Summaries

Synopsis

Stanley (Judd Nelson) is a reclusive screenwriter who lives by a beautiful and large lake. His hobby is kidnapping teenage girls, imprisoning them in a soundproof room with a two-way mirror, then taking them out to the lake on his boat, attaching their feet to a concrete block and pushing them overboard (he asks them how they feel knowing they are about to die). He particularly likes to reach into the water, grab them by their hair and pull them up again so he can study their faces more carefully, before dropping them again permanantly.

Stanley has at least five or six of these bodies floating in the lake, ranging in decomp status from skeleton to perfect flesh. Each is dressed in a different outfit. Stanley likes to scuba out to his "garden" every day and clean any detritus accumulating around their bodies, and to make sure their costumes stay in place as they rot.

Stanley is doing this because he is "researching" for his latest script; called The Cabin on the Lake, it is about a man who kidnaps girls and drowns them in a lake. He has already sold this script through an agent, and a director is going to make it shortly.

One girl, Mallory (Hedy Burress) manages to escape from drowning and is rescued by handsome sherriff Boone (Michael Weatherley from NCIS). She is unable to identify her kidnapper, however she creates a sketch with an artist. Boone comments how similar to his good friend Stan the sketch looks.

The local law enforcment team decides that in order to catch the kidnapper they will take Mallory to a local creature-creation business which molds fake latex bodies for use in movies. Two SPFX artists make a full body cast of Mallory and hide a video camera inside one eyeball. The cops take it out to the lake and leave it in Mallory's place. Sure enough Stan heads out to the garden on time to tend to his garden, however he touches the body and notices that Mallory is made of latex. They cops fail to catch him, and because of the scuba mask the video images are hopeless; they still have no idea who the murderer is.

Boone takes Mallory to a motel for the night. There is some kind of chemistry developing between Boone and Mallory. She asks him to stay but he refuses because he is on duty. Stanley, now knowing that Mallory has escaped, turns up at the motel, as Mallory is taking a bath, and recaptures her. He re-imprisons her at his house; it is important to him that Mallory drown IN the lake and not at the motel.

When Boone returns to the motel the next morning he thinks that Mallory simply left without telling him, as Stan has cleared the room of all her belongings.

Stan develops some kind of complex feelings for Mallory, and watches her a lot through the mirror, touching his hand opposite to hers when she touches the mirror. He also tries submerging himself in the bath to see what drowning would be like; it seems he can hold his breath for a VERY long time.

Stan's agent and the director turn up at his cabin by the lake to discuss some changes they want to make to the script. Stan has a lot of animosity towards the director, and while the agent is on the phone he stabs the director in the chest with a kitchen knife (Stan appears to be very calm but is clearly flipping out by now). He throws the agent into the soundproof room with Mallory, and prepares his boat for them both.

Meanwhile, back at the creature-creation business, three pert actresses have turned up to have full body casts made for the horror movie thay have been cast in. As the artists pour the gel over the first one they ask about the movie. The actresses explain its about a guy who kidnaps girls, imprisons them, then drowns them in the lake, and tends his garden of corpses. The SPFX artists exclaim in horror at the similarity to the real-life case they just worked on, and demand to know who the writer is, but the actresses don't know. After a few phone calls, they find out the scriptwriter is... Stanley.

The SPFX artists call Boone, as Stan loads the agent and Mallory onto his boat. Boone heads to Stan's house just in time to see Stan's boat pulling out. Boone radios for help and the SPFX artists head out in their own boat with their scuba-diving equipment.

Stan drops Mallory and the agent, attached to concrete block, off the boat as Boone and his backup arrive; Stan then jumps in himself. Everyone gets in the water. One SPFX artist cuts Mallory loose. As Stan tries to pull her back under they then tie the loose rope around Stan's leg. Boone shares a regulator with Mallory, and the two of them watch as Stan drowns. Once they surface the boat drifts, and Boone et al cannot find the bodies of the agent or Stan again. As light fades they call off the search. The next day they find the body of the agent, but ah ha! Stan's body is gone, just a cut rope remains.

Mallory tries to reclaim her love of the water by swimming fully clothed off a beach while Boone watches, but thinks she sees Stan and freaks out.

The actresses bitch at a restaurant that their movie was cancelled because the director was murdered.

And as the movie closes we see an agent at lunch with a new client, who is explaining the new screenplay he is working on. A man kidnaps teenage girls, imprisons them, then buries them alive in his backyard. He picks the girls because their hands match his own. The camera pans around and we see the scriptwriter is Stan, heavily disguised. The agent asks him how long it takes the girls to die when they are buried alive, and Stand replies that he doesn't know; he's still doing research.

End Credits.