Dead in 3 days

Dead in 3 days

Year: 2006

Runtime: 97 mins

Language: German

Director: Andreas Prochaska

HorrorThriller

Nina and her high‑school friends receive ominous texts warning they will die in three days. Brushing it off as a joke, they are horrified as classmates begin turning up dead in the remote alpine countryside. With police baffled, Nina and the survivors dig into their shared past, hunting clues to unmask the killer before he claims them all.

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Dead in 3 days (2006) – Full Plot Summary & Ending Explained

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During their high school graduation celebration, the group—Nina [Sabrina Reiter], her boyfriend Martin [Laurence Rupp], Mona [Julia Rosa Peer], Clemens [Michael Steinocher], and Alex [Nadja Vogel]—receives anonymous texts warning that they will be dead in three days. At first, they dismiss the threat as a prank, hoping it’s nothing more than a cruel joke among friends, but the sense of danger begins to seep in as the clock ticks toward the ominous deadline. The tension in their small circle grows not with open confession but with creeping paranoia, as every shadow and whispered rumor feels like a sign that something terrible is coming their way.

Tragedy strikes when Martin is found at the bottom of a lake, abducted from a dance and tied to a weight, a chilling reminder that this is no ordinary prank. The group is rattled by the sudden turn of events, and the investigation shifts its focus as the community tries to make sense of a death that feels almost preordained by the messages they had received. In the wake of Martin’s disappearance, Patrick [Julian Sharp], an outsider and rival, is questioned by authorities. He is released when investigators find no concrete evidence tying him to the crime, but his presence lingers in the minds of the remaining friends as a potential thread in the tangle of clues.

The danger escalates when Nina is targeted by the killer, who attempts to drown her in a chilling echo of the lake tragedy. She is rescued in a narrow moment, only to witness a brutal fate befall Alex—decapitation by a sickening strike against the frayed edge of a fish tank—which leaves the group reeling and determined to uncover the truth behind the escalating violence. In a confession carried by fear and memory, Nina identifies Manfred Haas [Michael Rastl] as the killer’s target, linking the current terror to a painful past involving Fabian Haas—a childhood friend who died after falling through ice while they were skating together. Fabian’s death still lingers as an unspoken wound in the town’s memory, a trauma that now seems to echo in the present danger.

The police reveal a troubling backstory: Manfred Haas hanged himself two years after his son’s death, and his wife moved away, though she still owns a house nearby. Driven by a need for retribution, Nina, Mona, and Clemens decide to press closer to the Haas property, hoping to uncover the truth hidden behind the family’s quiet facade. They are followed by Kerstin [Amelie Jarolim], Nina’s sister, who becomes entangled in the perilful unraveling of these secrets. The killer traps Kerstin, and the terrifying reveal emerges: Mrs. Haas [Susi Stach], a woman consuming grief and rage, is wearing a mask fashioned from her dead husband’s preserved face as she pursues her own form of deadly justice.

Caught in a deadly confrontation, Mrs. Haas fatally stabs Clemens, and she knocks Nina unconscious before chasing Mona, who plunges from a balcony onto a spiked fence in a desperate bid for help. Believing Mona to be dead or beyond reach, Mrs. Haas departs with Nina and rows toward the middle of a lake, intending to drown both of them and herself in one final act of desperation. In a tense reversal, Nina fights back, stabbing Mrs. Haas and throwing her overboard. The struggle ends tragically as both women slip into the water, but divers manage to resuscitate Nina and rush her to the same hospital where Mona is recovering.

Back in the sterile corridors of the hospital, Nina’s mind drifts to the moment that shaped it all—the icy trial of Fabian, teased into skating onto thin ice, then abandoned as danger loomed. The memory returns as a haunting reminder of how a single moment of peer pressure can echo through years, linking past losses to the present peril. Through the fog of fear and grief, Nina clings to life, aided by the steady hands of the medical team and the memory of friends who faced the cold, unforgiving truth together. The chilling thread of fate that began with a graduation night text has now threaded its way through the lives of those left standing, leaving them to reckon with guilt, vengeance, and the fragile line between survival and tragedy.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 16:32

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