Carly Carly Pope is a young woman who has fallen out of contact with her mother, Angela Nathalie Boltt, a figure infamous for a brutal spree that left more than twenty people dead after she burned down a care home and poisoned a church. Carly is supported by her best friend Sam Kandyse McClure, and the two drift apart from their other childhood friend Martin Chris William Martin after he starts voicing unsettling theories about Angela.
When Martin reaches out with a plan to meet, Carly learns he’s been invited to take part in a focus-group test run by Therapol, a company that presents real medical patients as part of its research. Among the participants is Angela, who lies in a coma, and Carly is approached by Therapol to discuss Angela’s case. Inside the facility, two researchers—Daniel Terry Chen and Michael Michael J Rogers—explain that Angela is not simply incapacitated: she is locked in, активe inside a simulated mindspace while her body remains physically inert. They ask Carly to enter Angela’s mind to communicate with her, a request Carly reluctantly accepts.
The first deep dive deposits Carly into a familiar, recreated version of her childhood home where she confronts Angela in a tense, emotionally charged scene. Angela, now speaking clearly inside the simulation, insists Carly leave and asserts she bears no responsibility for the crimes attributed to her. That night, Carly is haunted by a nightmare featuring a strange symbol formed from a raven carcass, a clue that things are not simply psychological.
A second journey pushes Carly through a new tunnel to a field outside an old sanatorium where Angela once worked. Here Angela again denies calling Carly, and the simulation begins to glitch as Carly pleads to be removed. The atmosphere grows more menacing as she enters the sanatorium itself, where she discovers Sam’s body and is suddenly attacked by an avian-like Demon Quinton Boisclair. The creature slashes its own arm in the attack, imprinting the same wound onto Carly’s real arm. Terrified, Carly escapes the simulation and warns Daniel and Michael about what she has witnessed, insisting she will not participate in another trip.
Back in the real world, Carly visits Martin and shares her experiences. Martin presents his disturbing theories about demonic possession and even shows a sketch of the terrifying being she saw. He explains how the demon manipulates its victims through their family and friends and claims that the Vatican funds black-ops priests who hunt genuine possessions by using companies like Therapol. Carly remains skeptical, but Martin’s conviction only deepens the sense that a more sinister force is at play and that the demon may have latched onto her.
That night, Sam visits Carly at her home in a mood that quickly turns threatening. Sam returns later wearing a bird mask, urging Carly to “look for me in the woods.” The chilling moment underscores the danger that Carly now faces, as she realizes the line between the living world and the demon’s manipulation is growing increasingly thin. The researchers reveal that they themselves are priests in disguise, part of a covert operation designed to eliminate the demon at its entry point—the sanatorium—by guiding it back to hell’s threshold. The demon’s fixation on Carly intensifies as their mission advances, and the situation grows even more perilous when Sam disappears and Angela is taken into the sanatorium by unknown assailants.
Carly, Martin, and Sam traverse a haunted path toward the sanatorium, where they discover the black-ops team decimated and Daniel gravely injured. Daniel explains that the demon has possessed Michael, who killed the team, and hands Carly a holy lance that can kill the demon. They venture into the mind-space once more to rescue Angela, whom they find finally free of the demon yet dying in the process. Carly escapes the simulation with Angela’s forgiveness echoing in the air as Angela passes away.
In the waking world, Carly stumbles upon Martin’s car set ablaze and Sam’s corpse nearby, a chilling reminder of the consequences of confronting this force. Martin is being tortured by Michael, who pursues Carly through the ruins of the sanatorium. In a desperate struggle, Carly uses the lance to kill Michael, but the demon is forced to migrate into Carly herself. The possession is violent and exhausting as she fights to reclaim control, ultimately using the lance to stab herself and sever the demon’s hold.
Sometime later, Carly awakens in a hospital, haunted but resolute. She makes amends with Martin and visits Angela’s grave, where she leaves flowers as a silent tribute to the trauma and reconciliation of the past. The ordeal leaves a scarred but wiser Carly, who has faced a darkness that haunted both her family and her own sense of self, and she emerges with a fragile sense of closure about the crimes that haunted them all.
