Sledgehammer (film)

In a remote house, an abusive mother locks her young son in a closet, then goes into another room to meet the man she is cheating on her husband with. The man and woman intend to abandon their respective spouses, but their plans are cut short when an unseen killer appears and murders them with a sledgehammer. The bodies are found by the authorities, with the boy presumed dead.

Ten years later, seven friends have rented out the house to party in. They are driven to the house in a van by a local mechanic, who leaves with the intent of picking them up afterwards. When night falls, Chuck convinces the others to participate in a séance to try and summon the spirits of the couple that died in the house, so they can learn who killed them. In actuality, the séance is an elaborate prank concocted by Chuck and Joey, but it succeeds in bringing forth the ghost of the missing boy, which appears as a towering man in a smiling translucent mask. The spirit murders Joey with a knife through the neck, then hides his body. The next day, it murders Jimmy and Carol while they are having sex, snapping Carol's neck and hitting Jimmy in the chest with a sledgehammer.

Discovering the fates of their friends, the remaining four teenagers decide to hold up in the house until morning, intending to set out for the nearest town afterwards. When the others fall asleep, John grabs a knife and goes off in search of the killer. He finds the boy's skull in a closet, a newspaper clipping mentioning his disappearance, and Carol and Jimmy's bodies seated at a table near a Satanic pentagram painted in blood. John is confronted by the ghost, and tries to fight it off, but is killed by a knife in the back. The phantom then corners Mary, and is found stabbing her to death by Chuck and Joni, having regressed to the form of the boy; the boy tells them that he had to kill his mother because she took him away from his father in order to continue her affair. The spirit assumes its adult form, knocks Chuck unconscious, and goes after Joni. Joni fends off the ghost long enough for Chuck to recover, and after a struggle, he grabs its own sledgehammer and bashes it in the face, seemingly defeating it.

Joni and Chuck leave the house as the sun rises. Unseen by them, the spirit of the boy watches them depart from the upstairs window.

• Ted Prior as Chuck
• Linda McGill as Joni
• John Eastman as John
• Jeanine Scheer as Mary
• Tim Aguilar as Jimmy
• Sandy Brooke as Carol
• Stephen Wright as Joey
• Michael Shanahan as Lover
• Mary Mendez as Mother
• Justin Greer as The Boy
• Doug Matley as The Killer
• Ray Lawrence as The Driver