The Diabolical

Description

The film opens as single mother Madison sleeps in front of her laptop computer which is open on a webpage concerning filing for bankruptcy. Awoken by strange noises, she checks the interior of the house and sees both of her young children - Jacob and Haley - are fast asleep. After returning downstairs, a grotesque human-like apparition appears and slowly approaches her. As Madison closes her eyes she repeats to herself that it's not real and moments later the creature is gone.The next day, two paranormal investigators do a sweep of the house and hurriedly leave when one seems to capture something terrifying on their EVP device. Jacob and Haley return home from summer camp shortly afterwards and a social worker arrives to see Jacob. The counselor sits with the him and discusses his anger issues which have become a concern following an incident where Jacob beat another boy unconscious. Believing his inability to control his anger stems from guilt surrounding his father's sudden departure, the counselor suggests he writes a letter to him as an exercise in taking responsibility.As the paranormal activities within the house continue to occur more frequently, Madison juggles dealing with them as well as her financial issues and a budding relationship with Jacob's science teacher/camp counselor Nikolai. One day, while out in the garden, Madison is approached by a man named Austin Hamilton claiming to represent a company that's interested in buying her property. He assures her that they're willing to pay a substantial amount that's well over the market value and when Madison asks why he only reveals that her land is critical to their "future plans". When Madison tells Hamilton she'll consider it, he gives her his card and says he'll expect to hear from her soon.At the summer camp, a bully named Danny picks on Haley and when he refuses to stop when Jacob intervenes, a fight ensues - Jacob breaking Danny's nose. Furious, Madison chastises her son when they return home and even though she understands he was protecting his sister she tries to make him understand that he cannot keep losing control of his emotions.Later that night, Nikolai comes over to the house for dinner and wine and the two talk briefly about their lives before meeting one another. Madison mentions her former husband's anger issues and how she eventually had had enough - asking him to leave, while Nikolai recalls his past job where he didn't agree with his colleagues' methods and was forced to resign. The two make love and Madison indirectly asks Nikolai to leave as opposed to spending the night.As the family sleeps, objects begin to levitate in Haley's room and a pair of bloodied arms extend down from Jacob's ceiling. Awoken by her son's screams, Madison enters his room to find the apparition gone but suddenly a ghostly bald man dressed in white appears and chases the three throughout the house. Almost appearing to be a hologram, the apparition passes through floors and walls and when it attempts to grab Jacob and Haley it leaves burns on their arms. When Madison and her children attempt to leave the house, Jacob falls unconscious just beyond the front door and Haley is soon to follow. As Madison calls 911 for help and brings the children back inside she hangs up when both Jacob and Haley recover as if nothing is wrong with them.The following day, Madison calls a doctor to come to the house and run a series of tests on her kids - only finding them to be perfectly healthy. When she expresses confusion and refuses to believe that there's nothing wrong with them the doctor promises to run more tests when he returns to the lab but also suggests that the affliction could be psychosomatic.Unsatisfied with the doctor's results, Madison begins to search online for answers - coming across a single case where a scientist could not leave his laboratory for months after conducting experiments with a proton accelerator.Hamilton arrives at the house and continues to put pressure on Madison to sell her property as soon as possible. Believing that she cannot leave due to whatever is afflicting her children, she tells him to give her some more time before starting the paperwork. When Hamilton makes a reference to the fact that her finances are in dire straits, Madison claims harassment and says that she's only one month behind in her mortgage anyways. Hamilton snidely replies by saying that his company, which owns the mortgage agreement, decides how late she is and that foreclosure would not be a desirable situation to be in.After turning Hamilton away, Madison hears a knock on the front door and angrily opens it thinking that the man is refusing to leave her be - instead finding Nikolai. Nikolai greets her and tells her he came to check up on her as he hadn't seen or heard from her for some time. Madison then proceeds to give Nikolai the "it's not you, it's me" break-up speech - insisting that there's something she's dealing with that he can't know about and it would be better if they stopped seeing one another. Confused and heartbroken, Nikolai slowly walks away.Inside the house, a disfigured and bloody creature emerges from the dryer and crawls towards Madison who's inexplicably locked into the laundry room. Once she's finally able to force the door open, she huddles in fear with Jacob and Haley as the apparition gets closer and closer. Hearing the screams, Nikolai bursts in and sees the creature before it suddenly disappears in a bright flash of light.Her dark secret