This film begins by showing a small village in the city of Mumbai, India. Here we get introduced
to our main characters: Michael, and his newly pregnant wife, Maria. Enchanted by the beautiful
city, Michael suggests that they should move and live in Mumbai permanently. He then walks up to a
random little girl, and asks her if staying here forever with his wife is a good idea, but then:
We then move to 6 years later, with Maria waking up from a bad dream, and starts weakly
hitting her Michael, looking upset over something. While Michael calms her down, the camera pans to a
family of Michael and Maria with their two kids: a son named Oliver and a daughter named Lucy.
Next morning, the couple start their day by having breakfast with their daughter Lucy,
and their dog Winston. Here we notice something odd: the little boy in the family picture we saw
earlier, Oliver, is nowhere to be seen. All in all, the family go about their day normally:
and they also have a maid whose name is Piki. After breakfast, as Michael gets ready to
leave for work, Maria can be seen having a mental breakdown, while Piki the maid watches
her with pity. They’ve been actually living in Mumbai for the past 6 years.
Later that night, Michael comes home to find that his Maria has fallen asleep watching old
family videos, one which features the four of them playing piano together. Michael solemnly watches
his son Oliver in the video, before walking up to his wife to pull up the comforter. However, an
empty bottle of pills falls, and as it turns out, Maria isn’t asleep: she overdosed on something.
Michael calls an ambulance, while the unconscious Maria recollects a tragic memory from her past,
wherein she was in a car accident with their two children.
The car is drowning fast, as she tries to pull her kids loose from the seatbelts. She manages
to free her daughter Lucy, but unfortunately, Maria finds Oliver’s leg is stuck under car seat.
Unable to free Oliver in time, the little boy drowns to death,
but Maria manages to carry Lucy to the surface. Maria screams for help and attempts to swim
back down to retrieve Oliver, but the locals keep her from jumping back into the water.
Back in the present, she is now hospitalized, but worry not,
Michael is told by a doctor that his wife is going to be fine.
Having noticed how unwell Maria has been, Piki the maid comes up to Maria at the hospital,
and says she knows a way to bring back her son so she can say goodbye. Piki then begins telling
a story about a temple in the woods just outside of her home village, that is said to blur the line
between the realms of the dead and the living. Piki also confesses that she knows what grief
feels like, because she lost her daughter too. Apparently, to communicate with the dead,
Maria simply has to bring the ashes of her son and spread it along the steps of the temple,
then lock herself inside the temple at night, and wait until the son comes to her.
According to Piki, Maria is going to be able to talk with her son through the door of the temple,
so they can say their final goodbyes. When Maria has recovered and finally returns home,
she ponders about what Piki had said to her about the temple. Later that day,
she watches Piki praying by a shrine for her late daughter. Noticing Maria’s presence, Piki
instantly realizes that Maria is intrigued by the idea about communicating with Oliver again. Thus,
Piki explains that when Maria has a conversation with Oliver, there is one catch: Maria must keep
the door shut, no matter what he says or how much he pleads she must not open the door.
Maria agrees to these terms, and the two proceed to the graveyard,
where several men can be seen digging up Oliver’s casket.
When the casket is opened, Maria insists on seeing Oliver’s dead body,
and even goes as far as reaching for Oliver’s favorite plushie, Khan the Tiger,
but she jumps in shock when she sees Oliver’s rotting arm.
They proceed to throw a funeral pyre, with several seemingly random tribesmen in attendance,
watching and praying alongside Piki. Piki explains that they are the Aghori people:
they cover themselves in dead people’s ashes,
and feeds off of the dead because they believe that it helps them communicate with the dead.
Afterwards, Piki takes Maria to the train station,
and assures her that she will inform Michael about what’s going on so Michael doesn’t worry.
Maria sets off on her journey to the remote village.
The next day, she gets dropped off just outside the woods,
and promptly enters it. From that point on, she continues on foot until she finds the temple,
passing several dead crows along her path. Maria climbs up the steps and enters the temple.
She walks outside to spread the ashes along the steps as instructed, and heads back to the
temple. Maria then locks herself inside, holding a candle in her hands, and waits for nighttime.
When the night comes, Maria begins hearing someone breathing from inside the temple, which piques her
curiosity and makes her move to explore deeper into the temple, wherein she finds a cave.
This is where it gets weirder: she feels a gush of wind blowing near her as if someone
just passed her, followed by another gush of wind which blows out her candle.
She lights a match, and finds a crow falls dead to her feet,
and decomposes almost instantaneously before her eyes.
She is also startled by a mummified woman holding her face buried in her hands.
When the lighter dies, the spooked Maria makes her way back to the main hall, and tries
calling her son’s name. And then suddenly, the entrance door to the temple start banging hard,
until the banging stops and she hears Oliver’s voice.
