Original subtitles

A man devotes his life to defeating a demon.

I started doing everything that I could to get this thing out of the house.

But when old memories are awakened, new terrors come to life.

I always had the feeling that whenever it was there, it was going to hurt me.

What happens when childhood scars turn into living nightmares?

In America, there is real evil.

It lurks in the darkest shadows in our most ordinary towns.

Between the worlds we see and the things we fear, there are doors.

When they are opened, nightmares become reality.

What's behind this door?

The cellar.

We need to go down there.

We drive you from us, whoever you may be.

No, Bishop, wait!

Who?

Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1962.

Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posies, ashes,

ashes.

Dorothy Baker and her family are living in a house built for them by her uncle

and father.

You guys are my babies, you know that? I love you so much. Oh, come on.

I'm not a baby anymore. Oh, I know you're not. I just love you so much,

Bobby. Guys, help me with the laundry. Robin, will you grab the basket?

Thanks.

For Dorothy and her husband Francis, owning a house is a dream come true.

My mom and dad gifted me with the land. Then after that, my parents built their

house right next door, which made it very convenient and very nice. Oh, hi,

Bobby.

Dorothy is a homemaker, and Francis is an ex-Marine.

He makes a living working for an aircraft manufacturer in Stamford,

Connecticut.

Mom? Yes? Can we go over? grandma and grandpa with a house in the suburbs two

healthy children and a loving husband dorothy has everything she's ever wanted

i was just thrilled to pieces to have my own home and have a yard and be able to

plant flowers and have a place for the kids to play that's what i was looking

forward to bobby and his sister robin are very close

our family was very tight-knit early on in the early years we were just like

your typical family that you would find in any street usa bobby

bobby bobby i told you to wait up come on robin stop being such a

girl bobby and robin spend most of their days entertaining themselves and this

afternoon seems like any other

Hey, Robin.

Who's that man over there?

What are you talking about?

The man next to the tree?

I thought it was a real man at first.

There's nobody there.

But then I realized that I was the only one who saw.

Bobby can't explain it, but the image of the man terrifies him.

He didn't threaten us or say anything to us, but I just knew that there was

something bad about him.

at your grandma and grandpa's house. What happened?

Bobby chickened out.

Did not.

Did too.

You were afraid of some invisible man.

That was very frustrating because I was thinking that they should be able to see

him, and I didn't understand why they couldn't. Okay, enough with the

invisible man, you two. Let's go wash up and get ready for supper. My thoughts

were at first, he's just little, he's playing and just making belief. It was

just a strange thing to me because it was out of character for him.

Later that same afternoon.

Surrender. I surrender.

I surrender.

Die, die, die.

No, don't kill me.

Bobby.

Bobby.

When I heard the voice coming from the vent, I was curious, but I was also

afraid. at the same time.

Play with me.

Where are you?

And I started talking back to it because at that age you don't realize you

shouldn't be talking to something you can't talk to from a heater vent.

Play with me.

Where are you?

Down here.

I automatically assumed that that was coming from the basement.

How did you get down there?

I live here.

You do?

Sure. Bobby, who are you just talking to?

My friend.

I felt uneasy about it, but I thought it was a kid thing.

To Dorothy, her son's behavior is understandable.

She believes her son has an overactive imagination.

Okay, sweetie. Well, why don't you tell your friend that you'll be back in just

a little bit. Grandma's on her way over. Come on.

I thought he was just a little boy fooling around, playing games.

I thought it was kind of cute.

That day, Dorothy's mother arrives to give her a hand with the children.

Honey, I'm here.

My father worked all the time, so he was never home. My mother and my grandmother

pretty much took care of us.

Frances has recently taken another part-time job to support his family,

leaving Dorothy with the extra responsibility at home.

She's happy her mother lives nearby.

My grandmother was like a second mom to us. She was there for us all the time.

Tell us a story, Grandma.

All right.

Come, children, gather round.

Can I grab you a cup of coffee, Mom? Thank you.

Oh, thank you, dear.

Did your grandfather ever tell you the story about this very house?

