Just when you thought it was okay to rent out the cottage behind your house to a random stranger on the Internet, The Cottage shows up to make sure you don't.

Life is going pretty well for new parents Chloe and Michael Carpenter. Well, Chloe is a new parent. Michael has a couple kids from his previous marriage. When his wife died, he started dating and then married one of his kid's teachers. So, of course there is a little drama from the daughters about their old teacher/new mom. Anyway, they have a nice house and a little one bedroom (two bathroom, two story... so, okay, it's not exactly little) cottage behind their house. The girl who is to rent the place is supposed to show up soon, but her sister does instead and explains the soon-to-be tenent was in a car wreck and is in the hospital. In a rush to get a new renter in, the family puts an ad on the Internet, well, daughter Rose does.

The next day, Robert Mars (David Arquette) shows up to see the place. He's a pleasant romance novelist who is looking for a place to work on his next masterpiece. He seems great, so the Carpenters welcome him. Of course, this is a horror movie, so he's not really great.

First he kidnaps Annie, Michael's sister, and takes her down the coast to another house, there three young girls worship Robert and murder poor Annie. And it all goes downhill from there.

The Cottage is a fairly standard "invited guest is evil" style horror film, and unfortunately is so standard it's pretty boring... until the twist. It's the end of this movie that makes the whole thing worth watching, so stick with it.