The Shrine

The film opens with a man tied to a ceremonial table, where another man kills him by smashing his head with a sledgehammer, hinting at the cultic or ritualistic violence in the story.

Journalist Carmen discusses the disappearances of tourists in the village of Alvania with her boss and expresses interest in investigating the case, despite being discouraged from doing so.

Carmen and her intern Sara visit Laura, Eric’s mother, who tells them about her difficulties with law enforcement and provides Eric's luggage, which Carmen borrows and later reads his journal.

While reading Eric’s journal, Carmen experiences a disturbing dream of Eric with bloody eyes. She then convinces Marcus to join her and Sara on a trip to investigate the village.

The team arrives and finds the villagers to be secretive and unwelcoming, observing their strict reverence for religious leaders and noting the strange dense fog within the forest, which is marked on Eric’s notes.

Carmen, Marcus, and Sara encounter local villagers, including Henryk and Lidia, and observe the dense, unmoving fog in the forest, which the villagers warn them to avoid, claiming it is dangerous and magical.

The group enters the fog to investigate, and Sara disappears. Carmen finds a demon-like statue with bleeding eyes, which frightens her before she exits the fog with Marcus and Sara, all disoriented.

They follow Lidia to a hidden tomb where they discover bodies of missing tourists, including Eric, with villagers performing what appears to be dark rituals with masks and cult-like behavior.

Villagers ambush Carmen, Sara, and Marcus, shooting Sara with a crossbow and knocking out the others with chloroform, revealing the cultists' true intent to perform sacrifices, not to kill but to prevent demonic possession.

Carmen is brutally tortured and seemingly possessed, as she sees cult faces transforming into demons and is ritualistically masked and prepared for sacrifice, which is intended to transform or kill her spiritually.

Marcus rescues Carmen from the cultists, and they attempt to escape. Marcus later learns the truth: the villagers were trying to prevent demonic possession, not perform sacrifices, preventing Carmen and Sara from being sacrificed.

Henryk and the villagers attempt to kill Carmen by placing a demon mask over her face to trap the demon, but Marcus intervenes, realizing the villagers' real goal of stopping demonic possession and sacrificing them to save the village.

Henryk kills Carmen using the mask ritual, thinking it necessary to end her possession, but Marcus understands the true purpose. The villagers then set Marcus free and explain the curse involving the fog and the statue.

Marcus asks about the fog and the cursed statue, learning that the curse is ancient and unbreakable, and the demonic statue remains a symbol of the village’s long-standing mystical affliction, which cannot be undone.

Marcus looks back at the fog and the cursed statue as the screen goes black, suggesting that the curse persists, and the demonic influence remains embedded in the village’s dark history.