Michael is the 19-year-old adopted youngest son of the violent Morrow family. Abducted as a young child to serve as a companion for his older sister, he now operates as the family's reluctant accomplice in their gruesome crimes. Despite participating in their brutal activities out of fear and a distorted sense of loyalty, he experiences deep remorse and secretly longs for a peaceful life away from their isolated Appalachian farm.

Reb is Michael's cruel and manipulative older brother. He eagerly participates in the family's violent hobbies and routinely terrorizes Michael to maintain complete control over him. Harboring deep-seated grievances about his place in the family and struggling with severe alcohol misuse, Reb uses psychological abuse to ensure Michael remains complicit in their horrifying crimes.

Alice is an upbeat, independent young woman working at a counter-culture record store in Dahlia. Having lost her father in a mining accident and sharing a strained relationship with her mother, she dreams of moving to New York City to become a comic book artist. Completely unaware of the danger Michael's family poses, she introduces him to new music and the possibility of a different future.

Misty Dawn is the creative, highly isolated younger sister in the Morrow family. Confined to the dilapidated farmhouse, she spends her time listening to an eclectic record collection, reading romance novels, and making clothes. Desperate for affection and terrified of her mother, she clings to Michael as her only source of safety and companionship.

Claudine, known primarily as "Momma," is the terrifying matriarch of the Morrow family. Having survived severe abuse at the hands of her own parents, she now inflicts cyclical trauma by directing her husband and sons to abduct and torture young women. She rules the farmhouse with absolute authority, demanding total obedience and brutalizing anyone who steps out of line.

Lauralynn is the oldest Morrow sibling, seen primarily through the memories of her brothers. She served as a protective, nurturing figure who read poetry and stories to her younger siblings to help them endure their brutal home life. Her fierce independence and desire to become a veterinarian sparked intense insecurity in Reb, forever altering the family dynamic.

Wade is the patriarch of the Morrow family, a Vietnam War veteran who operates entirely under his wife's command. While he occasionally attempts to rein in Reb's reckless behavior to avoid drawing police attention, he is fully complicit in the family's heinous crimes. He actively enables the violence in his home by supplying weapons and alcohol to his sons.

Grandma Jean is Claudine's mother, a deeply unpleasant woman who routinely visited the Morrow family when the children were young. She played a crucial role in shaping the family's toxic environment by turning a blind eye to the severe abuse her husband inflicted on their daughter, ensuring the cycle of trauma would continue into the next generation.

Grandpa Eugene is Claudine's father, an abusive man whose horrific actions laid the groundwork for the Morrow family's generational violence. His severe abuse of Claudine during her childhood ultimately transformed her into the monstrous matriarch who terrorizes the Appalachian region decades later.

Bonnie is a widow living quietly in a well-kept home with green shutters in the Dahlia area. Struggling with severe depression following the death of her husband in a mining accident, she lives an isolated life focused on reading and watching birds. She becomes an unusual target for the Morrow brothers' stalking, deeply confusing Michael who notes she does not fit their mother's typical victim profile.

Lucy is an uncommonly attractive young woman who works at the Dervish record store and shares an apartment with Alice. With her strawberry-blond hair, she unwittingly fits the exact physical profile favored by the murderous Morrow matriarch. She is drawn in by Reb's feigned charm, completely unaware of the grave danger she is courting.

Barb is a local radio DJ who frequents the Dervish record store in downtown Dahlia. She interacts casually with the staff and represents the ordinary, functional community that exists outside the dark reality of the Morrow family farm.