Terror

Three hundred years ago, the witch Mad Dolly is captured on the orders of Lord Garrick and prepared for burning. She invokes the Devil, triggering a supernatural blaze that consumes one executioner. When Garrick returns to his house, a disembodied arm bursts through a wall to strangle him, and Dolly's curse seals a dark fate on the Garrick descendants.

The violent end of the era-bound ritual leaves a lingering curse on the Garrick line, ensuring tragedy haunts the family for generations. The beheadings and otherworldly phenomena become whispered legends tied to the estate. The curse remains a menacing backdrop to the present events.

In the present, the credits reveal that the horror film is framed as true-events lore directed by James Garrick, the last of the Garrick line. He hosts a preview for his cousin Ann and friends in the largely unchanged Garrick house, now under his ownership. James proclaims the film is based on real incidents and has inherited Mad Dolly's sword.

During the screening get-together, Gary the mesmerist lures Ann into a trance with a party trick. Under his spell, Ann grips a sword and sways toward James, heightening the room's tension. The others misinterpret it as a dangerous prank as the spell wears off.

Moments after the trance ends, Ann is found to have briefly wounded James with the sword. The guests pull her away and restrain her, trying to restore calm amid rising unease. The ominous mood lingers as they grapple with what just happened.

The party breaks into confusion as the guests overpower Ann and escort her out of the house. The unsettling incident casts a pall over the rest of the evening, with whispers of curses and unseen forces. Ann departs, her hands stained with the night’s violence.

Shortly after, Carol is killed in the surrounding woods by an unseen assailant, the attack leaving no clear suspect. The murder deepens the sense that events are spiraling beyond the characters’ control. The group begins to suspect a supernatural presence at work.

Ann makes her way back to London and returns to her hostel with bloodstained hands, a stark reminder of the night’s carnage. Her roommate Suzy senses something is terribly wrong as rumors spread about Carol’s death. The line between reality and the film’s fiction blurs for Ann.

On the country road, Suzy experiences several near-misses with a tall, shadowy figure stalking her as she seeks help. The scene shifts to a nearby house where she calls a tow truck, only to discover the danger follows or is connected to the house itself. The stalking figure is later revealed to be the garage mechanic.

Back in the city, a patron at the strip club is ejected after groping Ann; on returning home, he is gruesomely dismembered on a set of spiked railings. The grisly incident adds to the film’s escalating body count and the feeling that a malevolent force is at work. The club becomes another grim echo of the curse.

At James’s film studio, an overhead lamp crashes down and crushes Les, the hot-headed director seeking to shoot a risqué movie. The accident showcases the studio as a dangerous, unstable space where the supernatural bleed bleeds into the physical world. The sense of foreboding intensifies for all who remain on set.

Viv, another friend of Ann, is stabbed to death back at the hostel, deepening the pattern of brutal, inexplicable killings. The violence seems linked to the mounting hysteria surrounding Ann and the cursed history they’re entangled with. The living characters begin to fear for their own safety.

Later at the studio, props and equipment fly about and splinter as a sheet of glass decapitates Philip. The supernatural disturbances have become deadly and personal for those involved in James’s project. The line between film-making and real horror has all but dissolved.

Ann reaches the Garrick house amid fierce winds and eerie visions, only to be drawn into a climactic confrontation with an unseen force. She strikes at an unknown figure with an axe, believing she has attacked someone, and discovers she has killed James. Mad Dolly’s spirit reappears as her sword flies across the room and fatally impales Ann in a chilling, karmic finale.