In the cornfields of a small Midwestern town, a creature known as Sawtooh Jack wakes up every
Halloween and tries to make it to the local church. The locals know they must stop him if
they don’t want a disaster to happen, so they have a traditional ritual they repeat every year called
“the Run”. All the town’s teenage boys must go after Sawtooh Jack and kill him before midnight,
then everyone gets to eat the candy hiding in his body among the organs. Whoever kills Sawtooh Jack
is considered a hero and wins a house for his family, twenty-five thousand dollars, a car,
and permission to leave town, which usually is forbidden. They also think it blesses the
harvest. Girls aren’t allowed to join the Run, and each family can only send one son. In 1962,
a group of masked boys go out to hunt for the monster. One of them is standing alone on the
road, very scared and unsure of how to proceed. Suddenly Sawtooh Jack appears behind him and the
boy screams as he gets killed. Moments later, the boys find the burning body of their friend
and see Sawtooh Jack standing in the middle of the cornfield. A furious Jim immediately starts
chasing after him and when the monster is about to reach the church, Jim catches up to him and beats
him up to death. Then he grabs some candy from Jack’s body and after the others do the same,
they howl and celebrate Jim’s victory. Afterward, the Harvester’s Guild throws a Halloween party to
celebrate another successful Run and Jim is given all his prizes. His younger brother Richie asks
him to take him with him, but Jim just offers a hug and an “I love you” before leaving town in his
brand new car. A year later, Sheriff Jerry shows up at the school five days before Halloween to
remind the teens how important the Run is, showing pictures of the year they didn’t kill Sawtooth
Jack and the black duster destroyed their crops. Jim is often brought up as an example of a hero,
which irritates Richie, who wants to join the Run and can’t because of the rules. Riley makes fun
of him for wanting to volunteer when the others actually have no choice in the matter. Some of
the teens think that Sawtooth Jack isn’t real and is just an adult in costume, but Bud swears he saw
him outside his window when he was a kid. Riley makes fun of him too and this triggers a fight,
but the adults quickly break it up. After class is over, Riley tries to follow Richie down the
street to finish the fight, so Richie hides inside a movie theatre. There he meets Kelly,
who is new in town. They chat a bit and hit it off but when Richie asks her to the Halloween dance,
she explains she isn’t allowed to go because she’s black. Richie promises that he’ll change that rule
when he wins this year’s Run. Then he meets with his best friends Bud and Mitch, who heard
some nasty rumors about Kelly, but Richie doesn’t believe them. His friends also convince him that
he’s faster than his brother so he should break the rules and join the Run anyway. In the evening,
Richie goes home and his parents Dan and Donna hand him a postcard from Jim, who they haven’t
seen since he won the Run. Richie informs his parents that he’ll join the Run regardless of
the rules and an argument ensues during which Dan slaps his own son. This only makes Richie angrier
and he tells his parents they can’t stop him. He runs to his room and escapes through the window
to meet with Jim’s ex and spend the night smoking. Meanwhile in the cornfields, the Farmer approaches
an empty scarecrow stand and proceeds to carve a pumpkin. Then he climbs the stand which isn’t
empty anymore: now Sawtooth Jack is there wearing the pumpkin as a head. The next day, Riley finds
Richie and starts beating him up before stealing his belt. This a beloved memory of Jim because the
brothers used to wear matching belts, so a furious Richie tries to defend himself with a knife,
however Riley just beats him up again and leaves. Richie decides to go home and finds a letter from
his brother in the mail. Jim apologizes for not contacting the family sooner and asks Richie not
to join the run because their parents need him. Tired of being treated like a baby, Richie decides
to steal a car and get out of town. However as soon as he reaches the open road and crosses
the bridge, Jerry blocks his way. Richie tries to run away, but he barely gets to leave the car when
Jerry knocks him out. That night, all the parents lock up their kids in their rooms so they can’t
run and hide to avoid joining the Run. The boys hit the doors and the walls in desperation and
ask for food or a bathroom break, but their pleas are ignored. They must spend three days like that,
it’s a method to drive them crazy and make them hungry for the Run. When Halloween night finally
arrives, the Farmer fills up Sawtooth Jack with candy and cuts his ropes so he’s ready to go. In
town, all the teenage boys are finally released so they can take the streets and start the Run.
