Eager to escape the grief and nightmares of the city, Louis Olsen travels to Southwest Minnesota, seeking the peace of the rural countryside. When he accidentally disturbs the grave of a supposed local ‘witch’ Mary Jane Terlinden, what began as a peaceful reprieve unravels into a haunting nightmare from which Louis cannot escape – but is it all just in his head?

According to local folklore, there is a haunted place in Minnesota (one of many) that keeps the rests of a young woman beheaded during her adolescence by the inhabitants of a town that believed her to be a witch. Variations of the legend tell another version in which she was buried alive by her father. But official documents mention that she died as a result of diphtheria. Whatever the reality about fiction, people should not take on the challenge of the dead. Loon Lake (2019) tells us the seriousness of this situation.

Louis (Nathan Wilson), a recent widower, decides to move to the countryside to have a life away from the city that saw his wife die in a traffic accident. In one of the self-guided excursions that Louis takes to know more about his new residence, he runs into the remains of a church destroyed by a fire, the cause of a “human error”, and arrives at an annexed cemetery with a tombstone that stands out above them all. The tombstone belongs to the grave of Mary Jane (Kelly Erin Decker), a teenager accused of being a witch, and the legend told by locals says that if you go three times over it, Mary Jane will ensure that in three days she is the last thing you see.

Loon Lake is a decent movie for an independent production. It does not provide new elements but it does not fall behind like other productions in which you cannot even appreciate the performances of the actors or the soundtrack because it’s scarier than the half-baked plot. Loon Lake stands out for having a great cast with little chemistry, a decent musical score that’ll make you shiver, and jump scares inspired by mainstream films but yet effective for everyone.

The story of Loon Lake is basic and predictable, sometimes even so resembling parts of the plot of The Ring. What makes it stand for itself is the mix of life lessons with the search for faith; some of the events that the characters go through cast doubt on their beliefs. Each line pronounced by the cast is free of parish-pump clichés; the writers were careful to avoid falling into the error of detailing their characters under premade profiles. The characters in this story do not try to cover up the legends created by their ancestors; on the contrary, they retell them with joy and excitement to instill fear on outsiders.

Loon Lake is rivetingly entertaining but not enough to be considered a cult classic. It is a delivery that takes inspiration from an urban legend as well as other films of the genre. And with such delicate and lush script, that it won’t change your life but it’ll leave you with some quotes that might be nice to pass around as your own wisdom, it would be interesting to see more from this team of writers.