Los Angeles 1911: Cyril, an abusive father, finds his daughter Sophia Hannah Marks playing in a room she is not supposed to be in. As punishment, he forces her to bury four beloved handmade dolls — an African warrior, a German soldier, a porcelain girl, and a samurai — in their backyard, despite her pleas. When Sophia accidentally falls into the dolls' grave and breaks her neck, Cyril buries her with the dolls to conceal the accident, unknowingly with his gold pocket watch.
Los Angeles, 2005: the house is now occupied by the Fillbrook family: Guy Jared Kusnitz is a nerdy high school freshman who collects limited edition action figures; his slightly older teenage sister Deedee Gabrielle Lynn and their single father Lester Ken Lyle share the home. Lester prepares for a date, instructing DeeDee to babysit Guy, and sets chores: Guy is tasked with yard work while DeeDee is told to clean the house. While raking, Guy discovers a Samurai's miniature katana sticking up from the dirt and digs up the Samurai doll himself. Before Lester leaves, DeeDee catches him staring at a gold pocket watch, which he says he found in the backyard.
Once he departs, DeeDee invites her friends, the party-loving Olivia Kristyn Green and the shy Terri Anna Alicia Brock, over to celebrate. Olivia secretly invites two boys, Tom Scott Seymour and Rich Brian Lloyd, who regularly bully Guy. Guy agrees to keep the party a secret after Terri is nice to him away from the others and they discuss action figures.
That night, the boys ambush Guy in his room, insulting him, tying his hands, and breaking one of his prized figures before abandoning him to join the party. This provokes the wrath of the spirits attached to the buried dolls, and the samurai doll’s sword seems to glow with power as it resurrects the other dolls, waking the cemetery of toys and placing Guy in a trance-like state despite his restraints.
DeeDee leads Tom upstairs to have sex, handcuffing him. While she searches her closet for something, the German Soldier doll slips in and stabs Tom in the crotch with its elongated pickelhaube. Tom’s screams pull DeeDee into the danger, and downstairs Olivia fights to hear over the loud music as Rich refuses her advances. Terri cleans the house, while Guy remains under the dolls’ control. The porcelain girl doll’s cracked, jagged smile resurfaces as the other toys stir, and the German Soldier doll begins firing a tiny pistol-like shot while the party escalates into chaos.
Downstairs, Olivia discovers DeeDee and Tom; the German Soldier, equipped with a tiny Luger, fires at them, and the dolls continue to move. Ooga Booga stands on a table over a heavily intoxicated Rich, stabbing Rich’s eye with a spear and slicing his throat. The house descends into a panic as the dolls claim more victims and the living residents scramble to survive.
Upstairs, Terri frees Guy, and the Samurai doll hesitates before Guy commands it to stop. They make their way downstairs where DeeDee and Olivia struggle to grab a cell phone from the porcelain girl doll. The doll swells with menace as it bites Olivia, and DeeDee fights back with a fire poker. Possessed by Sophia, Guy proclaims himself Sophia and fights to protect the dolls. When their father Cyril’s memory flickers in Lester’s eyes, the watch seems to hypnotize him again, but the spell breaks as Lester cries out to Guy. The spell shatters, and Guy gathers the dolls, insisting they bury them again to lay Sophia’s spirit at rest, which they do without delay.
As the girls stand together by the makeshift grave, the camera lingers on the hole and then follows Guy behind a stone pillar. The final shot betrays astonished viewers with a chilling reveal: a zombified Sophia stares back, hinting that the curse may not be finished after all.
