Five friends get together for a weekend retreat in the country.  The townsfolk are kind of nutty, believing that a young man who escaped a mental institution decades ago and killed his parents still haunts the woods.  Every year at harvest time, the locals fashion dolls from corn husks to ward him off.  No one from the town has gone missing in the last few years, but now there are vacationers.  Sam, named for the lake in the area, has vacationed here for years and isn’t scared of the stories.

Then, naturally, people begin dying and we get fleeting glimpses of someone stalking the group.

Sam’s Lake has its share of drawbacks and routine “boo” moments.  It’s fairly routine, but it has its own charm.  I have to say I thought it was better than the Friday the 13th remake.  A couple of the “boo’s” made me jump.  There’s an interesting quality at work in the film, a throwback, even homage, to the original slasher films of yesteryear.  Overall, it was better than I expected.

The movie is, more or less, solid until the last act then it falls apart.  It’s worth a rental.  Debut writer/director Andrew Erin has made a pretty good start in his film career, and I’m interested to see more of his work from his example of Sam’s Lake.

3.5 out of 5
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