Abattoir 2016

Real estate journalist Julia Talben, Jessica Lowndes, feels stalled in her current assignments and longs for crime reporting, though she finds some comfort in her sister Amanda, her nephew Charlie, and a cordial relationship with her former lover and local detective Joe Anderson Grady. When tragedy strikes Amanda’s family as Richard Renshaw breaks into their home, the next morning Renshaw calls Julia at work and apologizes for the murders. Julia rushes to the scene and discovers the brutal crime in Charlie’s room, while Grady calmly moves to detain Renshaw.

After the funerals, Julia seeks closure by talking to Renshaw to understand his motives, but Grady counsels her to move on. He eventually drives her to the house again, only to find it already sold less than a week after the killings and, more disturbingly, that Charlie’s room has been removed. The sale appears to have sidestepped several standard procedures. Enter the unsettling detail: the buyer left only a P.O. box. A realtor named Kyle reveals a parallel incident from his past, where an elderly man bought a high-rise after a murder and removed the room where the crime occurred, selling at a loss. Kyle hands Julia a business card from Jebediah Crone found among the closing papers and hints to keep Crone out of the investigation.

Julia and Grady run a title search and uncover Revelation Holdings, a shell company that purchased six other properties over fifty years, each time removing a room tied to a recent tragedy. Their interviews with current owners confirm the pattern, and Crone is connected to every transaction. The couple delves deeper, and Julia discovers that her own home bears the label New English in adoption records. A package from New English arrives at her workplace, containing a VHS tape that seems to show her family’s murder, yet the background walls reveal a different house entirely. The realization broadens: several victims had roots in New English.

A chance to confront Renshaw is granted, and he explains Crone’s macabre scheme: Crone collects tragedies to amplify a tear in reality, aiming to conjure the “miracle of New English.” He apologizes for the violence and then slams his head into a wall. Grady urges Julia to abandon the investigation, but she presses on, eventually traveling to New English with him. A sheriff warns her that the town offers little room for outsiders and urges departure, but Julia’s persistence drives her to uncover cradle-to-grave histories. In New English, she learns that many residents fearfully avoid her, yet she does manage to access court records and locate her birth mother’s address.

At Allie’s residence, the two encounter a touch of kindness amid the town’s hostility. Allie, who reveals herself as Julia’s birth mother, explains the town’s dark past: Jebediah Crone becomes a prominent pastor during a crushing economic depression, drawing followers with dangerous promises. A sermon reel arrives, showing Crone urging followers to abandon God and turn to sacrifice, even reviving a disabled man’s walk through a crowd’s violent act. Allie clarifies that Crone’s vow is to build “a house of many rooms” to restore New English, and the townspeople soon rally to his cause.

Back with new evidence, Julia notices blood on the walls of Crone’s video and suspects it’s staged. Grady uncovers a report of Crone’s death and revival, and Julia recalls Allie’s line about Crone “going to hell and bringing back its secrets.” As the pair pore over newspapers and photos in Allie’s home, townspeople—Crone among them—enter Allie’s room and abduct Grady’s car, leaving Julia and Grady stranded.

A shocking discovery follows: a photograph of Allie with Amanda as a child reveals that Allie is Julia’s birth mother, and the sisters were separated to spare them from becoming sacrifices. Realizing she’s now a target, Julia and Grady attempt to leave, but Crone’s followers close in. The sheriff intervenes and drives Crone away, warning Julia and Grady to leave New English undisturbed, but their plan is not finished.

Ignoring the warning, the duo investigates the forest, finding jars with vows from residents pledging to offer their children as sacrifices. They uncover more removed rooms tied to a school fire that killed the child population, confirming Crone’s intentions. Deeper still, they discover the rooms torn from various buildings, while Crone’s group closes in. The sheriff is overpowered by Crone’s followers, Julia is kidnapped, and she awakens in one of the removed rooms. A vast house built from the missing rooms looms in the woods, and Crone presents her with a brutal choice: leave now and share the story without an ending, or enter the house to search for her family of souls.

Inside, the rooms haunt the spirits of those who died there, reliving their tragedies as Crone explains that gathering these misfortunes weakens the barrier to the afterlife. Grady, having found Julia, follows and confronts the same offer, warning that entering could be another tragedy. Julia reaches Charlie’s room and sees only their deaths echoed in the past; Grady approaches, and in a desperate moment, she fatally stabs him. Crone arrives to relish the moment, declaring that Grady’s death has become another tragedy to feed the Abattoir, bringing the last child back to New English for another tragedy—and, in a final, cruel twist, Allie arrives and shoots Julia, fulfilling her earlier pledge.

• Supporting performances by Lin Shaye and Dayton Callie add texture to a town steeped in secrets and sacrifice, while the central mystery of Crone’s “miracle” rattles the line between grief and reality.