Sam's Lake (2005)

Perfect cast and a good story

Brilliant and touching

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

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

This is the most insane horror movie that I have seen, but I liked it. The murderers are a serial killer brother and sister that are the son and daughter of a serial killer. When they were kids, their dad had them invite their friends over to the woods near their cabin and the three of them would hunt them down and kill them because their motto is that the dark sleep brings them closer to each other. They end up doing the same thing as adults while avoiding their dad who wants to kill them. This did have a lot of violence, but not very much gore compared to other R rated horror flicks which is fine with me because I care more about the plot than the amount of violence.

I realize Sam's Lake isn't anything quite like Crystal Lake, but still I was secretly hoping that Jason Voorhees would pop out of the water during one of the numerous boring moments and increase the bloodshed and body count a little. No such luck, unfortunately, as "Sam's Lake" is a fairly pretentious and wannabe clever thriller instead of just an amusing and undemanding slasher. The opening sequences of this film are exactly the same as the opening sequences of approximately 7.500 other horror films, with a group of friends heading out to a remote middle-of-nowhere forest area for a weekend of fun and laughter. The only slight difference here maybe is that the main characters aren't sex-addicted teenagers but losers in their early thirties with dysfunctional backgrounds. There's very little going on during the first 45 minutes, except the atmospheric narration of a local urban legend campfire tale about a mentally unbalanced young boy who escaped from the asylum and returned to the area to slaughter his family members. The events further in the film are obviously related to this local legend, but not exactly like you would expect. The group stupidly decides to explore the murder's ramshackle cabin and find a journal that sheds a disturbing new light on the urban myth. If you manage to struggle through this incredibly dull film (though there are a couple of nice shots of leaves floating on the lake's surface), there's an essential plot twist after about an hour of playtime. Admittedly this particular twist is quite original and unpredictable, but it's probably also the single most implausible thing I've ever seen. Also, the twist may give a powerful short energy boost to the film, but the finale is a tedious and confusing mess again. I think I must have stopped paying attention to the story lines, because all of a sudden a Rob Zombie look-alike showed up. What the hell? The murder sequences are tame and most of them occur off-screen, which is the one thing that every horror fanatic hates. "Sam's Lake" is boring and largely derivative with only a small handful of notable moments. Hardly a movie to recommend.

Following her father's death, Sam(Fay Masterson)invites a group of her friends on a weekend getaway at her family's lakeside-cottage. She practically grew there on the lake named after her; so it was easy for her to recite the legend of horrific slayings that have haunted the area for decades. It doesn't take long for the group to realize there is something to the legend, for now it is getting personal...one by one the group of pals lose a friend. They find themselves part of the legend of Sam's Lake.Photography not bad at all. The script is very suspect and the acting is mostly regrettable. Story line much like the many other run-of-the-mill slasher flicks. In the cast: William Gregory Lee, Sandrine Holt, Stephen Bishop, Megan Fahlenbock and Peter Beks.

From the Friday THE THIRTEENTHs to CABIN FEVER this 'cabin by the lake/ teens in the woods' horror genre has been done to death.SAM'S LAKE both adds and detracts from this genre at the same time; it adds another piece of rubbish to the pile and it detracts from the few truly original and quality productions in this genre.The story is just a knock-off that pulls elements from the numerous other flicks in the genre. Instead of crazy Jason with his crazy mother, crazy Samantha has a crazy father and crazy brother. Her rag-tag band of young somewhat buff friends/victims are little more than bland stereotypes for a diversity campaign. The horror aspect is a real disappointment; the victims never really fight back and are easily killed. The horror scenes just aren't scary and the acting is bad. In an obvious attempt to pander to preteen girls and perhaps a gay following from his other so-called acting ventures, the actor who plays Sam's brother takes his shirt off and runs around in the woods half naked during the final night hunt and killing segment. Within the story this is illogical --- there's no reason for it; but, as a gimmick to keep viewers watching the practice of showing some skin is done in movies all the time --- but usually with more attractive actors.