A strange, somewhat sinister man pulls up to an isolated bar. The man, Avery, considers the place and enters. The bar is a dive, scattered with patrons. “Doesn’t look like the center of evil,” he says to himself. Meanwhile, somewhere in the woods, an injured and unconscious girl sprawls on the ground. She wakes with a start. In the bar, Avery is getting under the skin of the bar owner, Don, and his friend Lowell. After insulting the decor, he launches into various wry declarations, listing the killers that have been rumored to frequent the place. He names Ted Bundy, and then speculates if Kenny Bianchi, the Hillside Strangler, might have used the same glass he’s holding. When he brings up the Washington sniper, the bartender Melanie confides that John Allen Muhammad often came there. Outside, the injured girl staggers along the edge of the highway. A passing car ignores her. Back at the bar, the place is clearing out as a storm front moves in. Avery quizzes Lowell, asking if he has any idea why serial killers are drawn to the place. Lowell is reluctant to be drawn in, while Don and Avery trade barbs. Suddenly, the girl stumbles through the door and collapses. Don recognizes the girl, Tara, as they tend to her on a table. When Avery takes her picture, he and Don nearly come to blows. Lowell tries to call the police, and announces that the advancing storm has knocked the lines out. Taking charge, Don tells Lowell to go for help. Outside, Lowell desperately tries to start his pick-up in the parking lot and in doing so floods the engine. In the bar, Avery sets Don off again, commenting on the “pretty girl” before them. Don knocks him to the ground. Avery confesses that he’s a journalist checking out the bar for a story and doesn’t mean any harm. With Lowell’s truck out of commission, Avery offers to go for help but Don refuses. Avery then offers his keys to Don, who takes his car to get the local doctor. After Don leaves, Lowell ties Avery to a chair in the storage room. Lowell returns to the front, where Melanie sits somberly by the girl. As Lowell consoles her, she tells him that she never feels safe anymore. Don arrives at Doc Ryan’s house. He explains what has happened and she hurries to call 911. He tells her not to bother since the lines are out. When she says she was just on the phone, Don realizes that something is even more seriously amiss than he’d imagined. At the bar, Lowell turns the tables on Avery, taking the camera from his pocket. “This is a great story,” he announces, taking a picture, then viciously kicking Avery in the ribs. Through the back window flashes punctuate the night as rising winds howl. Don curses Lowell as he drives furiously through the night. At the bar, Lowell bursts out the front door, escaping with Tara slung over his shoulder. Don arrives, striding deliberately toward Lowell. As they struggle, Lowell tells Don “we’ve all got secrets,” sneering about Don’s relationship with Melanie. Don snaps and the fight escalates. The doctor pulls up in her jeep as Don tackles Lowell to the ground, crushing his head against a parking block. Don pulls himself upright, stunned. Tara awakens, still frightened, and screams for him to get away from her. Doc Ryan tries to console them both. Don stares down at Lowell’s body, and notices Avery’s camera has slipped out of his pocket. The screen holds an image of Avery’s final moments. Horrified, Don walks like a ghost toward the bar. Finding Melanie’s bloodied body, he crumples into the doorway. Outside, Doc Ryan tries to reassure Tara, who stares vacantly into space. “Everything will be alright,” she says, but Tara’s haunted eyes say otherwise.