10x10 2018

As Robert Lewis (Luke Evans) sits in a restaurant across from Cathy Noland’s flower shop, he observes her every move with an air of calculated curiosity. Later, Cathy brings a bouquet to the diner’s waiter, who shares the tender story of his ill wife Mia, piquing Robert’s interest. As Cathy leaves the diner, Robert seizes the opportunity to trail her to LA Fitness, where she indulges in a yoga practice that seems to be both her sanctuary and her passion. Meanwhile, Alondra (Norma Dixit), Robert’s housekeeper, delivers a cryptic message that sets him into motion.

As Cathy unwinds after her workout, Robert receives an update from Alondra that everything is in place for the evening ahead. It’s then that he makes his move, slipping a plastic bag over Cathy’s head as she exits the locker room. The sudden silence is short-lived, as Cathy manages to break free and scream out in terror - though her cries are drowned out by the oblivious headphones of a nearby bystander.

Robert quickly regains control, binding Cathy with zip ties and duct tape, before depositing her lifeless body into the trunk of his car. As he drives away, a police cruiser approaches, but Robert’s quick thinking allows him to evade detection. His next destination is a remote house, where a malfunctioning garage door forces him to prop it open with a makeshift stick.

Once inside, Robert drags Cathy into the dimly lit interior, her scraped heels leaving a trail of crimson on the floor as he reveals his sinister intentions. The tension builds as Cathy’s fate hangs precariously in the balance, trapped in the dark heart of Robert’s twisted design.

As Lewis secures Cathy within the confines of a 10x10 room, masquerading as a cellar but actually situated on the first floor, she finds herself struggling against an impenetrable barrier. Meanwhile, Lewis tends to his culinary endeavors and later cleans out his vehicle of the supplies he employed for Cathy’s abduction. Upon his return, he reveals that the walls of her prison are constructed from concrete four feet thick, lined with sound-absorbing materials designed to render screams ineffective. He demands to know Cathy’s name, his tone devoid of empathy. As the duct tape is removed, Cathy erupts into a cacophony of hysterical wails.

Undeterred by Cathy’s distress, Lewis departs to program his computer to record the sounds emanating from within her cell. Later, he methodically cleans up bloodstains in the hallway, while Cathy attempts to breach the door with her legs and eventually manages to rise to her feet, crying out for help through a vent that casts a faint glow.

Upon Lewis’s return, he brandishes a gun, offering Cathy a choice: submit to his whims or succumb to her own despair. In a desperate bid to appeal to his humanity, Cathy offers him the $50,000 she has stashed away in her savings account, but Lewis declines, instead recounting a gruesome news story about a bull at a slaughterhouse who sensed its own mortality and escaped, only to be recaptured and killed, its meat ultimately rendered poisonous by fear. He then demands to know Cathy’s true identity, and she reveals herself as Cathy Noland.

As the hours tick by, Lewis occupies himself by rummaging through Cathy’s purse and cellphone, listening to a news report about exhumed corpses with no discernible cause of death, and preparing a meal. Meanwhile, Cathy struggles against her restraints, determined to find a means of escape.

When Lewis returns to collect her for their dinner date, Cathy seizes the opportunity to attack him, using her bound hands to inflict harm. Her subsequent attempts to call the police are foiled when Lewis shoots out the landline. After momentarily rendering Lewis unconscious with her knife, Cathy scrambles to retrieve her purse and discovers that her cell phone has no reception.

Undeterred, Cathy retrieves a large kitchen knife and frees her legs from their bindings. She then sets about attempting to open the lock on the window doors using the blade. However, when Lewis regains his composure, Cathy pleads with him not to take her life, her voice laced with desperation. Lewis, armed with a gun, remains unfazed by Cathy’s knife and takes his seat at the table, prepared to enjoy his meal.

As Cathy’s futile struggles against her confinement finally subside, she slumps down at the table, defeated. Robert, ever the calculating strategist, offers words of encouragement, pointing out that if his intention was to kill her, he would have long since seen it through. His words are laced with a sinister undertone, and yet, they seem to hold a ring of truth - after all, what better way to toy with one’s prey than to make them believe they still have a chance? As Robert poses the question once more, Cathy hesitantly reveals her name, only to be met with another brutal outburst. The two engage in a fierce battle, their bodies crashing against the cold concrete walls as they fight for dominance. In the end, it is Lewis who emerges victorious, reasserting his control over Cathy and shuffling her back into her cell just as a car pulls into the driveway outside.

