"He's Out to Get You" (a.k.a., "The House on the Hill") is a film about empty nesters. The seemingly nice old couple, Eldon and Rita Anderson, claim that with all of their children grown up, they are now alone in life just like the elderly couple of Sidney and Gladys Burkes, who lived up on the hill in the mansion atop the town of Skillman's Bluff along the Pacific coast.
But there are some deep, dark secrets that the Andersons are concealing from Megan Burke, who has arrived in town to settle her parents' substantial estate. But when her brother Gary has seemingly vanished into thin air, Megan starts to think that she is being set up by some diabolical force.
Megan Burke is psychologically frail from the time she took her eyes off the road and her husband Brian and little boy Cody perished in a car crash while on their way to a swimming hole at Lake Farrington. After being institutionalized and under the care of psychiatrist Dr. Susan Lanford for the past four years, Megan now ventures out into the world only to be made to feel that she is going mad after the disappearance of her brother.
Megan finds a support system from the local barkeep at Hubbard's, who goes by the name of "Duke." John Cavanaugh (the Duke) and Megan have instant chemistry. Clearly, something is amiss with the local Sheriff Brunson in Skillman's Bluff. Another shady figure is Nancy Allendale, the attorney settling the Burkes' estate, who seems a little too slick and deceptive. Clearly, something is wrong when both the sheriff and the attorney pretend that they never knew that Megan had a brother.
The quick-thinking Duke takes Megan to the local high school, where they locate an old yearbook with a picture of 'Ol Number 84, Gary Burke! This discovery leads Megan to the nice schoolteacher, Miss Ellen Snow. After Miss Snow is suffocated to death in her own home, Sheriff Brunson attempts to pin the blame on Megan, who had just visited the kind woman.
The action comes to a head in, of all places, a trailer owned by the Duke. In the climactic showdown, Gary's decaying body is discovered by Megan in the trailer. Is the Duke at the center of the plot to make her mad? Who is the ringleader? And how many people are involved in a conspiracy to swindle and destroy a vulnerable, damaged young woman? All cards will be placed on the table in the shootout at the trailer.
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