| Director | Simon Rumley |
|---|---|
| Genre | drama film, erotic thriller, horror film, mystery film, rape and revenge film, thriller film |
| Country | United States |
Erica spends her nights trawling the bars and beds of Austin, Texas. Emotionally withdrawn, her only form of human contact is a series of unprotected one-night stands with strangers, whom she picks up irrespective of age or physical appearance. For some reason, however, she keeps a Polaroid photo album of her partners, remembers their faces and those of their acquaintances, and takes caution to avoid sleeping with the same man twice. She lives in a flophouse where she does the cleaning in exchange for room and board. This arrangement with the landlady is discontinued when new boarder Nate moves in, and Erica finds herself in urgent need of a regular income to pay for her stay. Feeling responsible, Nate helps her land a job in the DIY store where he works. Distrustful and reluctant at first, she gradually warms up to the mysterious Nate, who uses an anecdote from his childhood as a metaphor to justify his protective demeanor towards Erica despite his psychopathic tendencies. He also claims to have been honorably discharged from service in Iraq and is apparently considering a job offer by the CIA. Despite his air of danger and Erica's difficulty in leaving her promiscuity behind, the two form a hesitant bond.
Franki Morrison, a young, hot-headed and wannabe rock star, learns on the eve of his band's departure for a European tour that he is HIV-positive. This not only derails his recently rekindled relationship with his girlfriend, but also affects his mother, since he had spent months donating blood to her for her cancer treatment. Distraught by the news and its implications, Franki realizes he must have been infected by Erica, the only woman he had unsafe sex with during the past six months. His two bandmates, who had also partaken in the foursome (shown in the film's initial scenes), test negative. However, their loyalty and that of another friend named Ed leads them to assist Franki in tracking Erica down and forcefully taking her to his home. Erica tacitly admits that she was deliberately exposing sexual partners to HIV but justifies her actions as a response to the rape she suffered as a child by her mother's boyfriend.
Franki's friends reluctantly leave him alone with Erica. Franki then rapes her, makes an awkward marriage proposal based on a warped attempt to rationalize their shared predicament, and keeps her hostage over the next few days. When he learns his mother committed suicide because of her exposure to HIV, Franki stabs Erica in a fit of rage. He and his three friends try to drive her to the hospital, but she dies in their car before they can take off. Her body is dismembered offscreen and, once again out of loyalty, Franki's friends agree to dispose of the parts in separate locations.
Before they can do so, Nate uses his CIA contact to track them down. He tortures and murders all of them, including Ed and his family, revealing himself to be a skilled and sadistic army interrogator. His last victim is Franki, whom he skins alive after retrieving Erica's head. He finally decides to turn down his CIA contact's offer for a job and moves to his sister's place in Tallahassee. Somewhere along his drive to Florida, he buries all of Erica's remains and burns several items, including a picture of their wedding some time earlier.