The last shot: Lydia back in New York, in her cramped apartment. A package arrives. No return address. Inside: a single blue ribbon. New. And a note: "See you in 1993."
The credits roll over a single photograph: Lydia, age twelve, standing by the lake, a blue ribbon in her hair. The DVDRip ended there. No trailer. No commentary. Just static.
That night, Lydia dreams of a lake. Under the water, a girl in a white dress floats, eyes open. The girl mouths: "Don’t wear the ribbon."
Rachel already has the ribbon. The climax is almost unwatchable in its bleakness. No music. Just wind and water.
Lydia finds a hidden diary in the floorboards. Eleanor’s handwriting starts neat, then devolves into frantic loops. "He told me the ribbon keeps you young. But it keeps you his. Every ten years, he needs a new one. I was supposed to be the last. I ran. But you can’t run from someone who’s already inside you." Lydia realizes: Edward Vane is still alive. He lives in the old mill by the lake. And the 1983 ceremony is three days away. This time, the chosen woman is (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh in a small, haunting role), the 18-year-old daughter of the diner owner.
"No," Julian replies, lighting a cigarette. "These are your mother’s replacements ."
And one more: 1983. Blank face. Just the ribbon.
He gestures to the black canvas. "Would you like to join them?" Lydia does not wear the ribbon. Instead, she burns it — and the church studio — with Julian’s help. Rachel escapes. Edward Vane crawls into the lake, still laughing.
"These are my mother’s friends," Lydia says, her voice cracking.
Most ignored it. The first film was a grainy, slow-burn piece of 70s psychosexual melodrama — tame by modern standards, but controversial then. A sequel from ’83? Unlikely. The original director, Carl Stegman (a pseudonym for a forgotten underground filmmaker), had vanished after 1981.