Well, a very long time ago, before you were even born...

your grandfather purchased this land when it came time to build the house he

hired a few contractors to come dig up the property one of the contractors

noticed something unusual what was it human bones

they decided that they were going

to not call the authorities because it would just tie up construction of the

property, the house, and they wouldn't be able to pour the foundation because

it'd be an investigation.

So they left the bones where they were, intact, and poured the foundation over

top. They figured the person was dead, so there wasn't anything that could be

done about it, so they just left it as it was and put the foundation on and

then built the house.

You gotta understand, winter was coming on.

And they had to lay the foundation before the ground froze.

Really, Grandma?

Was the skull there, too?

I'm not sure, honey.

You'll have to ask your grandfather about that.

Mom, that story's an old legend.

You're gonna give him nightmares. It's okay, Robin.

Okay, no more scary stories from Grandma.

All right, we've got one point, but now it's your turn, okay?

Over the next several months, Bobby continues to interact with his imaginary

friend. I got acclimated to hearing him talk and, you know, watching him play,

and I didn't think too much of it. And they'll just keep on spinning for a

really long time, and they just won't stop.

Hello, Baker residence.

Hello?

Hello?

Bobby?

Are you playing hide and seek?

Bobby?

Honey, what on earth are you doing down here?

Hiding. What are you hiding from?

My friend.

Bobby no longer enjoys his friend's company.

But why?

Could there be a link between this friend and the man in the yard?

He was afraid of his friend.

His friend had suddenly turned from someone that was playful, and now it

seemed like he was being scared by this.

And it frightened me.

I always had the feeling that whenever it was there, it was going to hurt me. I

just always felt that it was trying to push me towards doing bad things.

But Bobby cannot hide from the horrific things that are about to happen.

Young Bobby Baker is experiencing the first in what will be an endless series

of terrifying nightmares

When

she came down on top of me it was so tight that it would cut off my breath

and I couldn't move at all

Honey, it's okay. It's okay. It's okay, son. We're here now. You'll be fine.

Honey, it's okay.

It's okay, son. We're here now. We tried to reassure him that it was only a bad

dream, and all people have bad dreams now and then.

But was this really just a dream?

I couldn't really figure out what was going on with him.

It bothered me because he was changing.

The following morning, Dorothy calls in a doctor.

She suspects there may be a medical cause for Bobby's problems.

So your mom tells me you're having trouble sleeping.

Well, let's just check a few things here.

This is going to be just a little bit cold.

My parents were bringing me to the doctor because I didn't have any energy.

I was constantly drained all the time. I wasn't sleeping properly.

Always tired.

Good.

Well, his vital signs are just fine, and so are his reflexes.

Well, see, the thing is, is he's been having nightmares.

And to be honest, I'm just really concerned about this imaginary friend of

his. He's not my friend.

Now, Mrs. Baker, there's no need to worry.

There's nothing psychologically wrong with Dot. Instead, he was fine. He was

physically fine, mentally fine, alert, everything that she was looking for.

He simply has an overactive imagination.

That's all.

Okay. Thank you.

I was not personally relieved with her diagnosis because I never felt that she

realized the intensity of what was happening to him. Thank you so much.

Although Dorothy is still concerned, she is hopeful that this phase will soon

pass.

But several weeks later...

Bobby's behavior becomes even more disturbing.

Thank you, Robin, honey.

Make sure the tops are on real tight, okay, love?

You know, Bobby, it looks like I'm going to need a few more of these jars to

finish up this jam.

Can you please head down to the cellar and grab a few and bring them up?

Bobby, I am not going to ask you again.

For weeks, Bobby has been terrified of the cellar.

Mom?

I don't like it down there.

Dorothy's patience is wearing thin.

Bobby, this has got to stop.

You're too old for this nonsense, and there's nothing down there.

Go on.

I opened up the door to the basement and looked down the stairs.

I could sense this being near me even when I couldn't see it.

I recognized the voice right away.

I knew that it was the thing that was talking to me through the heater vent.

Bobby decides it's time to stand up to his friend.

I'm not afraid of you anymore.

The day finally came when I finally got sick and tired of this thing being in my

life. I don't want you in my life any longer.

I always felt that it could easily do the same thing to my family that it was

doing to me.

