This movie is inspired by a true event. The film opens with a thrilling scene of
a young woman named Julie, running through the woods while a figure shoots at her.
The bullet misses and she keeps running, up until the bullets finally hit her again and again,
and she collapses to the ground.
The movie then takes us way back to the past,
to our main character, Julie, who gets pulled over by a cop because she was caught speeding.
The cop walks over to her, and introduces himself as David Barragan. We can clearly see that both
him and Julie are attracted to one another, as they keep flirting with each other throughout
this encounter. The officer kindly lets her off with a warning, and she resumes her way to work.
Julie works as a waitress in a small town diner to save up for college.
The patrons who frequent the establishment seems to like her,
one of them being Evelyn, who leaves Julie a $50 tip for being a bright and kind young woman.
That day, Tommy, the diner’s cook, decides to asks her out but she politely says no,
because she already has eyes for someone else who is none other than David Barragan the cop.
As if on cue, David walks into the diner. We learn that David just moved to town, so Julie
boldly asks him to show him around, to which he says yes. Later that evening, Julie and David
meet for their date, and he sweetly gifts her a music box before they proceed with their night.
During their date, as it turns out, Tommy the diner cook is also spending his evening at
the same place. Later that night, when Julie and David are flirting outside,
Tommy passes them, prompting David to ask Julie if something’s going on between them,
because Tommy kept staring at Julie the entire night. Julie is a bit surprise by the question,
and she insists that there's nothing between them. David then begins to tell her that he has a toxic
ex named Alicia who cheated on him, and so he doesn’t want another relationship like that.
He also voices that he wants to go steady with Julie and make things right this time. David and
Julie’s relationship then progresses, to the point that Julie decides to introduce him to her mom.
During dinner with Julie’s mom, David remains charming and pleasant,
he and Julie talk about how they first met. On the next scene, David takes Julie to his family
cabin in the woods just outside of town. They go through David’s family pictures,
and David tells her how hard his childhood was, because his father died when he was young
and his mom became emotionally unavailable. Growing up, the town’s sheriff, Chief Dodd,
was the one who took him in and raised him. At some point, they come across a picture of his ex
Alicia there, and David turns grim for a second, but luckily, Julie is there to calm him down.
One afternoon, Julie comes home from work and is surprised to find David there.
Apparently, he somehow made his way inside. Acting as if nothing is out of the ordinary, David
straight up tells Julie to watch out for Tommy the cook, because David is for some reason convinced
Tommy has bad intentions. Julie once again tells him not to worry and simply embraces him.
Things only go downhill from here: days go by, and we now see Julie babysitting
her best friend’s daughter, Kinsey. Suzanne the best friend leaves them alone, and later that night,
Julie suddenly hears a knock on the house's door, and it turns out to be David who looks agitated.
He starts scolding her for not checking her phone. This guy claims he’s been trying to call her,
and he’s so worried for her safety that he even tried reaching Julie’s mom to look for Julie. It
is at this point that David shows his true colors: which is someone overprotective and controlling.
He demands to always be informed in regards to Julie’s whereabouts, and promptly asks Julie
to leave with him now. Luckily, Julie’s best friend cuts in, so David relents and leaves.
On the next day, Julie talks to Suzanne about David, who sends her a bouquet of flowers to
apologize for his behavior the other night. And not long after, Julie hears the music box David
gave her start chiming.
She finds a note tucked on top of it saying that David is out in the backyard.
With disbelief, she goes out back to check things out,
and actually finds him there, meaning he once again snuck into her home unannounced.
Before giving her any chance to speak, he apologizes, and offers that they should
spend some time alone at the cabin again. Julie, however, seems reluctant, which grinds his gears.
Like a freak, he picks up a rake, and proceeds to passive aggressively love
bomb her while holding the rake to her throat, as if giving her a subtle threat.
After David leaves, she recounts to her mom about what just happened,
which prompts the mom to report it to David’s superior, who is none other than Chief Dodd,
the very man who raised David like his own son.
Chief Dodd confronts David about the report that he snuck inside Julie’s house, and threatened
her with a rake. David denies all the allegations, insisting that Julie was just being emotional,
and it was nothing but lover’s quarrel. When Chief Dodd lets him off the hook, David irritatedly
walks out, and comes across Gail, who clearly has a crush on him. She tells him to cheer up,
and not let a girl like Julie bring him down. On the next day, Julie is supposed to pick up her
best friend’s daughter, Kinsey from school, but she is unable to find her. Julie panics and begins
shouting Kinsey’s name. When she finally finds Kinsey, the little girl is standing next to David.
David gives Julie a serious look and begins to gaslight her,
saying that he’s offended because Julie has been spreading bad, untrue rumors about him sneaking
in and waving a rake around, all of which are untrue, according to him. Feeling threatened,
Julie begins walking away when just so happens, Chief Dodd suddenly arrives.
Seeing Julie looking upset, he goes up to David, and tells him that whatever is going
on between them, it is best that he stays away from Julie. David promises to heed this advice.
That evening after work, Julie hangs around with Tommy outside the diner. Seeing that she
looks distraught, Tommy tries asking her what’s going on but she doesn’t open up.
Julie then excuses herself, and is ready to head home: she enters her car and is about to
drive away, but out of nowhere, David shows up. He begins asking her to get back with him in a
threatening manner, before backing away because Julie does nothing but remain silent. When she
gets home, Julie reports the encounter to her mom, and her mom yet again calls Chief Dodd, but Dodd
tells the mom that David told him that he wasn't anywhere near the diner, and on top of that,
David’s co-worker, Gail, testified that David has been with her all night. Over the next few days,
Julie remains paranoid, afraid that David is going to show up and terrorize her, which actually
comes true because one day, Julie receives an email about college application withdrawal.
