In Freedom, Texas, a Black woman named Spencer speeds down a quiet country road in the dead of the night, desperate to reach her pregnant sister in time for labor. With the infant seat in the backseat and no reliable family member to help her sister, Spencer’s feels the pressure as she fights off sleep.

As Spencer waits at a desolate traffic light, her night spirals into a surreal nightmare. Footsteps race across the roof of her car, shadows dart past her windows, and her phone barely cling to a signal. There’s something strange about this town, and Spencer isn’t here to find out what. She slams on the gas and speeds away from the area as fast as possible. Her 1997 Nisan Altima covers some ground for a while but suddenly it loses steam and stops in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by rustling wheat fields and no cell reception.

An elderly white couple in a pickup truck sees Spencer’s stranded car and checks it out. Unbeknownst to them, the menacing sound of their pickup truck scared Spencer off, hiding from them. The couple leaves, seeing as there is no one to help.

She finally connects with a 911 dispatcher named Kathy, whose sweet Southern voice offers reassurance. But when Spencer mentions her race, something shifts in Kathy’s tone—a subtle pause, a slight chill. Kathy says she’ll send a mechanic.

When a hooded stranger named Angelo arrives, seemingly meeting all of Spencer’s strict safety protocols, she reluctantly lets him help. But his knowledge of her nickname, Penny, raises alarm bells. Before she can act, Angelo disappears into the night... just as a second mechanic arrives.

We are reintroduced to the menacing pickup truck rumbling from a distance. The lines between supernatural horror, racial paranoia, and psychological dread blur.

Help is on the Way is a horror-thriller grounded in social realism, exploring isolation, the legacy of fear for Black people in America, and the creeping unease of being unseen—and too seen—at the same time. With a strong visual style, slow-burn tension, and a protagonist torn between instinct and trust, this film asks: What if you can’t trust the help that you’re waiting?