The plot is tried and true: Sam (Fay Masterson) and her friends, Dominik (Salvatore Antonio), Franklin (Stephen Bishop) and Melanie (Megan Fahlenbock) are taking their friend Kate (Sandrine Holt) out into the woods for a little R and R, to get Kate's mind off of a nasty breakup. Out at the lake, coincidentally called Sam's Lake, Sam tells the group a local legend about a troubled boy who killed his family after they sent him to a mental institution, and who may still be lurking around the woods years later. Not surprisingly, the legend soon begins to seem more real than they expected, and the group soon finds themselves fighting for their lives.

The main problem with Sam's Lake is that it feels like it wasn't written all at once -- which, since it's an expansion of Erin's short film, it probably wasn't. Between scene changes, characters seem to have different emotional states and opinions, which quickly becomes confusing. It doesn't help that the film's structure is startlingly unoriginal. The first 35 minutes of the movie almost exactly replicate the structure of Eli Roth's 2002 debut feature Cabin Fever (my favorite horror film of the decade), which in and of itself was a homage to cabin-in-the-woods movies. The movie is more than halfway over before the scary stuff even starts, which may prove fatal to audience interest.

For myself, however, Erin's direction is a nice surprise, a reprieve from loud, extreme horror films that splatter the audience with gore, goose them with jump scares at every moment, and make little-to-no effort to create an atmosphere. The first few reels of Sam's Lake could certainly move faster, but it's not painfully boring, it just requires patience. During this stretch, a lot of goodwill is created by the movie's solid cast. I doubt any of these performers are going to become overnight sensations, but they're all professionals who do a good job without getting too goofy. Sam herself is played by Fay Masterson, who some people will recognize as Betty from the hilarious Z-movie parody The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra. During the third act, her performance hits the rocks, but for the most part, she's an engaging presence.

There's not much more I can say about the movie without spoiling where it goes. Whether or not that's of any interest is hard to say. Again, I didn't have a problem watching Sam's Lake, which doesn't overstay its welcome, is fairly well directed, and features a talented lead performance. It's just that all of those pieces don't amount to much of a film; the movie is so familiar, it just blends into all the other similar horror films I've seen exactly like it until I can't separate one from the other. It's easy to make a horror film, and harder to make a competent one. Andrew C. Erin can check both off his list. Now he just has to make one that stands out.

The DVD, Video, Audio and Extras
Surprisingly, Lionsgate sent me a DVD screener in a paper sleeve. I might have considered describing the video and audio without affixing ratings if it seemed like this was representative of final product, but this disc doesn't even have a menu. The final DVD features a goofy cover making it look more like supernatural splatterfest, and should have Dolby 5.1 audio (this disc only contains 2.0, which is the secondary option on the final DVD) along with a photo gallery and the movie's trailer (why not Erin's short?).

If a final copy ends up in my hands, I'll give this section an update.

Conclusion
I have a hard time thinking of anyone I'd be willing to recommend Sam's Lake to, despite the things it does reasonably well, so I'm going to suggest viewers skip it until it turns up on television, or, perhaps, in a future box set of (hopefully better) films by the same director.