In 1965, two rednecks named Rufus Gary Bakeman and Lester MacDonald Ben Moore lure six young tourists into their rural town of Pleasant Valley, Georgia. Upon arrival, the visitors are warmly welcomed by the townsfolk, and are introduced to Rufus, Lester, and Mayor Buckman Jeffrey Allen. The locals invite the outsiders to be “guests of honor” for the town’s centennial celebration, promising complimentary hotel rooms, free food, and lively entertainment throughout the weekend, and the visitors reluctantly agree to go along with the plan.
That night, Bea Miller Shelby Livingston is alone in her hotel room when a call comes from Harper Alexander Stanley Dyrector, the town store owner, inviting her to take a walk with him. She agrees, and he leads her into the nearby woods, where he suddenly slashes off one of her fingers with a knife. Bea is soon cornered by Buckman, Rufus, and Lester, and, as the others pin her down, Rufus hacks off her arm with an axe, killing her in a brutal display that the others calmly acknowledge as part of the night’s dark ritual.
Meanwhile, two other tourists, Tom White William Kerwin and his girlfriend Terry Adams Connie Mason, begin to sense that something is deeply wrong with Pleasant Valley. During a barbecue later that evening (unbeknownst to the revelers, Bea’s severed limb is being slowly roasted), Tom quietly leads Terry away to examine an old plaque he finds in the woods. The inscription reveals that a band of renegade Union soldiers massacred many of the town’s residents at the tail end of the Civil War in 1865. The pair realize that the centennial celebration is a pretext for revenge—an act meant to punish the descendants of those who destroyed the town a century earlier—and they understand that they—and the others—have become targets. Buckman spots Tom and Terry and gives chase, but the couple manages to escape into the surrounding darkness.
Back at the festivities, Betsy Linda Cochran, Harper’s girlfriend, accompanies the events in a tense mood while drinks flow and moonshine is shared. She and John Miller Jerome Eden, Bea’s husband, are pulled into the night’s depraved spirit as Harper eventually escorts the two tourists, David and Beverly Wells, back to the hotel. David Wells Michael Korb and Beverly Wells Yvonne Gilbert observe the grim proceedings with growing unease. The mood turns even darker as the town’s leaders begin to enact the grisly ritual in earnest: John is seized, bound, and dragged to the town square where he is tied to four horses that are driven in different directions, tearing him apart in a horrific display.
The following morning, Betsy leads David toward a hillside gathering by the lake. Rufus and another man push David into a wooden barrel, which Mayor Buckman hammers full of nails before rolling it down the incline, crushing him. The morbid “games” continue as Beverly is brought to the town square to participate in a macabre dunk-like spectacle, but with a deadly twist: instead of water, a heavy boulder is set to crush her once the target is released. After a tense moment of crowd anticipation, Lester hits the target and the boulder descends, killing Beverly in a grisly fashion.
Tom and Terry try to slip away again, but Harper trailed them persists, chasing them through a swampy area. Harper becomes stuck in a quicksand trap and seemingly sinks, leaving the fate of the town’s other enforcers a question mark. Tom and Terry ultimately locate their car and flee, while Buckman announces the centennial a success and declares the celebration over.
The two survivors reach a police station and recount what happened to the sheriff. He accompanies them back to Pleasant Valley with the chief of police, only to find that the town has mysteriously vanished. Skepticism from the officer fades as he recalls a local rumor about vengeful spirits that still haunt the very ground where Pleasant Valley once stood. The film closes with the ghostly figures of Rufus, Lester, and Harper wandering toward the woods, their expressions turning toward the next centennial promised for 2065, as if their revenge—and their hauntings—will endure beyond time.
