Wolves at the Door 2016

In 1969, John, Chris Mulkey and his wife Mary, Jane Kaczmarek, are jolted awake in the middle of the night by knocks on doors and windows. John goes downstairs to check but finds nothing; as he slips back into bed, a crash from downstairs jolts him again, and he catches a fleeting glimpse of the shadow of a man whispering “Little Pig.” After he calls the police, the intruders break open the door. Later, messages written in blood appear on the walls, and the attackers vanish before Detective Clarkin, Eric Ladin, and the responding officers arrive to survey the chaos. The sequence establishes a sense of intimate terror, where a once-private space becomes a site of threat and uncertainty, and the household’s sense of safety is irreversibly fractured.

The following night, Sharon, Katie Cassidy, Jay, Miles Fisher, Wojciech, Adam Campbell, and Abigail, Elizabeth Henstridge, gather for a celebratory dinner at El Coyote in Hollywood to mark Abigail’s move back to Boston. Wojciech feels pulled by familial expectations, and the group’s warmth thinly masks underlying tensions about control and independence. After dinner, they return to Sharon’s house, where Sharon—pregnant and anxious—dials her husband from the nursery, only for the line to abruptly go dead. Meanwhile, Steve, Lucas Adams, arrives at the property to visit his friend William, Spencer Daniels, who lives in the guesthouse. Steve’s small act of kindness—selling William a stereo—contrasts with the creeping sense that the night is about to take a much darker turn. When Steve tries to depart, the driveway gate appears disabled, his vehicle stalls, and as he steps out to inspect, a man stands in front of his truck and a woman watches from behind. He is dragged from the vehicle and struck with a sledgehammer, a brutal reminder of the danger lurking just beyond the home’s threshold.

Wojciech steps outside for a cigarette and encounters danger as a man lying slumped by the truck suddenly lunges at him, chasing him to the front door where the lock holds. The attackers stab Wojciech, haul his body back inside, and leave him bleeding in the shower. A bloody note—error and fear written in stark, brutal letters—appears on the front door: “Pig.” In Sharon’s bedroom, a sense of unease deepens as a young woman is spotted prowling the premises. Jay is brutally stabbed to death while he sleeps on the couch, and Sharon and Abigail, hearing his scream, flee to hide throughout the house as the intruders stalk them. Abigail fights with one assailant, while Sharon seizes a moment to hide in the bathroom and discovers Wojciech, gravely wounded but still alive. An intruder brakes down the door to seize Sharon and Wojciech; the two women and Wojciech are dragged through the hallway, and Abigail manages to escape the house.

Abigail seeks help from William, but he is preoccupied with loud music and fails to hear the crisis unfolding. One intruder catches Abigail and drags her back toward the house, where Sharon and Wojciech remain captive in the chaos. Sharon is carried away again, and Wojciech fights his way outside only to be stabbed to death on the lawn. Abigail, bloodied and exhausted, reaches the street and flags down a passing car, only to discover it is occupied by two intruders. She collapses, clutching a locket Sharon gave to her, as the two attackers advance with a bloodstained sledgehammer.

The film closes with a stark, unsettling coda: a series of interviews with Charles Manson and the attackers, reflecting on the real-world incitement behind the violence and the way these events resonate beyond the night of the break-in. The closing sequence lingers on the human cost of fear and the haunting suggestion that the perpetrators drew inspiration from a widely known cultural narrative, leaving viewers with questions about influence, violence, and the fragility of safety in the spaces we call home.