As Lewis exits the cell, the door swings open to reveal Alondra, his trusted maid, entering the house with a look of shock and dismay on her face. She takes in the scene before her - the disheveled state of the room, Robert’s bloodied form - and can’t help but wonder what kind of chaos has been unleashed within these walls. Robert, ever the master of spin, dispatches Alondra with haste, sending her packing for the day and promising to see her again tomorrow, when she will bring his daughter Summer along with her. With a sense of duty fulfilled, Alondra departs, leaving Robert to tend to the aftermath of the struggle. He sets about sweeping up the shattered glass and scrubbing clean the bloodied knife, his movements a testament to his determination to erase all evidence of the violence that has transpired.

Meanwhile, in the depths of the cellar, Cathy lies writhing in pain and agony, her cell phone slipping from her grasp as she struggles to summon help. Her efforts are met with silence, and so she turns her attention to prying loose the tiles on the floor, her desperation growing with each passing moment. Above ground, Robert takes a shower, the warm water a welcome respite from the carnage that has unfolded around him. As he stands beneath the spray, his thoughts turn to the news clips playing on TV - the story of the Charleston Three, whose medical records seem to have been fabricated in a bid to cover up their true fate. The revelation sends a shiver down Robert’s spine, and for a moment, his gaze is lost in the depths of the television screen, his mind consumed by the dark secrets that lurk beneath the surface.

As Robert Lewis’s persistence wears thin, Cathy’s narrative begins to unravel like a threadbare cloak. Initially, she paints a serene picture of her life: Orange County, California, birthplace; New York University, alma mater; English literature, major subject; and Atlanta, the city where she traded academia for the delicate art of floristry. Her maternal lineage is rooted in the healing profession, with her mother retired from the medical trenches. The paternal side, however, is marked by a tragic absence: a father who toiled behind the scenes as an NFL team’s physician, his legacy marred by a sudden departure that left Cathy’s heart shattered. But Lewis remains unsatisfied, and he renews his inquiry into the mysteries of Cathy’s past. Her responses grow increasingly evasive, prompting him to fire off another salvo: a pistol shot that whizzes perilously close to her ear. Undeterred, Lewis continues to probe, only to be met with a sudden transformation in Cathy’s story. She now claims a birthplace in Green Bay, Wisconsin; her mother remains a devoted caregiver, while her father’s infidelity left him abandoned by his loving nurse and a cheerleader’s charms. The emotional toll of this betrayal is palpable: the death of her twin sister, whose life was forever altered by the family tragedy. In a stunning revelation, Cathy confesses to having once donned the scrubs of a medical professional and tended to the needs of others before opening her flower shop. As Lewis departs, he shares his suspicion that Cathy is intimately aware of the true purpose behind their isolated sojourn.

As Lewis’s eyes gazed upon the tender moments of fatherhood in a video, Nathalie discreetly pulled out a mobile phone hidden away, its screen illuminating the darkness like a beacon of urgency. The phone’s ringing pierced the air, and Robert’s instincts kicked into high gear as he frantically searched for the device, finally discovering it nestled in Natalie’s pocket. His swift destruction of the phone was a testament to his desperation. Lewis’s probing questions then turned to Nathalie’s past, and she revealed that her work experience spanned from Saint Mary’s in Green Bay to All Angels Hospital in Charleston, where a series of tragic events would soon unfold.

The mention of the Charleston Three - three patients whose lives were cruelly extinguished under Natalie’s care at All Angels - sent Robert’s ire soaring. His wife, Alana Matthews Lewis, was one of the victims, and her untimely demise had left him shattered. He recounted the disturbing circumstances surrounding John Lamptey’s death, highlighting the stark contrast between his supposed kidney failure diagnosis and the insurance physical he had passed mere weeks prior. As Lewis’s accusations mounted, Natalie’s apologetic tone only served to further enrage him.

With a cold calculation, Robert revealed that Alana’s blood had tested positive for alcohol and the potent sedative GHB, implying that Natalie was responsible for her murder. Nathalie offered a hesitant apology, but Robert would have none of it. He departed the cellar, seeking solace in fond memories of his happy family - Alana (Oliva Chenery) and their young daughter Summer (Olivia Leigh James), playing together on a snowy Thanksgiving day.

