The film opens with a shot of a street in a suburban American neighborhood under murky
gray sky.
We are then shown a house, where a blonde young woman suddenly runs outside
and into the street.
She looks scared as she stops in the middle of the road and takes careful steps back.
A neighbor who is unloading her car asks her if she is okay and if she needs help but she
insists she is fine.
We learn that her name is Annie when her father calls her from in front the house.
She bolts back inside to get her keys and rushes to her car when she gets out again.
As she drives through the night, she keeps looking back, as if being followed.
She ends up parking her car on an empty sandy space by a body of water, and we see her slumped
down on the ground across from her car.
Her phone rings again and she finally picks up which is from her father.
She tells her dad she loves him and that she’s sorry for causing so much grief.
After that, the young woman lying dead on the beach
in the morning, her legs bloody and twisted in an unnatural manner.
The next scene shows a view of a similar suburban neighborhood, to a different young woman in
a swimsuit climbing into an above-ground swimming pool in her backyard.
This young woman is Jay.
She lies face up on the pool, staring at the sky looking relaxed.
Shortly after, her sister Kelly walks out of the house and calls the young woman.
Kelly informs her that their friends are at the house and asks Jay to
join them to watch a movie.
Jay declines, saying that she has a date.
Later, Jay returns to the house and finds Paul, Yara, and Kelly
watching a movie together.
Jay prepares for her date with a young man named Hugh she’s only come to know recently.
We then move to Jay and her date, waiting in line in front
of a movie theatre.
Jay proposes to play a game where they each quietly choose someone in the crowd, and the
other has to guess their pick.
Hugh plays along, and they keep up the game until they are sitting in their seats in the
movie theatre.
This time, it is Jay’s turn to pick someone and Hugh has to guess who.
Hugh guesses that it’s the girl in a yellow dress.
He then points at the entrance, and says that the little girl is standing there.
But Jay doesn’t see anyone.
Hugh, however, looks distraught and he suddenly asks Jay to leave the premises with him.
Jay asks him if he saw his ex-girlfriend or someone he knew in there and he says he just
felt sick and feels better being outside.
The two drive off the premises and end up having dinner at a restaurant.
We can see a figure on the parking lot outside, seemingly walking towards the
restaurant.
The next day, Jay and Kelly are shown walking on the sidewalk of the neighborhood and Kelly
asked how Hugh went.
Jay said he was acting weird, and that something seemed to be on his mind.
The two sisters pass by their neighbor Greg washing his car in front of his house,
and Kelly seems to have a crush on him.
At night, Jay goes on a date with Hugh again.
He takes her to the woods and they are shown sitting by a lake together.
They finally kiss and end up having sex in Hugh's car.
After, Jay lays down on her front across the back seat of his car while Hugh opens the
car door and walks to pick up something in the trunk.
He rounds the car and opens the other backseat door and crawls behind her, kissing her back
before slapping a piece of cloth against her mouth.
When Jay wakes up, she is tied up to a wheelchair in the middle of a deserted parking lot.
Hugh is in the background, holding a flashlight and walking around looking for something.
He tells her that he is sorry and that there is a ‘thing’ that he passed on to her
by having sex with her earlier.
The ‘thing’ will now follow Jay, and it can look like anyone; it can look like a stranger
in the crowd or someone Jay knows.
He knows he has to make Jay see ‘it’ for her to believe it.
He then points the flashlight outside the parking lot and says he finally sees it and
drags Jay’s wheelchair to that direction.
Jay sees a naked woman slowly walking towards the parking lot.
As the naked young woman walks closer, Hugh shines a flashlight on the naked woman and
tells Jay that ‘it’ is very slow but is not stupid, and therefore Jay needs to ensure
that she never goes to a place with only one exit.
As the creature walks closer, Hugh tries to check if his curse has been passed on to Jay.
Hugh drags the wheelchair away while explaining to Jay that no matter what she must not let
the ‘thing’ get to her, because if it kills her, it will come for him to kill him.
The two drive back and the young man drops Jays off in front of her house,
before driving away.
Paul, Yara, and Jay’s sister who are playing cards
then rush to Jay’s aid when they see her in such a state.
A few moments later, several police cars parked in front of Jay’s house.
Jay sits on the porch, wrapped in a blanket, and is being questioned by a police officer
about what happened.
The officer asks if the sex was consensual and if Jay knows the naked young woman she
saw.
They also ask if Jay knows where Hugh lives.
Jay says she does but she has never been inside.
Jay who is still in traumatized is admitted to the hospital, where a nurse
walking up to her seemingly to take an exam.
Meanwhile, at the same location where Hugh’s car was parked the night before,
a couple police officers standing around, the wheelchair is in sight.
