Wounds 2019

In the gritty underbelly of New Orleans, bartender Will (played by) tends bar at a rundown watering hole, where the only thing more plentiful than the beer is the cockroaches. The evening’s revelry takes a dark turn when Alicia, her boyfriend Jeffrey, and a group of rowdy college kids stumble into the dive. As tensions simmer, Eric gets into a brawl with another patron, resulting in a nasty gash on his cheek courtesy of a broken bottle. Panic sets in as the students make a hasty exit, leaving behind one of their own’s phone - a device that will soon become a conduit to chaos.

As Will returns home to share his modest abode with student girlfriend Carrie, he can’t resist snooping through the abandoned phone. It’s there that he discovers a series of ominous messages from Garrett, who claims to be beset by terror and something sinister lurking in the shadows - or rather, the tunnel. The next morning, Will awakens to find that overnight, Garrett has sent the phone a jarring image: a pile of bloodied teeth staring back like some macabre memento mori.

Carrie, ever the voice of reason, urges Will to report the disturbing developments to the authorities. But Will’s attention is diverted when he drops Carrie off at school, where he can’t help but suspect that her professor has ulterior motives for his affection. Later, Will pays a visit to Eric, whose wound has taken a turn for the worse - and whose nightmares have grown increasingly vivid. As Will examines Eric’s infected flesh, he’s met with an unsettling sight: what appears to be inhuman tissue oozing from the wound.

Will’s growing unease prompts him to seek out Alicia, where his long-held crush on her is finally acknowledged. His envy of Jeffrey notwithstanding, Will returns home to find that one of the college kids has been following him throughout his day - a stalker who may know more about the mysterious phone than he’s letting on. It’s then that Will uncovers a series of disturbing images and videos on the phone: a gruesome tableau featuring a lifeless corpse, decapitated head, and an unholy entourage of cockroaches.

Carrie, horrified by what she’s seen, demands that they turn the incriminating evidence over to the police. But when they contact Garrett, all they’re met with is an otherworldly screeching - a chilling harbinger of the horrors that are to come.

As Will navigates the evening commute to the station, he becomes acutely aware of one of the college students tailing him. An eerie sense of foreboding settles in as cryptic messages start flooding his phone, proclaiming that he has been chosen for some unknown purpose. The line between reality and paranoia blurs as Will’s imagination runs wild, transforming his cell phone into a grotesque cockroach-like creature that he hastily discards out the car window. Unbeknownst to him, one of the students opportunistically retrieves the device, rendering it inoperable for the authorities to intervene.

Later that night, Will and Alicia indulge in a passionate interlude, only to have their romantic reverie interrupted by Alicia’s sudden guilt-ridden withdrawal. As they drift apart, Will begins to receive increasingly strange and unsettling texts from Carrie, only to discover her entranced and catatonic at home, fixated on an obscure video depicting a dark and foreboding tunnel.

The following night, Will is jolted awake to find Garrett standing in his living room, his presence accompanied by a macabre display of teeth scattered across the floor. Garrett’s ominous declaration that he and his friends have summoned something, which has now possessed them all, sends a chill down Will’s spine as he realizes this malevolent force now sees him as the perfect vessel for further manifestation.

Will’s grip on reality begins to slip as he starts experiencing vivid hallucinations, including the appearance of a cockroach crawling out of a wound in his armpit. The tension between him and Carrie grows more palpable as they become increasingly distant and aggressive towards each other. His investigation into Carrie’s activities reveals that she has been secretly researching Garrett’s online presence, as well as the cryptic symbols and Gnostic rituals contained within an old photograph.

At work, Will’s behavior becomes increasingly erratic, culminating in a physical confrontation with Jeffrey. The following day, he receives another enigmatic text from Carrie, claiming someone is lurking in her house with her. His anxiety reaches a fever pitch as he rushes home to find her once again entranced and catatonic. It takes a thorough cleansing ritual, including the removal of a dark, viscous substance coating her body, to snap her out of this trance-like state.

As Carrie’s catatonia finally subsides, she breaks off their relationship, accusing Will of being emotionally empty and devoid of any genuine connection with her. The once-strong bond between them has given way to an unsettling sense of disconnection, leaving Will to grapple with the dark forces that have insidiously infiltrated his life.

Will’s day takes a dark turn when he lashes out at his boss, ultimately deciding to abandon his job, while Alicia’s words of disdain cut deep, prompting her to sever ties with him. Reeling from these setbacks, Will finds solace in Eric’s (Eric’s name) humble abode, only to discover that his friend’s health has taken a turn for the worse. The wound on Eric’s body, which had been slowly festering, suddenly opens up, revealing a gruesome sight: a college student peering out from within its depths. Eric reveals that the youngsters had coerced him into luring Will to this very spot, with a “present” awaiting his arrival. As if things couldn’t get any more unsettling, Will’s gaze falls upon an eye staring back at him from within Eric’s wound. His curiosity piqued, he spots a phone in Eric’s possession and is unexpectedly prompted to accept the mysterious package wrapped in flesh. A sense of dread washes over him as he realizes that the entity summoned by those college kids is lurking within Eric’s wound. After another fruitless attempt to reach Garrett (Garrett’s name), the room erupts into a cacophony of unholy screeching, signaling the arrival of an uninvited guest: a swarm of cockroaches. Confronted with this existential crisis, Will finally surrenders and begins to merge with the higher being within Eric’s wound, as the very house becomes overrun by the relentless insects.