SUMMER OF FEAR

Lucas Marshall (Gregory Harrison), a workaholic executive, is reluctant to take his family on vacation to the Florida beach home of his youth, which he has just inherited and plans to sell. Lucas has less-than-fond memories of the house but has no idea that what happened to him there is about to come back to haunt him. Meanwhile his wife Cat (Glynnis O’Connor), and children, daughter Haley (Natalie Shaw) and son Zach (David Gallagher), are eager for this one-time visit.

As they near their destination, the family is carjacked. Overcome by one assailant, Lucas is helpless as the second assailant announces their intention of raping Cat and Haley. Suddenly headlights are seen, and twenty-year-old Simon Bower (Corin Nemec) appears and threatens the assailants off with a non-existent shotgun. They flee in the family’s jeep; Simon takes the family to the hospital and helps them file a police report.

The bay house, when they finally arrive, is a pleasant surprise, still in good condition, and the family gradually relaxes. Winnie Rawson, a brassy spitfire in her forties that the kids immediately adore, and an old friend of Lucas, agrees to be housekeeper during their visit. Lucas, however, continues to be haunted by the nightmare in the woods: despite the overwhelming circumstances, he continues to feel that he should have prevented the kidnapping, but did not. His sense of failure is only reinforced when Simon decides to visit.

Simon, an orphan, they learn, has spent most of his life wandering. Lucas offers money for Simon’s heroism, but Simon prefers to work on the property as a hired hand. In the days that follow, Simon becomes obsessed with being a part of the Marshall family. The family is pleased to have Simon around as Lucas’s ankle heals, but he seems to be everywhere–hunting for rock crabs with Zach, sailing with Haley. As Lucas sees it, Simon does just about everything that he cannot; and then it occurs to him that Simon’s intentions may not be so innocent. Could he have hired the two thugs in the woods?

Winnie, too, has her suspicions, and it is she who pieces together the truth: that Simon is the son of her old friend, Pam Bowerman, who committed suicide years ago, and of Lucas! But Simon intercepts Winnie on her way to inform Lucas of the truth, and Simon is now forced to act. In a blood-tingling climax, Simon abducts the family and confronts Lucas with abandoning him and his mother. But Lucas has another story to tell, and Simon, learning the truth behind his years of misery and resentment, surrenders his weapon and, for the first time in his life, looks forward and not back.