Maléfique

Carrere arrives at the prison and is assigned a shared cell. He meets three inmates: Lassalle, Paquerette, and Marcus, each with a dark backstory. The uneasy trio begins to size up their new living situation.

Behind a loose brick, they uncover a handwritten journal from a former prisoner named Danvers. The book is filled with incantations and symbols of black magic. The discovery hints at powers that may defy their confinement.

Carrere reads aloud one incantation, and a bright, burning symbol materializes on the cell floor. The others react with fear and curiosity as the book's potential becomes personal. The moment marks the first tangible connection between the text and their reality.

As they study the book, each man begins to experience unsettling visions that blur the line between reality and the incantations. The atmosphere thickens with dread as the book seems to exert psychological pressure. The group senses the artifact is more dangerous than it appears.

One morning Paquerette wakes to find his fingers have vanished, a chilling sign that the book's power is altering their bodies. The remaining prisoners fear what else the book might demand. This event cements the book's threat and its control over them.

The inmates debate what to do with the book; Paquerette seizures the volume and eats its pages, only to be overpowered by an unseen force. The book seems to twist his body, snapping his spine and killing him. The guards blame the other inmates, while Lassalle hints the book may be defending itself.

A new prisoner named Picus arrives, carrying a video camera and a strange air of eccentricity. He disappears one morning, leaving his camera and the journal behind. The last footage shows Picus reading an incantation from the book and a doorway of light appearing on the wall.

When the guards claim they do not know who Picus is, the others learn that Picus was a hallucination conjured by the book to reveal its true powers. The book's influence becomes clearer as it manipulates perception. The prisoners realize they are dealing with something more than a conventional journal.

Carrere has been abandoned by his wife and fears losing his son forever. His only relic is a toy action figure from his child, symbolizing what he yearns to reclaim. The needle of despair pushes him toward the book as a possible way out.

The prisoners recite the same incantation that Picus read, and the cell wall bursts into light to form a doorway. They step through into a dirtier, older prison cell that is Danvers' space in the 1920s. The transition confirms that the book's power can move time rather than relocate the bodies.

Inside the 1920s cell, tensions rise as Lassalle surprises Marcus and kills him with a sharpened rock. Carrere and the others realize the powers come at a terrible price. The scene marks a brutal shift in how they must use the book's magic.

A flashback reveals Danvers' obsessive quest for youth and the spell that transforms him into a younger self, only to reverse and dissolve him into an unborn infant. The revelation exposes the dark price of seeking youth through the book. The act underscores the impossibility of escaping one’s desires.

Lassalle grasps the book and merges with it as the powers finally consume him. His obsession with the written word is both the danger and the key to their fates. The others watch as the last vestige of the old cellmate is extinguished.

Carrere voices his deepest wish—to see his son again—and the book grants a warped form of that desire, but at the cost of his own humanity. His mouth opens in a silent scream and his eyes vanish, signaling his complete erasure from the present.

Outside the cell, Carrere's estranged wife and son arrive to collect his belongings, only to learn the prisoners have vanished. A prison official explains the disappearances as arbitrary. On the drive home, the son plays with an action figure and the doll’s head is revealed to hold Carrere's living eyes, suggesting his lingering connection to his son.