Ex-con John Martense (Blake Adams) returns to his childhood home of Lefferts Corner after serving time for a crime he didn't commit.

Martense visits family friend Knaggs (Vincent Schiavelli), a mortician who has been holding half of a map for him.

Arriving at an abandoned church, Martense is confronted by Cathryn (Ashley Laurence), a young woman seeking revenge for the murder of her sister, and town doctor Dr. Haggis (Jeffrey Combs).

[6] In their book Lurker in the Lobby: A Guide to the Cinema of H. P. Lovecraft, Andrew Migliore and John Strysik write: "As with many Full Moon films, Lurking Fear's trailer is better than the feature it promotes.

That's unfortunate because Joyner had a wonderful professional cast who, with a cleaned-up script and a hands-on producer, could have made the film a standout among [Lovecraft] adaptations.