Year: 2014
Runtime: 90 mins
Language: English
Director: Adam Robitel
What begins as a sensitive medical documentary following Deborah Logan’s battle with Alzheimer’s and her daughter's role as caregiver quickly descends into a disturbing portrayal of dementia's frightening effects. As the family and film crew experience increasingly unsettling events, a terrifying and malevolent force seems to threaten their sanity and well-being, blurring the lines between illness and something far more sinister.
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Read the complete plot breakdown of The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014), including all key story events, major twists, and the ending explained in detail. Discover what really happened—and what it all means.
Mia Hu, Michelle Ang, Gavin, Brett Gentile, and Luis, Jeremy DeCarlos, are a team of students who want to create a documentary about Deborah Logan, Jill Larson, an elderly woman living with Alzheimer’s and cared for by her daughter, Sarah Logan, Anne Ramsay. As the film crew shadows Deborah’s daily routine, her behavior grows increasingly strange, and her personal physician argues that such actions can be explained by the progression of a harsh form of the disease. Yet cameraman Luis begins to suspect there is something more than medical symptoms at play, a suspicion that deepens when the team records Deborah speaking in French about sacrifices and snakes.
They notice a troubling pattern: the switchboard line for 337 incessantly rings, a line that belonged to local physician Desjardins, Kevin A. Campbell, who disappeared after a chain of cannibalistic ritual murders targeting four young girls. Deborah’s conduct becomes so dangerous that she is hospitalized for her own safety, and Gavin withdraws from the project in dismay. Undeterred, the trio—Mia, Gavin, and Luis—press on and uncover a chilling theory: Desjardins was attempting to revive an ancient Monacan ritual that would grant immortality, but it required the deaths of five young girls who recently began menstruating. The team wonders if Deborah has become a vessel for Desjardsins’ malevolent influence.
Soon, they learn that Deborah had previously tried to abduct Cara Minetti, a young cancer patient portrayed by Julianne Taylor. At the hospital, Harris Sredl, Ryan Cutrona, visits Deborah and she pleads with him to end her life. He tries to help, but is knocked unconscious by the entity possessing her. Through Harris, Sarah discovers that years earlier Deborah learned Desjardins’ plan to use Sarah as his fifth victim, which pushed Deborah to kill the doctor before the ritual could reach its goal. She then buried the doctor’s body in the yard. The united group finds the remains and attempts to burn them, but Desjardins’ spirit intervenes and thwarts their efforts.
Desperate, Deborah abducts Cara again and takes her to the location where Desjardins had slain his previous victims. As Deborah heads into the mines, Sheriff Linda Tweed, Tonya Bludsworth, trails after her and is killed in the ensuing chaos. Sarah and Mia locate Deborah, who is in the act of a horrifying snake-like movement aimed at Cara’s head; they manage to burn Desjardins’ corpse, and Deborah is briefly restored to awareness. In a quiet, hopeful moment, Sarah and the now-reconciled Deborah reunite, but the sense of danger lingers.
The film closes with a montage of news footage reporting that Deborah was deemed unfit to stand trial and that her health deteriorated rapidly in the months after the incident. Cara, who has survived cancer, celebrates her 10th birthday, yet a final image cuts to Cara facing the camera with a cold, unsettling smile—an ominous hint that Desjardins’ presence may now be haunting her.
Last Updated: October 03, 2025 at 06:45
Discover curated groups of movies connected by mood, themes, and story style. Browse collections built around emotion, atmosphere, and narrative focus to easily find films that match what you feel like watching right now.
Stories where scientific observation collides with inexplicable and malevolent forces.If you liked the terrifying blend of dementia and demonic possession in The Taking of Deborah Logan, explore more movies where a realistic medical or scientific setting descends into a supernatural nightmare. These films use a foundation of truth to make the horror feel more immediate and unsettling.
These narratives often follow a documentary crew, medical professionals, or researchers who believe they are observing a known phenomenon. Their tools and logic initially provide a sense of control, but this framework shatters as they are forced to confront forces that defy all rational explanation, leading to a crisis of sanity and survival.
They are grouped by their unique structure: starting with a starkly realistic tone that builds empathy and dread, then pivoting into full-blown supernatural horror. This creates a specific, jarring experience where the horror feels earned and more deeply disturbing because of its plausible foundation.
A terrifying exploration of the mind's fragility manifesting as physical violation.Viewers seeking the oppressive dread and disturbing body horror of The Taking of Deborah Logan will find similar experiences in these films. They explore themes of possession, identity loss, and the terrifying physical manifestations of psychological collapse.
The narrative follows a character's gradual or sudden loss of agency as their mind or body is usurped by an external force or internal decay. The horror is deeply personal, focusing on the trauma of watching oneself become a monster or a vessel for something evil, often from the perspective of helpless loved ones.
These films share a core focus on the intimate horror of losing one's identity and bodily autonomy. They generate fear not just through jump scares, but through a sustained, oppressive atmosphere of dread centered on psychological and physical violation.
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