- Four young women travel to their college professor's new country home for a weekend getaway, only to discover that the house has a malevolent past.
- A young girl gets to break free from her suffocating and overprotective father but this father who was close to the Nazis and even closer to Adolf Hitler won't allow it. In a fit of rage, he drowns her and then buries her in the grounds of his country home. He lies to the police and his worried wife claiming he knows nothing about her whereabouts. For reasons unknown, his wife then murders him by poisoning him. Years later, four young women travel to their professor's country home and discover its malevolent past.—Sonia Thompson
- The film opens in the 1960s on a rural farm in New York.
Samuel returns from his work out in the fields and sits down to a meal with his wife Miriam and teenage daughter Alice. Alice asks for permission to go into town and Samuel rejects this, insisting that town is no place for a young girl. After his daughter storms off Samuel answers a knock at the door to find a mysterious case sitting on the front step - the deliverer having driven off before his arrival.
Samuel immediately takes the case into the basement and opens it - uncovering a picture of his younger self next to Adolf Hitler and a letter telling him that the artifact inside - a large piece of metal in the shape of an Iron Cross - has been entrusted to him for safekeeping. Taking the artifact, Samuel knocks a hole in the wall and seals it inside before returning upstairs.
Later on, Alice and a boy are relaxing and talking underneath a tree somewhere on the property. Before long Samuel arrives and grabs the boy by the collar, dragging him to his feet, and commands his daughter return to the house and the boy to run home. A heated argument between Samuel, Miriam, and Alice in regards to his overbearing protectiveness results in Samuel cracking down further by telling his daughter she's not allowed to leave the property and no one except the three of them are permitted to be in the house.
When a distraught Alice confronts her father in the barn sometime afterwards, Samuel strikes her and she unsuccessfully attempts to impale him with a pitchfork. Grabbing her by the hair, Samuel drowns Alice in a nearby basin of water. Seemingly un-phased by the act of murdering his own daughter, Samuel takes her body and disposes of it before returning to the house.
When her daughter fails to appear as hours pass, Miriam calls the local sheriff who visits the farm and postulates that Alice may have run away. Both Miriam and Samuel insist that their daughter wouldn't do such a thing and after a tense back-and-forth between Samuel and the sheriff (who's aware of his service for Germany in the Second World War) the officer leaves - promising to keep an eye out for Alice.
The following day as Samuel is out spraying pesticides in the grove he appears to have a heart-attack and stumbles to his knees. Miriam, in the garden, begins hacking away at her flowers but stops when she senses something wrong. Miriam approaches her husband and caresses him before detaching the hose to his gasmask and begins pumping the poison in - killing him. Miriam is then shown leaving the house with bags packed never to return.
In the present, four college friends from New York City - Regan, Layan, Samantha, and Betaine - are making their way through rural New York for a weekend getaway at the new home of Regan's family friends Walter and Beth. Making a stop at a restaurant, Regan speaks to Walter and Beth over the phone who inform her that all is ready for their arrival and while the couple won't be present their young daughter Irene is eagerly expecting them. Moments later, Regan receives a call from her sister who's at their dying grandmother's bedside whom Regan briefly speaks to - expressing her feelings of regret not being there but assured by her grandmother that all is well and she deserves the vacation.
When the four finally arrive at Walter and Beth's home it's revealed to be the same house that the events of the opening of the film occurred in. The girls begin to settle in and explore the first floor of the house - Samantha discovers a viking death mask on display in the living room and becomes excited, revealing that she's a history buff. Moments after breaking out the wine and toasting their fun weekend to come Irene is dropped off by her tutor who quickly becomes uneasy and hurriedly leaves - refusing to even step inside the home.
Irene takes the girls upstairs and shows them each of their assigned bedrooms and shows off her own room to Regan - informing her that a baby monitor in her room will allow Irene to contact her if she needs anything during their stay. When Layan asks who's room is the one with the "dirty door" Irene replies that it belongs to Alice and no one goes in there. Shortly afterwards Samantha enters the room and begins investigating Alice's belongings. Irene appears in the doorway and tells Samantha she's not allowed to be there and mentions once again that the room belongs to Alice. Samantha leaves and the girls head downstairs.
The five pack a picnic and head out onto the property to relax and talk. Samantha spots the nearby barn (which Alice was murdered in) and is drawn to it - entering and exploring within as Irene looks on. When she approaches the same water basin that Alice drowned in, a black cloud in the water grabs a hold of her arm and begins to pull at her. Screaming for help, the others arrive and pull her from the basin.
That night the girls try and comfort Samantha and express doubt about her explanation of events. In the kitchen Regan speaks to Irene about this mysterious Alice but before Irene can tell her anything Layan enters and suggests that they play a game to lighten the mood. Irene runs upstairs to retrieve one but when she begins looking a dark figure appears in her bathroom doorway - watching her. Irene hears the figure's breathing and hesitates before quickly leaving and returning downstairs.
Deciding to play hide-and-seek, Regan is chosen to be "it" first and the others scramble to find hiding spots. Samantha and Layan enter the basement and become fascinated with all the odd and old things lying around. Layan finds the case Samuel received and Samantha uncovers boxes of papers, a journal, and notes. Upstairs, Betaine hides in a closet and when something rattles the door she opens it slightly and sees a bloodshot and clouded up eye staring back at her in the darkness. Freaked out, she quickly leaves the closet and insists that she's done playing as Regan begins her search.
