The Slayer

Kay, an abstract visual artist, is plagued by disturbing dreams that have haunted her since childhood. The content and intensity shift over time, sometimes showing desolate locations that fill her with dread, other times depicting the gruesome deaths of friends at the hands of a supernatural force. As her success grows, she worries the dreams reflect stress and depression and fear that her art and career may slip away.

Her family and friends plan a vacation to a small island off the coast of Georgia to help Kay unwind. The group includes her husband David, her brother Eric, and Eric's wife Brooke. The trip is pitched as a chance to ease her mind and stabilize her career, but Kay remains anxious that the break might not help.

During the flight, Marsh informs them that a hurricane has shifted course toward the island. He drops the couples off on the island and hastily departs to avoid being stranded. The group realizes they are cut off from the mainland as they step onto the desolate shore.

The island is deserted and dotted with derelict buildings, the ruins of a once-thriving resort town. Kay says this is the place from her childhood dreams and warns that they are in danger if they stay. The others try to reassure her and make the best of the eerie landscape.

That evening, an unseen assailant murders David. Kay dreams of waking up beside his severed head, a vision that unsettles her and hints that the dream has crossed into reality. The group struggles to interpret the events as the danger grows louder around them.

Kay later discovers David's decapitated body hanging in an abandoned playhouse on the island. The gruesome sight confirms that the nightmare was more than a dream, as violence bleeds into waking life. Fear and distrust ripple through the group as they confront the killings.

Eric grows suspicious that Marsh never left the island and may be orchestrating the killings. Marsh is glimpsed on the island later, lending some credence to the conspiracy. Kay clings to the belief that the island is letting her nightmares become real and points to the creature from her dreams as the killer.

Eric reveals that Kay had a black kitten for Christmas as a child, which was found frozen to death in the family freezer two days later. Kay blames the creature in her nightmares for the kitten's death and sees a connection to the present rampage.

Eric goes to retrieve flares from a boathouse and is murdered on the beach before being dragged into the ocean. The brutal turn confirms the danger's reach and shows that the killer is closing in.

Brooke is attacked in the boathouse and impaled with a pitchfork, dying near the shore as the island's terror tightens its grip. The violence underscores the killer's proximity and relentlessness.

Kay barricades herself in the beach house and fights to stay awake, endlessly drinking coffee and smoking to keep alert. The isolation and constant danger take a toll, amplifying her fear as the night wears on.

Marsh tries to enter the house; Kay shoots him with a flare gun, killing him and starting a fire that consumes the building. The blaze traps Kay inside as she fights to survive the inferno.

A flaming, skeletal creature materializes at the front door as Kay tries to flee the burning house. She battles to escape through the flames, terrified by the monstrous presence pursuing her.

As the monster closes in, Kay is jolted awake in a Christmas morning memory from her childhood where her parents wake her and her father presents a black kitten. Kay realizes the nightmare was a premonition, linking past trauma to the present horror and confirming the kitten’s significance.