Banshee Chapter

James Hirsch signs up for a top-secret MKUltra–inspired trial of the drug DMT-19, aware that the project operates in a shadowy government program. A friend films his every move, reinforcing the sense that something is being observed and controlled. The atmosphere is eerie, hinting at the consequences to come.

Shortly after the test, James vanishes and his friend who filmed him also disappears following police questioning. A growing dread settles over those who knew him, as authorities scramble for explanations. The disappearance sets off the central investigation.

Anne, a college-era friend turned reporter, grows increasingly worried about James's disappearance. She begins digging into the case and revisits James's house to search for clues. Her involvement marks the shift from curiosity to a determined pursuit.

Back at James's house, Anne uncovers a Betamax tape documenting MK Ultra experiments and a notebook filled with project notes. The material hints at hidden experiments and a broadcast connected to a phantom radio signal. The discovery accelerates the investigation and deepens the mystery.

Anne learns that the phantom radio station can be picked up only in the desert at a precise hour of the night. The clues tie the signal to the MKUltra study and to the desert’s solitude. The sense of an unseen audience intensifies.

Driven by curiosity and guilt, Anne drives into the night to hear the broadcast again. She approaches the desert broadcast site but flees when a monstrous figure steps from the darkness. The encounter confirms the signal’s otherworldly reach.

A throwaway line about 'Friends in Colorado' leads Anne toward counter-culture writer Thomas Blackburn. She tracks Blackburn down, hoping he knows the truth behind DMT-19. The pursuit widens the circle of suspects and possible sources of influence.

Blackburn explains that Callie helped create DMT-19, and he coerces Anne into taking the drug herself. Callie begins to show disturbing changes and disfigurements, suggesting the drug's body-possessing effects. The confession shifts the investigation from theory to dangerous real-world consequences.

The phantom station’s music grows louder as the drug’s effects intensify. Researchers discover that DMT-19 functions like a radio antenna, allowing otherworldly entities to broadcast signals into takers and seize control of their bodies. The line between hallucination and possession becomes dangerously blurred.

They learn that the signal did not originate with the government alone; it appears guided by forces beyond this world. Researchers harvested material from the pineal gland of a female corpse—the Primary Source—which later reanimates during an experiment and assaults a doctor. The discovery reframes MKUltra as a conduit for something not of this world.

Anne and Blackburn realize the phantom signal's source is the very MKUltra laboratory they've been chasing. The lab becomes the focal point of the escalating danger, linking past experiments to present peril. The revelation confirms that the pursuit crosses into forces beyond human control.

Thomas reveals his earlier claims about giving Anne DMT-19 were part of a larger deception, though he cobcedes the danger is real. The moral complexities and manipulation surrounding the project come into sharper focus. Trust among the core characters fractures as urgency mounts.

Anne and Blackburn venture into the desert to locate the laboratory tucked inside an abandoned fallout shelter and arm themselves with gasoline. They prepare to destroy what they have unleashed, hoping to sever the broadcast's reach. The mission blends survival instincts with a desperate bid to end the nightmare.

Within the shelter, a room brimming with radio equipment surrounds a large tank. A pale, eyeless figure peers from a porthole—the Primary Source—while the numbers station begins its cold chant. Anne and Blackburn race to stop the experiment, but danger closes in.

Thomas bleeds from the eyes and shoots himself; Anne pours gasoline and lights a lighter, triggering a devastating explosion that rocks the shelter. She regains consciousness in a police setting, finding James's clothing discarded nearby and a recovered tape that hints at deeper clues. The film closes with the revelation that Thomas Blackburn was a MKUltra subject, and that the phantom broadcast can spread through touch, leaving the truth unsettling and unresolved.