坐在轮椅上,之后的人生只能靠它代步的蒙特(摩根•弗里曼 Morgan Freeman 饰)对人生不再抱有什么希望。曾经的知名作家因为妻子的离世而灵感不再,整日与酒为伴的蒙特让侄子对他放不下心来,于是为他找了一个僻静小镇的小木屋,让他在这里散心养生。搬到这来的蒙特起初对什么都没有的小镇很不满,终日酗酒。而隔壁奥尼尔家的三个小女孩及她们的母亲(维吉妮娅•马德森 Virginia Madsen 饰)引来了蒙特的注意,随着和她们接触的加深,蒙特喜欢上了这一家,从中也渐渐拾得了生的乐趣;而奥尼奥家的三姐妹从蒙特身上得到了父爱和关怀,而她们的母亲也再次感受到爱情。
一切都在朝着好的方向发展着,哪怕当下仍是黑暗,但黎明终究会来到,在救赎与被救赎中,蒙特及奥尼尔一家得到了治愈。
811 AD, a family, isolated in their home, deep in the woods a few days travel from Birka. They are poor. The hunting and fishing has been bad for some time, and the father, Joar, takes the desperate measure of going on a Viking raid. Joar does not return for a long time, and the family starts to fear he never will. Runa, the oldest daughter, takes over her fathers chores in his absence. She misses him dearly and nourishes a tender hope that he, once again, will return to them. But in her heart, somehow she knows, that the suffering of the family has just begun. There is something in the air, something in the water, the wind and in the soil. Runa is becoming aware of something vile, something dangerous out in the forest. One day when she is out hunting, she finds a bleeding man, a warrior, almost unconscious. She brings him inside and the family tend to his wounds. As he heals, she realizes he is sent to protect the family from an approaching evil. And he brings news of her father.
Twenty years ago at the infamous Redwood Farm, the owner went mad and killed his family and himself. Shrouded in urban legend ever since, a stranger obsessed with the unsolved Redwood murders convinces a group of bereaved family members to venture into the wilderness in the hope of proving the existence of the notorious burlap bag-masked maniac. Their quest for truth sees a sinister turn of events, as the hunters become the hunted and a blood-soaked fight for survival ensues when they find that the sinister tales told of the axe-wielding psycho farmer are very real indeed.