Darkest Night

The film opens with Danny Valencia and workmen at the ruins of a mansion where a family disappeared years earlier. The footage frames the investigation that will frame the found-footage narrative. It sets the tone of a mystery surrounding the estate.

On December 25, 2003, Michelle Espino and her husband David host a lavish family gathering at their mountain mansion. The event brings together relatives and friends, foreshadowing the calm before the darkness. The setting is an elegant but tense family gathering.

Susan and American Ken Tyler announce their engagement in front of the assembled family. The couple's announcement unsettles the room and intensifies the undercurrents among relatives. Chelsea arrives with them, adding to the dynamic of secrecy and impending upheaval.

An autistic savant cousin, Justin, takes over videography, capturing events with a single camera. His footage becomes the frame through which the others experience the night, shaping the found-footage narrative. The family accepts the unusual act as normal for the gathering.

After dinner, a mild earthquake rattles the mansion and the power dies. Batteries and electricity fail, leaving only Justin's camera functioning. A mysterious television switches on by itself, playing a bizarre pagan ritual that none can explain.

A dense fog traps the estate as fear spreads among the relatives. People start dying or vanishing, and the group struggles to guard one another against an unseen menace. The atmosphere becomes increasingly claustrophobic and supernatural.

Susan finds an old book titled The Way of Baphomet and discovers the motto Ensemble Toujours (Together Always) written in French. The discovery hints at a long-buried occult past tied to the estate. The group begins to suspect the rituals are real and deadly.

By the time only Michelle, Steven, Susan, and Ken remain, and they gather in the kitchen to understand what is happening. Susan reads notes from the book, and fear deepens as the scope of the ritual becomes clear. The clock shows time creeping toward the still-dark morning.

Steven reveals that Michelle was dabbling in magic and that he and Michelle had a past affair. He explains the book as her spiritual 'Bible' and hints she believed she could ascend with the family. The revelation reframes the night's events as a calculated occult experiment rather than a random haunting.

The group learns the rites of the spell require human sacrifice and mutilation. Michelle had cast spells to bring power, but the force deceived her, implying ascension would demand terrible sacrifices. The truth shakes Susan and Ken and Steven as they face the cost.

In a desperate seance, they call on Michael for release. Michael appears and vanishes, taking Steven with him, while Ken dies and Susan is left alone. The ritual demonstrates its power by erasing those who oppose it and dissolving the group further.

As the ritual nears completion, Ken and Michelle's relationship is shown in a disturbing tableau of a sexual act that culminates in Michelle castrating Ken as a human sacrifice. Susan discovers the grim truth and, in a last act of defiance, places her engagement ring on Ken's finger before he vanishes. The family portrait of robed figures is completed, sealing the ritual's macabre weight.

The film ends with Danny alone among the ruins, discovering the old French book The Way of Baphomet inside a box along with the two rings—the rings of Susan and Ken. The find ties the narrative back to the estate's haunting history and its doomed lineage. The footage is revealed as a documentary that captured a deadly occult ritual.