The film begins by showing a woman named Sarah who has just moved to a city to start a new life.
Sarah now decides to live alone as a result of her troubled past. Therefore, she begins by looking
for an apartment in the city where she can live. We can see that the surrounding environment there
is very pleasant, and the neighbors appear to be friendly as well.
An open house is being held at the apartment to welcome new residents, and many people
have already came.
Inside the apartment, she is greeted by the
event manager named Jerry. Jerry invites Sarah to check the condition of the house first in case
she is interested. Following that, Sarah notices there is a strange marks on the apartment's wall.
After taking a look around, Sarah returns to the conversation with the manager and she says
that she is looking for a comfortable place to start a new life. Jerry then explains that this
is a no-pets and no-smoking apartment complex, and Sarah confirms that she doesn't have any pets.
In the evening, the scene moves to a motel where Sarah is temporarily staying.
We can tell that Sarah has actually lied to the manager since she has a pet cat. Shortly after,
she receives a phone call and it turns out to be her father who wants to know when she'll be home.
Sarah then responds that she will be staying and can't go home because she is working as a
temporary employee. We can see here that Sarah's relationship with her father is not very good.
The next day, Sarah who has just started to work in her office, meets her colleague named Lisa.
Plus, she also gets a phone call informing her that she has been chosen to be a resident of the
apartment she previously visited. Sarah then starts packing her belongings and immediately
moves into her new apartment. Moreover, she also decides to bring her cat there secretly by covering it with
a cloth. She suddenly meets a good-looking man named Brian who lives next door to her apartment.
Following that, Sarah is introduced to the other residents of the apartment. The old lady named
Miss Stanhope takes her to meet a doctor named Esther. Everyone there looks friendly and very
pleasant including Jerry who also stays there. However, there is also a man with glasses who looks weird
and creepy named Lester. He approaches Sarah and offers her to read a book called The Power
of Community. He says that the book would be very useful to her, but Sarah refuses because
she doesn't think she needs the book, and also because the man appears to be creepy.
Later that night, Sarah is having trouble sleeping because the medicine she used to take has run out,
and the doctor has to order her medicine first. Sarah then forced herself to sleep,
but instead she hears noises coming from nowhere. The noise also disturbs her, who is already having
difficulty sleeping at that time. The following day, Sarah begins to continue the process of
moving her belongings again. Brian then approaches her and helps her in moving the mattress to the
front of her apartment. He offers to brings the mattress into her apartment, but Sarah refuses
because she is afraid that her cat will be found. In almost every night, Sarah again gets disturbed
by the noises. She doesn't notice anything unusual until one night when she hears
noises coming from within her apartment. As she tries to check it, she finds that her
apartment door is open. She then tries to sleep despite the strange sounds that keep interupting her sleep.
The following morning, Sarah begins to feel stressed due to lack of sleep. She suddenly
gets a letter delivered under her apartment door. And it turns out that the letter is a
warning letter addressed to her because she has violated the rules by keeping a pet there.
As a result, Sarah begins to be suspicious of how anyone could possibly know, and she goes outside
to see who sent the letter. Instead, she looks at the people who are usually very friendly to her,
it couldn't be them who sent the letter. But at the same corridor, she sees Lester is looking at
her suspiciously. When Sarah calls out to him, Lester immediately runs away, and Brian has
just come out of his room. Brian then informs her that he is going to have a dinner party tonight,
and invites her to join him. The other residents would also be coming, and Sarah says she will come
along tonight. Scene then moves to Sarah's office where she gets a lot of work tasks from her boss.
Despite the fact that she didn't get enough sleep, she is forced to do a lot of work,
and her boss tells her to clock out first because they can't pay overtime for this task.
Her friend, Lisa, feels sorry for her and then tries to cheer her up.
Before going home, Lisa pays a visit to Sarah's apartment, and Sarah has just remembered that she
had promised to attend Brian's party. Brian then comes out of his apartment and asks her to join.
But Sarah apologizes because she forgot that she had another plans and maybe she will attend
later. Inside the apartment, Sarah and Lisa are talking about the relationship between Sarah and
her father which isn't going well at the moment. We find out that her father used to have an affair
with his mother. She's also tired from all of the noise interruptions while she's sleeping,
as well as from the letter she got previously. Lisa then encourages Sarah to no longer be
concerned with what other people think of her. Later that night, Sarah is startled awake by the
sound of a noise and the smell of smoke in her room. As soon as she checks it, she again finds
threatening letter about her pet on the oven. At this point, a terrible moment begins to occur and
it turns out that the smoke smell came from her cat which has been roasted to death. Sarah can’t
believe what she has seen, and she is startled again when someone suddenly grabs her from behind.
