DEVIL'S PARTNER

Set in rural Furnace Flats, New Mexico, the film opens with a hunched old man, Pete Jensen, slaughtering a goat and daubing its blood within a hexagon drawn on the floor of his shack, and asking for "two more years". Days later, a young man, Nick Richards, arrives in town, asking about Pete, claiming he was his uncle. The town's sheriff informs Nick that Pete is dead. Nick decides to set up residence in Pete's shack. While there, he engages in a series of demonic rituals designed to drive a wedge between Nell Lucas and her fiancé, auto-mechanic David Simpson. One evening, after a date with Nell, David is mysteriously attacked and disfigured by his pet dog. Nick offers to substitute for David at his gas station while he recovers. Those alerted to Nick's presence notice that even though it is incredibly hot, the immaculately dressed Nick fails to perspire. Yet with the exception of the sheriff's dog, the town's inhabitants feel comfortable in his presence.

Meanwhile, further animal-related incidents occur. A plastic surgeon, called to help David, dies when a steer lies down in the road in front of his speeding car, causing him to crash. A local drunk is trampled by a horse. A rattlesnake threatens David in his bedroom, but he shoots it before it escapes. Eventually, the town doctor finally guesses that Nick, the victim of demonic possession, is behind the hostile animal incidents. He correctly theorize that the old man, Pete, and his nephew Nick are actually one and the same. In the film's climax, the doctor and the sheriff, along with Nell and David, witness Nick transforming into a stallion. As he gallops away, however, the sheriff brings him down with several gunshots, and he transforms first into Nick, and finally into Pete, before dying. At this point, David's facial wounds miraculously disappear, David and Nell hold hands, and the townsfolk stand over Nick's body.

Nick is revealed to be Pete transformed; after a violent confrontation, he is shot while shapeshifting and reverts to his true form before dying. David's wounds heal, and the town regains peace.

The ending resolves the supernatural threat by exposing Nick's true identity as Pete and eliminating him through direct action. The miraculous healing of David's wounds and the restoration of the townsfolk's safety reinforce the film’s theme that meddling with dark forces leads to destruction, but that small-town solidarity and tenacity ultimately restore order.