Who cannot leave town?
The movie is set in 1985, in the fictional town of Quatssack, New Hampshire. Quatssack seems like a nice, ordinary town, but it harbors a dark and deadly secret: it is the home of the Children of the Yeti, an evil cult that worships a yeti that lives in the woods. The yeti was captured in the Himalayas and brought to the town as an old man′s sideshow, but had escaped, and is reportedly the last of its kind. Each night, Debra, one of its members, lures young men to the cult with the intention of offering it up to the yeti as a means of keeping it sexually sated. The movie opens up with such an example, with Debra and Raymond, the cult′s leader, looking on while laughing sadistically.
Five college students—fraternity brothers Adam and Dick, their girlfriends Sally and Emily, and a fifth member named Joe—are coming to Quatssack on a camping trip, unaware of the town′s secrets. On their first night, Joe is killed while going to the bathroom in the woods, and since he was the one who had the car keys, the remaining four cannot leave town. The old man, who now owns a hideous-looking creature called "Tentacle Boy" and displays it as a sideshow, informs them of the yeti that he used to own now living somewhere in the woods.
Emily goes into a nearby church to pray for Joe′s safety, and while she is in there, she is discovered by a priest as a "Chosen One" that was prophesied to take down the Children of the Yeti. She accepts her destiny, and the priest gives her supplies for her mission.
Meanwhile, Adam, Dick, and Sally, who are waiting for Emily outside, are ambushed by a redneck demanding the whereabouts of the Chosen One. Emily emerges from the church and shoots the redneck with a crossbow, and despite his seemingly near-fatal wound, demands that the redneck take them to the cult′s location. Only Adam and Emily follow the redneck; Sally is sent back to their campsite, while Dick had left earlier, having met Debra.
Adam Dick Sally Emily