In a rural farming town, an aging hog farmer named Lester Bacon [Don Barrett] lives with his simple-minded, obese son Buddy [Joe B. Barton], whose brutal impulses threaten to tear apart the fragile line between old world labor and a ruthless, modern system. Lester’s once-proud hog-farming methods have largely given way to cold, factory-type slaughterhouses, a shift that sets the stage for tragedy.
When Buddy violently murders two teenagers at Lovers Lane, Kevin Matthews [Joel Hoffman] and Michele [Courtney Lercara], the community teeters on the edge. The next day, Lester is visited by his attorney Harold Murdock and his law partner Tom Sanford [Bill Brinsfield], along with Sheriff Borden [William Houck], who arrives with a blunt offer: $55,000 to buy Lester’s property and the nearby slaughterhouse, a proposal Lester flatly rejects. Fred, the sheriff, warns that the assessor’s office is foreclosing on the farm and that Lester has 30 days to vacate, a deadline that intensifies the tension surrounding the Bacon clan.
Meanwhile, a group of high-schoolers—Skip, Buzz, Annie [Jane Higginson], and Liz—Sheriff Borden’s daughter, plan to shoot a horror video in and around the Bacon property, convinced the eerie site would be perfect for their project. Back at the Bacon place, Buddy returns with fresh brutality, showing Lester the dead bodies of Kevin and Michele and suggesting that Tom, Harold, and Fred might deserve a similar fate for crossing him and his father.
Deputy Dave Thomas heads to the slaughterhouse in search of the missing couple, and encounters a grisly scene: a dead hanging cat. Buddy steps in, killing him by severing his hand, then crushing Harold’s skull when Harold arrives. Buddy hijacks Dave’s squad car for a joyride, and later pursues Dave’s girlfriend Sally Duncan, who escapes. Buddy tracks her down, ultimately cutting her throat.
Tom Sanford arrives at the slaughterhouse, only to meet the same grim fate as Harold, when Buddy drops him into a meat grinder in a merciless showcase of his growing power. That night, Fred finds Dave’s abandoned car and calls for backup as the danger spirals outward.
Liz and the other teens arrive at the slaughterhouse, splitting up as Buddy methodically slays Skip, Annie [Jane Higginson], and Buzz [Jeff Grossi] in rapid succession. Liz discovers the severed remains of her friends, while Fred confronts the unsettling disappearances of Tom and Harold.
The terror culminates in a brutal confrontation where Buddy and Lester capture Liz and begin to torture her. When Fred arrives, Liz acts quickly, firing the weapon she inherits from her father to shoot Lester, then escaping with Fred in pursuit. Liz drives away as Buddy rises from the backseat, finishes off Fred, and lunges at Liz with a knife, the scene ending on Liz’s terrified scream as she fights to survive the nightmare she helped initiate.
