Carnival of Lost Saints

In the decaying Louisiana bayou town of Bellerive, former federal administrative judge Michael Delacroix, haunted by a denied disability claim that mirrored his own spiritual crippling, is drawn into a missing person case on the eve of the Feast of Saint Desmoulins—a debauched carnival where the entire town wears masks. As he follows a trail of old sins and ritualistic violence, each criminal profile he constructs becomes a sketch of God's abandoned shadows. The investigation reveals a communal secret: every year, under the guise of revelry, the town collectively partakes in a ritual murder to appease an ancient hunger, awakening a demonic consciousness that has no single face. Delacroix must confront the terrifying truth that the line between victim, perpetrator, and silent accomplice vanishes when the group mind awakens.