House of Whipcord

During a night-time thunderstorm, a frightened Anne-Marie runs down a country road, fear written across her face. A trucker stops and offers help, pulling her to safety as rain pounds the pavement. The sequence uses flashbacks to reveal how she ended up in such a dire situation.

At a London art gallery party, Anne-Marie discovers a photograph exposing her arrest for public nudity, shattering her self-image. Humiliated, she dumps her photographer boyfriend and seeks a fresh start away from the scandal. This moment seeds her later escape with Mark.

Anne-Marie is drawn to the enigmatic Mark DeSade, who offers to take her away from public scrutiny to his isolated estate. He appears sympathetic and seductive, presenting a plan to vanish from sight. Their meeting marks a dangerous turning point in her life.

Anne-Marie travels to Mark's secluded mansion, drawn into a world of secrecy and privilege. The estate radiates allure but also unease, hinting at the darkness that lies beneath the surface. The stage is set for the horror to unfold.

Anne-Marie learns that Mark's mother, Margaret, runs a hidden prison for 'morally corrupt' girls inside the mansion. A tainted backstory connects a reform-school scandal to a murder cover-up. The mansion becomes a place of brutal punishment and control.

Flashbacks explain how Margaret was acquitted in a reform-school scandal after corrupting the judge. The judge leaves his wife for Margaret, and their son Mark helps transform the mansion into a secret execution facility. The past casts a long shadow over the present danger.

Within the prison, inmates accumulate demerits for misbehavior. Strike one earns two weeks in solitary confinement, strike two brings 40 lashes, and strike three results in hanging. The regime turns ordinary rule-breaking into life-or-death consequences.

Anne-Marie challenges Margaret by reminding her of the charge that ruined her career. Margaret responds with cold cruelty, targeting Anne-Marie with the demerit regime. The power dynamic intensifies as the imprisonment tightens its grip.

Concerned flatmate Julia and her boyfriend Tony locate Mark and uncover that he now knows the full extent of his mother's deeds after witnessing her minions dispose of a prisoner's body. They vow to expose the truth or intervene. Their pursuit shifts the plot toward a potential rescue.

Anne-Marie makes several escape attempts from the prison, each thwarted by the wardens. She clings to hope amid escalating brutality, while others endure the harsh punishments. The cycle of capture and desperation heightens the suspense.

Julia and Tony finally locate the mansion prison, but they arrive after Anne-Marie has already been hanged for her third demerit. The tragedy underscores the system's brutal inevitability and intensifies the drive for justice.

As police close in and the truth about the regime surfaces, Mark confronts his mother. In a moment of chaos, he is accidentally killed by Margaret. The family crisis explodes into a fatal reckoning.

Knowing the game is up, Margaret uses the same noose she prepared for Anne-Marie to take her own life. She dies after wreaking further harm on several prisoners, leaving the mansion to crumble under guilt and exposure.

The judge and his wife's henchwomen are arrested as the regime collapses. Julia and the surviving prisoners are freed, and the truth about the deadly system is finally brought to light. The victims begin to seek justice and closure.