House of Good and Evil

Maggie Conley and her husband Chris relocate to a large rural Virginia house in an attempt to repair their marriage. They meet real estate agent Rob Bradley, who explains the home is duplexed with an elderly couple, the Andersons, renting the other half. He warns about expensive utilities due to constant storms and suggests using a generator and cell phones to stay self-sufficient.

Bradley discovers a locked door in the house and promises to return in a week with the key. The couple begins to settle in, but the mystery of the locked room casts a shadow over their move. Tension begins to mount as they anticipate the unknown room.

Chris resists Maggie’s suggestion to start the generator, insisting he will handle it himself. The idea of independence in the face of isolation creates friction between them. The generator remains unused as tensions simmer.

That night, Chris drinks mixed beverages, fueling tension while Maggie grows frustrated by his drinking. The couple do not share a bed, and Maggie nurses anxiety about their new environment. She wakes from a nightmare about the locked room, its vines entwining an umbilical cord.

While Chris is away in town, Maggie explores the locked room and is awakened by a loud rotary telephone ring. Chris dismisses her fears, leaving her more isolated as she tries to cope with the house’s odd atmosphere. The unsettling ambiance grows as she clings to the hope that something in the house will explain her anxiety.

With poor cell reception forcing her outside, Maggie moves to a clearing to call for help, but is frightened by strange noises in the trees and the pervading ringing from the Andersons’ house. She makes several failed attempts to meet the elderly couple, heightening her sense of isolation.

Maggie finally encounters Mr. Anderson one night as the generator stalls. Wearing a nightgown and feeling exposed, she resists his alarming, suggestive comments as he offers to help restart the generator. The moment underscores the strange boundaries between the neighbors and the unsettling situation.

Intrigued and increasingly unsettled, Maggie breaks into the Andersons’ house, apologizes, and tries to talk with them. Mrs. Anderson explains her husband’s firefighter role but notes his age has pushed him into mostly desk work and hints at trouble in their marriage and Mr. Anderson’s roughness. The revelations leave Maggie wary and curious about the couple’s own demons.

When Chris returns, Maggie confronts him in a rage and he knocks her unconscious. She accuses him of domestic violence, but he dismisses her as hysterical, deepening the sense that their marriage may be breaking down irreparably.

During dinner, their quarrel erupts again and Maggie storms off, grabbing an axe and shouting that Chris is a violent monster. Mr. Anderson appears, belittling Chris and, in a chilling line, offers to kill Maggie if needed. The tension between the two households peaks here.

The confrontation spirals: Chris attacks Mr. Anderson, who fatally stabs him. Maggie retaliates by killing Mr. Anderson with the axe. She calls out for Mrs. Anderson, who is glimpsed through a window. A scream follows, and the house seems to close in as the chaos subsides.

Bradley returns to find the formerly locked room transformed into a shrine to Maggie’s lost baby, with Maggie seated beside Chris’s decomposing corpse. The police later explain that Maggie descended into madness after losing Chris, choking on his vomit the same night they arrived. The events blur the line between grief and madness.

The Andersons pull up claiming they have just returned from vacation, suggesting Maggie’s haunting presence may have been a product of grief rather than a true haunting. The final notes cast doubt on what really happened and leave Maggie’s fate open to interpretation.