A local myth grips a small town: a witch is said to inhabit an abandoned house known as Open Hearth, supposedly feeding on children to sustain her life—girls to stay beautiful, men for strength. For a while, the tale is treated as superstition, until a real horror reveals itself when a young girl named Amanda disappears from her bedroom without a trace, turning fear into a chilling certainty.
Max, a teenager still mourning his grandfather, navigates a world shadowed by grief and change. His best friend is Sammy, a bold, headstrong girl whose home life is troubled—her mother drinks, her father is unknown, and the neighborhood police view her with suspicion. Max’s brother Zach clashes with him at every turn, and when their father is called to work late, Zach takes on a babysitting duty that will pull the siblings—and their friends—into danger. The group includes Zach’s friends Julie, Carter, and Tracy, who’ve heard the whispers about Open Hearth and tease the myth as a dare.
That night, the others hatch a plan: Zach and his circle aim to visit Open Hearth to hurl a rock at the windows just to test the legend. Max and Sammy, seeking a different kind of revenge or perhaps a thrill, decide to shadow them and snap photos along the way. The excursion takes them along a shortcut through the woods on their bikes, and amidst the trees they share their first kiss—an uneasy moment that blends curiosity with a sense of impending trouble.
At Open Hearth, the teens’ bravado spills into reality. Zach and his crew throw stones toward the house, catching a shadowy movement inside the darkened windows. They retreat to the camping area, where alcohol loosens their tongues and they drift into intimate encounters. Max and Sammy return to the house, throwing another rock and catching a glimpse of something watching from the inside. The sense that the myth might be real begins to sharpen into a frightening certainty.
As night deepens, Julie hears a whisper and discovers a teddy bear belonging to Amanda outside the camp. Determined to find the missing girl, the four teens push further into the woods and draw closer to the witch’s ominous dwelling, hearing a child crying from within. Against warnings, Julie leads the way into danger, with Zach choosing to join her in a perilous search that spirals through shadow and fear.
Inside the Witch’s lair they discover Amanda bound in the basement, an apple held in her mouth as a gruesome symbol of her captivity. They seize Amanda and race back toward the cover of the woods, pursued by the Witch. Back at the campsite they realize Carter and Tracy have vanished along with their belongings, and the town’s distance becomes a cruel barrier: the nearest ranger station lies miles away, forcing the group to press on on foot.
Max records a desperate video, pleading for anyone who finds the footage to burn Open Hearth down, a stark confession that the myth has become a perilous reality. The Witch abducts Max, while Sammy screams for help. Zach and the others stagger through a maze of fear, losing their way as the Witch’s dark magic seems to trap them in loops. Zach finds Max’s bike and makes another ferocious effort to rescue his brother, only to be captured again in a brutal turn of events.
Meanwhile, Deputy Karl confronts Sammy’s bold move—she coerces help from the local authorities by threatening to expose corruption. This draws Karl toward Open Hearth, with Deputy Mahoney accompanying him to confront the terror inside. The confrontation turns lethal: the Witch kills Mahoney and engages Karl in a brutal showdown inside the house. Sammy, meanwhile, makes a crucial discovery: Max and Zach are still alive, captive but not yet out of danger. They reunite just as the group uncovers a bottle designed to trap the Witch, a glimmer of salvation amid the chaos.
The Witch’s pursuit escalates as she drains the life from her captives, but the plan to end her gains momentum. The kids set a trap, aided by a flamethrower given to Max by his grandfather, who is revealed to have been a witch hunter—a protective legacy that has watched over these legends for generations. They manage to drive the ritual of fire into the Witch’s powers, and the house erupts into a blaze that marks the end of the immediate threat.
Police later canvass the site, but no bodies are found, and Open Hearth is torn down to make way for a children’s park. The final image hints that the Witch’s menace may endure, suggesting that the danger she poses to children is far from over and that the town’s uneasy history with Open Hearth will linger long after the flames have died down.
