He’s Out There

Laura arrives at the remote lake house with her two daughters, Kayla and Maddie, expecting Shawn to join them later for their annual getaway. The mood is tense as they settle in, establishing the isolation that will accompany them. The scene sets up the family as a target for the looming danger.

Owen, a local resident, warns that the family who lived here before had a son named John who disappeared, hinting at a dark history. Laura and the girls sense that something is wrong beneath the surface of their vacation. The warning foreshadows the deadly events to come.

At a gas station, Shawn buys the girls a music box, a small gift that will echo throughout the nightmarish events. The music box becomes a motif that reappears during key moments to heighten the dread. The act contrasts the ordinary with the increasingly sinister threat.

Kayla and Maddie follow a long red string to a forest tea party setup, where two cupcakes sit on the table. Maddie eats one cupcake while Kayla saves hers for Shawn, a detail that will later take on a ritualistic significance. Inside the saved cupcake, Laura later finds a ribbon with the word 'goodbye', linking to the earlier 'hello' ribbon found in Maddie’s vomit.

Maddie spits up a small ribbon bearing the word 'hello', an eerie clue that hints at the house's sinister rules. Laura discovers another ribbon inside the saved cupcake with the word 'goodbye', deepening the sense of a malevolent ritual. Their attempt to call for help is thwarted when the landline is suddenly down.

The family tries to contact help, but the landline is down and the danger grows louder. Laura finds a strange doll in the backseat as they prepare to leave, and during the escape, the car loses two wheels and crashes. They are forced to return to the house to face the intruder.

Outside the house, a dark-clad figure is revealed to be John. Just as Shawn arrives, John kills him with an axe, cutting off any chance of a swift rescue. The mother and children are left with a much more personal threat to contend with.

John uses a recording of Shawn's voice to lure Laura outside, a manipulative trick to separate them from safety. Inside the house, Shawn's body drops from the roof with its eyes gouged out, signaling the brutal reality of John's obsession. The home environment becomes a deadly trap for Laura and the girls.

Power outages plunge the house into darkness as creepy dolls that resemble the family appear on windows and the yard, and eggs are thrown toward the fleeing trio. Laura leads the girls to hide in a closet upstairs while she recovers Shawn's car keys from his body, maintaining a slim chance of escape. The tension escalates as the intruder closes in.

Owen arrives to investigate the commotion but is killed by John outside the house, escalating the danger. Inside, Laura discovers a kitchen doll and a handmade, altered storybook detailing John's plan to kill everyone, revealing the house's dark history as a framework for his ritual.

John breaks in, captures Laura, and uses a children's song to lure Kayla and Maddie outside. They find presents in the back seat of Shawn's car while Laura is bound in the trunk, illustrating the total, perilous control John has over their environment. A tense chase redirects them toward the house.

A brutal pursuit leads to a struggle inside the house as John swings his axe toward the sisters, while Laura fights to save them. John reveals he grew up in the house and has stalked the family for years, tying his actions to the house's twisted past. Laura manages to turn the tables and regain control enough to plan an escape.

Morning reveals Shawn's body as part of a grotesque mannequin setup, signaling the culmination of John's ritual. Laura is alive but wounded, and John begins to implement his plan to replace the girls' body parts with the dolls' materials. The sense of inevitability hangs as the family teeters on the brink of being consumed.

The final confrontation erupts as a music box plays again, distracting John long enough for Laura to strike. She stabs John in the back and frees the frightened girls, who are reunited with their mother. They escape in Shawn's car, engine stalls, restarts, and they drive away as John’s body disappears from view.