Ghost Stories

Professor Philip Goodman, renowned for debunking fraudulent psychics, receives an invitation to meet Charles Cameron, a famed paranormal investigator. The invitation promises a chance to revisit the supernatural through three real cases. He contemplates the possibility that his lifelong crusade may be tested by real-world investigation.

Goodman travels to Cameron's caravan and meets the aging investigator, who is now sick and impoverished and living in reduced circumstances. Cameron asks him to investigate three incidents that seem to be real supernatural events. The assignment draws Goodman into a world where belief and skepticism clash and blur.

The first case follows Tony Matthews, a night watchman whose wife died of cancer and who regrets not visiting his daughter with locked-in syndrome. He is haunted by the spirit of a young girl while working in a disused asylum for women. Goodman believes the haunting will have a rational explanation rooted in the victim’s neuroses.

The second case centers on Simon Rifkind, a teenager obsessed with the occult with a troubled relationship with his parents. After his car breaks down, he runs over a creature in the woods and experiences unsettling phenomena. Goodman remains skeptical, thinking the victims likely imagined the hauntings due to their anxieties.

The third case concerns Mike Priddle, a financier in the City waiting for the birth of his child, tormented by a poltergeist. His wife appears dying as she gives birth to what is implied to be an inhuman child. The case escalates as the boundaries between reality and illusion begin to fracture.

Driven by the escalating hauntings, Priddle shoots himself with a shotgun, ending the poltergeist’s influence and triggering a collapse of the apparent hauntings. Goodman starts to question whether what he witnesses is truly supernatural or a manipulation of reality. The line between the cases and the investigator’s life begins to fade.

Back at Cameron, the investigator tears off a latex mask to reveal himself as Priddle, the very man behind the earlier cases. Goodman is stunned as his supposed guide is actually a participant in the deception tied to his life. The revelation shifts the investigation from external hauntings to a manipulation tied to Goodman’s own past.

Priddle, in his masked guise, leads Goodman back to a childhood memory where he witnessed two bullies lure a mentally disabled boy into a drain, where the boy dies of an asthma attack. Goodman has carried guilt for not rescuing the victim, a guilt that now threatens to consume him.

The decaying corpse of the bullied boy materializes, tormenting Goodman and guiding him toward a hospital bed where a ghoul lies atop him and forces his finger into his mouth, crying 'No, not again!' The sequence blurs the line between memory and a recurring nightmare.

In the present reality, Goodman lies in a hospital bed with tubes in his mouth, having suffered a suicide attempt and entered a state of locked-in syndrome. The doctors and staff believe he is in a persistent vegetative state and show little belief in his awareness.

The junior doctor tells the senior colleague that Goodman is 'here for keeps,' presenting a bleak prognosis of recovery. The senior doctor adds a chilling remark about hoping his dreams are sweet, underscoring the gap between outward signs and inner consciousness.

A hospital cleaner chats with Goodman and moves a mirror, offering him a different perspective on his surroundings and hinting that reality may extend beyond his restricted view. The simple act challenges the doctors’ assumptions about his state.

It is revealed that all the cases and Cameron’s theatrics were inspired by the hospital staff, objects, and setting rather than genuine hauntings. The entire investigation collapses into the realization that Goodman’s experiences occurred within the hospital, shaping his fate and beliefs.