After her mother’s death, Ellen—a former fashion designer, children’s book author, and caretaker—leaves Buffalo, NY for a little rural town, hoping to start over and reinvent herself. She joins the local church and begins volunteering as she settles into small-town life. Almost immediately, Ellen is asked to take in her adult cousin Winthrop, a reserved veteran coping with a severe leg wound and PTSD. Her maternal instincts quickly take hold as she creates a stable, comfortable home for him. Just as daily routines begin to form, their eccentric, high-energy neighbor Vahna swings by and swiftly inserts herself into their quiet household.  

Vahna (another incredible performance from horror gal, Katharine Isabelle) is clad in blonde dread locks, bohemian apparel and consistently ready to gulp down a bottle of wine when in close proximity. She set sights on the withdrawn Winthrop with eerie appeal and seduction, cruelly disrupting the quietness of his existence. To keep the darkness at bay, he finds tranquility in nightly walks, hoping to calm his buried trauma from erupting in front of Cousin Ellen and more so…onto this peculiar stranger.  

Visibly unsettled, Ellen starts to question whether she is capable of caring for Winthrop, especially as haunting images and disturbing sounds grow more incessant after Vahna’s intrusion. The creepy atmosphere intensifies quickly, drawing on Vahna’s strangeness and her fixation on Winthrop. As she divulges details of his past horrors, her witchiness sends him spiraling into fear.  

The plot veers sharply when Winthrop becomes the prime suspect in a shocking murder, rattling the town and accelerating his already simmering rage. His violent history provokes bloody visualizations of ferocious outbursts, causing Winthrop to eventually retreat from everything and everyone, to prevent further savagery. Unfortunately, his entire persona has shifted into a darker place where he dons a wig, women’s clothing and painted nails since the grisly killing took place.  

By this point, it is easy to grasp what is really unfolding within this isolated setting. With a Drag Me to Hell energy lingering in mind, the “host” chosen for the supernatural force feels more crass than clever. Still, the lack of originality dulls the film down once its predictable twist fails to shock.