The movie opens with a beautiful wedding scene, where the leads, Julianne, and her boyfriend,
Mitch, finally tie the knot.
After exchanging vows, Mitch expresses gratitude to Julianne's
mother for organizing the celebration. He also thanks his father for not being present
at his wedding, possibly due to their estranged relationship, or his father's busy work schedule.
Soon after the wedding, the newlyweds embark on a two-week honeymoon on a remote island.
The husband reveals that he discovered this hidden gem a year ago, during a hunting trip with his father.
In fact, the island lacks modern facilities such as electricity, television, internet and running water.
It turns out that they’ll be staying for two weeks at an old cottage, in the middle of a secluded lake.
Although a little worried about their isolated residence surrounded by water,
Julianne tries to settle in, and she finds comfort in Mitch's assurance that she will be safe.
Navigating through the waters by boat, the couple makes their way to the house they rented.
Despite Mitch's earlier guarantee, Julianne finds it difficult to get in touch with her
mother because there's no phone service.
Mitch offers to return, but Julianne is eager to continue their journey despite the setback.
As they step into the rustic house, Julianne's gaze fixates on the inscriptions on the walls, written by SR.
Here she discovers a tradition where visitors mark their nights spent here with hash marks.
Everything appears normal, until the following day, when Julianne awakens to witness
Mitch putting his truck keys in a safe box, holding the key near him like a locket.
Instead of questioning him, Julianne dismisses it and continues to cherish her time with her beloved.
Being an art student, Julianne immerses herself in drawing; she wants to focus on
her art studies before having a kid, and Mitch, being the understanding husband that he is, supports her decision.
There's a scene where Julianne tries to step into the water, but she
seems too frightened to go any further, so she decides to go back to the cabin.
One day, when Mitch invites her to join him in the water, she declines,
citing concerns about spoiling her makeup.
But when Mitch insists, she agrees to rest on a raft.
As time passes, Julianne slips into slumber, unaware of the impending danger.
Mitch heads inside the house to tend to some tasks, while we can see that the raft begins to leak.
A frightening ordeal unfolds as Julianne unknowingly falls into the water, struggling to stay afloat.
Mitch acts swiftly, rescuing her from the depths. It is then that Julianne
discloses her fear of water and inability to swim, and so, Mitch expresses regret,
stating he would have never brought her to this place if he had known about her phobia.
The next day brings an air of strangeness as Julianne confronts Mitch about the locked safe
box, and the reason behind securing his truck keys. Mitch brushes it off as a security measure,
but annoyance creeps into his tone as he rebukes her, arguing that he never questioned her makeup
choices, so she shouldn't interfere in his matters. Feeling upset by his odd behaviour,
Julianne retreats inside the house, while Mitch, recognizing his mistake,
endeavours to make amends and expresses his apology by constructing an easel for her.
Afterwards, Julianne joins him in venturing into the woods for a hunting expedition.
She even proposes a trip to the nearby town for shopping and to contact her mother.
However, Mitch seems preoccupied and disregards her conversation,
focusing instead on setting up an animal trap.
He is then startled to discover that Julianne has vanished without a trace,
and he frantically searches for her, until he stumbles upon her gathering flowers.
Mitch leads her back to the house, and abandons their hunting plans.
Julianne seems to be unable to sleep,
as if she's already bored and lost in that place.
The next day, she brings up the topic of returning home,
stating that ten days spent in the area's natural beauty is more
than enough. Expressing her excitement to start their life together, she urges Mitch to leave as
she also misses her mother, but to her surprise, Mitch bluntly responds that they cannot go back,
until their two-week honeymoon period is over. Julianne struggles to understand Mitch's behaviour
as she continues insisting on going home, which leads Mitch to explode in anger, blaming her and
her mother for ruining their honeymoon. Asserting that she must obey his orders, Mitch storms off
to check his traps, enraging Julianne.
