The Retaliators (2021)

While on a road trip, friends Sofie and Erica are stranded when their car breaks down on a rural road. Erica steps out to fix the tire but is violently dragged into the woods by what Sofie believes is a zombie. Pastor John Bishop arrives and saves Sofie, explaining that the attackers are not undead. Despite his intervention, the creatures soon overwhelm the area and kill Sofie.

Bishop’s teenage daughter, Sarah, a grieving high school senior still mourning her mother, attends a support group and seeks permission to attend a Christmas Eve party. That night, Sarah encounters gang member Ram Kady at a gas station and hears a man screaming from Ram’s trunk. She flees in fear, but Ram follows her, runs her off the road, binds her to her steering wheel, and pushes her car into a lake, killing her.

Detective Jed Sawyer, haunted by the past murder of his pregnant wife by serial rapist Quinn Brady, believes Sarah’s death was personal and begins investigating the gas station footage. Meanwhile, Ram is abducted by an unknown assailant and imprisoned in a cage, where he is tortured. His brother Vic, a gang leader, becomes increasingly violent while searching for him.

Jed eventually reveals to Bishop that Ram murdered Sarah and that he has been secretly imprisoning criminals in a hidden facility, allowing them to become feral. Jed urges Bishop to take revenge, but Bishop cannot bring himself to do it. Jed instead throws Ram to the other imprisoned criminals, including Quinn.

Vic and his men storm Jed’s building, wounding him and accidentally releasing the mutants, who slaughter the gang members. Jed kills several of the creatures but succumbs to his injuries. Ram survives the chaos and later attacks an elderly couple, forcing Bishop to confront him one last time. In a brutal fight, Bishop kills Ram using a wood chipper, finally avenging his daughter.

In the aftermath, Bishop begins to heal, speaking at his church and grief support group, and when he takes his younger daughter to softball practice, he confronts a bully parent, punching him in the mouth after asking his daughter to forgive him, showing he has learned force is needed to defend his values.