Synopsis
After getting into trouble once too much, teen rebel LYDIA flees her white trash foster home as the police comes riding in. In dire need to lie low and start a new life elsewhere, she heads for her only living relative, her older sister STELLA living a life of petty crime and misery with her hoodlum boyfriend MARCUS. After Lydia learns of their plan to recover crops of cannabis planted illegally in a remote wilderness, she blackmails them into joining along for the gig.
As they reach the remote area and stop at the last outpost of civilization, they learn stories of past murders and disappearances. They start to witness freak accidents and fleeing apparitions of strawmen-like figures. Their path is blocked as they try to reach the crop zone. A pack of hungry animals attacks them when they attempt to pass through. In the turmoil Stella flees for safety on a passing car. Lydia and Marcus go after her and find the car abandoned and the driver horribly killed. They embark on a search for Stella, which leads them to the discovery of more victims in a deserted lumber town. They then stumble on a lone NATIVE GIRL, mute and wearing Stella’s shoes. She reveals no other clues, hitches a ride and directs them deeper off-road where their vehicle is destroyed by a booby trap.
Stranded on foot, Marcus leaves Lydia behind at a makeshift camp while he heads for an Indian reservation with the native girl in search of help. The native girl leads Marcus to her home instead where she gets him drunk. Lydia is attacked during the night, as Marcus is assaulted leaving the native girl’s home. They regroup and steal the native’s motorboat to reach the reservation. On the way they find the stranded survivor of a hunting expedition and their boat is sabotaged. They find a decimated hunter’s campsite and the reconstituted remains of three victims, gutted, remodeled with clay and crucified on wood beams. Pursuing on foot through the forest, the survivor is killed and Marcus wounded. They then stumble on a secret sign and detour to reach the crop zone. The zone has been burned to the ground. Marcus is injured. Lydia flees, gets lost, is tracked down by a shadowy native KILLER (the “GUARDIAN”) and viciously attacked.
Marcus is brought back to life under the care of an OLD NATIVE man at the reservation. He learns about the legends of a forbidden hunting ground reserved for the Gods and an outcast from their tribe living there. He has hallucinations during the night revealing clues to the fate of Stella and the killer. The next day, as he’s asked to leave the area for his own good, he turns the table and forces his GUIDE at gunpoint to lead him to the killer.
Marcus and the scared-to-death Indian guide reach the shores of the killer’s lair. The GUARDIAN
attacks them, Marcus is captured and the guide is killed. Marcus is dragged inside the killer’s hut where he sees him butcher Lydia’s remains. He manages to escape but turns back when he sees Stella in an enclosure. He joins her and witnesses horrified that Stella is dead and her face has been scraped and reconstituted with clay. The Guardian strikes again, Marcus is wounded but manages to flee. The native girl then captures him and drags him back to the Guardian. Marcus is handed over to be devoured by ceremonial wild beasts as the Guardian embarks on a shamanic ritual. Marcus almost dies as he destroys the beasts, sets fire to the killer’s compounds and kills him in his hut as he’s lying in trance. He drifts downstream on a makeshift raft as he returns to civilization, battered and forever changed.