Based on a harrowing true story centered around policeman Hank (Willem Dafoe), who is called to a bungalow in a respectable San Diego neighbourhood where a man named Brad (Michael Shannon) has barricaded himself in his house and taken two hostages.
Across the street, Brad's mother (Grace Zabriskie) lies dead, found sprawled in a pool of blood, the victim of a sword wound.
The son is suspected of the murder. As Hank uneasily prowls the sunlit street outside the bungalow, a string of Brad's friends arrive on the scene, among them his girlfriend and a director pal.
Slowly the bizarre pieces of the story are placed in front of the cop, who tries to make sense of it all.
Not only has the suspected murderer never been the same since he returned from a kayaking trip to Peru, but he also seems to be suffering from a strange mother complex.
To deepen the psychosis even further, Brad has been rehearsing one of Sophocles' plays that has a lot to do with mothers!
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Michael Shannon, Brad Dourif, Chloë Sevigny, Michale Peña, Udo Kier, Verne Troyer, Grace Zabriskie, Irma P. Hall, Braden Lynch