How the Fire Fell

University of Santa Barbara requires a 4.1 GPA to get in and is the #4 party school in the country. Nathan (Ryan Donowho), a studious anthropology student, decries his position in a society that fails to provide a ceremony to mark his transition into manhood. Professor Nash (Stephen Dorff), an unethical teacher who openly pursues sexual liaisons with his female students, is intrigued when Nathan tells him his family's unoccupied but functional ranch is the site of an ancient Indian burial ground. Nathan convinces Professor Nash to bring the class out to the ranch, where the plan is to hold a spiritual ceremony in a sweat lodge built over the burial site. Dani (Kate Maberly) is a neurotic girl, who craves attention. Encouraged by Nash's enthusiastic agreement to the idea, Nathan guides his stressed, party-going classmates to the ranch. There they meet his brother, Benny (Wes Bentley), who is in a psychotic spiral of drug addiction and guilt. Benny thinks of himself as a Shaman, who can shape shift like his ancestors and wants to partake in ancient ritual ceremonies like human sacrifice. Benny extracts his drugs from plants that he grows in the greenhouse, made of glass. Benny then carefully goes through a cooking process to increase the concentration of the hallucinogenic compounds extracted from the plant. Nathan had not taken Benny's permission before bringing his friends out to the ranch. On that night Benny takes a girl Penelope (Briana Evigan) to his shaman hideout and only realizes it the next day when he is out of the influence of drugs. Benny ended up at a party at Nathan's place where he meets a bunch of girls while heavily under the influence of drugs. The women that appeal to him are the ones who appear to him in a Native American dress, which was the case with Penelope. Benny was sitting in his pick-up truck in a dazed state when Penelope approached him for a ride home. When he discovers Penelope bound and gagged, he is shown contemplating whether to release her (as he doesn't want trouble with the authorities). Penelope takes advantage of the distraction when Nathan & his batch-mates arrive at Benny's house and tries to escape but dies when she hits glass shards in Delgado's green house. A crystal Meth cook at the ranch, Delgado (Christian Slater), a man with a grudge who has an uneasy friendship with Benny. Benny and Nathan's parents closed the ranch a few years ago, so Benny lives there alone now. He took Delgado in when he lost his entire family in a car crash. Now Delgado uses the empty ranch for his Meth cooks. Delgado had set up bear traps across the green house to protect his cooking lab from any unauthorized intrusions. Earlier Benny had gone out to town in his pick-up truck trying to hunt for victims in his "bear" persona, and he told Delgado that he was only going to meet his fiance, which Delgado did not believe. Delgado lost his family to a car accident, but the woman sitting in the other car who caused the accident, walked unharmed. This is the source of Delgado's grudge, and he is bald and wears a wig with a hat on top. Delgado figures that Benny killed Penelope. Nathan & his friends settle down in a beach house, further down from Benny's shaman hideout and glasshouse. Benny is attracted to Dani and allows Nathan & group to stay. Girls include Sandee (Ashley Hinshaw) and Carly (Carly Schroeder). Mojo (Guy Burnet) is a guy who was having web cam sex with Sandee and is surprised to see her in person in Nathan's group. Later one girl Squirell catches Benny spying on the group when they were at the beach. She picks a fight with Benny, when Delgado comes out to support him. the girl's boyfriend joins the fight, which ends in an accident that kills both the girl and her boyfriend in Benny's garage, when a bunch of stuff falls over them. Benny takes their bodies away and tells Nathan that they left abruptly. Delgado then begins hunting the rest of the group. During his rampage, Delgado hallucinates that a stuffed monkey named Pancho that clings to his shotgun talks and makes futile attempts to reason with his apparently absent sense of morality. Delgado lost his wife and daughter to a drunk driving incident (involving a college student) and the monkey belonged to his daughter. Delgado hates the college students with a vengeance and will kill every one of them. That night, Benny mixes a hallucinating drug in the group's food secretly. But Delgado starts attacking the students by isolating them. When he kills the first girl Carly, Benny is shocked, as he didn't want to kill anyone. Nash and another girl have an overdose of the hallucinates. Nash wanders off while the girl has a fit and looks like she will die. Delgado had taken the precaution of taking away all keys and phones so, Hart (Travis Van Winkle) runs to get help, but gets tangled in Delgado's bear traps. Meanwhile Delgado is tracking Mojo and Sandee, who are having sex in the glasshouse and attacks them with his shotgun. Meanwhile Squirell is not dead, and she tracks her way back to the house where Nathan is dealing with overdosed girl and Dani's panic attack. Squirell tells the group that Benny is the killer all along. Delgado gets Sandee when she panics upon finding Penelope's dead body. Meanwhile Benny attacks the house and kidnaps Dani, whom he wants to make his Shaman bride. Benny takes Dani away to his Shaman hideout. Nathan tracks Benny there, but is attacked by Delgado, who is hiding nearby after killing Sandee. As Delgado is about to kill Nathan, Benny intervenes, but Delgado shoots Benny. before Delgado can shoot Dani, Nathan knocks him down with a 4X4. Thats when it is revealed that Dani was the girl who killed Delgado's family in the road accident. The next morning the paramedics arrive and whoever is alive is safe. Delgado is shown to escape alive.