Strangeland

In Helverton, Colorado, 15-year-old Genevieve Gage (Linda Cardellini) and her best friend Tiana Moore (Amat Rhoe) are typical high school students who spend their idle time surfing the internet and sending messages to strangers via chat rooms. Upon "meeting" another apparent student who goes by the screen name of "Captain Howdy," Genevieve and Tiana decide to attend a party at Captain Howdy's house. But Captain Howdy has lured them into a darkness from which there might be no escape. What Captain Howdy doesn't know is that Genevieve's father is local cop Mike Gage (Kevin Gage), who has a wife named Toni (Elizabeth Pena). When neither Genevieve nor Tiana has returned home by the next morning, Toni alerts Mike. With the assistance of a younger cop named Steve Christian (Brett Harretson), Mike tries to find Genevieve and Tiana. The case takes an unexpected turn when Tiana's car is pulled out of a lake, and Tiana's tortured body is found in the car's trunk, with her mouth stitched shut. There's no sign of Genevieve. Mike discovers that Captain Howdy is into "body art" that includes great quantities of tattooing, piercing, branding, and scarification. But it's not until Mike's niece, Angela Stravelli (Amy Smart), informs him of Genevieve's penchant for meeting strangers through the internet that Mike gets his first lead. Meeting the mysterious Captain Howdy online, Mike gets Captain Howdy to invite him to a party, but Mike's planned bust there goes awry. Later, however, he figures out Captain Howdy's location, and he finds Captain Howdy's torture chamber. Gage not only finds Genevieve naked and bound, with her mouth stitched shut, but he also finds five other teenagers who are in similar predicaments. After a brief struggle in which Captain Howdy gets shot, Mike arrests Captain Howdy, whose actual name is Carleton Hendricks (Dee Snider). Mike thinks he's closed the case. But a year later, Hendricks is found not guilty by reason of insanity, and he's put in the Meistrich Psychiatric Institute. Three years after getting put in the Meistrich Psychiatric Institute, Hendricks is released. Doctors at the Meistrich Institute say that Hendricks, who has been diagnosed as schizophrenic with a severe chemical imbalance, is okay, as long as he's on his medication. Hendricks moves back to his old neighborhood. While he's under the influence of his medication, Hendricks is timid, and apologetic about what he did. But four years after what Hendricks did, the memories are still fresh in the minds of Helverton's residents. And Genevieve still has intense nightmares about what Hendricks did to her. There are people who are not happy about Hendricks being released -- especially an activist group led by Jackson Roth (Robert Englund) and Catherine "Sunny" Macintosh (Barbara Champion). Sunny heads a group called "Christians against Moral Decay." Roth and Sunny are among those who are angry that Hendricks didn't get the death penalty for killing Tiana, and torturing Genevieve and the other five teenagers. One night, while Roth's teenage daughter Kelly (Xanthe Cook) is out, a fearful Roth jumps to the wrong conclusion that Hendricks has taken Kelly. That's why Roth calls Catherine and a bunch of others. They're about to make a mistake that'll unleash Hendricks upon the town once again. Roth and this group kidnap Hendricks, and on the way off of Hendricks's property, Hendricks accidentally drops his medicine bottle, and the medicine bottle is run over by a car's rear tire, cutting Hendricks off from the medication that's been holding everything in check. Roth and the group beat Hendricks up, and then hang him from a tree. As Roth, Sunny, and the others leave, it starts raining. The rope, which turns out to be weak, snaps, enabling Hendricks to stay alive. And without his medication to help him, he goes back to being Captain Howdy, this time with the intention of going after Roth and Sunny for trying to kill him, and Mike for arresting him four years ago. Later, while Roth is watching TV at his house, his wife Madeline (Leslie Wing) enters the room...and then Roth notices blood on her. Madeline falls out of the way, and Roth sees Hendricks, who has killed Madeline, and brought her into the room. Hendricks knocks Roth out cold, and kidnaps him. Later, while Mike is at the station, Hendricks contacts him. By that time, Hendricks has also kidnapped Catherine. After Hendricks hangs up with Mike, Hendricks tortures Roth and Sunny, and this time, the torture is unusually brutal, using larger piercing weapons. On the next day, Toni calls Mike and tells him that Genevieve is missing. When Mike gets home with Steve, Hendricks's face is on the screen of the computer that Toni is staring at. Hendricks has Genevieve. Genevieve's mouth is stitched shut again. And Hendricks tortures Genevieve while Mike and Toni are looking at the screen. A devastated Toni leaves the room. After Hendricks disconnects, Mike angrily destroys the computer's keyboard. Genevieve, Roth, and Sunny are soon found alive, but brutally tortured. Mike and Steve would like nothing more than to see Hendricks dead. That night, Mike tracks Hendricks down at a church. After a long struggle, Hendricks stands ready to kill Mike with a hook. But Mike sinks the hook into Hendricks's back, slams Hendricks into a wall, and then uses the hook to lift Hendricks above the floor. Mike says "This is for Genevieve, you fuck." And then Mike pours a flammable liquid on Hendricks, and he kills Hendricks by setting him on fire.