Mr. Jones

Scott and Penny move to a remote forest to film a year long nature documentary. The quiet setting soon reveals that the project might not be as well planned as they hoped. Tension builds as long days give way to growing doubt.

Weeks pass and disagreements over approach and budget create strain between the couple. They argue about how to frame the film and what to include about the strange disturbances they glimpse. The atmosphere becomes uneasy rather than cinematic.

Scott's backpack is stolen and they track the thief to a nearby cabin adorned with eerie stick figures. The discovery hints at an artist's workshop rather than a simple hideout. Curiosity deepens as they sense something uncanny at work.

Inside the cabin they find a basement and a sub-basement that hint at a hidden world. They deduce this is the home of the legendary but elusive Mr. Jones. The sense of trespass heightens the perceived risk.

They decide to make Mr. Jones the subject of their documentary. Scott travels back to New York City to investigate and learns that Jones anonymously ships eerie figures to people across the country. Recipients describe unsettling events tied to the figures, and one warns him to stop or run if he sees Jones.

Penny goes out to photograph Mr. Jones's figures and is approached silently by him, carrying a new figure. She glimpses a gnarled, blackened face and leaves, continuing to film from a distance as a lantern-wielding figure seems to guide her home. Darkness and thunder heighten the sense that something unseen is watching.

Scott returns to Mr. Jones's house, with Penny outside monitoring by radio, and sneaks inside. He descends into a vast maze of basements and sub-basements filled with more stick figures. In a chamber he discovers a doll-sized figure with candles for eyes and stows it in his backpack.

Outside, Penny tries to warn Scott via radio, but her camera crashes to the ground and she loses contact. Scott frantically searches for a way out and finally finds the correct passage, escaping the house. Penny's whereabouts become uncertain as she seems to vanish into the surrounding fear.

Back at his own cabin, Scott finds that the stick figures have migrated into his front lawn and even into the interior spaces. The intrusion blurs the line between the documentary and their own reality. The figures symbolize the creeping influence of Jones's world.

Penny suddenly materializes in their bedroom, seemingly unharmed and with no memory of how she got there. She notes that she woke up in their room, adding to the sense that their perceived reality is breaking down. The couple grows more fragile under the strange happenings.

The couple endures dreamlike terrors: strange noises, a monitor showing footage they did not film, and a duplicate of Scott trying to break in. Time seems to warp as nights stretch on well beyond daytime. The boundary between dream and waking life has clearly started to crumble.

During an episode, an urgent knock at the door lowers the barrier between fear and belief. Scott opens to find a masked figure, who is pulled away by strong winds, leaving only the sack-like mask behind. The encounter confirms that the world around them has become dangerous and unpredictable.

The couple decides to leave, hiking away from the area, but they are separated. Scott encounters a duplicate of Penny urging him to return the doll; another version of Penny insists she never returned to the cabin and that Mr. Jones is gone. The doubles blur truth and memory as they escape.

Scott returns to Mr. Jones's house and confronts the sub-basement again, pursued by hooded figures. He returns the doll and relights its candle eyes, then dons the hooded mask and completes a transformation that makes him resemble Jones. The boundary between investigator and shaman grows thinner.

In the closing moments, Scott kisses Penny goodbye as a narrator explains that he has become Mr. Jones, a shaman guarding the border between dream and waking life. Their disturbance of the balance means Scott must protect it from slipping further. The film ends with a haunting acceptance of his new role.