Next, we see Jay’s mom conversing with Greg’s mom at the dining table.
The mother says that apparently Jay’s date was renting a place under a fake name in the
city and has now fled.
Jay who is getting well can now returns to her college again,
while Greg who is in the same class as her, is keeping an eye on her.
She looks outside the window and sees an old lady in the distance, slowly
walking towards her.
As the old lady gets closer and closer, Jay begins to sense that something is off and
bolts out of the classroom.
Out in the halls, Jay sees the old lady again, now closer than ever.
Jay visits an ice cream parlor, where Paul and Kelly work.
In the back room, Jay tells them about the old woman who followed her and that she is
freaked out.
She tells them what Hugh told her, about how he ‘passed it on’ to her and that from
that point on, the creature is going ‘to follow’ Jay.
Kelly is skeptical and told Jay to not believe it because it’s all bullshit.
Paul seems less skeptical, though, and asks Jay what exactly is supposed to be following
Jay.
He then suggests that he should stay over at Jay’s place to keep watch,
which Jay agrees.
Later that night, Jay goes downstairs and tells Paul she can’t sleep.
They then bring up their childhood memories of each other, including Jay's first kiss with Paul.
They proceed to reminisce about the past, only interrupted when they hear the sound
of a window break.
Paul goes to check it out and returns to say there is no one there.
He then goes upstairs to wake Kelly and leaves Jay alone.
Jay who is curious tries to walk around the house to check things out for herself.
She then sees a figure of a disheveled-looking young woman, liquid streaming down her legs.
Jay screams and decides to run upstairs.
She hears knocks, followed by Kelly and Paul’s voices asking her what’s up.
They convince Jay to open the door and let them in.
Jay does, and Kelly tries to calm Jay down.
Another knock is heard, and someone seems to be trying to twist the doorknob.
They ask who it is but hear no answer.
Turns out it is only Yara, but then a really tall man sneaks up behind Yara and walks past
her, into the room, towards Jay.
She takes off with a bicycle while the neighbor Greg, who is inside his car with a lady notices
Jay fleeing.
Jay stops by the park and sits on a swing alone.
Paul, Yara, and Kelly soon come running towards her.
A man in a hoodie is then shown walking towards them and Jay asks if they could see him.
(Kelly says she does.)
Turns out it is the neighbor, Greg.
He asks what happened and they told him someone broke into the house.
Jay says that she needs to find Hugh.
Greg offers that they should take his car.
Together, the five of them cram into Greg’s car and drive off to Hugh’s house.
Hugh’s house looks unmaintained and all the windows are boarded shut.
There is a lack of furniture and there are cans and bottles hanged by the windows.
The wall in the closet can be knocked down to escape to the other room.
There is a mattress on the second floor, and a pile of pornographic magazines.
Paul checks it out and finds a picture of a young couple wearing high school sports
jerseys.
Paul asks if this is Hugh.
(Jay says yes.)
They both recognize the high school emblem as Lawson High School.
The group goes to visit Lawson High School to ask around and they learn that Hugh’s
real name is Jeff Raymond.
They figured out his address and head to his parents’ house.
It turns out that Jeff is home.
They sit in a circle and Jeff tells her that although ‘it’ is not chasing Jeff anymore,
he can still see it and that Jay should consider passing it on.
Greg doesn’t believe Jeff and tells him it’s all bullshit.
On their drive away from Jeff’s house, Kelly asks Jay to consider Jeff’s suggestion to
pass it on by having sex with someone else.
Jay says she still isn’t sure.
The group decides to hide away in Greg’s family’s lake house.
In the morning, Greg goes to retrieve a gun from the shed, and the next scene shows Jay
target practicing with Greg by his side.
Later, the group is seen chilling by a lake.
Greg goes away to the tall grass to take a piss and we see a woman in the distance, walking
towards Jay who is unaware as she is facing the lake.
Jay who has broken free makes a dash to the shed, where the gun is.
When Jay looks back, the figure now takes the shape of Yara.
The real Yara, Paul, and Jay’s sister follow Jay into the shed.
Jay manages to shoot the creature and it falls to the ground, but it gets up again right
after.
Scared, Jay slams the door closed and locks it, but then sees that the creature has taken
the form of the very tall man again and now begins pounding on the door.
The confused Greg appears on the gaping hole and asks what’s going on.
Paul, Yara, and Jay’s sister, who now believe Jay, ask him to not open the door.
Greg insists that there is no one around and goes away, presumably to go look.
Jay calls for Greg but hears no answer so she crawls back towards the door, but is stopped
when she sees the creature crawling through the door.
Jay takes Greg’s car and escapes the premises and hits the road.
