“Do You Fear What I Fear” (2026) is a Christmas horror thriller movie. It has festive vibes, along with the tensions that come with it. The film opens in a cosy, close-knit town of Pine Willow where everyone knows everyone. Claire is dating Jesse, but decides to move to New York because she has better job opportunities there.
Since Jesse does not want to leave Pine Willow, they break up. From the first day of moving to New York, Claire experiences bizarre things, like a snow globe moving its location, unstamped postcards, and more. Along the way, Claire is suspicious of her neighbours playing pranks. The situation is getting worse, and cops are involved. Who could be the stalker, and why are they troubling Claire?
This article contains spoilers.
Do You Fear What I Fear (2026) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
The film opens in Pine Willow just before Christmas. On the street, Jesse is decorating the place, making it look festive. For this, Jesse gets a compliment from the Mayor. After the Mayor leaves, Jesse and Claire (who are dating) chat for a bit. As Jesse is talking to Claire’s mom, Claire gets a call from her college friend Sloane, who offers her a job in New York.
Claire informs Jesse and her mother that she is going to take the job. Later, Claire comes to her marketing firm in New York. There, Claire meets Sloane, who shows her around. One of the people Claire needs to be wary of is Elizabeth, who is very hard on her employees. Since Claire just moved, she is staying in a hotel. However, Sloane’s company has looked for a lovely apartment for Claire.
What does Claire experience in the first few days in New York?
That night, Claire is unpacking and gets a call from Jesse. Because of the move, Jesse and Claire broke up, and Jesse feels bad about it, since they had an excellent relationship. As they talk, Claire notices her Wi-Fi isn’t working, so she hangs up. Assuming it’s a network issue, Claire takes her laptop outside and meets one of her neighbours, Miles. Seeing that Claire is having tech issues, Miles offers to help. While checking the modem, Miles sees a snow globe with a couple inside it.
Immediately, Claire puts the snow globe inside a box. That night, Claire couldn’t sleep properly as she heard noises in the flat next door. On the way out, Claire meets the building’s manager, George. At work, Elizabeth tries to intimidate Claire, but she powers through the day. Once again, Claire is unable to sleep as she hears noises in the neighbour’s flat. Claire bangs on the wall, alerting the stranger that she’s being disturbed.
When that doesn’t work, Claire bangs on the door. The next morning, Claire knocks on the adjacent door, but no one answers. However, Claire meets her other neighbour, Steve, who tells her that renovations are underway in the flat next to hers. Before leaving for work, Steve asks Claire out for dinner, and they agree to meet after Claire’s work. Concerned, Claire tells George about the situation, who decides to inform Larry. The next morning, Claire notices the snow globe from the box is back on the table. So, Claire checks with Miles if he had put it up, but Miles had not touched it.
Why does Claire suspect Miles?
That night, someone pushes a red envelope inside Claire’s flat. Inside is a picture of Claire as a child sitting on Santa’s lap, with the words “Do you see what I see?” Suddenly, Claire’s speakers start to play ‘Hey, Santa’. So, Claire calls her mom to check if she sent it, but she didn’t. The next night, during dinner with Steve, Claire tells Steve about Jesse. Since Jesse didn’t want to move away from Pine Hollow and Claire did, they decided to break up. They head back to Claire’s apartment and start to kiss.
Just then, Hey, Santa starts playing again. So, Claire tells Steve about what happened. To ease Claire’s worries, Steve offers to stay the night, but Claire refuses. The next day, Claire confronts Miles, asking if he was messing with her speakers. Turns out Miles had not, but says tech could be hacked. Furthermore, Miles asks Claire to beware of Steve, as people are not as they seem.
When Claire gets back home from work, the whole flat is decorated. On the window are the words “Do you see what I see,” with Hey, Santa playing on the speakers. Worried, Claire calls a detective who promises to look into the case. Soon, Steve arrives asking Claire to sleep at his house. Later, Claire heads to the basement to find the maintenance engineer, Ray, to check the building cameras. When they check the footage, recordings from Claire’s floor are missing.
The next day, Claire tells Sloane about what had happened, so Sloane asks Claire to live with her for a while. That night, Claire works late in the office when her mum calls. During the conversation, Claire’s mother mentions Jesse, asking Claire to talk to Jesse and give him closure. When Claire gets home, she hears some noise in the basement. She makes her way there only to find Miles taking out the trash.
