On the Hour

The story opens with an elderly woman sitting at her husband’s bedside as he dies just as the clock strikes 10:00pm. An hour later, on the hour, the elderly woman dies. A sinister old lady is seen leaving the house, laughing. A young man, Bastien, and his girlfriend, Corina, arrive at the elderly couple’s country house. Bastien inherited the house when his grandparents died, and he plans to start a new life there with Corina. But first, they’re going to throw a house-warming party. Friends start arriving, the campfire is lit, and the beer starts flowing. However, the day takes an ominous turn when a familiar-looking sinister old woman shows up. She tells Bastien she’s a neighbour and that his property is cursed. When the sun sets, anybody on the property will die, one by one, every hour, on the hour, until the curse has claimed thirteen lives. Anyone who steps off the property will be the next to die. Bastien, not believing in such things, refuses to leave his new property and orders the woman away. The sun sets and everyone is having a good time. Until the clock strikes 10:00pm and Bastien’s best friend chokes on a hotdog and dies. Everyone is now in a panic. Is the curse real? Or was it just a coincidence? The question is soon answered when they begin to die off at the top of every hour. No matter what they try, one of them befalls some horrible tragedy. The survivors frantically search for a way to beat the curse as they continue to die off. As the agonizing minutes before each hour pass by, the increasingly small group of survivors, knowing they are going to die, resort to desperate measures. When there are only a few of them left, they begin to turn on each other. With only Bastien, Corina and one more friend left, they decide to leave the property and visit the old woman next door, whom they suspect is a witch, and force her to lift the curse. They find out the scary old woman is indeed a witch and Bastien’s grandmother was a member of a rival coven. The curse was placed on the property to wipe out the entire coven of witches, but Bastien and his friends showed up first. And now they must deal with the horrible curse. And it looks like there’s no way out of it.