One-Page Summary

Christine brings her three kids—teenage Grace, headstrong Ava, and sensitive Noah—to Mitterdam Lake for a quiet summer getaway following the death of their father. At first, the lakeside cabin offers peace and distraction: swimming, biking, new friendships. But when Ava and Noah venture into a cave etched with strange symbols, they begin to uncover the dark truth about the land’s violent past.

Generations earlier, the Mitterdams—a reclusive religious sect of European immigrants—were wiped out by panicked settlers who misunderstood their rituals and earth-centered spirituality. Now, the children’s spirits linger, bound to the forest and water by a pendant lost in the caves. As Ava and Noah piece together the history through local folklore, an eccentric archivist, and their own increasingly vivid experiences, it becomes clear the spirits are not simply trapped—they’re calling out.

To end the haunting, Ava and Noah must complete a ritual of release rooted in the Mitterdams’ animist beliefs. But the line between reverence and revenge blurs as the energy around them builds. Damned Lake is a haunting meditation on inherited violence, misunderstood faith, and the way old wounds live on in the land itself.