Desperate to retrieve the truck keys locked in a safe box,
she vents her frustration by throwing things around to calm herself down.
After recognizing his mistake,
Mitch returns to the house and sincerely apologizes to Julianne for his rude behaviour.
However, the next day presents another challenge when Julianne realizes that her birth control
pills are missing from her bags. She confronts Mitch about it, but he is equally clueless.
This sparks another heated argument between them, with Julianne insisting they return home
since she cannot live without her pills, but Mitch believes being married means they can take chances
on starting a family. As Julianne persists in her desire to return, Mitch's tone turns threatening,
and he commands that Julianne listen to him and tells her that they are not leaving.
Witnessing a significant change in Mitch's behaviour, Julianne finally realizes that
she must leave the place in order to maintain her sanity. While Mitch heads out for hunting,
she attempts to escape by stepping into the water, but her phobia prevents her from
executing her plan.
The following morning, Mitch wakes up to discover Julianne nowhere to be found, but as he goes
outside, he notices his wife fishing by herself, unaware that her wife is planning to escape.
Taking advantage of her absence, he steals her artwork and tries to lock it away in the safe box,
but Julianne arrives just in time and catches him red-handed.
Among her other paintings, she notices
a drawing of a bird on a tissue paper from the restaurant she used to go with her ex-boyfriend, Anthony.
Considering that she and Mitch met outside that restaurant while he was waiting for
a bus, Julianne suspects that it was not a mere coincidence, but that Mitch had been stalking her.
Mitch defends himself by claiming that Julianne is a beautiful girl, and admits
to seeing her near the restaurant a couple of times but denies any intent of stalking her.
As it turns out, they've been out of town for 14 days, which causes another argument
in which Julianne insists they go back to their house. However, Mitch again refuses,
and it is at this point that Julianne points out that Anthony is better than him.
Mitch's anger is triggered, and he resorts to physical abuse, pushing Julianne to the breaking point.
Julianne strikes him on the head with a bottle, seizes the phone, and escapes to
the woods using the boat. But here we see that Mitch is still able to walk and is even pursuing
her by swimming.
Unfortunately, her attempt to call her mother is failed as the phone's battery dies,
leaving her with no choice but to flee as far away from the woods as possible.
Along the way, she discovers a grave, without knowing who was buried there.
She then hears her husband shouting for her, so she hides behind a tree.
But unfortunately, Mitch eventually locates her,
and so Julianne pretends to be lost, portraying her actions as a result of a mental breakdown.
During the night, while Julianne is unaware and asleep, Mitch seizes the opportunity
to sabotage their chances of leaving the island, by deliberately sinking the boat.
The following day, when Julianne asks about the boat, he casually mentions that it may have sunk.
Filled with anger, Julianne starts painting when she notices a boat cushion floating in the water.
Viewing it as a potential flotation device, she discreetly attempts to retrieve it using
a fishing cord, taking advantage of Mitch's distraction as he practices
playing the guitar. Although Mitch becomes suspicious of her actions,
Julianne successfully conceals the boat cushion before he can intervene.
On the same day, Mitch
takes his truck keys and makes his way towards the town, claiming that he has some work there.
However, his true intention is to visit the grave Julianne had previously encountered.
In a daring move to obtain the truck keys, Julianne spends the night with Mitch, waiting
for him to fall asleep. Seizing the opportunity, she steals the key and successfully opens the safe box.
To her surprise, she finds a letter inside that turns out to be the house deed, proving that
Mitch is the sole owner of the property, and the earlier inscriptions she questioned were merely
his last name, SR. Without wasting any time, she grabs the keys and heads towards the woods using
the boat cushion as a floatation device.
However, upon reaching the truck, Julianne encounters a setback when it fails to start.
She notices a flashlight from a distance, which makes her anxious because she knows
Mitch is closing in on her.
Then, right in front of the window, Mitch appears.
