| Director | Lawrence Gough |
|---|
On Christmas Eve morning, a paperboy delivers newspapers in a cul-de-sac. Hearing a row between an Indian couple, he peers through the window, but is spotted and chased away by the man, Mr Sharma (Shahid Ahmed). He flees into the woods behind the street, but is killed by an unknown assailant.
Jodie (Linzey Cocker) is dropped off by her father Clive (Dean Andrews) at her mother's house in the same cul-de-sac to stay for Christmas. Jodie is reluctant as she does not get on with her mother. She finds her mother, Beth (Neve McIntosh) in her room having sex with Kieran (Shaun Dooley). Disgusted, Jodie storms out and stays at her friend Leanne's (Jessica Baglow) house across the street, despite Beth's pleas. Beth argues with Lianne's mother Pam (Debbie Rush), but Pam will not let her in to see Jodie.
As Beth stands in front of Leanne's house, a team of special forces soldiers appear and order everyone inside. Mr Sharma emerges from his house covered in blood and armed with a knife. As he advances towards the soldiers, he is shot dead. Beth gets back into her house with Kieran and the two hear gunfire outside. A television news report shows a shipping container washed up on a nearby beach. Three bodies were found near it, and another further inland, but the power cuts out before they can learn more.
A man breaks into the house and attacks them, and after a struggle Kieran kills him. The man turns out to be Beth's next-door neighbour Peter Davis (Alan Pattison), who had smashed his way in through the communal wall between their lofts. Beth and Kieran enter Peter's house, finding the place in chaos and his wife Joanne dead. Pam bangs on the door shouting for help, but before they can let her in she is dragged away and killed.
The two see the body of a soldier in Peter's garden and get out to retrieve his radio. The soldier turns out to be alive. They carry the soldier, Akede (Kevin Harvey), inside and tend to his wound. Akede reveals that Mr. Sharma was an al-Qaeda terrorist and the shipping container contained weapons for a terrorist operation. Later, Beth hears Akede talking on his radio saying his team were killed by a creature. As she confronts him, he tells her that the true cause of the chaos is due to an experiment to create a creature to be used as a weapon. It was being carried away for destruction by a helicopter, but the helicopter went down in the sea. The shipping container containing the creature washed up on the beach, and was opened by three drunk teenagers. It killed them and escaped.
At this point the creature appears at the window and starts to force its way in. Beth flees into the loft, but Kieran is dragged down before he can climb up. Beth gets back to her house, but the sergeant major commanding the special forces team (Ray Nicholas) is waiting for her and knocks her unconscious.
Beth wakes up and finds herself tied up and gagged outside, presumably to act as bait. Kieran, badly wounded but still alive, appears and unties her. They attempt to flee, but run into the sergeant major, who stabs Kieran to death. Beth flees into the woods, pursued by the soldiers, and finds the paperboy's body. The creature appears, but does not notice her, and attacks the soldiers.
Beth goes to Leanne's house to find her daughter. She finds Leanne, who tells her that Jodie has gone home. Beth flees the house, narrowly avoiding the soldiers; brief screams and a gunshot are heard inside, implying that Leanne is killed. Back at her house, Beth finds Jodie, but they are attacked by the creature. Beth manages to stab it to death as it attacks Jodie, but as she stands up and screams in triumph she is shot dead by one of the soldiers. Jodie tries to help her mother while the soldiers freeze in shock.