The Synopsis
After losing his beloved wife, Callum Owen and his teenage daughter Evie travel to her rural hometown on the edge of Harrow Fen to fulfill her final wish: have her ashes scattered. But the locals speak in hushed tones about the Lantern Man, a spirit said to appear in the fog to lure the lonely and lost.
When father and daughter are separated in the fen, each hears the voice of the woman they miss most. and are drawn toward a swaying green lantern in the trees. What they find isn’t just horror, but heartbreak, healing, and a final goodbye.
Genre & Setting
THE LANTERN MAN is a haunting folk horror tale set in the fog-laden East Anglian fens, where grief clings to the landscape like the mist itself. Rooted in British folklore and rural superstition, it weaves psychological tension with the eerie stillness of the countryside. As father and daughter scatter ashes in a place forgotten by time, ancient legends stir and sorrow may summon something real.
Themes & Tone
THE LANTERN MAN explores themes of grief, memory, and letting go—where sorrow is not just felt, but echoed through the land itself. At its heart, it is a story of love enduring beyond death, and the quiet agony of a father and daughter learning to carry loss together. Through ancient superstition and the weight of unspoken emotions, it asks: what lingers when we can’t move on?
The tone is mournful, eerie, and intimate. Fog-drenched stillness and whispered folklore build a slow-burning unease, where every shadow hints at something watching. Rather than gore or jump scares, the horror lies in the quiet, where voices call from the mist and memory becomes something more. Inspired by folk tales, rural gothic, and atmospheric slow-burn horror, THE LANTERN MAN is both a ghost story and a meditation on grief, where the past won’t stay buried until the living are ready to let go.