Confused, she calls the college and insists that she never asked to withdraw her college
application, but the college would not take her back, which frustrates and terrifies her.
She receives a series of emails from herself saying “I’m not going
anywhere.” To make matters worse,
when Julie goes to work that day, Evelyn, the old woman who was usually kind to her suddenly looks
uncomfortable and disappointed in her. She says that apparently she heard word from the townies
that Julie has drinking problems, and has been abusive towards David. Julie is understandably
appalled to hear this. Gail, David’s co-worker, approaches her next, and says David’s been hurting
himself and crying in her arms these past few nights because of Julie. Overhearing all this,
Tommy takes Julie outside the diner and tells her that something's not right;
he thinks somebody's after her, and she should take the gun inside his glovebox for her safety.
He then embraces her while she breaks down and cry.
Not willing to simply cave and fall victim to David’s torment,
Julie calls Suzanne who works for the DMV, and asks her help to find David’s ex, Alicia.
Once she finds the address, she decides to visit Alicia the ex. However, as soon as she meets her,
Alicia looks beyond scared when David’s name gets mentioned, and shuts the door, unwilling to help.
Julie sorrowfully begins to drive home, right when a truck shows up out of nowhere and rams into the
back of her car.
The truck proceeds to chase after Julie, until it speeds ahead and blocks the road,
prompting Julie to swerve her car to the right and crashes. As we’ve come to expect, the truck
driver was David. He comes up to her, pulls out his gun, and voices that he’s furious because
Julie went to see Alicia. So that the townsfolk would buy his story that Julie is an alcoholic,
he pours whiskey inside her car, then forcibly pulls her out of the car.
He takes her inside his truck and begins driving. Now absolutely terrified of what he might do,
Julie begins apologizing to him to diffuse the tension. On the way, she sees two young boys
hanging by the side of the road, and mouths the words ‘help me’ as the truck drives by.
David finally parks the truck in the middle of nowhere, and leads her outside.
As if nothing wrong ever happened between them, David proposes to her, while Julie decides to
play along by saying yes. Now over the moon, David begins reminiscing about his memories
spent in the woods with Chief Dodd, and how much he loves the wilderness. While he’s distracted,
Julie slowly steps back, seizing the opportunity to get away from him.
Infuriated, David pulls out his gun, and begins shooting while she runs deeper and
deeper into the woods. Here the scene from the beginning of the movie is shown to us once more.
Julie gets shot twice, and collapses to the ground.
Afterwards, he walks up to her to check on her unmoving body before walking away.
On the next day, Julie’s mom has reported her missing, and her car was found unlocked,
but her body isn’t anywhere to be found. The small town is rattled by this news. Chief Dodd summons
an Investigator who we shall refer to as Sergeant Miller, to help with the case. From the get go,
we can see that Sergeant Miller is suspicious of David , because David is close to Julie. Sergeant
Miller starts to tell Chief Dodd that Davis has something to do with Julie's disappearance as
the two were close, but Chief Dodd doesn’t think David is a potential suspect since Julie is also
known to exaggerate. Back to Julie, as it turns out, she's still alive after being shot twice.
She struggles to get up, and sees a couple of hunters pass but is too weak to ask for help.
While she lies on the ground, she reminisces past memories about her loving mother,
and regains her strength with the sheer power of love. As if they share some sort
of telepathic connection, on the other side of town Julie’s mother suddenly wakes up,
and rushes to the police station. She comes face to face with Sergeant Miller, and insists that
she knows that Julie is alive, claiming that she woke up from a dream vividly hearing her voice.
David overhears this conversation and panics; he decides to head back to the woods. He finds
dried blood on the ground, meaning that Julie must still be alive and is somewhere in these woods.
While he looks for her, he accidentally comes across Sergeant Miller, who is surprised to find
him there because David was supposed to join a search party with the other cops on the other
side of town. David plays it cool and tells Sergeant he’s just remembered that Julie loved to come here,
and thought he might be able to find something.
Sergeant Miller tells him that he's got this area covered, and that David should go back to town.
It appears that David can’t keep his secret much longer,
because the two boys that Julie mouthed ‘help me’ to decide to report what they saw to the police.
After hearing the report, Deputy Dodd decides to confront David himself by
coming over to his house, but finds that David isn’t there.
On the next scene, Sergeant Miller proceeds to interview Alicia the ex, and here we learn that
apparently, David is now missing, which raises suspicion so the police would appreciate any info
on his whereabouts. Alicia fearfully tells him that David owns a cabin in the woods,
which he might be hiding in. After learning this, Sergeant Miller meets with Julie’s mom
and they decide to check out the cabin together because she insists on coming with.
As it turns out, David really is hiding out in his cabin. However, he’s not going to stay
safe and sound for much longer, as he finds the music box he gave Julie suddenly up and turning.
Realizing that he’s not alone, he pulls his gun out and begins exploring the cabin,
right when Julie suddenly slashes him w a rake and injures him badly before hiding again.
At the same time, Chief Dodd arrives, prompting David to step outside. Dodd expresses that
David is like a son to him and he doesn’t wanna do this, but he has to arrest David.
Feeling betrayed, David shoots him in the hand.
He then returns inside, and continues to search for Julie, until this happens:
David falls to the ground, while Julie stands over him and picks up hunting rifle.
Despite his painful condition, David says that he'll never stop doing what
he did. Julie points the gun at him, but upon discovering that it isn’t loaded,
she moves to stab him on the chest with it, which kills him.
The sun has risen when Julie walks out of the cabin,
while Chief Dodd is still alive, but bleeding out on the ground. Just in time, Sergeant Miller
and Julie’s mom arrive and the two are saved.
The film ends with a fact about the real events that inspired the story depicted in the movie.