"An Eye for an Eye" is the first episode of the first season of Slasher. It aired on March 4th 2016.
Synopsis[]
Shortly after her return to the small town where her parents were murdered many years ago, Sarah Bennett is horrified when she discovers a new series of murders has begun.
Plot[]
It was Halloween 1988. While the kiddies are out trick-or-treating, a man, Bryan, is inside his home preparing the finishing touches on his Halloween costume. His very pregnant wife, Rachel, comes down the stairs to tell him she doesn’t think she feels up to going out tonight and returns upstairs. Moments later, the doorbell rings and Bryan welcomes in his friend Alan, who’s dressed up like a medieval executioner. Alan’s weirdly quiet, but maybe he’s just really into his costume. The doorbell rings a moment later though, and when Bryan answers, the real Alan is standing outside! Before he can react, the Executioner stabs Bryan in the back. He slices Alan’s face before letting him go, and Rachel races down the stairs to find out what happened. She attempts to flee, only to slip in the pool of blood and fall to the ground. The Executioner shuts the door as she screams. A short while later, the police enter the house and pass the dead bodies to discover the man, now unmasked, sitting in a rocking chair and cooing to a baby.
Cut to present Day. Sarah and her husband Dylan are driving to their new home in Waterbury. It’s her parents’ old house: she is the baby who was born that Halloween night. They arrive at the house and share a kiss outside, only to be harassed by their nosy neighbor, Verna McBride. She’s not a fan of PDA, apparently. Sarah meets up with an old friend, Sgt. Cam Henry, who has just handled a situation with their crazy neighbor Heather Peterson. Two men, Robin and Justin, hop out of a nearby parked car. Robin is Sarah’s landlord, and Justin is his husband. Robin hands Sarah the keys to her new gallery location, and they invite Sarah and Cam to dinner before driving away.
Dylan arrives at The Waterbury Bulletin office and meets Alison, the publisher. Dylan’s been hired as the editor-in-chief of the paper. He confronts Alison about the newspaper’s sensationalized reporting about Sarah’s return, but she’s indifferent to his pleas. She just wants to sell papers. While driving home, Sarah sees Verna walking down the street and offers to give her a ride, but she rebuffs the offer, adding that Sarah’s mother was a slut. So much for making friends with the neighbors! Later, while attempting to install their TV (one of the immediate necessities when moving to any new place, of course), Sarah says she wonders if the Bulletin has any footage or information about the night of the killings that she hasn’t seen before. Sarah and Dylan log into the Bulletin’s server and watch a video of the Executioner, Tom Winston, being interrogated. He refers to himself as the “Lord’s messenger” and said he needed to do God’s bidding. Sarah is disturbed and says she needs to take a walk.
While on the street, Sarah walks past a group of teenage boys, setting off fireworks. Shortly after, Sarah feels a presence following her. She turns around and sees a hooded figure: the Executioner! He gives chase. After running a couple of blocks, she turns around and discovers that he’s no longer following her. Dylan shows up and she tells him what happened. He goes up to the teenagers nearby, now walking toward them, and threatens them, insisting they leave Sarah alone. They claim they didn't have anything to do with it, Malcom, being the most vocal. One of the boys wants revenge, insisting they "can take him" due to outnumbering him, but the other boys decline and go home. Malcom, the most confrontational with Dylan, gets on his bike and starts smashing mailboxes with a baseball bat. The Executioner suddenly appears before him, and he falls off his bike, dropping the bat. The kid gets smart with the Executioner, who responds by beating him with the baseball bat. He then drags Malcom's body into the nearby brush.
The next day, Sarah arrives at the prison to meet with Tom Winston, the original Executioner and the dude that killed her parents. But wait...if Tom Winston was the Executioner and is in jail, who is the dude/lady that chased Sarah? She tells him how he ruined her childhood, but he replies that she can get over her past if she finds out what’s hidden in her parents’ house. Frustrated but intrigued, Sarah returns home and explores her parents’ cellar. She notices a stained glass window that detaches from the wall, and she discovers a camcorder and VHS tapes hidden behind it. She hooks up the camcorder to the TV and pops in a tape labeled “Peter McBride.” As the tape plays, she discovers her parents had a fondness for making home movies, and not the kind you made at the beach. Yep, it’s a sex tape. And it looks like Verna’s husband was in on the fun! That evening, Dylan heads out to work and runs into Verna, who tells him to keep a leash on his wife. She then walks over to their house and opens the door to snoop.