Relieved and excited beyond measure, Maria presses her ear to the door, while saying
sorry for leaving Oliver to die. Oliver of course doesn’t blame her, but being the little kid he is,
he tries to open the door, wanting to come in to hold his mom. Knowing it is against the rules,
Maria tells him she’s not allowed to open the door with a heavy heart. Hearing this, Oliver begins
crying, and says he has to go back where he came from. Maria begins to panic because she wants more
time to talk to Oliver, so she eventually does something she isn't supposed to do:
However, she finds no one outside. She frantically calls for Oliver, and when she turns around...
Shocked and scared, Maria runs away from the temple. Meanwhile, inside the temple,
the ominous statue inside begins to crack. Back home in Mumbai, Michael is still awake
at night, when suddenly Winston the dog starts barking despite no one being outside.
On the next day, little Lucy is playing in her room, when she hears a noise coming from
outside. She runs out and finds Khan, Oliver’s favorite plushie, on top of the stair landing.
She picks it up, and starts leaving but then, the door of oliver's room open.
Later that day, Maria returns home, and upon her return,
Michael expresses his disappointment in her because her sudden absence got him worried sick.
Maria quickly apologizes, saying she was trying to get better, and they share a loving embrace.
At night, Maria is woken up by the sound of Winston barking, prompting her to take the
dog outside the room. Soon after, she decides to pay her sleeping daughter a visit because
she misses her. But then out of nowhere, she hears the floor creaking inside the bedroom as
if someone is inside with her, so she listens in for a bit but quickly decides to brush it off.
On the next morning, Maria finds Lucy singing in Oliver’s bedroom,
and tells her to play someplace else. As Maria begins to leave, the toy box inside the
room topples over, spilling alphabet cubes that spell ‘Oliver.’ Yet again brushing away her fear,
Maria cleans it up and heads downstairs to join Lucy, during which she pauses
in horror as she finds Khan the tiger plushie sitting on top of the piano.
Not looking scared in the slightest, Lucy says she wants to show Maria something.
She then begins playing a song they used to play with Oliver on the piano,
right when the piano continues playing on its own.
Now realizing that Oliver’s spirit is with them,
Maria decides to wash the tiger plushie while crying in grief.
When she tucks Lucy in that night, Lucy begs her not to tell Michael about all this,
because it seems like Oliver is hiding from something but he won’t tell Lucy what.
Afterwards, Maria pays a visit to Oliver’s room and places the tiger plushie on the bed.
But all of the sudden, a storybook falls from the shelf and a chair gets dragged closer to the bed.
Instantly understanding the request, Maria begins reading a bedtime story for ghost Oliver.
When Michael the husband returns home later, Maria embraces him gleefully, which confuses him.
Unbeknownst to the little family, out in the courtyard,
leaves start falling and rot immediately.
That night, Maria wakes up from her sleep
to find Khan the plushie sitting right in front of her on the bed.
Not only that, she hears Oliver calling for her.
But then...
Maria wakes up for real this time: luckily, it was all just a dream.
In the morning, Piki notices that one of the house plants has died.
The family’s gardener then comes up to her, and takes her outside to show that every single
plant in the yard has mysteriously dried up and died too, along with all the fish in the pond.
At that moment, Lucy starts screaming: as it turns out, the family’s pet birds have died as well.
Piki looks to Maria with concern and tells her about the fish and the trees.
Maria then takes Lucy to dump the birds’ dead bodies in the ocean,
as Indians do with the dead. But out of nowhere, when Maria turns around...
They are freaked out by Aghori tribesman who chants while lathering ash on Maria’s face.
They take a three wheeler taxi, but gets stopped because there has been a car accident ahead.
Curious, Maria walks up to the commotion and finds a man lying dead...
They make it home safely, and we skip to later the evening, during which a thunderstorm rages
outside. Lucy is awake, watching TV, while we see Oliver’s figure standing in the background.
Afterwards, when Maria bathes Lucy, she discovers that Lucy has bite mark.
Lucy voices that she doesn’t like Oliver anymore because he’s mean to her.
Enraged by what Oliver has done, Maria visits Oliver’s room to confront him about the bite mark.
Instead of responding in a cooperative way, Oliver slides the story book closer and makes her sit
on a chair. Maria tries refusing but Oliver violently swings the door shut. A bit scared,
Maria agrees to read him a story but tells him to never hurt Lucy again. Later on, Maria receives
a phone call from Michael, who informs her that he´s going to come home late tonight.
The mother sleeps next to Lucy that night, and wakes up when she hears piano playing off key.
She heads downstairs to check out the piano, and finds the tiger plushie disemboweled on the floor.
Someone then knocks on the door so she comes out, and finds an Aghori tribesman out in the yard. She
threatens to call the police but the man wouldn´t budge, instead, he points at a spot behind her,
and when she finally looks back, a scary figure crawls up towards her.
She fearfully escapes the figure and returns inside.
Piki who witnessed this, confronts her and says that because Maria has broken the rule,
Oliver’s soul who is not meant to be in this world is now putrefied.
