Natalie Wilburn sits with her boyfriend Sean as he reads from a black book. When he finishes, he kisses her passionately before pulling out a gun and taking his own life, a shocking moment that sets the tone for what follows. In the town of Grovetown, Maryland, the story widens to include high school student Lindsay who is shopping for church clothes with her stepmother, Trish. Their argument is interrupted when Natalie bursts into the shop, covered in blood and muttering that a girl is following her, clutching the same ominous black book. As Lindsay tries to help, the back room door slams shut on Natalie. Bernard, Natalie's father, bursts in to break it down, only to find Natalie dying with a pair of scissors lodged in her neck.
That night, a ghostly figure haunts Bernard, and the next day he is found dead by his niece, Molly, who has hanged herself in the same room Natalie died in. At school on Monday, Lindsay’s boyfriend Dylan—the son of the local pastor—publicly attacks Aidan Spindle, a newly returned misfit. Dylan blames Aidan’s family for the recent deaths. After the fight, Lindsay helps Aidan with his wounds and drives him home, where she learns that Aidan’s brother is Sean, the boy whose suicide has loomed over the town.
Molly begins to see a ghost that looks like herself and slits her wrists. The next day, Lindsay’s best friend Claire drives past Molly’s body and soon starts hearing voices; a doppelgänger of Claire is then seen in the school bathrooms. As the haunting intensifies, Lindsay notices Dylan’s growing religious fervor against Aidan, and she warns him of the danger. At Dylan’s house, Lindsay meets Sadie, Aidan’s cousin who has traveled from New York for Sean’s funeral.
Claire’s doppelgänger relentlessly pursues her, culminating in a car chase that ends with Claire’s exploding car in front of Trish. Aidan takes Lindsay to a stream beneath a bridge and explains that his mother practiced witchcraft, which might be connected to the suicides. He urges Lindsay to leave Grovetown. That night, Lindsay is abducted by Dylan and Roy (Trish’s lover, with Trish’s consent) and brought to the church to be “purified.” Back home, Trish revels in being saved, but her own television is soon filled with doppelgängers of herself, and she is driven to drink drain cleaner, mistaking it for whiskey.
Lindsay discovers Trish’s body and heads to Aidan’s house, convinced a curse has entered her life and will demand her death. Aidan admits that the victims see themselves, but insists they die because they are compelled to—not because something takes them over. He gives Lindsay an oil on her skin meant to slow the curse, and he reveals that the black book is the key to sealing away what Sean had unleashed.
The pair decide to move the book to the church, and they break in. The others—Dylan, Roy, Pastor Joe, and Paul—realize Aidan has retrieved the book. In a tense confrontation, Sadie pulls a gun on Aidan and Lindsay and explains that Sean deliberately killed himself to start the curse. They manage to rescue the book as Sadie attempts to burn it. Paul, Roy, and Dylan burst into the house; Aidan and Lindsay escape to the woods, planning to meet at the pier, while Sadie is left guarded by Roy.
Back at home, Roy reveals how he became devout and sets Sadie alight with gasoline, claiming it’s God’s will. In the woods, Lindsay reaches the pier, but her doppelgänger ghost closes in. She recites a prayer at the edge of the platform, then falls into the water. Dylan continues to hunt Aidan, who is ultimately forced to confront the curse by turning the gun on himself after kissing Lindsay. Dylan shoots Aidan, altering the supposed sacrifice’s outcome, and Paul and Dylan arrive on the scene. Lindsay survives the encounter, though blood drips onto her back as the ghost’s eye appears to bleed, signaling the curse’s persistence.
Aidan’s act to end the curse seems to fail; the gunshot had struck him before he could complete the ritual, and the book remains a focal point of power. In the final moments, Lindsay and Aidan attempt to destroy the book by burning it, but a supernatural wind extinguishes the flames, and the curse continues to stalk them. The film closes with a haunting montage of other characters who have fallen to the suicides, underscoring the idea that the dark force tied to the book and Sean’s actions affects the town far beyond the immediate circle of those who first confronted it.
This tale unfolds with a steady rise of supernatural dread, a community unsettled by fear and fanaticism, and a core mystery about how a single cursed object can entwine the fates of multiple families. The atmosphere blends small-town tension with occult whispers, creating a chilling narrative about how guilt, faith, and revenge can ignite a deadly chain reaction that leaves little room for survivors. The ending leaves the horror unresolved, suggesting that the curse may endure in Grovetown even as some characters fight to outpace it.
