A strong-minded woman struggles to save her family as infectious tumors lead her town into a fascist nightmare.

SYNOPSIS:

On a cheery day in the isolated town of Chatsvale, Kate Sutton and her husband Teddy get bad news: Teddy has a malignant tumor in his chest. Teddy’s behavior becomes more aggressive—he yells about cancerous newscasts, threatens Kate, and almost kills the family dog—pushing Kate toward her limit. When Kate follows Teddy to the house of their friends Jeremy and Lana Tremblay, she is shocked to see Teddy and Jeremy chase Lana in the yard, immobilize her, and vomit in her mouth. Kate resolves to take her baby, Helen, and leave town, but a timely call from her friend Stephanie convinces her to stay for her older son, Ryan.

While circumstances deteriorate for their parents, teenagers Ryan Sutton and Beth Tremblay discover a large, freestanding tumor in an abandoned house. Mesmerized, they get close to it, eating from it and eventually having sex while rubbing the mass’s insides on one another. They become recruiters, leading more and more kids to see the tumor and fall under its spell.

People all over town begin developing masses of their own. Jeremy has a brain tumor. Lana, who acts like nothing bad has happened, has a mass on her neck. Kate’s friend Gretchen has one on her arm. Ryan develops one over his eye. Beth grows one in her belly, making her look pregnant. Rhetoric against the news and other “lies” becomes more widespread. People leave work and school. The town is divided.

Violence escalates. Gretchen comes after Kate for not being “one of us,” and Ryan kills her. Kate sees Jeremy and Lana leave a neighboring house, investigates, and finds the neighbors slaughtered. Kate rushes to the daycare to retrieve Helen and finds a group of toddlers feeding on one child’s tumors. Escaping with Helen, she meets up with Stephanie and her baby Mikey. They all flee to the town’s border, which mass-infested people have blocked. In the resulting struggle, Stephanie is torn apart, and Mikey is trampled. Kate speeds back toward town center.

Town is burning, and the townsfolk have gathered at Town Hall. The people are a writhing mass of tumorous deformities. They cheer and jump as Teddy and Jeremy hold bonfires, destroying books, papers, and other “lies.” The display includes several executions. Ultimately, Kate gets dragged before the crowd, and she gives in, letting Teddy infect her with a kiss.

Elsewhere, in a parody of birth, Beth’s mass finds its way out, and Beth dies. Ryan and his inner circle of children take this new mass to a nearby town and set it up in an abandoned house, making it as ready as the one Ryan and Beth found in the beginning.

The Masses was a selection at the Underground Indie FF in 2021 and received Honorable Mentions at Hollywood Horrorfest and The International Horror Hotel in 2020. It was also a selection for the Austin After Dark FF, the Shockfest Horror Library, and the Shockfest FF, all in 2020.