The Shrine 2010

A man is first shown tied to a ceremonial table, only to be brutally murdered as another man destroys his head with a sledgehammer. The story then shifts to Carmen, a Cindy Sampson who is a journalist facing personal and professional struggles. Her relationship with her boyfriend, Marcus, a Aaron Ashmore who is a photographer, is strained; Carmen tends to prioritize her work over their relationship, leading to tension. Carmen approaches her boss about investigating the mysterious disappearances of tourists in a small, fictional Polish village called Alvania, which is notably missing the letter “v” from its name—a detail that hints at the village’s strange nature. She is motivated not only by her curiosity but also by her concern for Eric Taylor, played by Ben Lewis, whose luggage all over Eastern Europe hints at something sinister.

Despite her boss’s disinterest, Carmen decides to take her intern, Sara, a Meghan Heffern, along with Marcus, to explore Alvania. Their goal is to uncover what is behind the vanishings and connect with the last missing tourist, Eric. They visit Eric’s grieving mother, Laura, who explains her futile attempts to get help from both Polish and American authorities. She also shares that Eric’s luggage has been recovered, and Carmen borrows his journal, which becomes central to understanding the mystery.

As Carmen reads Eric’s journal at home, she experiences a vivid nightmare, seeing Eric with bloodied eyes uttering, “leave me alone,” which hints at deeper, unseen forces at play. Driven by a desire to mend her relationship and her duty as a journalist, Carmen, Marcus, and Sara travel to Alvania. The villagers are initially cold, secretive, and uncooperative. They encounter a man named Henryk, who is butchering a pig, and a hesitant girl named Lidia, who seems wary of a picture of Eric. The villagers worship religious figures as if they are divine and are highly suspicious of outsiders.

The group quickly becomes aware of an ominous, dense fog concentrated in a particular part of the forest, echoing a detail in Eric’s journal. Despite warnings from villagers to leave, Carmen convinces Marcus to investigate further. They step into the fog, which is unusually thick and motionless, preventing Marcus from capturing clear photos. Inside, Sara enters and disappears into the fog, which terrifies Carmen and Marcus. When Sara reappears shaken and frightened, Carmen follows her and stumbles upon a disturbing statue of a demon clutching a beating heart. The statue’s eyes bleed, and its heart pulsates, plunging Carmen into shock.

Their investigation leads them to a hidden tomb where they discover the remains of previous victims—tourists and villagers alike—who all bear metal masks embedded into their faces. The impression is of a ritualistic cult engaged in dark magic or cultic sacrifice. When the villagers find them, chaos erupts. Marcus fights his way out, knocking out a villager who chases him into the forest. Meanwhile, Sara and Carmen are captured and taken to the sacrificial tomb where the village’s religious leader, Arkadiusz, played by Vieslav Krystyan, plans to sacrifice them in a dark ritual.

Carmen is subjected to brutal violence, including lacerations and severed tendons, while witnessing the grotesque faces of the cultists morph into demons. The cult performs a ritual to place a terrifying mask over Sara’s face, executing her in a ritualistic killing. Marcus manages to rescue Carmen during this chaos, and they escape the tomb, seeking refuge in a nearby house owned by locals named Emilia and Dariusz, played by Monica Hewes and Connor Stanhope, respectively. Marcus attempts to work with them for the keys to a truck to escape, but their language barrier creates tension and confusion.

While inside the house, Carmen begins to experience terrifying visions—voices, shaking objects, and turning into a demon—due to the dark influence of the village’s curse. Their inability to communicate fully with Emilia and her family leaves them vulnerable to the village’s sinister effects, as possession and hallucinations take hold. Carmen is eventually possessed after a terrifying confrontation, during which her true nature as a dark entity is revealed.

The cultists, led by Arkadiusz, aiming to prevent the demonic possession from spreading, attempt to execute a ritual to contain Carmen by placing a demonic mask over her face and using holy water, prayers, and a sledgehammer. Marcus, realizing the true nature of the cult’s actions, understands they are not trying to sacrifice victims but are desperately trying to prevent demons from fully taking over the village and its people. With this knowledge, Marcus assists in stopping the ritual by helping Henryk, a cult member who is also present, to embed the mask onto Carmen, ultimately killing her.

In the aftermath, Marcus reflects on what he’s learned: the fog and the statue are the remnants of an ancient curse designed to trap or imprison demonic forces. The villagers’ apparent sacrifices were actually efforts to prevent the demons from escape, and what appeared as evil rituals were, in fact, acts of a cursed community trying to contain the evil. As Marcus watches the fog swirl in the woods once more, he considers the long-lasting effects of the curse, which seem to be impossible to fully undo. The story closes with the sinister image of the devilish statue once more, and the screen fades to black, emphasizing a chilling sense of unresolved darkness lingering in the cursed village.