In this unsettling supernatural thriller, a devil-worshiping killer completes a ritual that begins with murder and a ritualistic display of Satanic imagery. After reciting the Lord’s Prayer backwards in a candlelit room, he ends his life by throwing himself onto an athame, hoping to seal his damnation. What follows is a visceral near-death journey: the killer’s soul flies through tunnels of light, encounters a vast, tentacle-like being of luminous presence, and, after a rapid montage of recent brutal murders, is dragged down into Hell.
Meanwhile, antiques dealer Hatch Harrison [Jeff Goldblum] is on his way home from a lakeside cabin trip with his wife Lindsey [Christine Lahti] and their daughter Regina [Alicia Silverstone]. A sudden collision with a truck sends their car careening into a fast-flowing river, and Regina miraculously survives the crash while Hatch is presumed dead. The family’s grief is immediate, and the crash becomes a pivot point that threads the fates of everyone involved.
In the hospital, a specialized resuscitation team led by Dr. Jonas Nyebern [Alfred Molina] fights to bring Hatch back. A nurse’s blunt warning—We both remember what happened last time—hangs in the air as Hatch’s heart resumes beating. On the operating table, he experiences visions of the tunnels of light and, at the brink of judgment, enters a surreal Heaven where he glimpses his long-departed daughter Samantha. The moment feels like a merging with a higher power, and Hatch is pulled back to the living world, a changed man whose sense of reality will never be the same.
As Hatch recovers, disturbing sleep visions begin to blur the line between his life and the killer’s crimes. He seems to be the one killing, but the terrible truth is that he is merely seeing through the killer’s eyes. The killer’s gaze settles on a blonde young woman, who, in Hatch’s visions, becomes his own daughter Regina. The killer can also see through Hatch’s eyes, creating a terrifying, shared perception that forces Hatch to confront a terror he cannot control.
Regina later sneaks out with friends to a dingy night club, where the killer, introducing himself as “Vassago,” lingers in the shadows. Hatch witnesses this confrontation through the visions and struggles to warn his daughter, but the truth is easily dismissed by a family and a system convinced that Hatch’s mind is unraveling. A psychic, further convinced by Hatch’s persistent theory, confirms that his fate is tied to Vassago by a “coincidence of fate”—a revelation that proves deadly when the psychic is killed by the unseen force.
Hatch soon learns the killer’s real name: Jeremy Nyebern [Jeremy Sisto]. The father-and-son connection is chilling: Jeremy is the son of Dr. Nyebern, and his psychosis is tied to a dark revival process that brought him back after a previous, catastrophic incident. The revelation propels Hatch to a dangerous pursuit, leading him to Jeremy’s hideaway beneath an abandoned amusement park, where Jeremy has been constructing a personal “monument to hell.” Regina is strapped to the top of a grim structure, and a tense confrontation unfolds as Hatch and Lindsey close in.
A brutal clash ensues: Hatch fights Jeremy while Dr. Nyebern tries to intervene, only to be killed by the deranged son. The demonic soul within Jeremy emerges and proclaims itself as Vassago, while an angelic spirit—resembling Hatch’s daughter Samantha—emerges from Hatch and collides with Vassago in a dramatic, symbolic duel between good and evil. In a decisive turn, Hatch defeats the physical threat, and the protective spirit defeats the demonic one, freeing Regina and Lindsey to escape the park together.
The post-credits scene reframes the experience: Jeremy is shown being revived again, reaching for a scalpel and slitting a nurse’s throat. Back in Hatch’s bed, he awakens from what he initially believed was real, only to discover it was a dream. He and Lindsey share a quiet laugh and drift back to sleep, the family’s safety restored but the memory of the nightmare lingering—an echo of the line between life, death, and the powers that haunt both.
