Haunted by a childhood tragedy, a new backcountry ranger ventures alone through the wilderness of Arvores National Park, hoping to find answers. A film by Teresa Sutherland, starring Georgina Campbell, Nick Blood, and Wai Ching Ho.

On 17 September 2020, Varney (Soren Hellerup), a National Park Ranger of Arvores National Park, doesn’t respond to his radio from the Park Ranger command center. He exits his ranger station and writes something on a piece of paper. He uses duck tape to stick that paper on the ranger station sign, it reads “I OWE THIS LAND A BODY”. Varney then vanishes without a trace.

In February 2021, while Ranger Lennon (Georgina Campbell) drives to Arvores National Park, she becomes frustrated as she listens to the radio hosts talking about people keep missing in the National Park where it’s supposed to be safe. She stops the car to find a paper towel because she noticed that her middle finger is bleeding from her unconsciously biting her nail. A black deer appears in front of her car. Suddenly Lennon is spooked by the radio static noise and loses eye contact with the deer. When she looks up again, the black deer mysteriously disappears.

At Arvores National Park HQ, Ranger Jackson (Nick Blood) casually introduces Lennon to a couple of Rangers in the room. As Head Park Ranger Annie Zhang (Wai Ching Ho) delivers the orientation, Lennon is distracted by a missing person poster. The poster features a picture and the name of Benjamin Andrew Varney, who has been missing since September 2020.

At the end of orientation, Zhang reminds everyone that they have not put cell phone towers in the park, and they still haven’t run the electricity to the Backcountry ranger stations. Zhang then tells everyone to remember this, “Leave nothing but footprints. Take nothing but memories. Kill nothing but time.”

Backcountry refers to remote, undeveloped, and often inaccessible areas within the park. These areas are typically characterized by a lack of infrastructure, such as roads, buildings, and amenities, and are often used for wilderness recreation, research, and conservation purposes. The backcountry is often distinguished from more developed areas within the park, such as campgrounds and trails, and is subject to specific regulations and guidelines to ensure the protection of the environment and the safety of visitors.

A helicopter drops Lennon near a Backcountry ranger station where she would stay for the next 90 days. That night, after settling in, Lennon unfolds a map of Arvores National Park. Several written markings are shown, including Ranger Station, Gone, Search Expeditions, and Shoe. Next to the map is a missing person poster showing an image of a girl and the name “Jenny Lennon.” She then pulls out an old family photo, tucked away in David Paulides’ Missing 411 book, showing a couple and two young girls, one of whom is revealed to be Jenny, Lennon’s sister, who mysteriously disappeared in Arvores National Park many years ago during a family visit when she was very young.

During her first three-day patrol in her designated district, Lennon listens to a podcast about America’s national parks and the unsolved mysteries of missing persons. The podcast discusses the massive number of unreported and unsolved missing person cases, particularly involving children. It highlights Arvores National Park as having the highest concentration of missing people in the world, a fact that remains unexplained.

Lennon receives a crackly transmission from 121. Static makes it difficult to understand, then the radio abruptly dies. Suspecting dead batteries, Lennon searches for replacements in her backpack but finds none. Continuing her patrol in the darkness, she seeks a spot to pitch her tent. A crackling noise draws her attention, the mysterious black deer reappears. Suddenly, static erupts from her radio. Picking it up, she finds it silent. To her utter surprise, she opens the battery compartment to find it empty.

Just then, Jackson appears out of nowhere. He explains that he tried to radio her earlier. He then invites her to join him for dinner at his great spot near the river. The next morning, just before Lennon heads out, Jackson gives her spare batteries for her radio.

Several flashbacks from Lennon’s childhood keep popping up like a recurring nightmare of the day her sister went missing. Lennon keeps searching the area secretly, hoping to find some clues that would lead her to her long-lost sister.

One night, Lennon is awakened by the sound of footsteps outside the Ranger Station, followed by a series of loud bangs on the front door. A man’s voice pierces through the air, asking for help and demanding her to open the door. Lennon opens the door to find an injured man who seems deranged. He tells her they need to hurry and quickly runs off. Lennon races barefoot to follow the man and finds him standing alone in the dark forest. He claims that his friend, Sarah, was standing right there before she mysteriously vanished.

The next morning, a Search & Rescue team is dispatched to Sarah’s last known location. Zhang orders Jackson to take the lead. Zhang asks Lennon if she wants to go back to have her foot checked, as it was injured while running barefoot in the forest. However, Lennon insists on staying and helping with the search. Despite her plea to join the team, Jackson gives a specific order for her to stay at the Ranger Station, in case Sarah comes back.

Driven by a desire to redeem herself for failing to find her sister, Lennon disobeys Jackson’s order and ventures into the forest to search for the missing girl alone. Eventually, she finds Sarah, disoriented and standing in the woods, her hands and thighs soaked in blood. As Lennon approaches, Sarah asks in disbelief if she’s real. Lennon assures her that she is. Sarah bursts into tears and embraces Lennon tightly.

The rescue team is notified and arrives to take Sarah for medical attention. To Lennon’s surprise, Zhang appears unpleased. He orders her to pack her belongings, stay put at the Ranger Station, and wait for a helicopter pick-up in five days – her season is over. Jackson is clearly upset by Lennon’s disregard for his explicit instructions. When Lennon tries to explain that they found Sarah, Jackson coldly corrects her, emphasizing that Lennon found her alone, not them.

Instead of waiting at the Ranger Station as instructed, Lennon remains determined to find her sister. She defies orders and ventures deeper into the backcountry park, continuing her patrols. That night, while huddled in her tent, a large, mysterious shadow lurking outside sends shivers down her spine. As the figure steps away, her radio crackles to life. She recognizes Jackson’s voice on the crackling radio. He tells her that someone in her area needs help – possibly wounded and disoriented. He instructs her to follow him. While searching for the injured person, she find herself at the Beach Lake which is miles away from her tent. But when she tells Jackson her whereabout, he replies that she is where she needs to be. Suddenly her radio crackles again, this time carrying her sister’s voice. Confused, Lennon trips, her head colliding with a rock, and she loses consciousness.

Lennon dreams of her lost sister, and her sister tells her to wake up. Lennon regains consciousness, unaware that she is now in another dimension where nobody can see her. Scared and confused, Jenny appears and whispers in her ear, “Replace what you took or they’ll keep you.” This implies that by rescuing Sarah, Lennon has disrupted the balance, taken something from the evil spirit of the forest? Now she must find a replacement.

Written and directed by American filmmaker Teresa Sutherland in her directorial debut, LOVELY, DARK, AND DEEP dives into the unsettling beauty of the wilderness with a psychological horror twist.

A new backcountry ranger ventures unknowingly into the mystical realm of Arvores National Park. Haunted by a childhood tragedy; she embarks on a personal quest for redemption, her journey mirrored by the film’s descent into the dark unknown. Campbell’s performance elevates the experience as she carries the weight of the film on her shoulders, seamlessly conveying the character’s isolation, determination, and simmering fear.

Further enhancing the atmosphere are the film’s technical aspects. The chilling cinematography perfectly captures the vastness and unnerving beauty of the forest, while the sound design adds another layer of unsettling tension.

Overall, LOVELY, DARK, AND DEEP is a film that succeeds on the strength of its lead actress. Despite a predictable story, Campbell’s gripping performance and the film’s unsettling atmosphere make it a worthwhile journey into the mystical.

LOVELY, DARK, AND DEEP premiered at Fantasia Festival on 23 July 2023. The film received a limited theatrical release in the United States on 22 February 2024.