The game quickly falls apart and Samantha and Layan eventually return to the kitchen with the documents in tow to show everyone else what they had found. Samantha excitedly explains that the papers and journal belonged to a Nazi officer named Siegfried Sauer who seemed to play an important part in Hitler's occult research. The doorbell suddenly rings and Irene hurriedly goes to answer it despite Regan telling her not to. When she does, a shadowy figure looms over the young girl and hesitates before offering up a pizza. When Regan claims that no one there had ordered pizza Irene reveals that she had. The girls have a laugh over how creepy the pizza deliveryman was and retire to the kitchen to eat.
As Samantha digs further into the documents and the girls eat their pizza Irene expresses that she's tired and ready for bed. Betaine offers to keep an eye on her as she too is ready to turn in for the night. With Irene asleep, Betaine calls her boyfriend Tyler but the conversation is cut short when voices speaking German take over the call and cause her to lose connection. After receiving odd and threatening texts from Tyler (one of which reads that she "won't see tomorrow"), Betaine switches off the light and goes to sleep.
Downstairs, Samantha uses the computer to start researching what she's uncovered - discovering that Siegfried is Samuel (and he and his family were the previous owners of the house), Alice's disappearance, and Samuel's death. Samantha also finds information regarding a picture of the Iron Cross artifact which turns out to be an amulet connected to the Knights Templar. This amulet was supposed to have been worn in order to take away all fear and hatred from the wearer and trapping it inside. It's further revealed that this amulet was also taken from a French town by the Nazis who then proceeded to murder the townspeople and burn it to the ground.
Meanwhile back upstairs something makes its way up under a sleeping Betaine's bed-sheets and just as she awakens a pair of green-skinned hands clasp around her mouth and neck.
The remaining girls run upstairs to Irene's room when they hear her repeating "he's here, he's here" over and over through the baby monitor. Upon entering the room they find a sleeping Irene and a quiet room but notice a dead bird and a puddle of unknown liquid on the floor. Layan disposes of the bird and Regan cleans up the puddle and they all return downstairs before deciding to turn in for the night.
Regan watches TV and reads a book before falling asleep on the couch downstairs while Layan and Samantha retire to the upstairs. Samantha is attacked and presumably killed in the bathroom by the green-skinned figure and Layan is awoken by a banging noise. When Layan goes to investigate she sees a ghostly figure at the end of the hall repeatedly banging her head against the door to Alice's room. When Layan approaches the ghost asks her why no one came looking for her, but before Layan can approach closer she too is attacked and dragged away.
Meanwhile downstairs Regan is awoken by a door leading from the kitchen to the outside opening and slamming shut, shortly afterwards she hears Irene screaming her name over and over through the baby monitor and quickly rushes upstairs. Irene tells her that she's scared and insists that Regan look under the bed in order to make her feel safe. When Regan does she finds Irene underneath who tells her that the "Irene" on the bed isn't her. Regan looks back up to see the green-skinned monster poised and ready to attack.
Regan grabs Irene and the two flee - coming across Betaine's dead body tied to her bed with barbed wire - before running downstairs. As the two hide, Regan comes to the conclusion that the night's happenings are tied to the amulet and that the green-skinned creature must be the manifestation of all the fear and hatred built up within it over the centuries. She deduces that if her and Irene can remain calm and "face [their] fears" they'll deny it its power.
The two run to the garage to try and flee the house through the door but it won't open. Irene then notices that her father's car is still parked inside and asks why. Regan cautiously approaches the vehicle and peers inside to find both Walter and Beth, dead, and strapped to their seats with barbed wire. They flee the garage.
Regan tells Irene that they'll escape through the doggy-door in the kitchen and when they attempt this Regan injures herself on a broken wine glass that was dropped earlier on. Regan tells Irene to get out of the house and that she'll be right behind her. After some hesitation Irene does so while Regan pulls the shard from her foot. Before Regan can get completely through the doggy-door though she's pulled back inside the house by an invisible force.
Outside, Irene waits for Regan but eventually runs down the road crying until she comes upon a car driving up the path leading to the house. Virgil, a friend of Walter and Regan's, collects the terrified girl and drives back to the house to figure out what's happening there.
Inside the home, Regan recovers and sees the ghostly figure Layan had encountered earlier. This figure turns out to be Alice and she leads Regan into the basement - repeating what she asked before about why no one came looking for or found her. Regan explores the basement intent on finding whatever Alice wants her to. When she comes to the spot in the wall where Samuel hid the artifact she sees the darkened image of it burned into the wall. Accidentally breaking open a tall wooden box next to the spot, Regan finds Alice's desiccated corpse inside.
As Virgil approaches the house he sees what appears to be Samuel in his gasmask in an upstairs window and enters the home to figure out what's going on. Inside, he runs into Regan who tells him that they have to leave immediately. As Regan runs to the car Virgil remains in the doorway and is pulled inside by an invisible force. Regan starts the car and flees the house with Irene - escaping the horror that the artifact unleashed...
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