Cut

During the 1988 filming of Hot Blooded, Brad accidentally stabs the actress playing Chloe in the chest, drawing a sharp rebuke from director Hilary Jacobs. He confronts Hilary in her office, is fired, and, in a frenzy, dons the Scarman mask to murder Hilary by cutting out her tongue. Vanessa Turnbill rushes in and finds Hilary dead, and Brad attacks her. Vanessa stabs Brad through the neck with the shears, ending his murderous threat.

Twelve years after the original tragedy, in 2000, Lossman has become a college professor guiding a new group of aspiring filmmakers. He warns them not to finish Hot Blooded, explaining that anyone who tries ends up murdered. His caution underscores the dangerous legacy surrounding the film.

Despite Lossman's warning, Raffy Carruthers and the crew reach out to Vanessa Turnbill, now a golf player, through her manager. She agrees to return to Australia to finish the film and confront the deadly history. Her involvement promises a bridge between the original production and a new ending.

With the needed rights and a copy of the film obtained from Martha, the elderly woman connected to the original production, the crew plans to shoot at Mr. Drivett's mansion. Bobby Doog joins to play Scarman, increasing on-set intensity. The group also prepares to reconnect with Vanessa Turnbill.

Before filming begins, the crew watches the recovered copy of Hot Blooded at a theater. Raffy endures a cruel prank that unsettles her, making her fear the threat is already among them. Later that night, the real Scarman appears at the theatre and disembowels the Archives Projectionist, confirming the curse remains active.

Police detectives Hollander and Carter arrive at the theatre and begin connecting the dots between the original killings and the current attempt to resurrect the movie. They start piecing together past tragedies as new ones unfold around the crew. The case tightens as the body count rises.

As filming moves to the mansion, Scarman looms about the crew and Bobby Doog remains in his Scarman costume, heightening tensions. In the mansion’s kitchen, Paulie Morrelli and Cassie Woolf sneak off for a secret tryst, only for Scarman to arrive and decapitate Paulie. Cassie fights back with plates and a pan, but Scarman slashes her arm and pins her to a door.

The next day, Hollander and Carter press Raffy and Hester for information about the theatre murder, hoping to uncover connections to the old production. Tensions rise as the group tries to stay focused amid disappearances and threats. The sense of danger grows as Scarman continues to stalk the set.

That night, Jim Pilonski is lured away and killed by Scarman, who slits his throat after severing his arm during a confrontation on a bus. Vanessa rehearses her kill scene as the mother in the movie with Raffy, Damien Ogle, Julie Bardot, and Rick Stephens, while Bobby, still in Scarman costume, turns violent toward Vanessa. The crew's nightmare escalates as trust collapses on set.

Raffy discovers all the crew's cars have their tires slashed, signaling someone is actively trying to stop the production. Lossman confronts Raffy and reveals she is Hilary's daughter, suggesting finishing the film could honor her mother's memory. The group grapples with whether to continue as the threat closes in.

Damien is killed when Scarman stabs him through the eye with his shears, and Julie barely escapes a fiery death when Scarman sets a car ablaze, triggering an explosion that shatters the crew's safety. The carnage intensifies as the group fights to survive. The remaining members scramble to protect themselves and the evolving plan to end the film's curse.

Vanessa and Raffy locate Drivett's office and find him dead, tied upside down and disemboweled. Martha suffers a fatal stroke upon seeing the gruesome scene, and Lossman frantically tries to salvage the situation. Scarman murders Lossman by driving a stake through his throat, further escalating the terror.

Vanessa distracts the killer as Raffy drags film reels to safety, but Scarman nearly overpowers them in the old director's room where the opening of Hot Blooded began. Raffy continues to burn the reels in a desperate bid to end the nightmare. The film's curse seems to waver as flames consume the copies.

Hollander triggers the final confrontation: he shoots Scarman multiple times, but the creature remains, finally decapitating Hollander with the deadly shears. Carter arrives to rescue Hollander, but Scarman attacks her and drives her to the outdoor water faucet, where she is fatally impaled. The onslaught leaves the survivors reeling from another deadly close encounter.

In a quiet hospital denouement, Lossman and Vanessa reveal that Scarman is truly dead, and Raffy absorbs the weight of their experience. Yet the film's curse seems to linger, as in New York a professor shows a damaged copy of Hot Blooded to her class; the reel malfunctions and Scarman sits behind the professor, slitting her head in a chilling postscript.