Screams of a Winter Night

John drives the nine friends to Lake Durand for a winter weekend and they arrive at his ramshackle family cabin. They begin to settle in as the cold wind bites. Elaine tells her boyfriend, Alan, that she wished they had not gone on the trip, setting a tense mood.

John shows Cal the nearby graves of the Durand family, who were mysteriously killed at the cabin. Police surmised a gas explosion, though Native American locals claim a winter spirit named Shataba roams the woods. The legends loom over the group as they settle in.

By the hearth, John begins telling the Moss Point Man tale about a couple on a date who are terrified on a deserted road. After Roger runs out of gas, his girlfriend stays in the car; later she hears scraping on the roof and finds Roger hanging from a tree. The next morning the woman is found alive, with human teeth marks on her ankles.

After finishing the Moss Point Man story, John shows a newspaper clipping about a bizarre 1940s accident at Lake Durand. The clipping hints at strange happenings tied to the place, deepening the sense that something old and dangerous lies below the surface. The group briefly exchanges uneasy glances.

Steve tells the Green Light legend about three fraternity pledges who stay overnight in a supposedly haunted hotel. The men venture to the upper levels despite warnings; in the morning two bleed and the third is driven mad, leaving the memory of the night haunt the survivors. The tale adds to the growing sensation that the woods and town are haunted.

Jookie grows unnerved and asks to leave as the wind begins to howl more violently. Outside, the wind knocks and the cabin shakes, amplifying the fear. The group wrestles with the idea of aborting the trip.

John and Steve go to town to buy more lamp oil, but the men prank Sally and Liz by making grotesque gorilla masks appear in the kitchen window. The prank backfires, heightening tension and urgency among the friends. Jookie’s fear grows as eerie laughter echoes through the cabin.

Elaine shares a high school story about Annie, a timid girl who survives a violent date-rape attempt but becomes mentally unsettled after murder. Annie later kills her dorm roommate over a shawl, leaving a trail of guilt and paranoia. The grim tale unnerves the group and blurs the line between rumor and danger.

Jookie’s terror intensifies while Harper tries to calm her, and the group debates whether they should leave the cabin. The wind rattles the windows and the walls, turning every sound into a threat. The decision to stay or go weighs heavily on them.

Fearing that the Shataba legend might be real, Cal takes Lauri and heads into the woods. The others watch in uneasy silence as the couple disappears into the storm. The night shifts from claustrophobic dread to cold, uncertain danger.

A violent gust shatters the living room window, and Elaine is killed by shards of glass. Debris fills the room as the others scramble for cover and safety. The cabin’s structure groans under the wind, and the danger becomes painfully immediate.

Cal, Lauri, Harper, and Jookie flee into the woods as the cabin collapses from the force of the wind. They stumble through the snow and timber, trying to escape the deadly storm and the collapsing structure. The remaining friends realize their escape is far from safe as night presses in.

In the woods at the edge of a precipice, the four survivors hear a growl approaching through the trees. They push onward into darkness, uncertain of what hunts them and where the path will end. The scene ends with a palpable sense of an unseen threat closing in.