In a remote stretch of wilderness, a young man named Nic Gordon is hunted by two corrupt officers, Officer White and Officer Donnelly. They close in, cuff him, and plant cocaine on him to manufacture the arrest. The scene sets a tense tone of betrayal and abuse of power, showing how quickly justice can be bent when corruption is at play.
A week later, Nic joins four other minor offenders—Ray-Ray Martin, Eddie Jasper, Ce-Ce Washington, and Charlotte Davis—as they are escorted by detention officers Denise Martinez and Lt. Harris Redding toward a desolate relocation site called Loxahatchee Canyon. Their assignment is stark: spend 90 days at a location described as “200 miles away” to renovate a group home for fellow delinquents. The journey itself unfolds with a sense of foreboding, as the bus sputters and dies far from civilization, leaving the group stranded in darkness with no cellular signal.
What follows mixes desperation with a charged sense of danger. Redding and Ray-Ray venture away from the stalled bus to hunt for any sign of cellphone reception. The men stumble upon a secluded house, where Ray-Ray breaches the door in hopes of finding help while Redding climbs a nearby hill. A gunshot cuts through the night, and Ray-Ray collapses, struck by a shotgun blast. A redneck woman named Lilly emerges, threatening the travelers before Redding fires, killing her on the spot. The men rush back toward the van, fearing for their safety and unsure of what else might be lurking nearby.
Back at the vehicle, the group discovers they have no medical supplies, worsening the sense of vulnerability. Martinez grows anxious about Redding’s fate, and Nic, in a moment of panic, takes Martinez’s gun as fear spirals through the group. They decide to press on through the wilderness, hoping to find assistance. Their search brings them to another house whose occupant is the voodoo priestess Kadja Boszo. Boszo offers to try to help Ray-Ray with her magic, but she lays down a grim choice: if Ray-Ray chooses to live, he will; if he chooses to die, he will. The encounter deepens the mystery, hinting that supernatural forces may be at work in their perilous predicament.
Ce-Ce Washington shares a chilling backstory drawn from a grandmother’s tale about an evil spirit named Killjoy—a revenge demon who can be summoned through black magic. According to the tale, a boy named Michael summoned Killjoy, who then used Michael as a vessel to exact vengeance on his killers, ultimately destroying Michael’s soul and vanishing. Nic, intrigued by the possibility that Killjoy could restore Ray-Ray, negotiates with Ce-Ce, offering cocaine in exchange for bringing Killjoy to life. The plan barely takes hold as the ritual seems to falter, and the tension in the group grows heavier.
When the ritual appears to fail, Ce-Ce proposes a desperate bargain—sex in return for drugs—which Nic accepts, even though he clashes with the grim reality of their situation. After their tryst, Ce-Ce leaves the outhouse in a moment of relief, only to collide with Killjoy’s horrific arrival. The demon wastes no time, surgically tormenting her with a grotesque display: he removes his own teeth, using razor-sharp windup chattering teeth to tear through the door slot, tormenting Ce-Ce as her screams echo through the night. The terror continues as Killjoy’s power seems unbound, and Nic reappears inside the house only to learn that Ray-Ray’s fate is sealed and Boszo has taken him away.
The group’s fear deepens when Killjoy proves fearsome and seemingly invulnerable. Nic confronts Killjoy with violence, but the demon endures Nic’s gunfire, forcing him to a brutal choice: carve a smile into his own face, a sadistic echo of the terror he has unleashed. Killjoy’s bone-chilling laughter accompanies Nic’s death, marking a cruel turn in the group’s already fragile dynamic.
Desperation prompts a new plan: Denise Martinez, Charlotte Davis, and Kadja Boszo attempt a voodoo ritual to banish Killjoy. They bless jars of liquid and prepare to use them as a ward against the revenant in the woods. Boszo and Martinez step into the darkness to continue the rite, while Killjoy interrupts, slashing Boszo’s throat and halting the ceremonial flow. Martinez is knocked unconscious, and Killjoy closes in on Charlotte, just as Redding returns with a weapon and interrupts the immediate threat.
In a dramatic reversal, Charlotte grabs the jars and douses Killjoy with the prepared liquids. The demon screams as his face gradually melts away, the ritual seemingly taking hold and weakening the evil presence. The following day, the trio—Charlotte, Denise Martinez, and Lt. Redding—are found and escorted out of the wilderness by a ranger, the immediate danger abated, though the experience leaves lasting scars on everyone who survived.
The film stages a stark confrontation between powerlessness and the desire to survive, mixing a bleak road-movie premise with elements of the supernatural and a survivalist horror mood. The performances anchor the tension, with the ensemble portraying a group of vulnerable young people forced to confront both human malice and a legend that may or may not be real. The culmination suggests that, even in a world where cruel officials and violent locals can ruin lives, collective resolve and a dash of mysticism may offer a narrow path back to safety, though the cost of that path is high and the scars linger long after the ranger’s arrival.
