Cold Meat

David Petersen rolls into a Colorado diner during a brutal snowstorm. He diffuses a tense confrontation when Ana is harassed by her violent ex-husband Vincent. The moment sets a sense of danger and reveals David's calm, manipulative charm.

Later at a gas station a local officer warns David to repair his wing-mirror, which is duct-taped and held together. Vincent follows him in a truck, and the pursuit starts to escalate into a dangerous chase.

Vincent pursues through the snow, but David escapes by driving off-road into a secluded, snowbound area. With the car stuck in the deep snow, David abandons it and treks into the wilderness in search of a way out.

It is revealed that David chloroformed and kidnapped Ana earlier and has been keeping her bound in the car's trunk with duct tape. Ana manages to escape, but the conditions are too dangerous for her to walk, so she hides in the back of the car.

David returns to the car after injuring his leg in the snow, and Ana chloroforms him. He wakes to find his hands bound to the steering wheel with duct tape, making any escape seem near impossible.

Gloating about his crimes, David taunts Ana and reveals he used her phone to text her daughter Ella. Ana knocks him unconscious, and David dreams of a blood-soaked forest and a towering elk-like beast stalking him.

While trapped, Ana leaves to pee and returns to power and control. She smashes the car window and nearly strangles David with the seatbelt. Using duct tape, she patches the broken window and then scrolls through David's camera roll, uncovering photos of herself and Ella and the licenses of other victims.

In a flashback, David recounts his first victim, a hitch-hiker named Cassie, whom he stabbed to death after picking her up. He explains that Cassie was the daughter of a judge and that he had to lie low for weeks after her body was found, shaping his method of targeting victims from poorer or immigrant backgrounds.

The car becomes increasingly buried in snow and both are frostbitten as they try to sleep. A mysterious creature jumps onto the car roof and begins breaking the windshield, only to vanish when the car horn sounds.

Ana tells David they are on a Native reservation where locals recount an ancient forest-dwelling beast that hunts the worst souls. The creature seems to be tied to dreams, making their fear feel prophetic as the night deepens.

The car battery dies and the two grow weaker in the freezing cold. David admits to childhood abuse, and Ana opens up about her own past, explaining how she redirected anger into love for her daughter Ella.

David finally breaks free and attacks Ana, threatening to find Ella. The forest-beast returns and drags him from the car into the darkness, forcing Ana to stay alive inside the vehicle.

A snow-plow driver stumbles upon the car, following a trail of blood to a pile of human viscera in the snow. He opens the trunk and finds Ana awake, ending the scene with the grim implication of what happened to David.