Haunts 1976

Ingrid Swenson, Ingrid Swenson is a young Swedish woman living with her American uncle Carl Henderson, Carl Henderson, on a quiet farm in rural Northern California. The town pockets its routine with the steady creak of farm doors and the soft hush of creek water, until a troubling spark arrives: a local young girl is found murdered with a pair of scissors, a crime that baffles the close-knit community. Into this unsettled mood steps Bill Spry, Bill Spry, a newer member of the church choir in which Ingrid sings, who takes an unsettling interest in her that she resists. One night, as Ingrid makes her way home, she is attacked by a masked figure but manages to escape. The assault unleashes buried memories of sexual abuse she endured at the hands of her father, a trauma that is intricately tied to the sorrowful suicide of her mother.

That same evening, a local woman Nell, Nell, is found attacked and murdered in her car following a heated exchange with Bill at a tavern. The town’s fear deepens as Ingrid grapples with her own vulnerability, haunted by the possibility that the violence creeping through the community might be targeting someone seemingly safe and innocent. The morning after, Ingrid discovers Nell’s mutilated body on the farm—the killer’s signature is again the scissors. She confides in the police but is left alone at the farmhouse to process what she fears and what she remembers. While she is alone and showering, the nightmare intensifies: Frankie, Frankie, a local butcher, breaks in, assaulting and raping her. Carl returns home mid-attack, unaware of the assault taking place, and Frankie threatens Ingrid before slipping away.

The danger escalates when Ingrid seeks solace at the church. There, the vicar, Vicar, listens to her plea for sanctuary, but Frankie returns to confront her outside. The attempted rape is interrupted when the vicar hears her scream, and the moment forces Ingrid to confront the terrifying possibility that the town’s violence associates with her deepest wounds. Later, Ingrid is hospitalized, and Sheriff Peterson, Sheriff Peterson, visits her with grave news. Outside Ingrid’s room, the vicar informs him that his daughter Loretta, Loretta Peterson, is pregnant by Frankie, a revelation that heightens the stakes for everyone involved. Peterson acts swiftly, driving to Frankie’s home, arresting him in a tense confrontation and warning Loretta about the consequences of her choices.

As the investigation develops, the police pursue a masked assailant who attacks a woman on the street, leading to a dramatic confrontation at the saw mill. Just before they can arrest Frankie for the killings, a phone call relays that the killer has been cornered, and the deputies report that the suspect is Bill, Bill Spry. The town reels as Ingrid watches news footage declaring that Bill is the killer. Yet the narrative twists further when Frankie arrives at the house that night, binding and gagging Carl. Ingrid defends herself with a fire poker and then stabs Frankie to death. Carl, urging her to stay quiet and not contact the authorities, helps conceal Frankie’s body. Despite this, Ingrid travels to the police station to tell what happened, and the investigation continues to unspool around the farmhouse.

The next morning, Peterson and his deputies raid the property in a tense search for the truth. Carl has disappeared, leaving Ingrid to face the consequences alone. In a chilling turn, Frankie himself appears at the house at the moment the deputies uncover Ingrid’s goat buried in a shallow grave in the yard. Peterson ascends the stairs to confront Ingrid, where he finds her dead in the bathroom—suicide, a decision born perhaps of the unrelenting pressure and the harrowing sequence of events that have surrounded her.

At Ingrid’s funeral, Carl, now aged, meets Peterson and the two walk away together. Peterson explains a disturbing perspective: the evidence collected after Ingrid’s alleged encounters with Frankie showed no sign that Frankie had been present at those scenes, and the autopsy reportedly confirmed she was a virgin. Carl reveals that he has not visited Ingrid in a very long time, hinting that their shared history—whether real or imagined—may be more complicated than anyone wants to admit. Returning to the farmhouse, he steps into the bathroom, and steam fills the room as Ingrid’s apparition appears in the vanity mirror, a final, ghostly reminder that truth and memory can blur, and that some wounds may never fully close. The film lingers on this unsettling image, leaving the audience with a sense of how memory, guilt, and fear can shape a town—and a mind—long after the surface events have faded.