An idealistic young nurse is sent from the North to the nation's most notorious Civil War prison camp where she must overcome sexism and bigotry to save her fiancé and her brother during a life-or-death battle against a supernatural enemy.

SYNOPSIS:

Andersonville Prison, Georgia, April 1865. Nurse Lilly Billings arrives from the north at the notorious prison with a letter of recommendation from the great Clara Barton, and two goals in mind. Locate her brother Elijah Billings and her betrothed Benjamin MacKenzie, and treat incarcerated Union soldiers. Isaac, a teenage slave who delivers supplies to the prison daily, takes her there, but he won’t get too close to the “Gates to Hell,” as the front entrance to the prison is called. Lilly quickly learns why as she is assaulted by the sights and sounds of the prison. Clearly the suffering here is enormous.

Leering prison guards bar her from entering. One of the guards, Corporal Chillingsworth, quickly falls for her and steps in on her behalf. She also meets congenial Doctor Hal Jacobson, also a Union soldier, and Doctor Oscar Reynolds, a Confederate doctor who hides his sadistic side. By day, Lilly does her best to help the desperate prisoners. By night, she listens to strange animal-like howls mixed with the screams of men inside the prison. She hears loud booms that have no explanation. The booms come from a vortex opening that allows dark shapes to emerge. But to those locked inside the prison, and those working there to help the prisoners, it is just wolves…coyotes. Nothing to be alarmed by. Until men show up dead, missing legs and arms, and rumors of dog-like phantoms are whispered on the wind.

Elijah and Benjamin cart out dead bodies every day for burial to earn extra provisions. Dr. Jacobson arranges one day for Lilly to meet them, but it’s short and bittersweet. Back in the medic tent, Lilly catches Reynolds cutting a man’s leg off in sadistic glee. Despite the horrors of her situation, she’s determined to treat patients and find a way to free her brother and betrothed. Then prisoners and guards are discovered outside the prison stockade brutally murdered with their heads impaled on wood poles. A large canine tooth is found at the scene. Chillingsworth gives Lilly a gun for protection, and she needs it when she decides to investigate in the woods but is scared off by unearthly growls. Lilly finds articles and information at a library in town that talk about dog-like creatures of legend, called the “dogmen.” But are they real?

After men hunt down and kill several dogmen in the woods, dozens more dogmen emerge from the vortex and attack the prison to exact revenge. Only Reynolds and Chillingsworth escape the mass invasion. Isaac learns about the attack and rushes to the prison to save Lilly.

As the dogmen overpower guards and kill everything in sight, Lilly, Chillingsworth and Jacobson try blasting holes in the stockade with cannon fire to free prisoners and kill as many dogmen as they can in return. In the heat of battle, Chillingsworth sees his opportunity to make Lilly his own. He pushes Benjamin in the path of a dogman. Elijah jumps in and is killed instead. Chillingsworth is mortally wounded by another dogman and in his agony admits he loves Lilly. He asks her to forgive him and put him out of his misery. She shoots him point blank and flees with Benjamin and Elijah while Reynolds falls prey to the dogmen in a horrific attack.

June 1865. Washington, D.C. Lilly, Benjamin and Isaac meet with a senator in his chambers to explain what happened at the now closed prison. They are dismissed rudely, and vow to keep alive the true story of what occurred in Andersonville.

Europe 1918 – World War 1. Dogmen descend on a battlefield in Europe. A descendent of Benjamin and Lilly tells fellow soldiers that the creatures are back and they must fight them.