In a small, unsettled town haunted by a string of brutal murders, Sheriff Vernon Bell turns to John Wetherby, a visiting adventure writer and former hunter, to uncover the truth behind the killings. Wetherby quickly pieces together clues that point to something more than a simple animal—the footprints resemble a wolf, yet the creature shifts into a bipedal form as it flees, leaving no scent behind.
Wetherby asks his longtime friend, Byron Douglas, a reclusive big-game hunter, to join the investigation. Byron declines, insisting that the fear sweeping through the community has jolted the townsfolk into a strange kind of life, saying the area is “alive” for the first time. This remark hints at a deeper tension: a battle between fear and fascination as the hunt intensifies. "alive" for the first time. The two men had previously shared a hunt in which they faced a vicious wolf that had bitten Byron, a memory that colors their fragile trust and foreshadows the trouble to come.
The danger widens when Weatherby’s girlfriend, Sandy Miller, is attacked in her own home. She survives, but her experience fuels a growing belief among the townspeople that the killings are the work of a werewolf. The fear spreads, and Sandy becomes convinced that Byron could be the killer, a possibility that Sheriff Bell weighs carefully as he assigns a police officer to stake out Byron’s house. The tension escalates when the officer is mauled and his body is found far from the property, a chilling reminder of how close the danger feels.
With the town declared to be in a state of national emergency, Weatherby pushes for Byron’s involvement once more, and the reluctant hunter finally agrees to help. The two men set out into the woods, splitting up to cover more ground in the search for the mysterious predator. Byron appears to be killed by the animal, and Weatherby races to Byron’s house, only to discover that Byron himself had staged his own death by killing his assistant, Grant.
Byron then reveals the chilling truth: he has been the killer all along, masking his tracks with parts from the animals he has slain over the years and masking his scent. He kept an attack dog ready to finish off the victims, feeding a perverse thrill from the hunt. His plan isn’t to vanish into the night, but to draw Weatherby into a deadly confrontation that would reignite Weatherby’s own killer instincts.
Determined not to fall prey to Byron’s psychology, Weatherby confronts the trap. Byron hopes to force Weatherby to chase him, so he sends Weatherby into the woods with only a five-minute head start to find ammunition for his rifle. Weatherby makes it to safety and secures ammo, but a brutal swing of fate comes when the attack dog closes in and Weatherby is forced to shoot it.
The chase intensifies as Byron closes in. Weatherby reveals that he had anticipated Byron’s ploy and had hidden a pistol, baiting Byron into exposing himself. Byron advances, only to be wounded when Weatherby fires back. Begrudging resolve gives way to a desperate rush, and Byron is shot again and killed. Standing over his former friend’s body, Weatherby is left to ponder the costs of this grim victory, and he walks off into the night, carrying the weight of what he has done.
