A Man Kidnaps His Crush Who Rejected Him—But His Reason Isn’t What You Think

0:20 The movie opens as a man named Seth wakes up to an alarm early in the morning. After having breakfast, he heads to his job, which is at an animal control shelter. He seems to be deeply fond of the dogs there, whom he carefully looks after and feeds every day. Later, while Seth is heading home on the bus, his attention is drawn to a beautiful girl writing in a notebook. He immediately approaches her and greets her by name, Holly, which leaves the girl surprised as she doesn’t recognize him. Seth explains that they were in the same high school, and everyone used to know Holly, as she was quite popular. Seth asks if she’s a writer, but she denies it, and claims she’s just a waitress. After an awkward conversation, Holly gets off the bus before Seth even gets a chance to ask her out.

1:16 That night, Seth searches for Holly on social media, and soon finds her Facebook profile, which reveals that she’s single. The next morning at work, Seth asks the security guard, Nate, about how to win over a girl he likes. Nate gets irritated since they aren’t close enough to discuss such things, yet he still advises Seth to be confident. Later, while working, Seth makes a strange discovery in the animal control facility when he notices a door that leads to an abandoned room. Upon returning home, he once again begins obsessively stalking Holly’s profile, and notes her likes and dislikes. The next morning, Seth rehearses how to talk to Holly. Up next, he arrives at the restaurant where she works, which he tracked down from her profile.

2:03 When Holly comes to take his order, Seth reminds her of their encounter on the bus, but to his shock, she insists she doesn’t recognize him. The situation quickly turns awkward, and he compliments her hair, which only deepens her discomfort. Later, while Seth is having his meal, Holly approaches to see if he needs anything else. He seizes the moment to ask her out to her favorite singer’s concert, but Holly flatly refuses, claiming she has a boyfriend. Seth refuses to believe this, so the visibly unsettled waitress drops the receipt on the table and walks away. In the evening, we see Holly heading home after work, but she senses someone following her, and we see that it’s none other than Seth. Holly quickly rushes to her apartment, where she greets her roommate, Claire,

2:49 and tells her about the creepy guy. Holly then gets a drunk call from her ex, Eric, who wants to see her, but she refuses and hangs up. Later, we see the two roommates drinking together, during which Claire asks her friend to forgive Eric for what happened and move on, but Holly says she cannot do that. The next morning, when Holly arrives at work, she is shocked to see that someone has sent her a bouquet of roses, with a card that says, “Be mine.” In the evening, she arrives at the bar where Eric works, and he apologizes for drunk-dialing her last night. She asks him not to send her roses anymore, but he says he didn’t, which leaves Holly shocked. Eric then asks her to get back together, but Holly seems hesitant, as he cheated on her in the past.

3:36 Suddenly, Seth also arrives at the bar, and sits at a nearby table to overhear their conversation. Later, Holly leaves the bar, and writes something in her notebook, right when Seth approaches and strikes up a conversation. He then shockingly admits that he was the one who sent her the roses, so Holly recognizes him from the restaurant, and angrily asks what the hell he wants. He attempts to express his feelings, but a furious Holly hits him and storms back into the bar. When he continues bothering her, Holly calls Eric, who immediately steps in and viciously punches Seth. Eric then throws the guy out of the bar, but Seth is overjoyed when he spots Holly’s diary lying outside. Upon returning home, Seth begins reading the diary,

4:21 where he discovers all of Holly’s deepest secrets, some of which leave him deeply shaken. Elsewhere, Holly is worried sick over losing her diary and shares her concern with Claire. The next day, Seth investigates the mysterious room at his workplace, and soon uncovers a hatch there that leads to a secret basement. Over the following days, we see him constructing a cage in that basement using tools ordered online, and instructions from a wikiHow tutorial. Once it is complete, he grabs a sedative meant for dogs, and tests it on himself, which instantly renders him unconscious. The scene then cuts to a few days later, where Holly is heading home late at night

5:10 when she senses someone following her. We see that it is none other than Seth, so at one point, Holly takes out pepper spray and strikes the man, who turns out to be an unfortunate homeless guy. A panicked Holly runs away, while Seth watches everything from the shadows. Shortly after, Holly returns home, but it doesn’t take long for Seth to break in through a window. Holly is in the bathroom when she hears a noise, and asks if it’s Claire, but receives no answer. Up next, she goes to her bed to sleep. But then…

5:55 Later, Seth arrives at his workplace, where he tries to smuggle Holly’s body by stuffing her into a massive box. But he is confronted by Nate, who asks what he’s doing, so Seth hastily makes an excuse, claiming the boss made him handle a late-night delivery. In the next scene, Holly awakens to find herself half-naked and trapped inside a cage, which leaves her horrified. The frantic girl tries to force open the lock, but only breaks her nail in the process. She screams in terror, but her cries are drowned out by the sound of barking dogs, and no one can hear her. The next morning, Seth arrives at the basement with a basin for Holly to use as a toilet, but she just lashes out at him with curses. The man claims that he is doing this for her own good, and walks away without leaving her any food.