Plus, the scary figure who tried to attack her outside was Myrtu,
the gatekeeper of the underworld, is now awake and has escaped the temple through the opened door.
Myrtu is here to take Oliver back to the world of the dead and will kill everything in her path.
Piki then tells Maria to burn every possession of Oliver to keep him from being tethered to
this realm anymore. Unwilling to let Oliver go, Maria calls Piki insane and returns upstairs.
Here she finds Lucy is crying sitting on the bed while facing the wall.
She then approaches her little daughter, but as it turns out,
It is actually not the real Lucy. On the next day, the family goes out for lunch.
Maria who is scared of being home suggests to her oblivious husband that they should take
a family trip to visit their relatives, an idea which Michael happily welcomes.
But then, Maria starts seeing cockroaches everywhere.
Lucky for her though, it’s just her hallucination. She snaps out of it and the two realize that Lucy
isn´t in the resto. Overcome with worry, Maria who hears Lucy’s voice outside decides to venture
the alleyways to look for her, until she briefly comes across Lucy running and chases after her.
She then arrives at a dead end, and instead of seeing her daughter,
she sees Myrtu move to attack her,
only disappearing when Michael shows up holding Lucy.
While this is going on, back at the family’s residence, Piki gets busy trying to get rid
of every single reminder of Oliver in the house. After dumping the very last trash
bag to join the pile, she returns inside to retrieve a can of gasoline, but then,
all the doors swing shut and she is locked in. Shortly after, the door opens and she
goes outside to burn Oliver’s things, but the figure of her dead daughter surfaces from the
pond water, and begins calling for her. Of course it isn’t actually her daughter:
it is Oliver disguising himself as her dead daughter. Drawn by her daughter’s voice,
Piki goes to investigate and finds her daughter's red ribbon in the pond.
Later that day, the family arrives home, to find Oliver’s things bundled up in a pile of trash bags
outside the house. As they explore their yard, Maria screams very loudly and calls Michael.
Here the husband discovers the horrific sight of Piki lying dead in the pond.
They promptly hold a funeral pyre for Piki: Michael attends while Maria stays home with Lucy.
When she tucks Lucy in for the night, Lucy asks her if Oliver killed piggy to which she
says that it was just an accident , and Maria lets Winston to sleep with her.
Right after leaving Lucy’s room, Maria who has realized that she has to make things right now,
goes outside and burns Oliver’s things.
We can see a figure standing behind Maria
while she watches Oliver’s stuff burn. As she is outside, Maria is called back to the house,
when she hears the dog barking in Lucy’s room. Surprisingly, Lucy is no longer on her bed,
so Maria begins looking for her around the house, until she finally
finds Lucy sitting on a swing in the garden. Maria then runs up to Lucy and hugs her in relief.
At the same time, Michael arrives home, and it is at this point that Michael realizes that Maria has
set fire to Oliver’s stuff out in the yard, which makes him furious. He tries salvaging
what’s left to no avail while Maria explains that everything must burn because Oliver came back from
the dead and killed Piki. Michael who has no idea of what’s going on of course thinks she’s insane.
Maria tries to get Lucy to corroborate but for some reason she won’t.
Having had enough, Michael decides to take Lucy back to her room to tuck her in,
but when Michael is looking away Maria notices Lucy’s eyes turn weird.
She now realizes Oliver has possessed Lucy,
but Michael still doesn’t believe her. The husband takes the
possessed Lucy in his arms and locks Maria in the bedroom while promising to get Maria some help.
On his way outside, he finds the Aghori tribesmen gathering in the yard, loudly chanting and yelling
in Sanskrit. The husband returns inside, and reaches for his phone to call the police. While
the possessed Lucy is left alone, Winston starts barking at her, which annoys her,
so she reaches for a knife and stabs Winston the dog, killing the poor dog.
Michael runs up to her in horror, and she stabs him in the gut.
It is then that the possessed girl admits that she is no longer Lucy, but Oliver.
On the other side of the house, Maria breaks through the door and looks for Michael.
She then finds the possessed Lucy in Oliver’s bedroom, surrounded by
the tribesmen who are performing a ritual, presumably to exorcise Oliver out of Lucy.
Right outside the bedroom, Myrtu appears and begins crawling up the staircase.
One of the tribesmen moves to stab the little girl, but Michael stops him.
Maria pleads and convinces Oliver to leave Lucy’s body alone, by promising that Maria would keep him
company this time. So Oliver leaves Lucy’s body, and enters Maria’s body, before she is immediately
stabbed by the Aghori.
The next time she wakes up, she finds herself alone inside Oliver’s room,
face to face with Myrtu herself. Myrtu walks up to her and reveals her face :
This time, Maria finds herself waking up on the steps outside the temple, and briefly believes
that she’s alive, while Michael’s voice can be heard calling for her. She finally realizes
that she is dead, and Michael has summoned her here to say his proper goodbyes to her.
Maria then screams for him not to open the door, but he opens it and the terror repeats once again.