Dark Purple

In the deep, dense woods of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, a man stumbles upon a cabin where he finds the bodies of a young couple as well as their surviving children, Jesse and Jonah. Troubled Jonah is convicted of the murders. Sixteen years later, Jesse returns to the house to purge it of his memories—on the day Jonah is due to be executed. His fiancée, opinionated Chrissa, and several friends accompany him: wealthy Drew, badass Kipp and his boyfriend Breda, free spirit Kimmy, and girl-next-door Natalie. Acrophobic Drew, however, balks at crossing the footbridge to the cabin and returns to town. At the cabin, the others meet Jesse’s creepy but helpful occultist uncle, Henry, who lives across the lake. After a failed séance in which they all reveal their deepest fears, they sleep soundly, but in the morning, Kimmy is missing and Kipp injures his foot. The group searches the woods for Kimmy—minus the injured Kipp, who stays behind to rest but is attacked by an unnatural force. When the others return without Kimmy to find Kipp missing, they fracture, unsure if they can trust each other, or if they should suspect supernatural spirits or Uncle Henry. In town, Drew discovers that, prior to his execution, Jonah committed suicide. Unable to reach his friends in the woods by phone, he locates a road to the cabin and drives up. Meanwhile, Breda is disfigured and dies in a freak accident, and Chrissa realizes something’s growing inside her—rapidly. Before she can be helped, she goes into labor and is literally ripped in two by the monster inside her. The remaining friends are separated as they flee from the rampaging beast. Jesse finds Kimmy, who claims she was buried alive but managed to escape. Drew finds them and tells Jesse about Jonah. Natalie has gone to Henry’s cabin, where he informs her of his suspicions: Jesse was born without a soul and is trying to obtain one through an arcane spell that requires sacrificing six people in their purest form: when they fear for their lives. They’re interrupted by Jesse, who’s captured Kimmy and Drew. Jesse incapacitates Henry and takes Natalie. Kimmy and Drew get free, but Jesse kills Kimmy, and the beast chases Drew to the footbridge, where he falls to his death. Distracted, Jesse is killed by Natalie, but not before he summons a horde of spiders upon her. Freed from Jesse’s magic, Henry arrives at the garage—but instead of saving Natalie, he reveals that he too is soulless and utters the spell’s incantation as she dies. Instead of granting him a soul, the inhumanity of the black magic turns him into an animalistic demon.