The Boogie Man Will Get You

Mortgage debts force Professor Nathaniel Billings to sell the 18th-century tavern to Winnie Layden. He insists he may continue to work in the basement laboratory as a condition of sale. Amelia Jones and the hired hand Ebenezer remain employed at the inn.

Layden plans to convert the inn into a hotel, unaware of the basement experiments. Billings will still operate the laboratory, keeping his research secret. The sale proceeds as the new ownership takes control.

The inn’s occupants begin to settle in under Layden’s ownership, while Billings, Amelia, and Ebenezer continue their secret experiments in the basement. Layden remains unaware of the ongoing work underneath the house. Tensions simmer as the dual lives of the inn unfold.

One night at dinner, the residents hear unsettling sounds that resemble a ghost. Billings suspects a plan to scare Winnie away and investigates the source. The strange noises foreshadow the darker experiments to come.

Billings finds the dead body of traveling salesman Johnson in the basement laboratory. He reports the grisly discovery to Sheriff Dr. Arthur Lorencz, who begins inquiries into the murder. The basement revelation marks a turning point for the experiment’s secrecy.

Lorencz sees potential profit in the experiments and agrees to work with Billings on a subsequent test. Their initial plan to use Billings as the subject proves unsuccessful, prompting them to search for another candidate. The basement becomes the center of a perilous new project.

With Billings as a failed subject, the duo turns to Maxie, a visiting powder puff salesman, as the next experimental subject. They hope to harness his condition to advance their work. The ethical lines blur as the plan progresses.

One inn guest is murdered, escalating the tension around the mysterious happenings. Billings and Lorencz suspect J. Gilbert Brampton, but the police are intercepted before they can investigate. The case deepens the intrigue surrounding the inn.

Maxie scares away an intruder named Jo-Jo who intends to steal Billings’s equipment. Billings and Lorencz decide to begin experiments on Maxie so they can use him to stop Jo-Jo from blowing up a nearby munitions plant. The plan merges crime, science, and danger.

Brampton informs Winnie and Bill that he is visiting as a representative of the Historical Society of America, who are interested in buying the inn. The revelation adds pressure to the sale and the strange experiments underway. The motives of the visitors become intertwined with the inn’s fate.

Police arrive and arrest Amelia Jones and Ebenezer for the murders. The rest of the inn’s inhabitants are left in a state of fear as the investigation deepens. The community braces for further revelations.

The dead bodies come back to life, having apparently been in a state of suspended animation. The revival shocks the inn’s residents and complicates the ongoing investigations. The boundary between life and death becomes a central mystery.

The police decide to send the rest of the house’s inhabitants to the Idlewild Sanatorium for observation. The institution becomes a looming place of potential refuge or reckoning. The plan shifts the story toward legal and medical control.

Lorencz reveals himself to be the Chair of Idlewild Sanatorium’s Board of Directors, a move that nearly guarantees the group’s freedom. This twist ties the fates of the inn’s residents to the institution’s powerful leadership. The balance between justice and exploitation comes to a critical moment.