6:45 The scene cuts to a few days later, where we see Holly in a deteriorated state, so Seth brings her some water and food. She desperately clings to his leg and pleads with him not to leave, but he says that it’s hard for him as well, and that they need to establish some boundaries. After he departs, Holly’s mind starts to play tricks on her, which causes her to hallucinate Claire. Claire tells her that Seth will inevitably kill her, and asks what she plans to do. She tries to provoke Holly, saying that she is letting herself be defeated by a pathetic little shit. The next day, Seth returns to the basement, and tells Holly he has no plans to force himself on her, and just hopes he won’t have to kill her. He claims he is doing all of this to save her, since, to him, she is a special person.

7:31 Seth believes the person she portrays on the outside is different from who she truly is, so he wants to uncover the real Holly to see if there is still a chance to save her. Later, Seth exits the basement, only to be met by Nate, who angrily asks if he was sneaking in the prohibited area. Seth claims he wasn’t, and walks away to resume his work. Meanwhile, in the basement, Holly once again chats with the hallucination of Claire, and reveals that her plan is to wait. The next morning, Seth returns to the basement with Holly’s diary, so the enraged woman calls him a thief. He calmly says that he felt sorry for her, especially after reading the passages where she wrote about love. Then, Seth suddenly asks how Claire has been these days, leaving Holly frozen in shock.

8:18 He confesses that sometimes, before he enters, he hears her speaking in two voices, which had terrified him at first. He asks if she’s here right now, and Holly spots Claire directly behind Seth, yet she denies it. In a shocking twist, Seth reveals to Holly that Claire doesn’t even exist, and is nothing more than a fragment of her imagination. It is revealed that Holly and Eric were once engaged, but things took a twisted turn when he cheated on her with the real Claire, Holly’s best friend. The scene then cuts to a flashback of the two girls heading home one night, during which Holly confronts her best friend about the betrayal. Claire nervously explains that they were drunk, and it meant nothing, but Holly erupts in rage and drives the car recklessly, which causes a violent accident.

9:04 Both survive the crash, but Holly shockingly takes out a shard of glass from her body, and thrusts it into Claire's eye, which instantly kills her. In the present, Seth recounts all of this to Holly, who insists that she is a writer, and that it was all fiction. But Seth explains that this is why he didn’t go to the cops immediately, and followed her for a few days to be sure. In another bizarre twist, we learn that Holly is actually a serial killer, and Seth had witnessed a string of brutal murders she committed while heading home at night. Despite everything, Seth insists that he locked her up to save her, and prevent her from harming anyone else. Holly seems visibly moved by this, and desperately asks him to save her. After Seth leaves, Claire appears again, and applauds Holly for her Oscar-worthy performance.

9:52 It turns out the woman was just acting to make Seth believe that there is a chance to save her. The next day, Seth returns to the basement, and asks Holly why she committed all those murders, and why she didn’t stop at Claire. She responds it was just because she could, then suddenly begins smashing her head against the cage, leaving herself bloodied. She demands that he release her, and warns that if she kills herself down here, his life will be over too, with his fingerprints all over the place. This spooks Seth, so he quietly heads upstairs to work, where his superior summons him to the office. It turns out that Seth hasn’t been cleaning up the place properly, and Nate reported that he hasn’t seen him in two days. His superior gives Seth a disciplinary notice, and sternly warns that he will be fired if he continues slacking.

10:39 Seth worries about losing his job, and promises that it won’t happen again. The next day, he heads to the basement through the abandoned room, which is noticed by Nate again. Seth soon approaches Holly, and only gives her a bar of chocolate as food for pulling a stunt last time by banging her head. He proceeds to leave, but Holly decides to manipulate him, and says that she dreamt last night about them living together in a house by the beach. She says they were happy, and maybe that’s how things are supposed to be. This finally softens Seth’s heart, so he agrees to get some snacks for her from the vending machine. Afterwards, Seth leaves the room, and Nate, who suspects something is wrong, opens the door to the abandoned room, which soon leads him to the secret basement. There, his eyes widen in horror when he sees Holly locked in a cage.

