Danielle, a psychology student, moves into a beautifulVictorian house, but immediately begins to suffer apparent manifestations of a spirit haunting the residence. Alarmed, she calls her sister, Anna, who initially believes that Danielle is suffering a relapse of a hinted-at psychiatric disorder. Discovering a "fog" in her hallway, Danielle follows it to the closet of the spare room, discovering a small concealed room inside the wall. Danielle investigates the history of the house: she learns of Mordechai Zymytryk, who mesmerized a convicted child-killer named Crowe as punishment for the torture and subsequent death of Zymytryk's own grandson. She also begins to exhibit signs of possession. Influenced by the spirit, Danielle begins rebuilding a chair with straps and gears, using parts that have been scattered around the house. Attacking her sister, she straps her to the device, revealing its name and purpose: it is a panic vest, the chain and gears tightening the device around the victim's chest each time they exhale. Danielle is summoned downstairs by Jacob, and Anna seizes the opportunity to escape. Anna makes her way to the site of a disused asylum where Crowe was supposedly buried, she is distressed to find the building is long gone. A car arrived, revealing Zymytryk, who is still alive, and offers to aid Anna to find the body and end the curse he created. He tells Anna that he will summon Crowe's spirit and that it will jump into his body, at which point she must kill Zymytryk. He warns her that no matter what he says, she must go through his death. Meanwhile, Danielle has lured Jacob into the house and strapped him into the panic vest. Completing the ritual, Zymytryk snatches the gun from Anna, claiming that the Crowe "didn't jump". Heeding the man's advice, Anna attacks him with a shovel and races back to Danielle. Anna frees Jacob from the panic vest, turning when the little boy addresses Danielle, concealed in the shadows. Danielle admits that she can still "feel" the killer; at this moment Jacob murders Anna with the crowbar she had brought inside as a weapon. As the credits roll, the viewer enters an unfamiliar kitchen, zooming in on the stove. Jacob appears, turning on an element and placing a pair of scissorson top, in an eerie to an earlier scene.
