Octane begins with an overprotective single mother, Senga Wilson (Madeleine Stowe) driving her daughter, Nat (Mischa Barton), home from a visit to her father. Along the way they pick up a widely travelled hitchhiker (Bijou Phillips), whose worldly experience is obviously of great interest to an already angry and rebellious teen. Hence, when the pair stop at a service station Nat takes the opportunity to leave with the hitchhiker, who - it transpires - is a member of a vampire-inspired cult. Senga chases the members to an isolated research facility with the help of an unnamed recovery man, arriving just in time to interrupt the tongue-splitting, sex-fuelled initiation ceremony. A confrontation with enigmatic leader "The Father" (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), and further - occasionally maladroit - twists, create a gripping finale.