Sarah arrives at Justin and Robin’s house, where they’re having a catered dinner with a few friends, including Cam and his wife, June. She steals Cam away to talk and shows him a photo of the tape on her phone. He says it definitely looks like Peter McBride in the video, but McBride skipped town around the time Sarah’s parents were murdered. Back at the Bennett house, Verna steals a piece of leftover fridge pizza and searches some boxes before seeing the sex tape on the TV. She watches in shock, before ejecting the tape and taking it with her.
Sarah walks home and is picked up by Dylan who happens to be driving by. He comforts her about her parents, saying that they were weird, screwed up people like anyone else. He drops her off at the house before returning to the office. Verna sits at home, eating her feelings when the doorbell starts to ring. Irritated, she goes to investigate and discovers no one there. She goes upstairs to and gets ready for bed, but she’s interrupted when the Executioner appears in her hallway! He grabs her and throws her on the bed, zip-tying her hands and feet to the bedpost. Then he pulls out a giant knife and begins cutting her wrists. Sarah’s at home watching a scary movie when she hears Verna’s screams. She runs over to investigate and rings the doorbell. A figure approaches and unlocks the door but walks away without opening it. Sarah enters the home and walks up the stairs to find a gruesome sight: Verna lays dead with her hands and feet cut off, covered in blood. But the Executioner is still in the house! He surprises Sarah, and she falls down the stairs, knocking herself unconscious. The Executioner leans over her with his knife, only to place the stolen tape on her stomach. Be kind, rewind.
Sarah wakes up in the hospital with Dylan and Officer Iain Vaughn standing over her. She says it was the Executioner, though Dylan and Vaughn are skeptical. Outside the police station, Cam runs into a trashy woman named Margery who’s asking for details on Verna’s murder. She makes a pass at Cam, but he turns her down and tells her that she should be less concerned with the details of Verna’s death. Alison tells the staff at the Bulletin to dig up everything they can find about Verna McBride and her murder, and Dylan insists that Sarah be left out of it. But like it or not, Alison states that Sarah is a part of the story now. Cam approaches the nearby church and greets his father Alan, the pastor of the church, who has a conspicuous scar on his face. Whoa, it's the Alan from the beginning of the show! Sarah's parents' friend that was spared by Tom Winston! Cam assures him that he will find Verna’s murderer. Alan gives a sermon about the sins of man and his fallen nature and advises his congregation to be wary of false prophets.
Meanwhile, Sarah arrives at the prison to see Tom again and find out if he knows who killed Verna. She reveals that Verna stole the tapes and that she was cut up, and Tom says that Verna died for her sins of anger, since being dismembered is the biblical punishment for anger. Elsewhere, the Executioner sits drawing a sketch of a dark-haired woman being tied up and cut apart…
Deaths[]
Executed Sin | Victim | Cause of Death | Background |
---|---|---|---|
Wrath | Verna McBride | Hands and feet severed with large hunting knife, bled out | After Sarah discovered the remains of Verna's husband, Peter, in Episode 2, Allison theorizes that Verna killed Peter years earlier after she discovered he and Rachel (Sarah's mother) were making sex tapes. |
N/A | Bryan Ingram | Stabbed through back with machete, machete then sliced down through torso | Sarah's father; killed by Tom Winston in 1988 |
N/A | Rachel Ingram | Stabbed through neck with machete | Sarah's mother; killed by Tom Winston in 1988 |
Cast[]
- Katie McGrath as Sarah Bennett
- Brandon Jay McLaren as Dylan Bennett
- Steve Byers as Sgt. Cam Henry
- Patrick Garrow as Tom Winston
- Dean McDermott as Chief Iain Vaughn
- Christopher Jacot as Robin Turner
- Mary Walsh as Verna McBride
- Erin Karpluk as Heather Peterson
- Mayko Nguyen as Alison Sutherland
- Rob Stewart as Alan Henry
- Dylan Taylor as Bryan Ingram
- Mark Ghanimé as Justin Faysal
- Jessica Sipos as June Henry
- Alysa King as Rachel Ingram
- Sussanah Hoffman as Marjorie Travers
- David Patrick Flemming as Young Tom
- Jim Watson as Young Alan
- Greg Hovanessian as Corey
- Stephen Joffe as Malcolm Smith
- Nick Boegel as Teenager #1
- Vaugahn Blakley as Peter McBride
- Riley Gilchrist as Young Iain
- Arianna Bradbury as Witch
- Kayla Dumont as Fairy