revealed, Madison tries to explain to Nikolai the paranormal events that have been plaguing them and attempts to answer his questions regarding when they happen and what kinds of things occur before, during, and afterwards. His scientific curiosity piqued and wanting to help, Nikolai resolves to stay at the home to try and figure out what's actually happening.Contacting a former colleague, Nikolai retrieves equipment to capture and study these paranormal activities while Madison and Jacob meet with his counselor who's disappointed to find that he's engaged in another fight. As the counselor and Madison talk privately, the social worker warns that if Jacob can't get control of his anger soon and continues his violent actions the possibility of keeping him out of juvenile detention is becoming less likely. She also suggests that Madison seek legal counsel as Danny's parents will likely press charges.As Nikolai, Madison, and the kids play Monopoly that night their fun is cut short when the dice begin to levitate - signalling the impending arrival of one of the apparitions. Sure enough, the man in white appears and chases the group through the house, blinking in and out of existence. At one point Madison strikes the man with a chair which breaks upon him and afterwards slams a door on his fingers and severs them - causing him to cry out in a pain before disappearing once more.The severed fingers left behind, things become more mysterious as now they know that not only can they hurt this apparition but he may not be a ghost at all.The next day Madison reviews video footage from the previous night's events while Nikolai and Jacob analyze audio recordings. When Madison zooms in on the man in white's shirt she recognizes a logo that also appears on Hamilton's business card - a logo belonging to a company named CamSET. Going back to the article about the scientist who couldn't leave his lab, she finds that he worked for CamSET and was a part of a team involved in a "Project ECHO". Sleuthing further, Madison not only discovers that "Project ECHO" was a series of experiments regarding teleportation that was shut down when they were found to be using human test subjects, but that also Nikolai was a part of the group.Confronting Nikolai about his involvement, he swears to Madison that he resigned from the project when they first started using criminals as test subjects. When Madison shows the video still of the man in white's shirt and the logo upon it, Nikolai expresses confusion and disbelief as it seemed that viable teleportation was still thirty or forty years away when he resigned.Believing that CamSET is trying to scare them off the property they desperately want, Madison resolves to fight back by killing the man in white and hopefully stopping these "paranormal activities" once and for all. Making a series of improvised weapons and setting traps, the group awaits the inevitable return of the "ghost" that night.When he eventually begins to appear, Madison hides Jacob and Haley in the basement while Nikolai attempts to distract the "apparition". As this occurs, Hamilton arrives at the house and relentlessly bangs on the front door. Suddenly, the door flies open and Hamilton is dragged inside by the man in white and savagely attacked. As Hamilton, mortally wounded, crawls from the house he places a call to the police before succumbing to his wounds.As Madison and Nikolai go on the offensive, they manage to wound the man in white several times but he continues to pursue them. Eventually, Nikolai is hurt but the "ghost" falls into a trap and he and Madison return to the house. Two police officers soon arrive and investigate - coming across Nikolai and Madison, the latter leading them into the basement to retrieve Jacob and Haley.When Nikolai realizes that the man in white is no longer stuck in the trap he appears out of thin air and slits one officer's throat with a knife before knocking Nikolai unconscious and breaking the neck of the second policeman. As the "ghost" approaches Madison and her children in the basement he hesitates when he sees various objects (a baseball glove, a picture, a science fair volcano, etc) strewn about.Taking advantage of this, Madison lunges at the man but he stabs her in the stomach and she falls to the ground. As Jacob approaches him he slashes the boy across the face and Madison watches as a long scar begins to form on the man in white's face. Nikolai comes to and shoots the "ghost" - appearing to kill him.As the group huddles around a dying Madison, Nikolai attempts to stop the bleeding from her wound but seemingly to no avail. Knowing that the man in white will be teleported back to wherever he came from she curls up next to him and disappears in a flash of light.Now in the future, we see two men escorting the man in white to be teleported back in time - one of the men explaining that this particular "subject" proved to be more resilient than his predecessors despite having his brain "scrambled". When the other asks where they got the man, he explains that he was taken prisoner after attempting to bomb CamSET's facilities in revenge for his mother's death.Madison awakens in a bright-lit room next to her older son - the man in white - as scientists sound an alarm.Back in the present, more police officers arrive and begin searching the house and recovering dead bodies. In a flash of light, Madison reappears, alive and healthy, and embraces Jacob as the film ends.

Director :

Writer :

Alistair Legrand, Luke Harvis

Actors :