In The Lady of the Lake, writer-director-producer Maria Capp explores a fictional family story centered on the real legend of Lake Ronkonkoma on Long Island, NY. The real fable is that Princess Tuskawanta, daughter of the Setauket Sachem Tribe’s chief, fell in love with a rival tribe’s chieftain. However, the chief forbade his daughter from being with him. Some stories say the couple committed a Romeo and Juliet-style suicide, while others claim that the heartbroken daughter took her own life, and since then, her sorrowful spirit has been responsible for one drowning death each year. There are many variations of the story, as it has been passed down over the years. The fact is that there have been over 160 drowning deaths at Lake Ronkonkoma since the mid-1800s.
Capp’s version of the film has it that the young man takes his own life, leaving the spirit of the enraged princess haunting the lake. As revenge for her lost love, she drowns any man who enters the waters. One of the victims is the brother of Jamie Schultz (Nia Sioux), a Native American teen who lives at the lake. Her father, fire chief Adam Schultz (Seth Gilliam), is marking the anniversary of his son’s death one year ago when the film begins. Mother and wife Mia Schultz (Sera-Lys McArthur) has been in a non-responsive mental state for a full year since the death of her son.
Jamie is preparing to graduate high school and leave for college. Before going, she sets out to investigate the legend of the lake to see if she can discover the truth. Parallel with her digging into the story, her life is beset by the normal challenges of a young adult, made only more complicated by grief.
“…a fictional family story centered on the real legend of Long Island lake Ronkonkoma…”
Many alternate theories for the high numbers of deaths are offered, one of which is that the lake is so polluted that anyone coming into contact with the water is quickly overcome by toxic waste and drowns. This idea has a basis in fact: Lake Ronkonkoma has been closed for extended periods of time because of toxic levels of pollution. The Lady of the Lake plays like a mild version of Friday the 13th meets Riverdale, with a smattering of Meatballs thrown in for teen hi-jinks (or Wet Hot American Summer if you’re too young to remember the Bill Murray flick).
The actors glide through the proceedings like it’s an afternoon soap. This is gentle medicine and not terribly scary, even in its most paranormal moments. Nia Sioux delivers the most dynamic performance as Jamie, exploring her own coming-of-age while at the same time trying to rationalize the death of her brother and others at the lake. Seth Gilliam switches between being glum and pissed off as he grapples with his failures as a father with both of his children.
The Lady of the Lake was filmed during the pandemic. In an interview with the Greater Long Island news website, Capp describes her motivations for making the film. “I always wanted to write a story about growing up by Lake Ronkonkoma and what it was like for me. I noticed the symbols, tributes, and markings throughout the town that pay tribute to ‘The Princess.’”
The Lady of the Lake is made for YA audiences. There’s a lot of introspection and angst that young adult viewers will enjoy. The cinematography around the lake is beautiful, as one would expect it to be, and the pace of the film is languid, mirroring the down-tempo life in the town.
"…the cinematography around the lake is beautiful..."
