The film opens with a family of three driving up into a small town,
to move into their new house that was left by their late aunt Clarisse. Here we get introduced
to our main characters: Beth the dreamer slash aspiring novelist, and Vera the no-nonsense one.
Even from the beginning we can tell that the sisters’ dynamic is rocky:
Vera bullies Beth for being such a dreamer and always having her head in the clouds,
instead of the real world. However, their loving mother, Pauline, always defends Beth.
All of the sudden, a candy truck passes by them, and a mysterious figure inside it waves at them.
Beth and Pauline the mother naively waves back, while Vera rudely flips them off.
Afterwards, they stop by a convenience store on the way, and Beth sees the candy truck they came
across earlier drive away. She then stumbles upon a local newspaper, which headline informs her that
the town is currently plagued by a serial killer, who would come into homes and murder the adults,
but would spare the children. Beth decides to brush it off,
and the three resume on their way. They arrive at the house, and proceed
to check it out. We can see that every single room is filled with antique trinkets and creepy dolls.
Not long after, Beth is seen crying, prompting the mother to rush to her aid. It is revealed that she
is freaking out because she just got her period. Vera who thinks Beth is overreacting goes outside,
and has a chat with the mom. The elder sister talks about how much of a delusional crybaby
Beth is for spending most of her time writing mystery stories, and fantasizing about being a
famous author. This annoys the mom a little, who thinks Vera is being too harsh on Beth.
While the three try to settle in for the night, the candy truck from earlier pulls up in front
of the house. Right when Pauline goes downstairs to put away some boxes, her phone rings;
Out of nowhere, a big man attacks the mom and proceeds to beat her with a porcelain doll.
He then moves downstairs, and captures the sisters, forcibly dragging them to the basement.
On the way, we learn that the big man is not alone, he has an accomplice.
Being the creep that he is, the big man begins to sniff them on the crotch,
and upon realizing that Beth is on her period, he decides to take Vera instead.
Now left alone, Beth attempts to find her way out of the house,
right when she comes across the accomplice, who moves to attack her, until luckily:
The mom violently scuffles against the accomplice, getting stabbed and slashed during the process.
Meanwhile, Beth cowers in fear, unable to help because she is too terrified.
The mom tells Beth to run away, before running downstairs, and risking her life further by
fighting against the big guy. Beth follows closely and watches as her mother wrestles the man.
Pauline then manages to pin him down and stabs him to death.
The accomplice who is still alive runs up to the mom and ends up getting stabbed in the jugular and dies.
We then jump to the future, sixteen years later, where adult Beth wakes up from her nightmare.
Her husband finds her and embraces her with care, and we learn that Beth is still haunted by her
past encounter with the serial killers. It turns out that adult Beth is a very successful mystery
author, and it seems that she is living the perfect life. Her latest book, titled Incident
in a Ghostland, is inspired by the unfortunate encounter she and her family had in the past.
That night, Beth suddenly receives a call from a distressed-sounding Vera. It is clear that her
sister Vera has some sort of mental issue, most likely caused by their past trauma.
Worried, Beth packs her bags and decides to return home, to the very house where
the incident happened in the past. She is happily welcomed by her mom,
who as it turns out is still very much alive and now spends her days taking
care of the mentally unstable Vera. While Beth settles in that night,
they begin hearing noises from the basement, which prompts them to check on Vera, who lives there.
They then take Vera back to a makeshift padded room, and Vera starts thrashing and screaming,
while Beth cries because she can’t bear seeing the state of her sister.
After they calm Vera down for the night, Beth and her mother return upstairs, and the mother
shares about how Vera is still deeply traumatized by their encounter with the serial killers in the
past, and isn’t able to move past it. Later that night, a noise wakes Beth
from her sleep, and she goes to check it out. And then all of the sudden…
One of the house’s creepy dolls is standing on the doorway.
Beth walks up to it out of curiosity, but then…
Luckily, it’s all just a dream. Beth frowns at the writing in lipstick on the mirror,
and rushes downstairs to check on her sister Vera.
Vera shows Beth her severely chafed hands, and begins rambling about how she needs Beth to be
with her, so she doesn’t have to endure all the torture alone. Beth tries to comfort her,
but out of nowhere, they begin to hear the sound of the candy truck outside.
Beth then exits the house, and finds a glimpse of the candy truck driving away from the premises.
Later that night, Beth shares a sweet moment
with her mom who has had too much to drink for the night.
Meanwhile, Vera speaks to herself downstairs, begging for Beth to not leave her alone.
After Beth tucks in her drunk mother, she suddenly finds Vera with doll makeup on, and handcuffed to
the bed. As a result, she panics and tries to find the keys, but the door suddenly shuts behind her.
Beth then looks into the keyhole.
She then tries to wake the mom up to ask her for the key to the bedroom, but her mom tells her
that the room has no key. Confused, Beth rushes back upstairs, and sees Vera thrashing about,
as if she is fighting an unseen figure.
