Ezra Cobb is a middle-aged farmer who scratches out a quiet life on a rural Midwest farm, living with his elderly mother, Ma Cobb. Amanda’s fervent religiosity has shaped him since childhood, and she has drilled into him a stark hatred of women. She cautions him that he will be haunted by a particular woman after her death and tells him that there is one person he should contact: Maureen Selby, a woman she describes in unkind terms. In a chilling moment, Amanda proclaims that the “wages of sin” are > gonorrhea, syphilis, and death! The warning hangs over Ezra as Amanda’s illness drags on and finally ends, leaving him withdrawn and alone with his grim beliefs.
Nearly a year passes before Ezra’s carefully ordered world begins to crack. He experiences disturbing auditory thoughts that compel him to exhume his mother. Under the cover of night, he arrives at Ma Cobb’s grave, digs up the decomposed body, and returns with it to his house where he reconstructs the corpse using discarded fish skin and wax. This grotesque act is not a one-off curiosity for him; it stirs a morbid curiosity about death itself and the possibility of using more corpses as companions. He learns of the concept of an obituary and realizes that there might be a way to keep company with more bodies beyond his mother, should the need arise.
Ezra’s fragile world begins to tilt further when he encounters Maureen Selby again, a quirky, self-styled psychic whose eccentricities fascinate him. During a tense sexual encounter, the moment of contact turns deadly: he murders her, and this killing sets in motion a chain of violence that will pull more victims into Ezra’s orbit. The first person he targets is a young waitress, Mary Ransum, a 34-year-old woman who crosses his path. He spoils her sense of control by slashing her tires, leaving her stranded at a late-night restaurant, and then posing as someone offering help. He lures her into his truck and to his home, where he speaks of spare tires and the illusion of safety, all while the room holds a disturbing display of his morbid trophies.
When Mary finally attempts to escape, she discovers the truth that lies within Ezra’s house: the dining room is set with the remains of other victims, and his face is hidden behind a mask fashioned from human skin. She fights back, managing to strike him with a broken bottle, but Ezra retaliates with brutal force, killing her with a heavy femur bone after she angers him by hurling his mother’s corpse at him and damaging it. The violence ripples outward as Ezra subsequently visits his friend Harlon Kootz at his home, and the two talk—though Ezra’s words hint at the depths of his crimes. The conversation is marked by a casual sense of normalcy that belies the horror simmering beneath the surface.
Ezra’s attentions then shift toward Brad Kootz, the teenage son of Harlon, who arrives with his girlfriend, Sally Mae. Ezra’s unsettling fixation deepens as he tracks [Sally Mae] and works at the local store where she is employed. He shoots at her with a rifle, grazing her head but not killing her, and then abducts her, placing her in the bed of his truck. She awakens, escapes into the woods, and wades through the danger, even colliding with a bear trap that injures her foot. Ezra tracks her down again, and with a grim resolve, he shoots her to death, leaving her body to be discovered later in the escalating nightmare.
Back at the farm, the mounting body count accelerates. Ezra drags [Sally Mae]’s corpse into the barn and begins skinning the body, a grotesque ritual that is witnessed by the arriving lawmen—Sheriff and the local authorities—who find Ezra in his kitchen, laughing over a bowl of blood and the severed remnants of his victims. The scene freezes on Ezra’s unsettling tableau as a voice-over recites a grim summary, underscoring the town’s horror and the collapse of its quiet façade.
In the aftermath, the townspeople—led in whispered rumor and fear by those who know the killer best—take matters into their own hands. Under cover of night, they burn the Cobb farm to the ground, a stark end to Ezra’s violent spree and a grim testament to the community’s desire to erase the memory of the killings. The final moments linger on the ashes and the lingering echo of the town’s determination to move forward, even as the cost of such violence remains a heavy legacy for everyone involved.