What happened to Larry?
It is evident to Miles that Claire suspects him. When asked, Claire says maybe Mile is stalking her because he likes her. Turns out Miles is gay. At home, Claire gets a call from Jesse, and they chat for a bit. Now, Claire tells Jesse about what has been going on. So, Jesse offers to drive her back home. But Claire refuses. Unfortunately, the cops don’t have any leads about the break-in.
The next day, Claire gets her door locks changed. In the mail, Claire finds a postcard from Pine Willow with no stamp or address. So, Claire asks Ray about it, who does not know anything about the postcard. Instead, Ray asks Claire to set up cameras for safety. Claire asks Miles to help. They set up the cameras, and Claire decided to tell everyone that she was leaving town over the weekend to make sure she could catch the culprit red-handed, as the person always appears when Claire isn’t home.
First, Claire tells Steve about it and promises to hang out once she is back. Next, Claire tells George. At the office, Claire tells everyone the same thing, including Sloane and Claire’s mom. That night, Claire hangs out in Miles’s apartment watching the cameras. Since it is motion censored, the camera detects a man in a cap walking to the bathroom.
They now go to Claire’s bathroom and see the words, “Do you see what I see?” in the mirror. The next day, Larry sees Claire’s door open and looks around. After hearing some noise in the basement, Larry heads there but is pushed by someone. Larry dies on the spot. Now, Claire talks to Ray, and they see the camera footage. From that, Claire suspects Larry was pushed and didn’t trip and fall as the others believed.
Do You Fear What I Fear (2026) Movie Ending Explained:
Later, Claire visits Steve, and they chat. After a while, Claire makes an excuse to use the washroom and enters Steve’s bedroom. Inside the closet, Claire finds Steve’s cap, the same one worn by the criminal in the video. Afraid, Claire leaves Steve’s house. Immediately, Claire meets the detective to show her the video and tell her about the cap.
The next day, Steve is arrested, but he claims to have an alibi. The detective now says they found notes, recordings, and research on Claire in Steve’s apartment. That night, Claire and Miles hang out, but Claire is still on edge. Later, Claire rechecks the footage and notices the man’s face in a mirror’s reflection. Before that, the detective informs Claire that her stalker is still out in the open, as Steve really did have an alibi. The face in the reflection was Jesse’s. Now, Jesse visits Claire, and she starts throwing things at him. Claire tries to escape, but she is dragged to another flat.
There, Claire is tied up, with her mouth covered. The reason Jesse did what he did was to show Claire how dangerous New York could be and to help Claire return home to Jesse, as Jesse still loves Claire. Meanwhile, Steve is back home. So, Steve visits Claire because her door is open. When Steve enters the house, he sees that the whole place is a mess. So Steve starts shouting Claire’s name. From the adjacent apartment, Claire can hear, so she kicks the walls to alert Steve. This worked as Steve hurried over.
Now, Jesse is hitting Steve. Using the chance, Claire unties the wire and hits Jesse with a wrench. The cops are called. The detective tells Claire and Steve that Jesse stole Larry’s keys to place evidence in Steve’s closet. One week later, Elizabeth commends Claire and officially welcomes her to the company. Steve and Claire continue to date. At home, Steve and Claire enter the elevator, joined by Miles and someone who looks like Miles’s boyfriend. The film ends with Claire and Steve kissing while it snows outside.
The film opens with a cozy, festive atmosphere, but once Claire moves to New York, the holiday decor transforms into the backdrop of a nightmare. Isolated in a new city, Claire’s sense of safety evaporates, leaving her suspicious of everyone in her orbit. While her friend Sloane helped secure the apartment, it’s Miles, a tech-savvy acquaintance, who harbors strange reservations about Claire’s boyfriend, Steve. Though the film suggests Miles’ apprehension might stem from a hidden crush, his instincts about the group’s safety aren’t entirely unfounded.
Ultimately, the movie’s attempt to keep the stalker’s identity a mystery falls flat. The reappearance of a specific snow globe makes it clear that her ex, Jesse, is the culprit. Driven by a “crime of passion” and an inability to let Claire pursue her dreams in the city, Jesse’s obsession turns deadly. Fortunately, justice prevails: Claire finds her happy ending while Jesse faces charges for stalking, unlawful surveillance, and murder.