Richie wakes up in his bedroom and finds Dan telling him about a good job offer for his future,
but Richie only wants the Run. Both Dan and Donna try to stop him from leaving, but their pleas
fall on deaf ears and Richie leaves the house. Meanwhile Bud, Charlie, and Mitch take a truck
to do the Run with an advantage. Some boys accuse them of cheating, but Mitch quickly intimidates
them until they go away. At that moment Richie finally joins them, but before they can leave,
the mean group comes back and starts damaging the truck. Once again, Mitch keeps them at bay
and Richie distracts them with some food, then the boys finally drive away. On their way out of town,
they put on some masks and notice that the butcher is keeping hungry boys away by standing guard with
a weapon in hand. Other boys also throw things at the truck for seeing it as cheating. When
they reach the cornfields, most of the group is excited but Bud is terrified because he still
remembers the day he saw Sawtooth Jack outside his window. Unlike his friends, he doesn’t want
to do this. Suddenly, the truck hits something on the road and Mitch has to stop it to avoid
crashing. The truck won’t start, so they get out and take a look only to find the road empty. Then
they notice there’s candy near the cornfield and rush to start eating it, thinking the truck had
hit Sawtooth Jack and they’ve already killed him. However a noise makes them turn and they discover
Sawtooth Jack is actually waiting in the middle of the field. The boys run towards him, but just
in a matter of seconds, the monster kills Charlie and Bud. When Mitch tries to look for the bodies,
he gets killed as well. Afterward, Sawtooth Jack stares at Richie and roars at him, causing the boy
to start running away. He doesn’t stop until he finds the empty stand and is shocked to find Kelly
there, who is breaking the rules just like him. To Richie’s surprise, they also see Bud running
by. It turns out he had only been pretending to be dead to get out of this, and he rushes
back to town. However when he tries to enter his own house, his parents don’t let him in and tell
him to be a man because they need the money. While considering what to do, Bud is suddenly approached
by Sawtooth Jack so he starts running until he finds a shelter where some boys are hiding. They
want to charge him actual cash to let him in, but Bud doesn’t have any on him right now. The teens
start arguing over whether they should open or not, but when they suddenly hear lots of yelling,
a boy ignores the protests and opens the door anyway only to find Sawtooth Jack killing Bud.
On a window nearby, a little child screams as he sees Sawtooth Jack enter the shelter and kill all
the teens, causing a shower of blood to come out of the door. Back to Richie and Kelly, they agree
to work together, but they’ll need better weapons. They return to town and sneak into Jerry’s house
to steal a gun and some beer. While they’re there, Richie is shocked to see his dad looking scared
and knocking desperately at Jerry’s door, but he leaves when nobody answers. While Dan looks
for Jerry in a neighbor’s house, Richie and Kelly steal the police car as well. By the time Jerry
comes out to yell at Dan, the kids are driving off and he only gets to shoot a window. Richie and
Kelly hear a report on the car’s radio about the monster being seen downtown so they head there. On
the main street, chaos has taken over as the teens break into stores to steal all the food they can
find. The butcher tries to defend his business and even kills a few boys, but they overpower
him and beat him to death before stealing his meat as well. Richie and Kelly are horrified by
what they see, but before they can leave, they’re found by Riley, who makes fun of Kelly for being
a girl in the Run and uses a slur to refer to her skin. Riley’s gang buddy grabs Kelly, but Richie
finally is angry enough to stand up for himself and beats both dudes down before threatening them
with the gun. Kelly takes the chance to hit them with her club too and before they leave,
Richie takes back his belt. Meanwhile the rest of the boys are starting to really lose it and even
kill each other. Soon Sawtooth Jack finds a trio wandering alone and attacks again. Not far from
there, Richie tells Kelly of the bad rumors he’s heard about her and that he doesn’t believe them,
but Kelly confirms he did burn down an old guy’s barn because he was a racist prick. Richie shares
that he misses his brother and they haven’t heard from him except for the occasional postcard,
and Kelly confesses her parents are dead. Their conversation is interrupted when they hear another
report on the radio: apparently Sawtooth Jack was seen on Oak Street. The duo leaves in that
direction without knowing the report is fake and Jerry is setting up a trap. Once they reach Oak
Street, they find a statue covered with blood before Sawtooth Jack appears in front of them.
