we can safely assume that at least some of them will be expendable!

These guys and gals don’t understand Sam’s mysticism – a green leaf that flows to her feet from a stream among the red and yellow leaves of autumn that she sees as a good omen and the spirit of the forest, or her attachment to metal concentric circles similar to dreamcatchers that she believes connect her to the spirits of those who have passed away. She’s always wearing red, simultaneously a symbol of blood as a life force and bloodletting as a symbol of death and loss.

Joined by a friend of Sam’s named Jesse from the hamlet of Canmore – six hours from the big city and one hour away from a gas station that’s the only sign of civilization – at night, around a traditional campfire, everyone exchanges scary stories. Sam’s is the scariest, about a cottage nearby where long ago a young son, sent away to a home for “special” patients after exhibiting odd and violent behavior, returns unexpectedly 10 years later, slaughters his entire family and then runs off into the woods and is never seen again. Since that horrible event, every yearly harvest some of the staid and conventional villagers are first missing and then discovered dead in the woods, and corn husk dolls are superstitiously hung in front of every home to prevent these mishaps from befalling their own families.

Are Sam and her errant vacationing guests in danger?

The word family comes up often in this movie – people banding together in order not to be alone, trying to weave each other closer and closer (like red bloodlines in a dark tapestry) before being pulled apart forever. A true horror story with a few good twists but a bit too gory for children, nonetheless teenagers and adults will enjoy Sam’s Lake, which is really about the concepts of protection, unconditional love and betrayal. Convincingly shot in the netherlands of Canada, Sam’s Lake ultimately begs the question – as a society are we stronger as a homogenous group or as sets of isolated individuals standing freely and fiercely alone?

MPAA Rating: RRunning Time: 87 minutesDVD Release Date: April 21, 2009

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