| Director | Joseph Sargent |
|---|---|
| Genre | anthology film, horror film, monster film |
| Runtime | 98 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $6 million |
| Box office | $6.7 million |
During a routine traffic stop, a highway patrolman is viciously stabbed by an unseen assailant, though he survives and is taken to the hospital. The perpetrator is William Henry Glazier, a serial killer who escaped a mental institution and is currently terrorizing the Topanga area.
Meanwhile, Lisa, a housewife and chain smoker, discovers that she is out of cigarettes and goes out to buy some more, despite her husband Phillip warning her not to. Lisa reaches the store and buys groceries and cigarettes. On the drive home, Lisa discovers that she is nearly out of gas, and with all the local gas stations already closed for the night, she stops at an out-of-the-way station. The attendant happens to perfectly match Glazier's physical appearance. Lisa grows increasingly alarmed as the attendant seems to be studying her and her car intently. Suddenly, the attendant lunges at the car with a gas nozzle, breaking the window. He drags Lisa out of the car, then draws a pistol and shoots the actual Glazier, who had been hiding in Lisa's back seat. The attendant calms Lisa and offers to call the police.
The police drive the frightened Lisa back home, where she throws the cigarettes in the trash.
J.J. Cooney is an immensely talented video game player and hustler who is obsessed with beating The Bishop of Battle, a notoriously difficult video game where players fight off enemies and escape from a 3-D maze that features thirteen different levels. J.J.'s friend Zock Maxwell mentions how no one they know has ever made it to the thirteenth level, to the point that many people believe it is just a myth. J.J., however, is convinced that the thirteenth level is real and spends the next several hours repeatedly trying and failing to make it there, but he only gets as far as level 12. Determined not to give up, even after closing time, J.J. tries to play one more game, only for the owner of the arcade to throw him out.
That night, J.J. sneaks out of home when his parents Jerry and Adele are asleep and breaks into the arcade to attempt to finish the game. Despite the great difficulty, J.J finally manages to complete level 12. Suddenly, the arcade cabinet falls apart, and The Bishop of Battle's voice rings out, commending J.J. for his skills and welcoming him to level 13, before the cabinet releases a wave of energy. Once the wave passes, the game's 3-D enemies fly out of the cabinet's wreckage and into the real world. The enemies fire lasers that damage the surrounding area, but J.J. manages to defend himself with the gun from the game's controls, which also fires real laser blasts. He flees to the parking lot but drops the gun in the process. The Bishop of Battle soon appears, drawing closer and closer to a terrified J.J.
The next morning, Zock, Jerry and Adele head to the arcade. They discover the damage the arcade sustained during the previous night, as well as The Bishop of Battle cabinet, which has been mysteriously reconstructed. Zock, Jerry and Adele then see J.J. on the screen, watching in disbelief as he turns into the sprite of the player character.
Catholic priest Father Frank MacLeod has lost his faith in God. Though he officiates the funeral of a young boy who was shot in a store robbery, he is unable to provide the mourners with words of comfort. Visiting his bishop, Frank explains how he witnessed the boy's death first-hand, and how the experience has convinced him that there is no God who would allow such suffering. Ignoring the advice of fellow priest Father Luis Del Amo, Frank resigns and leaves the rectory with some holy water, intending to search for a new purpose in life.
Frank soon encounters a black Chevrolet C-20 Fleetside with tinted windows on the road and signals for it to pass, but it goes at the same time he does, nearly causing an accident. A while later, the truck appears behind Frank and rams into his car, detaching his rear bumper and forcing him off the road. As Frank attempts to fix the bumper, the truck appears again, nearly running him over. Frank attempts to escape, but the truck catches up with him. Frank desperately asks the unseen driver what it wants before once again being forced off the road. As Frank gets back on the road, the truck explodes out of the ground and once again pursues him. It is revealed that the truck is driven by Satan himself. The Devil destroys Frank's car in a collision that does no damage to his truck. Injured from the crash and left with nowhere to run, a desperate Frank tosses his container of holy water at the truck, vaporizing it, before he falls unconscious. Emergency responders arrive at the scene but do not find evidence that the truck was ever there. As the paramedics tend to Frank, he requests that they take him to the hospital in his parish, having regained his faith from the experience.
On a stormy night, housewife Claire Houston hears something scurrying in the attic of her house and believes it is rats. The next morning, she browses the phone book to look for an exterminator despite her husband Steven's hesitancy. Later that night, a rat is killed by one of the traps Claire set, and Steven throws it in the garbage. Meanwhile, the family's cat Rosie investigates the house's crawlspace, where she is mauled to death by an unseen creature. The next day, Claire's daughter Brooke discovers that Rosie is missing. At the same time, the kitchen sink is revealed to be clogged with a large amount of grey fur. Claire enters the crawlspace to look for Rosie but finds the cat's corpse and glimpses the silhouette of a large creature with glowing red eyes. Later that day, Brooke discovers that her room and her toys have been torn to shreds, with the only toy left untouched being a stuffed rat.
Eventually, Claire calls exterminator Mel Keefer, who discovers that the creature has managed to gnaw through the pipes and the power cables. Keefer also discovers a large, saliva-covered hole behind a cabinet in the kitchen.