Manhattan Baby

On holiday in Egypt, Susie is approached by a mysterious blind woman who hands her an amulet. The moment she takes it, a sense of otherworldliness lingers around the family. This small moment begins the family’s brush with an ancient, dangerous force.

Susie’s father George, an archaeologist, enters an unexplored tomb and loses his sight. The loss is sudden and unsettling, tied to the amulet’s awakening powers. The family begins to realize the danger is more than a local superstition.

George’s vision returns after the family returns to New York City, suggesting the curse travels with them. He recounts the wall design from the tomb to a colleague named Wiler, hinting at a larger mystery. The amulet’s influence appears to extend beyond Susie alone.

Susie, her younger brother Tommy, and their au pair Jamie Lee discover they can access dimensional doorways through the amulet. They begin to appear and disappear from familiar spaces, blurring the line between reality and the otherworldly realm. The family’s ordinary routine turns into something dangerous.

Emily and her colleague Luke are researching the Egypt events when Jamie Lee calls in a panic about the children. Luke tries to help by unlocking a door, but is sucked into a dimensional portal and ends up in a desert, where he dies of dehydration. The disappearance is initially treated as a prank by those left behind.

Jamie Lee takes the children to Central Park for photographs. A discarded Polaroid of Susie, showing only the amulet against the grass, draws a mysterious woman’s attention. That woman contacts Adrian Marcato, initiating a new thread in the conspiracy around the amulet.

The woman drops a Polaroid containing Marcato’s contact details down to Mrs. Hacker from a window. This creates a direct link between the amulet’s power and Marcato, deepening the danger for Susie and her family. The pursuit of the amulet shifts toward Marcato’s involvement.

The children repeatedly appear and disappear from their bedrooms on what Tommy calls voyages. Jamie Lee disappears after entering Tommy’s room, and Tommy explains that she has not come back from her voyage. The house becomes a place of unpredictable danger as the doorways proliferate.

Wiler studies a photograph of the amulet and is fatally bitten by a cobra that appears in his office. The amulet’s energy seems to move; the photo reappears in Susie’s hand as she recovers from a mysterious fit. The line between study and danger grows thinner.

The Hackers trace Marcato to his antique shop, where he explains the amulet’s evil symbolism and suggests Susie has absorbed its energy. He hints that the curse is real and dangerous, underscoring the need to prevent its spread. The conversation deepens the sense that Marcato is a pivotal figure.

George and Emily discover the amulet in Susie’s bedroom as she glows with an unearthly blue light and then faints. Medical staff are perplexed as the child’s condition becomes a visible manifestation of the curse. The family’s fear escalates with the physical signs of energy from the amulet.

Marcato is summoned to the apartment to examine Susie, but his inner voice possesses him and he briefly links minds with George, offering a glimpse into the eldritch Egypt the children have visited. The possession reveals the amulet’s deep, uncanny power. Even without full control, Marcato becomes a conduit for the dangerous forces at work.

The family takes Susie to a hospital where Dr. Forrester examines her. An X-ray reveals the dark hooded cobra mark inside her chest, confirming the ominous effect of the amulet. Emily stays by her daughter’s side as the alarm bells ring louder in the medical and magical senses.

Jamie Lee bursts back through a wall as a reanimated rotting cadaver and collapses. A blue stream of negative energy flows from Tommy, Susie, and the dimensional doorways into Marcato’s home, where he recites an ancient Egyptian spell. The surge confirms the amulet’s far-reaching reach and the danger to everyone involved.

Marcato is killed at his shop by the reanimated carcasses of his stuffed birds as the energy consumes him. The next morning, George discards the amulet by flinging it into the East River, attempting to end their ordeal. In the final office, the blind woman reappears in Egypt and gives the same amulet to another young girl, indicating the curse will continue to loop back into the world.