Though the series as a whole lost money at the box offices,[2][3][4] and were met with a mixed critical reception at the time of their release,[5][6][7] the films have earned a more positive modern-day analyses while being deemed indie-cult classics of the horror genre.

"[14] Ten years following the abduction of six-year-old Martin Bristol from the swing set at his family's home by a madman,[b] the search for the child's location have proven unfruitful; ultimately believed to be a lost cause.

The group gets separated during their escape and Kurt takes innocent bystanders, Samantha and her teenage daughter Courtney hostage in order to make it to the team's rendezvous location; a secluded rural farmhouse in the woods.

One day while playing on the swing at his family home, a deranged criminal named Graham Sutter kidnaps the child and forces him to watch as he abducts, murders, and mutilates young women.

Five years later, a teenage orphan named Allison Miller comes to live with her uncle Jonathan, aunt Karen, and cousin Wendy in rural Minersville, Pennsylvania.

As the family welcomes her to their home, Allison, a distance runner, goes on daily jogs and soon believes she sees a child in the window of the nearby Sutter Meat & Poultry factory, thought to be abandoned.