Richard Burman
Set in a small isolated village in 14th century Wales, Alice is a sixteen year old girl who is accused of being a witch and causing the plague that has ravaged the village, taking the lives of many, including Alice’s own father. When it is revealed that Alice has been hiding her mother’s infection, she is forced to watch The Cleanser, an ominous masked figure, brutally dispatch her mother. The town preacher and de-facto leader Tom has eyes for Alice, and subjects her to five torturous trials after she spurns his advances. Escaping the night before her execution, with the help of her mother’s friend Mary, she flees into the forest and discovers the secluded hut of a mysterious healer, with his own troubled past and demons to face. He nurses her back to health, and teaches her how to exact revenge upon those that persecuted her.
The abandoned home of Wilfred Butler, a wealthy but troubled man who committed suicide in 1987, has been willed to his grandson, Jeffrey. The house has sat in disarray since Wilfred’s death, standing in the way of developers who want to turn the property into residential homes. Just before Christmas 2012, many years after Wilfred’s death, Jeffrey and his lawyer appear in town to negotiate the sale of the property. But an Axe wielding maniac has set up residence in the house, and he doesn’t take kindly to strangers.