Private Parts

Cheryl Stratton argues with her roommate Judy and decides to move out of their shared space. She steals Judy's wallet before leaving, signaling the break with her old life. She travels to Los Angeles to check into the King Edward Hotel.

Cheryl arrives in downtown Los Angeles and checks into the dilapidated King Edward Hotel, operated by her maternal Aunt Martha. The hotel’s ambiance hints at deeper secrets among its peculiar guests. Martha allows Cheryl to stay but with a clear condition.

Martha enforces a strict rule that Cheryl must not wander the hotel at night. She frames the place as one of the last respectable hotels, which contrasts with the building’s strange atmosphere. Cheryl begins to sense she is being watched.

Judy's boyfriend Mike shows up at the King Edward Hotel looking for Cheryl and is confronted by the Reverend Moon. An unseen assailant attacks him in an upstairs hallway, decapitates him, and throws his body into the hotel furnace. His death signals the hotel’s deadly undercurrents.

During dinner, Cheryl asks about Martha's daughter. Martha reveals the child was conceived via artificial insemination and implies she is dead. The revelation deepens the sense that the family’s history is darker and more controlling.

Cheryl becomes aware of George, a handsome photographer who keeps a darkroom in the basement. He begins leaving sexually aggressive notes and gifts of lingerie for Cheryl. The unsettling dynamic between them starts to unfold.

Cheryl steals the hotel master keys and makes copies to enter George's room. Inside, she discovers a transparent inflatable sex doll and walls lined with avant-garde nude photos. The voyeuristic atmosphere around George grows more disturbing.

Judy arrives at the hotel searching for Mike and her stolen money but is directed to the basement darkroom. An unseen assailant murders her there, adding to the building’s aura of danger. The hotel’s darkness tightens its grip on the occupants.

Jeff, a locksmith's employee, invites Cheryl on a date to a rock concert. The invitation pulls Cheryl further into the night’s plans, even as she remains wary of the hotel’s perilous surroundings. The evening promises distraction from the escalating tensions inside the King Edward.

George fills the inflatable sex doll with water, attaches a blown-up headshot of Cheryl to its face, and injects his own blood into the doll. The macabre act reveals his disturbed fixation and blurs the line between art and violence. The doll becomes a symbol of his control and danger.

Cheryl dresses in the lingerie George left for her and erotically undresses in the bathroom, aware that George watches from a peephole. He later takes the lingerie back and uses it to dress his inflatable doll, heightening the tension between them. The creepy surveillance underscores the hotel’s prying atmosphere.

Jeff follows Cheryl to the hotel and confronts George, who is listening to a taped recording of Alice's murder. George bludgeons Jeff with a bottle and drags his body to the darkroom, widening the body count and the room's menace.

An altercation ends with Cheryl accidentally killing George when a stage light crashes down on him. Martha enters, unbuttons George's shirt, and reveals that George is actually her biological child, cross-dressing and raised as a son. She declares a twisted liberation and attacks Cheryl with a butcher knife.

The next day, Jeff’s father arrives with police, who recover Jeff unconscious and Judy's corpse. They also discover George's body alongside Martha's, who is now dressed in Cheryl's lingerie. Cheryl, dazed, repeats Martha's phrase about the King Edward being 'one of the last respectable hotels' and the need to be 'extremely selective' about its clientele.