The mysterious man immediately ties her to the chair. At this point, Sarah suspects that this
man is Lester, and she begs him not to hurt her. But the man is actually… a man who had always been
kind and cared to her. Sarah is very surprised by what she sees, and Brian then intends to inject
her with an anesthetic. Fortunately, Sarah manages to escape by breaking the cheap Ikea chair.
She then screams for help, and bumps into Doctor Esther in the corridor. At first,
Sarah is relieved that she might be saved, but it turns out that Esther is also part of the action.
Sarah is then taken to a room, where the other residents of the apartment are already there.
It turns out that this act actually intended to be done at the previous dinner party,
and Esther thinks it's such a bad way to start this. Without wasting any time,
Sarah is then given an anesthetic injection by Brian.
After that, she wakes up in a room with a window that has been covered with wood.
Sarah realizes that she has been locked up, so she screams for help but her efforts are in vain.
Soon after, she hears footsteps approaching and it turns out to be Brian and Jerry.
Brian's good character has now completely changed, where he tells Sarah to face the wall and put
her hands there. Jerry says that no one would look for her including her friend who has been
deceived by a fake message from Sarah. At first, Sarah refuses their order,
but Jerry then calls Lester and shows what she will get if she does not comply.
Jerry says that this is for attacking him, and this is for trying to escape. This of course
makes Sarah scared, and she is finally forced to comply with their order. She will need to
stay in that position, and can only rest when the red light next to her turns off. Sarah stays in
that position while being disturbed by a loud song that makes her feel even more stressed.
As the time passed, Sarah who can no longer stand it finally falls even though the red light is
still on. Her action is captured on CCTV, and Jerry and Brian return to her. But instead of
allowing her to rest, the two men punishes her for her actions by nailing her hands to the wall.
At this moment, Sarah discovers the truth from the patches she noticed at the beginning of the film.
Brian says that he is now helping Sarah, and she must remain in her position.
Sarah has now been standing all day, where she’s getting tired and begins hallucinating.
Her father appears in her hallucination, and tells her to pull her hands off the nail.
Sarah thinks that her father has really come to save her,
and eventually falls unconscious as she realizes that it's just a hallucination.
Brian and Jerry then re-enter the room, and Sarah is assumed to have passed the trial.
After that, Sarah is taken out to be treated for her wounds. After all that incident,
she is treated well by the residents. Other residents also shows their hands which turns
out to also have scars like Sarah's. After that, Jerry and Brian begin their interview with Sarah
which include the use of
a lie detector. At this point, She is asked about her sexual preference and about her first
sexual experience. Jerry emphasizes that Openness is one of the foundation of their community,
secrecy will only lead to disputes. Sarah is then given a book titled The
Power of Community, which is the same as the book that Lester had offered her the previous day.
She begins to learn more about this community and begins to understand what is the community's
purpose.
Their purpose is to create community that is different from others
with a greater emphasis on social harmony.
After that, she is interviewed again and asked to name the four foundations from
the community. Sarah confidently answers that the four foundations are selflessness,
openness, acceptance, and security. They finally ask if Sarah wants to
be a part of this community, and she says yes. But the lie detector indicates that she is lying.
She is then given another opportunity to learn more about the community. Therefore, she is
taken to a classroom where the children are learning about the community through a videotape.
On the recorded tape, they can see a man named Charles Ellerby is being interviewed.
He is the one who created and built the community with his clever idea plus scary method. Sarah is
slowly begins to understand the four foundations starting from selflessness, openness, acceptance,
and security. For security, Charles Ellerby mentioned that they're best selves when they
know their neighbor is watching. By practicing these 4 foundations, their community can live
free of loneliness, poverty, and strife. Sarah is then assumed to be ready to take
on more responsibilities in the community. Therefore, she is taken to a room that turns
out to be a monitoring room for all of the residents' activities of the apartment there.
This completely explains why they seemed to know Sarah's every move before this,
while also applying their fourth foundation. While they're keeping an eye on all of the residents,
it turns out that there's also CCTV behind them. Sarah tries to ask who is watching them,
but Brian tells that it is none of their business, and tells her to return to monitor the screen.
In the monitor screen, she sees Miss Stanhope is having shortness of breath and falls over.
Sarah immediately gives a signal to Brian to help the old lady. As a result, she receives praise
from Jerry for her efficiency in carrying out her responsibilities. At this moment,
all the residents of the apartment came to visit Miss Stanhope. Brian then begins to tell about all
of the contributions that the grandmother has made to this community during her time as a resident.
