Following his father's suicide, Tom (Tyler Q Rosen) begins to crumble. Abandoning wife Kathy (Sara Fletcher), he takes off to the remote lakeside cottage where his father spent his final hours. There his mental anguish only blossoms, intensified by the ancient force residing within the depths of the neighbouring lake.

Hoping to reach Tom, Kathy enlists the help of her brother and his wife, grief and trauma counsellor Jess (Adriana Isabel), But as the family settles in, it becomes increasingly clear that Tom has become a willing harbinger for the lake's malevolent malingerer. And, as Jess begins to realise that something might be seriously wrong with Tom, echoes of her own dark and traumatic past are dredged up too. 

This slow-burn supernatural thriller from Matt Devino and David Michael Yohe imbues its remote lakehouse setting with malignant energy, throbbing with doom and dread from the off. It's H.P. Lovecraft on a budget, using its more fantastical elements sparingly, and instead concentrating on building that atmosphere of foreboding and despair. Zoidberg-faced Cthulu and his various entities were rarely the focal point of Lovecraft anyway, and The Daemon is far more concerned with the existential horrors faced by Tom, Jess and their family.

Scenes of campfire bro-ing out feel out of place (one guy even does the ki ki ki ma ma ma noise), but The Daemon is largely successful in sustaining the energy of modern Lovecraft. Such buildup is worth the wait, featuring exceptionally unsettling visuals and a hauntingly bleak finale.