The Butcher

In April 1985, Captain Edward Shank of the Seattle Police Department leads a team to arrest Rufus Wedge, the suspected Beacon Hill Butcher. When Wedge emerges from his apartment building and appears to reach for a weapon, Shank and his officers shoot and kill him. Shank believes the Butcher’s reign of terror is over.

In the present day, the now eighty-year-old Edward Shank prepares to move into the Sweetbay Village Retirement Residence. He is leaving his house of fifty years to his grandson, Matthew “Matt” Shank, a successful chef whom Edward and his late wife, Marisol, raised after their teenage daughter, Lucy, died of a drug overdose. Internally, Edward reveals that he murdered Marisol four months prior by smashing her head into their antique piano and staging it as an accidental fall. Matt is in a relationship with Samantha “Sam” Marquez, a true-crime author, but causes a rift between them by refusing to let her move into the house. Sam is currently writing a book proposing that the real Beacon Hill Butcher was never caught and that her own mother, Sarah Marquez, murdered in 1987, was one of his victims.

While renovating the backyard, Matt’s contractor unearths a large, locked plastic crate. Matt brings it inside, where his cat accidentally knocks it from a table, breaking it open. Inside, Matt finds women’s clothing, a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about the Butcher murders with swatches of hair labeled with female names, and a dozen Mason jars, each containing a severed left hand. He also finds an unlabeled VHS tape. He plays the tape and watches in horror as a younger Edward tortures, rapes, and murders a teenage girl in the house’s garage in 1974. Matt realizes his grandfather is the real Beacon Hill Butcher.

Meanwhile, Sam discusses her Butcher theory on an online serial killer forum. She is contacted by a user named “KillerRed,” who claims to know the Butcher’s true identity. To prove her credibility, KillerRed, whose real name is Bonnie Tidwell, sends Sam a photo of herself with Sam’s mother. Bonnie reveals they were best friends and that she escaped an attack by the Butcher shortly after Sarah’s murder. Sam agrees to meet Bonnie in Seattle, asking her childhood friend, Jason Sullivan, a retired NFL quarterback, to accompany her for safety.

At the retirement home, Edward feels the “itch” to kill returning. He murders a fellow resident, Greg Bonner, by smashing his head against a kitchen counter and staging it as a fall. Later, on a day trip to the Tulalip Casino, he leaves in search of a new victim.

Sam meets Bonnie at Pike Place Market. At Sam’s apartment, Bonnie recounts how a man stalked Sarah just before her death. The same man later abducted Bonnie, but she escaped when a bear interrupted the attack. She says she later saw the man on the news, where he was portrayed as a hero. When Sam mentions her boyfriend is Matt Shank, grandson of Edward Shank, Bonnie panics. Realizing Edward is the Butcher, she refuses to reveal his name and leaves abruptly. Edward, having followed them, recognizes Bonnie as the one victim who got away.

Matt struggles with his discovery and begins drinking heavily. Edward confronts him, admitting he is the Butcher and framed Rufus Wedge. At his restaurant, Matt gets into an argument with his friend and assistant head chef, PJ Wu. In the back alley, Matt loses his temper and punches PJ, who falls, hits his head on a rock, and dies. Panicked, Matt hides the body in a dumpster and calls Edward for help. Edward helps retrieve the body and forces Matt to dismember it with a chainsaw in the garage before disposing of the parts.

A news report announces the discovery of two female bodies: an unidentified seventeen-year-old in Marysville and forty-five-year-old Bonnie Tidwell in Capitol Hill. Detective Robert Sanchez, a friend of Sam’s, confirms Bonnie was stabbed with an ice pick. He also reveals a key detail withheld from the public: the unidentified victim had her left hand amputated. Sanchez begins to take Sam’s theory seriously. He questions Matt about PJ’s disappearance, mentioning PJ’s gambling debts to a gang known for dismemberment, a cover story Edward has created. Sanchez also tells Matt about Sam’s theory that the Butcher killed her mother, leading Matt to the horrifying realization that his grandfather murdered his girlfriend’s mother.

At the retirement home, Edward murders two more residents. Sam gives a formal statement to Sanchez, who reveals off-the-record that the Butcher had a secret signature: he cut a swatch of hair from his victims, a detail Edward had instructed the medical examiner to omit from reports. Sanchez confirms that Sam's mother, the unidentified victim, and Bonnie were all missing hair, proving they are victims of the same killer. The police are now officially hunting the original Butcher. Matt goes to the police station to confess to killing PJ but changes his mind when he learns the police are closing in on the Butcher. He proposes to Sam, but she refuses, and a final sexual encounter turns violent when he chokes her.

Matt confronts Edward, who admits to killing Marisol and reveals that Matt’s mother, Lucy, committed suicide. Sam arrives and reveals a new DNA link from Sanchez: PJ Wu’s killer is the son of Bonnie Tidwell’s killer, the Butcher. Matt realizes Edward is his biological father, having raped his own daughter, Lucy. As Matt announces this, Edward stabs Sam in the chest with a cleaver.

At the airport, Sanchez receives a CODIS report matching DNA found on PJ’s body to Matt, confirming the father-son killer link. He cancels his trip and rushes to Matt’s house. There, Edward holds Matt at gunpoint, preventing him from calling for help for Sam. He goads Matt into killing him, stating he wants to die “spectacularly.” Matt gets the gun and shoots, but misses, allowing Edward to escape. Sanchez arrives to find Sam critically wounded. Matt confesses everything, revealing Edward is the Butcher and is likely at his cabin in Raymond. A tactical team converges on the cabin. Edward emerges in his formal dress uniform and raises his rifle, forcing the officers to kill him in a suicide by cop.

Five days later, Sam is recovering in the hospital as the story of Edward Shank becomes a national sensation. Matt has confessed to the accidental killing and dismemberment of PJ Wu and has been arrested. Jason visits Sam in the hospital, and they share a kiss, signifying the beginning of a new relationship.