Den (film)

Plot

A bearded man wakes up, goes through his morning rituals, touches a cross necklace, grabs some chewing gum, and cheerfully tells his mirror, "It's showtime!" Though never named, Den rides a skateboard through the city and kidnaps four people: psychotherapist Steven Brewster and his wife Lolita; Cassandra, a militant atheist who works as a prostitute; and Milton Page, a respiratory therapist who once wanted to be a nun. Den locks them in a big abandoned theater, chains them to walls, and gives them just enough supplies to survive.

He admits he's a serial killer and that they're on his "list of people to do," but what he really wants is conversation. Over nine days, he starts daily arguments and debates. As time passes, the captives' hidden secrets come out. Milton says her dream of becoming a nun ended when she realized she was attracted to women, and she confesses to an affair with a married woman.

Steven reveals a racist and biased worldview early on, and it turns out he's been unfaithful by visiting prostitutes—a shock to Lolita but not to Cassandra. Lolita has her own secret, which Den exposes: she had an affair too—with Milton. When Cassandra admits she's an atheist, Den is more disturbed by that than by her sex work. It emerges that Den is holding them in a space beneath a church where he works as a priest.

He uses the prisoners' secrets to pit them against each other. But Cassandra endures all the physical and mental torment and fights back against Den with everything she has.