A boy and a girl become friends under ominous circumstances, while a small town sheriff tries to solve a series of mysterious murder cases...

SYNOPSIS:

1984. Johnny Sullivan is a troubled teenager living in a small town in Upstate New York. He is under the negative influence of his older friends Ed and Spike. To impress them he pulls a prank on a new student at his school named Rose. After Rose turns out to be more resilient than Johnny expected, the situation takes an unexpected turn and they start to become friends.

Meanwhile two men are slaughtered by an unknown attacker. Sheriff Williams and young Deputy Rollins investigate the case, which is initially assumed to be a bear attack. Before the killing took place, two other people also went missing in the small town. One of them is an employee at the hazardous landfill run by the dubious Gordon White.

Johnny is torn between his interest in Rose and his loyalty to Ed, as Ed sees Rose as an enemy. Hence, Johnny hides his new friendship with Rose from Ed.

As the investigation progresses, the police learn that the theory of a bear killing the two men is not viable. The bitemarks of the attacker do not match any animal and are contaminated with radioactive material. This revelation puts the focus of the investigation on the landfill, which stores nuclear substances in the wake of cold war politics.

Rose takes Johnny to a rally of animal rights activists. They are protesting against the landfill which pollutes the local water and supports animal experiments. Ed, whose family runs a puppy mill, finds out about Johnny joining the rally with Rose, and puts Johnny’s loyalty to a cruel test. After also being humiliated by a teacher, disillusioned Johnny makes out with a girl at Rose’s birthday party and is thrown out by an upset Rose. Johnny leaves and is reported missing soon after.

Another person goes missing, and the police are called to an emergency at the landfill one night. When they arrive, they find Gordon White slaughtered. At that very moment they are called to another emergency at the homecoming dance, where a terrifying creature is on a rampage creating a bloodbath.

Rose is at the homecoming event and is eventually confronted with the creature. The creature spares Rose’s life and it becomes evident that Rose’s and Johnny’s developing friendship and Johnny’s disappearance happened before the start of the police investigation. Johnny had become exposed to radiation and chemicals at the landfill due to a mean act by Ed and Spike. This exposure turned Johnny into the predatory mutant creature. The two men, who were killed in the supposed bear attack, were Ed and Spike, who fell victim to Johnny’s revenge. All the other casualties also turn out to be crimes of the Johnny-Creature. After sparing Rose at the homecoming dance the creature faces the police in a suicidal act and gets shot.

The epilogue, which takes place sometime in the future, shows a young couple with a dog. When the dog is killed by a mutated rabbit it becomes evident, that the toxic landfill is still poisoning the environment and that nothing has changed since the horrible events took place.