However, this respite was short-lived, as Lewis’s anger boiled over once more. He returned to the cellar, gun in hand, demanding that Natalie provide a satisfactory explanation for his wife’s untimely demise or face the consequences. Natalie, sensing her life slipping away, agreed to reveal the truth about her troubled past.

As she began to recount her childhood marred by religious dogma and family shame, Nathalie painted a picture of a household torn asunder by her father’s betrayal. The twins’ father had left them, casting their family into an abyss of shame and ostracism. Natalie claimed that this trauma had led her sister to take her own life in the family barn - a tragic act that would haunt Nathalie forever.

As a nurse, Natalie had often been privy to her patients’ darkest secrets. And as she gazed upon Robert’s anguished face, she knew that she had reached a turning point. She confessed to taking the lives of the Charleston Three, driven by a desire for vengeance against those who had sinned - John Lamptey, with his two wives; Jane Spencer, who had lied about her husband’s abuse; and Alana herself, whose infidelity had shattered Robert’s trust.

Yet, as Lewis listened to Natalie’s tale of woe, he refused to accept the possibility that his wife could have been unfaithful. In his eyes, Nathalie was a cold-blooded killer, responsible for the deaths of three innocent people - including his beloved Alana.

Here is a rephrased version of the section:

As Lewis delves deeper into the digital realm, searching for proof of his wife’s alleged infidelity on video recordings, he becomes fixated on a specific moment where she receives a call with an impassive expression. Consumed by emotional turmoil, Lewis abandons his car and stops at a tranquil lake shore. Meanwhile, Natalie is frantically trying to remove the remnants of her broken phone from between floor tiles.

When Lewis encounters the police while stopped at the lake, he effortlessly dispels any suspicions through cooperative behavior. The authorities do notice Natalie’s abandoned shoes and sweater in the trunk, but Lewis attributes them to his wife. As Natalie secretly manages to extract a shard of tile and free herself from her restraints, Lewis returns home to confront her.

With a mix of indignation and betrayal, Lewis accuses Natalie of taking out his wife before he could have a chance to talk to her, demanding she confess to the Charleston Three Murders case. Natalie, now calling herself Cathy Noland, vehemently refuses, insisting she’s starting anew with a happy life. Enraged, Natalie attacks Lewis with the tile shard, only for him to retreat and lock her in the cellar.

Natalie soon regains freedom, arming herself with a knife as Lewis bleeds profusely while trying to re-secure her in the cellar. In a moment of chaos, Alondra, the maid, returns home unexpectedly with Summer, Lewis’s daughter, who had been cancelled from a sleepover. Natalie shoots Alondra and takes Summer hostage, claiming she’s not Robert’s biological child due to his wife’s infidelity. With a twisted logic, Natalie resolves that everything is Robert’s fault and that this can only end with the deaths of both Robert and Summer.

Robert confronts Natalie, revealing that the house has been recording every word and deed. As tensions escalate, Summer seizes an opportunity to bite and escape from Natalie, eventually finding refuge in the cellar where Lewis finds his daughter after subduing and shooting Natalie.

As the desperate bid for freedom reaches its climax, Summer’s keen eyes scan the surroundings only to discover that Nathalie has vanished into thin air. Undeterred by this sudden development, Lewis seizes the opportunity to make off with the incriminating recordings from Nathalie’s confessions, hastening to the garage with a sense of urgency. However, his escape plan is abruptly foiled when Nathalie appears out of nowhere, gun in hand, and corners him with a menacing intensity. But just as she prepares to pull the trigger, her weapon proves to be nothing more than an empty threat, leaving Lewis stunned but unscathed.

In a desperate bid to turn the tables, Nathalie lunges at Robert with a pitchfork, its tines glinting ominously in the dim light of the garage. However, he deftly sidesteps her attack and uses the agricultural implement to deflect her blow, sending her crashing to the ground in a daze. As Lewis makes his escape, Nathalie lies motionless, temporarily stunned by the malfunctioning garage door that comes crashing down on top of her like a metal hammer.

In the aftermath of this harrowing ordeal, the authorities arrive on the scene, finally bringing an end to the chaos and restoring order to the troubled landscape. As the nightmare begins to recede into memory, Lewis wraps Summer in a tight embrace, his voice trembling with emotion as he professes his love for her amidst the ruins of their tumultuous journey.