She swerves the car sharply to the tall grass by the side of the road, trying to avoid a
truck backing up, and passes out.
After that, Jay wakes up with a cast on her arm and a bandage on her temple in a hospital bed.
She watches the open door fearfully then shifts her gaze to the sleeping Greg.
Later that night, Jay and Greg are alone in the hospital room.
The shirtless Greg steps into Jay’s bed and they have sex but Jay looks dispassionate.
The next scene shows Greg sitting at an outdoor cafeteria, spending time with his college
friends.
He then goes to visit Jay at the hospital and we see Paul staring from the distance,
looking morose.
Greg tells Jay that he’s been looking but he hasn’t seen the creature in the past
three days and he doesn’t think it’s following him.
After a few days, Jay has now been released from hospital.
She is treading the pool, though still with a cast on her arm.
On the porch, Paul, Yara, and Jay’s sister are approached by Greg, and Greg asks if he
could see Jay.
Kelly says no, and that Jay has been locking herself in her room.
Paul asks if Greg has seen the creature but he says no, and reveals that he doesn’t
believe it exists.
At night, we see Jay alone in her room, staring out of the window, at the view of Greg’s
house.
She then sees Greg walking on the sidewalk, towards his home.
Jay knocks on her window to get Greg’s attention but he doesn’t respond, prompting her to
realize that it isn’t Greg, it’s the creature.
The creature then picks up a rock and break the window instead, before jumping in.
Jay tries calling Greg but he doesn’t pick up.
She then run across the street to Greg’s house and goes upstairs to find the creature
is now shaped like Greg’s mom, wearing nothing but a bathrobe and is knocking on Greg’s
door.
Greg opens it, and the creature jumps at Greg, knocking him over.
Jay approaches the room and sees the creature grinding against the dead Greg.
She runs for her life and takes off with her car.
She parks in the woods and falls asleep on the hood of her car.
In the morning, she wakes up and treads through the trees until she arrives by a body of water.
She sees a motorboat with three men on top of it and takes off her shirt.
She walks into the water and we can assume that she really wants to pass her curse on
to those three men.
However, the scene then cuts to Jay as she pulls her car in the driveway of her house.
Next, we can see that Yara and Kelly sleeping on the bed, seemingly after a sleepover,
and Jay sleeping on the floor.
She wakes up when she hears knocks on the door which turns out to be Paul.
She lets him in and tells him that ‘it’ is going to come for her soon.
Paul suggests that she should pass it on to him, and asks her why she passed it on to
Greg instead.
Jay says she thought Greg could handle it.
Paul then moves to kiss her but she refuses.
He then asks her if she trusts him and asks if she remembers about the place they were
in the first time they kissed, which was a swimming pool.
Paul, Yara, Kelly, and Jay pile up into a single car and drive off to the swimming pool.
As the car drives off Jay sees the creature standing on the roof of her house and staring
at her, this time in the form of a naked man.
The group is then seen walking with suitcases through a neighborhood, they cross a vast
yard and climb the fence into a huge building.
They pass through a hallway surrounded with pipes, and enter the swimming pool area.
They begin opening their suitcases and set up their planned traps, that involve an array
of electronic appliances.
They set these electronic appliances by the pool and plug in the cables.
The group then sits and waits while Jay climbs in the pool.
A storm rages outside while they wait.
The creature finally enters the room and Kelly asks Jay to point at it.
Jay refuses to tell them what shape the creature has taken now.
It turns out that the creature doesn’t jump in the pool, and instead begin hurling the
electronic appliances by the side of the pool at Jay.
The creature doesn’t get electrocuted, meaning that the plan didn’t work.
Jay then gets hit by the side of the head by one of the appliances and is now bleeding.
Paul grabs the gun and wants to shoot it but doesn’t know where it is so he asks Jay
to keep pointing.
He begins shooting, accidentally hitting Yara in the leg.
He shoots again and this time manages to hit it but not quite stopping it.
Kelly takes a towel and throws it over the creature, and Paul shoots it in the head causing
the creature to drop into the pool.
Jay swims away and attempts to get out of the pool right when the creature pulls her
down.
She struggles to come back up.
Paul shoots at the water and manages to hit the creature in the head again.
Jay now safely climbs out of the pool, and when she looks back inside, she sees that
the water is gradually turning red with blood.
After everything has been done, Paul and Jay have sex in the house, just to make sure
that Jay will be save after this.
He then asks her if she feels any different and she says no.
Jay asks him back and he says no as well.
Paul is then seen driving around a sketchy part of the neighborhood, where he passes
two prostitutes and seems to ponder.
The film ends with Paul and Jay seen walking hand in hand on the sidewalk of the neighborhood,
while a figure is seen walking towards them in the background.