Happily Never After

Winter. After a girl dumps him, a deranged teenager sharpens an ax in his basement. The girl has dinner with her mother and brother, along with her new fiance and his family. They listen to a record of her singing the prayer “Ave Maria”. The crazed teen approaches the house. He invades the house. Strangles the maid in the kitchen, then retreats through the back door and locks it. He pours gasoline on every escape route, except the front door. Starts a fire and whistles the “Ave Maria” song. Fire quickly engulfs the house. When people try to escape, the teen storms through the front door and attacks them with his ax. Nine years later, in a nearby town, teenager Nancy dates two men in their late twenties, Art and Ed. Both men work at a local supermarket. They argue. The market owner breaks up the fight, slaps them around, and gets both of them angry. That night, the owner is alone, and someone in a ski mask attacks him. He hacks off the owner's leg with a band saw. Sets fire to the store, and whistles “Ave Maria”, as he leaves the scene. Sheriff Wiggins, a black man in a white town, investigates, along with a British coroner as his sidekick. One clue - the killer’s tune. Nancy’s lesbian friend Cheryl declares her love and runs off when she's rejected. A ski-masked man trails Cheryl to her house. They battle, and he hangs Cheryl with a telephone cord. Flames surround the house. An annoying Puerto Rican wine worker points out the similar case nine years ago. Suspects Art and Ed hear his theory. At the winery, a ski mask intruder assaults him and lowers the man into a twenty-foot vat of grapes. He tries to set a fire, but other workers interrupt him. Panic erupts in the town. Stores sell out guns, protective equipment and burglar alarms. Makeshift tents along Main Street spring up. The venders hawk brass knuckles, defense classes, carnival food, watch groups, and even bizarre souvenir t-shirts and ski-masks about the killer. It becomes a media circus. Wiggins realizes he left a big city police job to become a cop in a hornet’s nest. Officers organize a pool to guess the next victim. There's no evidence against Art and Ed, not even going through a lineup. Desperate, Wiggins imposes a curfew, with round-the-clock police patrols. Nancy’s protective aunt chases away Art and Ed. At night, the killer surprises the aunt in the bathroom. Slams the toilet seat on her head and crushes the woman’s skull. Sets curtains on afire. Wiggins stumbles onto the scene, and the maniac sprints inside the courthouse. The lawman chases the suspect onto the outside cupola, to a huge statue of Lady Justice. The two struggle. Officers stream out from the police station and race across the street. The killer strangles Wiggins against the statue. A deputy fires. Wiggins falls, dead. The killer escapes. Grief-stricken, Nancy isolates herself at a lakeside park. A man, face covered by a scarf, approaches. She panics. Claws at him. The scarf falls, reveals healed scars from a fire. Art rescues Nancy and stabs the man. Art recognizes him. The one survivor of the murders and blaze nine years before. Nancy realizes Art is the ski-mask killer. She runs. Rushes to a tree trimmer who uses a chain saw and wood chipper to prune the park shrubs. Art kills him. Ed’s car squeals into the park. He sees Art stab Nancy. He and Art battle. Ed throws Art backwards, into the wood chipper, which still runs. Metal blades chop and disintegrate the lower part of his body. A Deputy dashes into the park. He spots Ed remove the knife from Nancy’s back. She dies. When he sees what’s left of Art, the Deputy assumes Ed is the killer and arrests him. The coroner arrives on the scene and surveys the carnage, as the patrol car takes Ed away.