Laid to Rest 2009

A young woman with amnesia awakens inside a coffin in a funeral home and frantically dials 911 from the morgue, only to accidentally unhook the line while speaking to the operator. What begins as a desperate bid for help spirals into a brutal chase when a mortician is suddenly confronted by a masked intruder wearing a chrome skull and outfitted with a shoulder-mounted camera. The intruder, ChromeSkull Nick Principe, leaves a trail of violence in his wake as the woman fights for her life. In the chaos, she strikes ChromeSkull in the eye and staggers away, leaving a trail of questions and fear in her wake.

The woman is soon found by Tucker Kevin Gage, who brings her to his home and introduces her to his wife Cindy Lena Headey. Tucker promises to take her to the sheriff’s station the next day, explaining that their truck is low on gas and their phone service has been cut. The uneasy sense that they are already being watched grows as ChromeSkull tracks them to Tucker’s house, where he brutally murders Cindy. The survivor, now nicknamed “Princess” by Tucker, and Tucker’s companion—Princess’s escape becomes a tense, high-stakes chase.

With Cindy gone, Tucker and Princess join forces with Johnny Johnathon Schaech, Cindy’s brother, and his girlfriend as danger closes in. They also seek help from Steven Sean Whalen, a reclusive tech-savvy ally who uses his computer to research ChromeSkull and his chilling MO—dispatching tapes of his own murders to the authorities. The trio’s plan to reach a safe place is thwarted when they discover the sheriff and a deputy are dead, and ChromeSkull is waiting for them at the station. A brutal encounter leaves ChromeSkull wounded but still lethal, and the group ends up driving away in ChromeSkull’s car toward safety and answers.

Their frantic flight leads them to a funeral home where Princess bravely investigates and stumbles upon a barn filled with previous victims. ChromeSkull arrives in pursuit, and he beheads a captive and knocks Princess unconscious, placing her in a coffin as a grim taunt. Tucker, fighting through injuries, fires back and shoots ChromeSkull, pulling Princess and Steven to safety as they escape in ChromeSkull’s car. The moment marks a turning point, as Princess begins to understand the gravity of the danger they’re in and the extent of ChromeSkull’s depravity.

Back with the trio, Princess examines footage from ChromeSkull’s camera, which hints at a secret conspiracy involving the mortician who killed him. The revelation that ChromeSkull was working in league with others to control the victims—like Princess herself—deepens the mystery. Gripped by fear and determined to survive, the group drives on, hoping to outrun their pursuer. They eventually bring the chase to a nearby convenience store, where a confrontation unfolds that tests every ounce of their resolve.

In the store, Princess uncovers a crucial clue: ChromeSkull’s real name is Jesse Cromeans, found in paperwork inside the car. But ChromeSkull refuses to surrender, and he coerces Princess to fetch a new tape by threatening those around her. The clerk confronts ChromeSkull’s menacing plans, and the danger escalates when ChromeSkull turns his shotgun on the clerk, decapitating him. A customer named Anthony Anthony Fitzgerald is killed when he tries to lock the backdoor. Tucker and Steven race in to intervene, grabbing ChromeSkull’s suitcase and replacing the glue used to keep his mask in place with cyanoacrylate.

The tense moment turns deadly as ChromeSkull cuts the power and uses a tire inflator to cause Steven’s face to explode. In the chaos, Tucker is stabbed while trying to buy Princess time to run to safety with Tommy Thomas Dekker, the murdered Anthony’s friend. ChromeSkull traps Tommy outside and pins Princess in a freezer, taunting her by handing over his camera. The camera reveals that Princess was once a drug-using sex worker he had picked up, and that the amnesia she carries is tied to a brutal beating with a bat.

In a desperate struggle, Princess smashes the camera and, as ChromeSkull attempts to reattach his mask, the cyanoacrylate adhesive dissolves the glue, causing his disguise to peel away. The sight of ChromeSkull’s exposed face only intensifies the fight, and Princess delivers the final blow with an aluminum bat, ending his deadly rampage. As the dust settles, Princess discovers the missing person notice Tucker had kept—an important piece of the puzzle that would connect the threads of their ordeal.

Tucker dies from his injuries, but not before he and Tommy set off for Atlanta, determined to bring some sense of justice to the chaos ChromeSkull left behind. Anthony’s murder is confirmed, and the investigation closes a grim loop that begins with one woman’s amnesia and ends with a desperate group of survivors facing the truth behind ChromeSkull’s reign of terror. When the police arrive, they find the missing person flyer, a macabre reminder of the path of victims ChromeSkull carved through those who crossed his orbit, and the survivors’ resolve to finally expose the horror that stalked their town. The brutal, claustrophobic nightmare comes to a tense close, leaving Princess to carry on with her own fragile sense of memory and the weight of the night’s terrifying revelations.