Vera’s fingers appear broken and twisted.
The mom who is now awake exits the house to look for help, while Beth tries to tend to Vera. Beth then hears
noises from the basement, and assumes that Vera has locked herself in there. But then…
She hears the voice of the accomplice coming from the basement, and comes across the big guy:
Luckily, it is only her imagination. Beth spends the rest of the night waiting by the
basement door, until she falls asleep from exhaustion. The dog's barking wakes her up,
and Beth hears the front door open, thinking it's her mother.
The next time Beth wakes up, she is palpably unwell. Her face and body are riddled with
bruises, and the house appears cold and empty. Beth cries in frustration, and finds a similarly
beaten and bruised Vera in the basement. At this point, she begins blaming Vera for what happened
to her, while Vera begs for her to wake up. Here is where the story gets interesting:
Beth begins seeing flashes of her past, and we learn that the mom never actually
survived that night, the accomplice killed her during their scuffle in the kitchen.
While accepting that their mother is dead, Beth begins having a mental breakdown,
and Vera helps to calm her down. We then learn that the two are still teenagers,
who are now prisoners of the big man and the accomplice. Plus, that every single
scene featuring adult Beth being a famous author who is married to a loving husband was nothing,
but a figment of teenage Beth’s imagination to escape her dreadful reality. All this time,
all Vera has been doing is plead for Beth to stop spacing out and return to reality.
In the next morning, Vera warns Beth that the psychopaths are going to take Beth and whatever
happens, Beth must not move or say a thing. Vera then kisses her before she leaves.
Beth fearfully waits inside a cupboard, and this happens:
The accomplice grabs Beth, and she struggles which forces the psycho to knock her out.
When Beth wakes up, the accomplice is putting make-up on her to make her look like a doll.
Beth then gets taken to the display room, and the accomplice poses her with the rest of the dolls.
After the accomplice left, she finds a pairs of scissors, and tucks it in her hair.
Soon after, the big man arrives and he moans as he sees all the dolls prepared
for him. He then creepily picks up one of the dolls and play with it.
When the doll makes a noise, the big man appears instantly annoyed,
and proceeds to torch it. This terrifies Beth, even more so when the big man picks her up next.
The big man then cradles her. He inappropriately sniffs her and touches her,
to the point that Beth can’t take it anymore and moves to stab him on the back.
The big man starts freaking out and cries in agony, while Beth uses this opportunity to
escape the room. The fat man goes after her, and luckily, she manages to knock him down using a typewriter.
Beth steals his keys and take off her handcuffs, and immediately open the basement door
before calling out for Vera. They attempt to make a run for it, but before they reach the front door, the
accomplice returns. The psycho is inches away from seeing them, but the man upstairs calls for her.
As soon as she leaves, they manages to slip out of the house through a slightly ajar door.
Hyped by adrenaline, the two dash into the forest and do not stop running until dawn arrives.
Luckily, they come across a police car, and the officers rush to their aid right away.
Realizing that there isn’t any other house in the area, one of the police officers
informs his colleagues that the girls must be escapees from late aunt Clarisse’s farmhouse
and that the serial killer they’re looking for must be there, while the other officer tries to
calm Vera and Beth down. But then…
The bullets come from the accomplice, who then shoots the female cop.
The officers get shot to death by the accomplice, while Beth and Vera get thrown into the candy
truck, and get driven back to the house. It is at this moment that the hopeless Beth
begins to space out again and her vision starts to blur. Meanwhile the accomplice forcefully
drags Vera away, while she desperately begs for Beth to return to reality and help her.
We once again return to Beth’s imaginary world, wherein she is a full-grown,
successful adult enjoying a party celebrating the success of her most recent novel.
She then sees a glimpse of her sister and goes upstairs,
where we gradually begin to hear the sound of Vera’s screams.
Beth desperately wants to go help Vera, but the mom stops her and asks her to simply forget about her sister.
This doesn’t stop Beth as she realizes that she loves her sister and is unwilling to abandon her.
She runs back to reality, where she is actually going against the big man who is beating her
and pinning her to the ground. Luckily, the big man gets distracted by one
of the dolls, giving Beth the opportunity to save Vera who is being pinned down by the accomplice.
Not caring about anything anymore except her sister’s safe, Beth rips the skin
off the accomplice with her bare teeth and proceeds to beat the accomplice to the ground.
The big man then runs into the room ready to attack, and luckily,
a cop arrives to save the day.
The accomplice stands up but her suspicious movement get her shot as well.
Now that the two psychopaths are dead, the nightmare is finally over.
Beth and Vera get rushed to safety by the medics while more and more
police officers pile into the scene.
Before the film ends, Beth looks at her sister and mouths that she loves her.
Vera then enters an ambulance and we can see the serial killers in body bag.
We don't know what happens next to the
girls, but whatever future awaits them, let’s hope it’s a good one.