Armed with Mitch's gun, she commands him to fix the vehicle. Unfortunately, the situation takes
a drastic turn for the worse when Mitch distracts her. And then all of a sudden,
The following day, Julianne awakens to find herself chained to a tree on the island, facing a
disturbing transformation in Mitch's demeanour. He starts tearing apart the floatation device, while
revealing the truth about his home and father. It is disclosed that Mitch's father constantly
pressured him to find the right partner and start a family. One day, during a hunting trip,
his father's continuous demands push Mitch to the brink of rage, leading him to commit a horrific
act, murdering his own father. He buried the body near the island so he and his wife could
be close to his deceased father. He continues to vent his anger by
destroying her belongings, discarding her painting tools, and burning her easel,
while Julianne can be seen sitting under the scorching sun crying over her fate.
As her behavior becomes increasingly irrational, Julianne realizes with growing certainty that it
was all a planned abduction. She suspects that Mitch knew her cell phone would not work and that
she could not swim. While Mitch does not deny these allegations, he remains steadfast in his
claim that he loves her and always will.
As rain starts to fall, Julianne desperately pleads with
Mitch to let her go, using his professed love for her as an appeal. However, the psycho guy remains
determined to stay on this secluded island for the rest of their lives and raise a family together.
Despite the bleak situation, Julianne refuses to lose hope and devises a plan to escape.
She deliberately sets the matchstick box on fire, hoping to manipulate Mitch into going to town for
supplies, which would allow her to strategize and make her escape. Initially resistant,
Mitch eventually relents when he realizes they have no means to start a fire without the matches.
With Mitch gone, Julianne seizes the chance to reclaim her freedom. Using a fishing net,
she retrieves an axe she had spotted earlier in the water, and uses it to cut through the chain
that had kept her tethered to the tree. Next, she retrieves the hidden raft, which she had
concealed using a rock to keep it from floating away. Patching any potential leaks with bandages,
she successfully inflates the raft, and sets out on her journey towards the wood.
The events unfold with Mitch's truck breaking down, which gives him the idea to use the car
lighter as an alternative to matchsticks.
Meanwhile, Julianne steals the animal trap,
and strategically sets it near the house. Before Mitch returns home, she manages to make
her way back to the chair where he had left her.
When Mitch arrives, he shares the idea of using a
lit cigarette instead of matchsticks for starting fires. Learning that the truck broke down,
Julianne questions what they would do in case of an emergency, to which Mitch
calmly assures her that nothing will happen to anyone.
In an attempt to conceal her escape,
Julianne instructs Mitch to go inside and light another cigarette. However, tensions escalate
when Mitch discovers water on the chair, providing evidence of Julianne's escape.
His suspicions are confirmed when he spots the raft on the shore.
This time, he does not engage in an argument, but becomes highly abusive. In her search for a
means of self-defence, Julianne rushes into the house, closely pursued by Mitch. She is thrown
out of the house, leaving her vulnerable and in need of a more effective strategy.
As Mitch violently assaults Julianne, he accidentally steps into the animal trap.
After taking the key from his neck, Julianne heads inside the house to acquire the gun,
but Mitch regains consciousness and pulls the chain to overpower Julianne.
And just as Mitch attempts to stab her,
she ends up shooting Mitch's hand with the shotgun.
Weakened and fallen to the ground, Mitch is rendered incapacitated.
Instead of ending his life, Julianne unlocks the chain
and secures it around the gun, placing it near Mitch so he can choose to end his suffering.
She, however, cannot bring herself to do it.
Overcoming her fear of water, Julia wades
into the water and swims relentlessly until she reaches the opposite shore.
Later, she hears a gunshot, indicating that Mitch has killed himself, seemingly unable to cope with
the fact that he has lost Julianne forever due to his own abusive, controlling nature.
Afterwards, Julianne is seen smoking a cigarette. In a powerful final act, she tosses her wedding
ring into the truck, symbolizing her liberation from the torment she endured, and embarks on
her journey towards the town to reunite with her family after bearing weeks of anguish.