Yule Log

The film begins as a static shot of a cabin fireplace with burning yule logs, accompanied by holiday music. The cabin has a dark history across the ages, including with its original occupant: an American slave owner named Isaac, who ashamedly admits to his slave, Rosa, that he did not sell Rosa's son William to a kind slave owner as he promised her, but to the cruel and sadistic Mr. Armfield to fetch a better price. Devastated, Rosa screams that William was their son and kills him with a knife. She hides the knife in the fireplace, and is later lynched at a local hanging tree. In the present, the owner of the cabin arrives to clean it before weekend renters arrive. A masked killer "Pleatherface" and his mother, "Mother", break in, murdering her. Hearing renters Alex and Zoe arrive, they hide inside the cabin. By the fireplace, Alex proposes to Zoe, but they are interrupted by the arrival of the local sheriff, who informs them of a killer on the loose. The sheriff recognizes that the burning fireplace log was taken from the nearby hanging tree. He extinguishes the log, advises them against lighting it again, and departs. Zoe and Alex argue about her apprehensions about marriage and her mental health struggles. They are interrupted by the arrival of four podcasters—Ben, Beth, Holly, and Henry—who accidentally also booked the cabin and plan to investigate lynchings and alien abductions linked to the cabin. Zoe finds the cabin owner's phone ringing under the couch and, unnerved, she and Alex go pack to leave, while Ben showers, and the others go use the hot tub. Unnoticed, the log reignites on its own, floats to the shower, and bludgeons Ben to death. Henry, stoned, sees a small man talking to him from within the fireplace. The "Little Man in the Fire" beckons Henry to crawl into the fireplace and into a strange burning room, which contains a magic elevator that can travel through time and space to any fireplace in existence. He transports Henry to his childhood home where his mother is sleeping, pregnant with him. The man tricks Henry into gruesomely killing her, thereby erasing himself from existence. Back in the cabin, the renters (now with their friend Hunter, instead of Henry) discover Ben's corpse. The floating log appears, crying out in Rosa's voice, as well as other anguished voices of past cabin occupants, and kills Beth and Hunter. Zoe calls the police seeking help from the sheriff, but learns that no such sheriff exists. They are ambushed by Pleatherface and Mother who are unaware of the log. Pleatherface and Mother bind and sexually assault them. An alien in a UFO arrives, and sucks out Mother and Alex's internal organs, killing Mother and leaving Alex near death, before Pleatherface decapitates it. The hidden knife drops out of the fireplace. Zoe uses it to free herself and kill Pleatherface. Before they can flee, Zoe is beckoned by the little man in the fireplace, who offers her the chance to end her anxiety by altering the past so she would never be born. She resists him, wanting to live, and he admonishes her for living in a privileged era. Alex helps her break free of his influence, while Holly flees into the forest. Alex and Zoe flee in the car. They drive by the hanging tree, where cultists have gathered. Zoe recognizes the fake sheriff among the cultists, and runs him over, driving on until sunrise. When they finally stop, Zoe lovingly accepts Alex's proposal, but the log appears outside their window. The film freezes, playing on a monitor at an Atlanta advertising agency. Isaac is a graphic designer working on a proposal for the new Armfield Cotton Mill Lofts, and his boss and partner Rosa lovingly suggests they take their son William to a baseball game. As they talk, the office begins to burn and they shift into their previous identities. Isaac begs Rosa for forgiveness for what he did to their son. Rosa screams and attacks him. As she does, the log, now ridden by the little man, smashes through Zoe and Alex's car window, seemingly killing them both.