Temple 2017

In Japan, a professor Naoto Takenaka as Ryo and his interpreter Asahi Uchida question a wounded and bandaged man. The tension in the room thickens as their questions go unanswered, and when the professor starts a videotape, the man’s memories flash back to a time before he was injured, hinting at a history that links present danger to the past.

Kate, Natalia Warner, a university student studying comparative religion, invites her friend Logan Huffman Chris, who is recovering from the loss of his brother, to join her on a research trip to Japan to study local temples. Kate’s boyfriend, Brandon Sklenar James, is surprised to learn that Kate and Chris have shared a long platonic friendship since childhood, but he makes it clear he isn’t jealous of their bond. Chris, who can speak a bit of Japanese, acts as translator for the group as they arrive. After a day of sightseeing, they stop at a bookstore, where Kate discovers a book about Japanese folklore and becomes intrigued by a temple pictured inside. When Chris tries to buy it, the proprietor refuses to sell and abruptly closes the shop. They return to their hotel, puzzled by the curt encounter.

Later, Chris and James go out to a club, and Chris witnesses James kissing and dancing with other women, stirring tension and questions about trust. On returning to the bookstore, Chris encounters a young boy named Seita who claims to work there; Seita sells him the folklore book, and Chris begins to feel as though something is stalking him. At a bar, a man warns that the temple in the book is nearby and rumored to be haunted, and the bartender offers directions to a village near the temple. Despite these warnings, they press on.

That night, Chris secures a room at a nearby inn and runs into Seita again. Seita, who says he lives in the village, offers to guide them to the temple the next day. Chris then sees an eyeless man who identifies himself as Hitoshi and reveals that fifty years ago several children vanished; villagers found a monk at the temple and killed him after dismissing his tale as fiction. The same night, Kate and Chris share a quiet moment, while James grows increasingly uneasy, especially after overhearing Kate hint at having had an abortion without telling James. When James cries out in the distance, Kate goes to his aid, and a kitsune—an eerie fox-human guardian of the forest—begins to stalk them.

The journey to the temple continues with Seita leading the way. Along the path, the trio discovers an abandoned mine, and James expresses a desire to explore it, though he agrees to press on toward the temple before nightfall. Seita returns home after delivering them to the temple’s gate, which is watched over by a statue of a kitsune. Kate, drawn by a sense of foreboding, explores the area but grows wary and suggests leaving. Before they can depart, Chris is dragged through a wooden floor, fracturing his leg, and James vows to fetch help at dawn. But James overhears a tense exchange between Chris and Kate in which Kate’s private confession about abortion surfaces, and he leaves in distress.

A kitsune relentlessly pursues James, and Kate retraces her steps into the mine, where she finds him disfigured and eyeless. She flees, only to discover the mine entrance has collapsed, trapping her inside. Simultaneously, the missing children launch an assault on Chris back at the temple. In the present, the bandaged man—whom the professor believes to be Chris—denies having killed Kate and James, even though Chris’ camera footage seems to show him attacking James. The bandaged man grows furious as they deny Seita’s presence, and he stabs the translator with a pen before escaping the room.