11:29 She is happy to see him, and urges him to find something to break the lock, insisting there’s no time to waste. Nate desperately tries to unlock it, but unfortunately, Seth returns with the snacks and is shocked to see him. But surprisingly, Holly notices him and instead gestures for Seth to kill Nate. Seth hesitates, but when Holly begins speaking about how true love requires sacrifice to Nate, Seth immediately strikes Nate on the head, before brutally stabbing him multiple times. Despite the brutal attack, Nate is still alive, so Holly urges Seth to finish him off with a cinder block. Seth hesitates at first, but under her pressure, he finally gives in and smashes the poor man’s head and kills him.

12:18 Seth is shattered by what he has done, but Holly calms him, and gives him instructions on how to dispose of the body. Seth obeys, and removes the dead man’s teeth, and fingerprints so he cannot be identified. He then mutilates the body, and feeds it to the dogs at the shelter. He then incinerates what remains, and Holly coaches him on exactly what to say. Seth thus calls his superior, claiming Nate left him in charge, and didn’t return. Later, he finally disposes of the teeth in a nearby river, erasing the last traces of his crime. After this incident, Seth is consumed by guilt over his actions, but Holly coldly tells him it gets easier, and that the first time is always the worst. Seth insists it was just an accident, but she disagrees, claiming they are both the same,

13:07 and were born to do this. Seth argues that he had no choice, and that everything he did was to save Holly from committing more crimes. He begs her to change, so he can let her out, and they can live their lives together. At this moment, Holly tries to seduce him, but Seth refuses her advances, so she accuses him of not loving her. Seth insists that he does love her, but Holly becomes very upset, prompting him to leave the basement. In the next scene, a detective arrives at the shelter to interrogate Seth about Nate’s disappearance. Seth claims that Nate received a call, had to meet someone that night, and left him in charge. However, the detective quickly notices multiple gaps in his story, as there was no record of anyone leaving the building that night, and Nate’s phone records show no incoming call at that time.

13:55 Seth tries to act very normal and innocent, but it becomes clear he won’t be able to keep it up for long. Sometime later, Seth goes to see Holly to feed her, but she refuses to eat, as she’s still mad at him for rejecting her advances. This continues for days, and when Seth asks what’s wrong, Holly coldly tells him that he cannot save her, or give her what she needs. When Seth asks what that is, she replies that she needs proof of true love, and demands that he cut off one of his fingers. Seth is horrified and immediately refuses, which only drives Holly to manipulate him further. She tells him that she thought he was the one person who would truly be there for her in the end. As Seth turns to leave, Holly bitterly tells him not to come back if she is nothing more than a pet to him.

14:41 Later, we see that Seth is deeply affected by her words, so after some consideration, he once again returns to the basement with a knife. He begins to painfully sever his own finger, while Holly watches with twisted amusement and satisfaction. However, the moment he’s done, Holly snatches the knife and threatens to slit her own throat if he doesn’t open the cage door. Panic overwhelms Seth, and he reluctantly unlocks the door, which sets her free. Holly then approaches him, and says that he saved her, and that’s why she loves him. She pulls him into a passionate kiss, only to suddenly slice his throat open. At this moment, she once again sees the vision of Claire, who appears to open the door for her. The scene then cuts to some time later, when Holly is now back with Eric, and the two are happily living together.

15:31 While the couple is having breakfast, we learn that Holly is now a published writer, and has released a story clearly inspired by her own life. Just then, a message appears on Eric’s phone, and when Holly checks it, she realizes he is cheating on her again. She then glances at a knife and briefly contemplates killing him, but ultimately suppresses the urge before handing him the phone. Later, Holly travels to an abandoned warehouse, where she approaches a cage holding a man captive. She calmly tells him that earlier that morning she almost hurt Eric, but managed to stop herself because she thought of him. At this point, we realize that the man is none other than Seth, now so brutally mutilated that he can barely see or speak. It seems that Holly has finally stopped killing people, and instead channels all of her murderous urges onto Seth.

16:21 In the end, Seth managed to save Holly, but at the devastating cost of his own freedom and life.