Richie rushes to confront the monster, but he freezes when he notices Jack is wearing
his brother’s belt. Kelly cuts in to hit the creature with her club, but Sawtooth Jack hits
her back and disappears while Richie checks on her. At that moment a neighbor comes out and
makes them leave by threatening to shoot. The duo makes it back to the car and are found by Jerry,
who points his gun at Richie through the window. He insults Kelly’s parents and reveals he killed
them when they tried to leave the town. Furious, Kelly starts hitting him and causes him to shoot
his gun, the shot ends up grazing the side of her head. Richie immediately pushes Jerry away and the
duo leaves the car to escape. In the meantime, Sawtooth Jack goes to Jim’s old house and sees
all the messages on the wall from the three days Jim had been locked down in his room before the
Run. Screeching at the sight, the monster burns the whole building down. Not far from there, Dan
meets with Jerry and tells him he can’t do this. However Jerry yells at him, explaining that the
year they didn’t do the ritual, he lost a beloved relative, so this town needs to be brave and do
what it needs to be done. Dan cries but can’t fight against a cop. Moments later, they arrive at
Richie’s home, where Donna is clearly spaced out because she took too much medicine. Richie starts
asking questions about the previous winners, and they all have a similar future: they either went
far away and haven’t contacted their families, or they died in accidents. Getting suspicious, Richie
guesses that Donna wrote the postcards and the letter, not Jim. He begs his mother for the truth,
but Donna says this has to end and self-deletes instead. Her words confirm Richie’s suspicions:
the winners aren’t living a great life somewhere fancy, they’re sacrificed so that Sawtooth Jack
can return in their bodies the following year. Kelly wants to leave town but Richie refuses,
saying he must put an end to this. Downtown, the locals panic over the huge fire at Jim’s
old house. Jerry is approached by Riley, who tells him he saw Sawtooth Jack nearby, so Jerry pulls
him into the car and gives him his gun with the hope of making him this year’s winner. Richie and
Kelly go to the church to wait for Sawtooth Jack and are surprised to find Dan inside. An argument
ensues as Richie calls his father a monster, but Dan swears no parent knows anything until
their son wins. Then they’re sworn to secrecy by the Jerry and Harvester’s Guild, who would kill
them if they tried to leave or told anyone. Dan wants Richie to leave and let him do the fighting,
but he has a breakdown when he hears his wife is dead. At that moment, the church’s bell starts
ringing and Sawtooth Jack appears outside. Richie rushes to receive him and calls him “Jim”, showing
he means no harm. Unfortunately Riley arrives and shoots the monster, so Kelly runs to hit him while
Richie cradles Jack in his arms. Jerry cuts in as well and makes Riley try again, but after a second
shot, Richie keeps Riley at bay by threatening him with his own gun. To Richie’s shock, Sawtooth Jack
grabs his hand and turns it around as a plea to end his suffering. Wanting this to end too,
Richie apologizes to his brother and pulls the trigger. The boys rush to grab the candy and Jerry
congratulates him for his success, but Richie only feels numb. Later during the party, Richie
continues to be in a bad mood and ignores all the glee around him. However when he sees Kelly
arrive, he dances with her and kisses her, not caring about all the bigots judging them for being
an interracial couple. Kelly secretly gives him a gun and they agree to run away together later.
After the party, Richie leaves in his brand-new car and ignores Jim’s ex when she asks him to
take her with him. While Richie drives away, Dan approaches Jerry to try to shoot him for revenge,
but Jerry knocks him down. Moments later, Richie picks Kelly up and they start driving out of town.
Soon Jerry appears in the police car and starts chasing them so Richie tries to speed up, however
he almost crashes into another vehicle on the road and has to stop the car. Richie makes Kelly hide
then he gets out of the car, only for Jerry to make him walk into the cornfields at gunpoint.
When they make it to the empty stand, Richie suddenly turns around and shoots Jerry twice
to kill him. Unfortunately this isn’t over yet: the farmer shows up and hits Richie on the head
to make him fall on the grave he’s already dug. Richie takes out his knife and asks for mercy,
but the farmer breaks his hand and then starts burying him alive. After he’s finished, the farmer
leaves, revealing he had been in the vehicle that blocked Richie’s car. Once she’s sure she’s alone,
Kelly finally comes out of hiding and is found by Dan, who tells her to take the chance to
leave town. Crying her heart out, Kelly escapes without any more interruptions. A year later, the
farmer digs out Richie’s body and gets the pumpkin ready, which slowly becomes the boy’s new Sawtooth
Jack head. On Halloween night, Dan shows up and frees the monster, still calling him Richie. When
the farmer shows up, Dan kills him, then tells his monstrous son to burn the whole town down.