An ability to reinvent standard horror flick clichés marks Cronenberg's gift for direction. A young couple, stranded on a stormy night when their car breaks down, seek refuge at a dilapidated house. An elderly woman and her housekeeper welcome their new visitors but the before long their generous hospitality is coloured by a bizarre, ominous tone. At times the gracious hosts seem convinced that their visitors are actually the woman's grandson and great-niece who have been dead for years. When the “niece” escapes and discovers her own lifeless body along with her partner's in their abandoned car, illusion plays havoc with our naive powers of deduction.