A Wounded Fawn
After his art collector client loses out to hers on a proxy bid for a distinctive Erinyes statue, secret serial killer Bruce Ernst follows Kate Horna back to her home from an auction. Haunted by an imposing vision of a Red Owl figure, Bruce murders Kate and steals the sculpture.
Storyline
After his art collector client loses out to hers on a proxy bid for a distinctive Erinyes statue, secret serial killer Bruce Ernst follows Kate Horna back to her home from an auction. Haunted by an imposing vision of a Red Owl figure, Bruce murders Kate and steals the sculpture.
Bruce brings his new girlfriend Meredith Tanning, a gallery docent recovering from an abusive relationship, to his remote woodland cabin for a weekend getaway where he actually plans to kill her. Upon arriving at the cabin, Meredith hears a disembodied voice warn her to leave. Meredith recognizes the Erinyes statue as having gone through her museum for provenance verification. To keep her from digging further, Bruce claims his sculpture is merely a replica. Meredith still takes a photo of the statue and texts it to her friend Wendy who works with her at the museum. Tensions mount between Meredith and Bruce as Meredith becomes increasingly unsettled by odd occurrences such as seeing an unknown woman walking by outside. After initially refusing, Bruce ultimately agrees to take Meredith back to the city when she demands to leave due to the growing strangeness. While another vision of the Red Owl indicates to Bruce that it is finally time to murder her, Meredith takes a phone call from Wendy. Wendy warns Meredith to leave the cabin immediately because the Erinyes sculpture was reported stolen and the woman who bought it went missing. Once Meredith returns to the main room, Bruce suddenly slashes her throat, which seemingly kills Meredith. Bruce burns Meredith's clothes, destroys her phone, and masturbates before returning to her body. Having apparently survived the slashing, Meredith unexpectedly beats Bruce unconscious with the statue. When he recovers from the massive head trauma, Bruce notices a piece of his skull poking into his head. Bruce then experiences a series of strange visions and encounters that include an aggressive dog, Kate, Meredith, another victim named Leonora, and other figures masked as Furies from Greek theater. When the haunting hallucinations subside, Bruce takes the statue outside as an offering for his psychological torment to stop. However, Meredith continues to confront Bruce with taunting visions and cryptic conversations. Bruce insists he isn't evil, but that there is a floating piece inside his skull that tells him who to target and commands him to kill. Feeling tricked by Meredith, Bruce storms outside to collect the statue. More visions that include Kate as well as Meredith wearing a mask surround Bruce before chasing him into a forest. In their final confrontation, Bruce claims Meredith drove out the Red Owl, but she demands that he confess to being a thief and a murderer. Refusing to do so, invisible arms start slashing Bruce to death as he pleads for Meredith to call "them" off. A sudden cut back to reality shows that Meredith survived her slashing by putting duct tape around her throat and she now stands watching as Bruce kills himself on the forest floor. (thanks to culturecrypt)
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