At first, everything seems normal, until he finally says something that sounds like
farewell words. Sarah starts to panic when she sees the gas tube is prepared. Brian whispers to
her that Miss Stanhope considered that she can no longer contribute anything to the community.
But strangely, Miss Stanhope just accepts it and acts as if she has known this would happen.
Sarah is forced to hold her emotion while seeing the grandmother's head is covered with black plastic
and poison gas is delivered right into the plastic. After the old lady passed away,
Brian recounts his experience in the early days of joining the community.
Brian assures Sarah that this community helped him a lot. After that horrific incident, Sarah
finally accepts to be a part of that community. She is then led into the courtyard, and it
turns out that the other residents are already there to celebrate her into their community.
She doesn't expect that she would be marked behind her ear using a hot iron.
After that, Brian points out that everyone there has the same sign. During their celebration,
Sarah is surprised again when she finds out that she has been betrothed to Lester, the creepy man.
This is because Lester is a lonely man who has been abandoned by his wife for a long time after
she died of cancer. As a result, Sarah has no other choice but to complement one another in
that community. The two of them are eventually get married, and she is forced to kiss the man.
Just like a new married couple, Lester takes Sarah to his apartment right away.
She is told that her old apartment is no longer hers, and it is for a new candidate.
Lester immediately takes her to the bed, which of course causes Sarah to feel hesitant. Fortunately,
Jerry suddenly came and says that they are in trouble.
It turns out that the problem is that they sees Sarah's father on CCTV came to meet her.
Jerry tells Sarah that she has to make sure her father won't come again or he would be killed.
After that, they renovate an unoccupied apartment to look like Sarah's house. Sarah finally
has the opportunity to see her father after a long time, but she is forced
to curse her father with harsh words that are very painful for her father to hear,
out of fear that her father will be killed.
As a result of her words, her father is upset, and he promises that he will not visit her again.
After that incident, Sarah is brought back to bed by Lester.
But it turns out that Lester wants to show her the sewing machine her mother had previously given
her. He then shares that he had thought about escape out of the place or committing suicide in order
to get out of the situation. However, they are forced to accept that this is their life now.
As the day passed, Sarah becomes more accustomed with the community.
Until one day, the cult is looking for new residents again to fill the unoccupied apartment.
At this point, Sarah is shocked and worried as she sees Lisa has also came to try to apply for the
vacant apartment. Long story short, Lisa is very excited that she has been chosen to stay there.
At this point, they begin their action again. Sarah is finally knows that the disturbance she
experienced every night is just a fake noise to make her stressed and uncomfortable.
Moreover,
they make every effort to separate Lisa from her previous empty and selfishness life.
However, Sarah reminds that Lisa is a strong person who will definitely fight back.
And Sarah's word is right, just as they are about to grab Lisa, she fights back by biting Brian's
ear. Therefore, Sarah is then sent in to calm her friend down, but she fails to do so. Since
Since Lisa continues to fight, she will be punished by having her ear hole stabbed with a screwdriver.
Sarah is ordered to hold the screwdriver. When Jerry is about to hit the screwdriver, Sarah
can't hold her feelings and stabs Jerry in the neck with the screwdriver. Following that, Sarah
and Lisa then rush out of the from the room. But unfortunately, Jerry, who is still alive manages
to shoot Lisa to death. Sarah then immediately attacks Jerry, and stabs him many times until
he died. At this moment, she feels confuse as she notices Jerry the manager also has the same mark on
hands and behind his ear. She then walks out while holding a gun, while an alarm starts to
sound indicating that something bad is happening. All of the residents comes out and surrounds
her including Brian. Brian tries to persuade Sarah with his lies, and Sarah shoots him right away.
Sarah then runs towards the entrance door, but just as she almost manages to get out,
she is caught and the gun is seized by Lester. Surprisingly, Lester shoots the
man who is holding Sarah and tells her to run away immediately. Meanwhile, Lester restrains
the residents who are attempting to chase Sarah before taking his own life with a gunshot.
As she runs down the street covered in blood, she is taken aback as she comes
across a board with a logo that appears to be similar to the one used by the community.
Plus, the strange things keep happening when the same alarm is sounding from every building
in sight. This is when Sarah realizes that the community isn't just isolated to her apartment,
but all of the blocks are seems to be under the influence of Charles D. Ellerby’s sick ideas of an
ideal community. Moreover, there are CCTV Cameras indicating that someone is keeping an eye on them.
In the end, she gives out a frantic laugh and clenches her fist as she realizes that
she isn't the same person anymore, and runs out of there. And with that, the film ends.