The Burrowers

In 1879 in the Dakota Territory, the Stewart homestead is attacked by a mysterious foe. A few corpses are discovered in the morning, while the rest of the family, including daughter Maryanne, remains missing. Mysterious holes appear around the house, suggesting something is digging and watching.

A military-backed search party is organized to find the Stewarts. Henry Victor leads the expedition, joined by frontiersman John Clay, Fergus Coffey, William Parcher, Dobie Spacks, and Walnut Callaghan. They capture a Sioux captive and press him for information about the attackers.

The captive is tortured for intelligence. He names the attackers as the Burrowers and claims they prey on humans, but Victor and his men misunderstand, thinking they are a hostile tribe. The threat is framed as a natural enemy.

During the night, four of Victor's men vanish without a trace. The team finds more of the same ground holes, heightening fear and suspicion among the party. Paranoia spreads as the search continues.

Disgusted by Victor's distrust of Native people, Clay, Coffey, Parcher, Spacks, and Callaghan desert the escort. They choose to strike out on their own to search for answers without the military presence. They vow to survive on their own terms.

The deserters uncover a catatonic woman buried in one of the holes, bearing injuries similar to the earlier corpses. Spacks volunteers to escort her to Fort Lincoln to ensure she reaches safety. That night, Burrowers ambush the group, kill the woman, paralyze Spacks with a neck wound, and bury him alive.

Clay is shot by pursuing Natives, forcing the survivors to retreat and burn poison oak to ward off attackers. The Burrowers strike again and paralyze Parcher with a neck wound, tightening the group's peril.

A smoke signal leads the survivors to Faith, a Native woman whose family was killed by the Burrowers. She explains how the creatures paralyze victims with a toxin, bury them alive, and feed on them only after decomposition begins. She notes that Ute people have experience in combating them.

Two Ute hunters intercept a paralyzed Parcher and abduct him. They leave behind a necklace made from Burrower victims' beads, containing a brooch Coffey had given Maryanne. Coffey realizes Maryanne is dead and vows to track down the culprits.

Coffey kills one Ute and discovers the other has Parcher tied to a tree as bait. Parcher injures the remaining Ute, but Coffey's leg gets caught in a bear trap, leaving him to watch as the Burrowers surface and eat Parcher.

Coffey stakes the paralyzed Burrowers to the ground to prevent their escape. He discovers that the rising sun is fatal to them, revealing a potential weakness in their toxin-based biology.

Coffey carries the injured Ute back toward Faith and Callaghan, aiming to fetch a doctor to save the Ute. When he returns, he finds Faith and the Ute hanged and Callaghan dead after his leg amputation. Victor blames the Natives and vows revenge.

Meanwhile, the Burrowers begin to feast on the still-alive Spacks, bringing the timeline to a brutal close. The siege of the expedition ends with a grim fate for one of the survivors. The attackers' presence remains unresolved in the aftermath.