Get out.

Did you hear me? I said get!

After finally standing up to it, I felt fantastic.

Bobby, sweetheart, what happened, honey? I heard glass breaking. Are you okay?

Yes, Mom, I'm fine.

Okay, all right, all right.

You sure you're okay?

Yes, Mom, he's gone. We're fine.

This is the last time Bobby ever sees or hears from his friend in the basement.

Okay, all right.

Let's go upstairs, okay? It's exactly like being bullied.

Finally, you have your day where you stand up to the bully and the bully

backs down. I basically took the house back.

From this point forward, Bobby lives a normal childhood.

You got something?

Yeah.

All right, show me what they've been teaching out there at Little League. I

started playing Little League. I started getting involved in sports, doing better

in school.

Everything improved in my life.

It was a total turnaround.

It was a joy to see him back to himself.

The point came where I put all this behind me, and I just let it go. I

basically just blocked it all out, went on with my life, and that was it.

All right, right in the glove.

For the next 40 years, Bob never fully understands what happened to him all

those years ago.

He has gone on with his life to become a child safety specialist.

You want to screw in any furniture more than 30 inches tall with wall

restraints. I believe that all stems from my childhood. Everything I do in

life is regarding the safety of children.

Connecticut Paranormal Investigators,

this is Bob. How can I help you?

While Bob works as a child safety specialist by day,

By night, he investigates the paranormal.

As I became older, I got involved more in the paranormal and started to realize

that maybe what I experienced as a child really was true.

And when did this start?

Six years ago, Bob formed Connecticut Paranormal Investigators.

I initially got involved in paranormal investigation mainly because of what

happened to me.

I wanted to help people. I knew I could help children out that were experiencing

the same thing.

Okay, great. I'll see you then.

As an adult, Bob continues to visit his parents regularly.

His mother and father still live in the same house in which he grew up.

The same house where his nightmares began.

Lately, he's been helping Dorothy take care of his father.

Hi, Dad.

How are you doing today?

For nearly ten years...

Francis has been suffering from Parkinson's disease and dementia.

There we go.

Initially, when a person suffers from dementia, you'll notice a stare.

Let's get you downstairs.

Francis's condition has recently taken a turn for the worse.

My father was a staff sergeant in the Marines, so he was always that tough

guy. And so he started to decline, and that was tough to watch.

It was a slow decline.

Dad?

What's wrong? What is it?

Are these figures purely an illusion?

What is it? Or is the family home still really haunted?

The truth will be revealed, and it's nothing anyone would have expected.

Bob's ailing father complains about figures no one else can see.

A sight so terrifying, it shakes him to the core.

No. No.

What is it? He would tell us that the person was sitting there and told us not

to sit down. So that was quite disturbing.

Okay. Okay, Dad, it's all right. Just, we'll sit over here then. He was

absolutely terrified of what he was seeing. You could see the fright in his

face.

He's terrified of everything lately.

He won't even go near the cellar.

Bob attributes his father's visions to his advanced condition.

We discussed this with his doctor and he said this happens a lot in patients that

have dementia, where they'll start seeing things that aren't there.

Inevitably, the disease takes its toll and Francis passes away.

After nearly a half a century of marriage, Dorothy lives alone for the

first time.

At first I started hearing a discussion

going on on the radio or on the TV.

But it was at such a distance that you could barely make out that there was

some kind of voice there.

Dorothy wonders if her husband is trying to contact her from the afterlife.

I miss you, Francis.

My husband told me when he was sick that he would never leave.

I always felt like the stuff I was experiencing in the house was

attributable to my husband's spirit.

But Dorothy's mind is about to change.

I felt the strength from it, and the strength was very frightening.

I could feel the pressure in the mattress from someone actually sitting

on the foot of the bed. And every time I looked, there was no one there.

Dorothy soon realizes that the spiritual presence in her house is not her

husband. It's something else, and it feels evil.

The next morning, Dorothy calls her son Bob in tears.

She is terrified of something in the house.

and asks him to come over and investigate.

Oh, Bobby, Bobby, it's been hell around here.

Something's happening.

Bob had the ability to walk into a house and be able to tell whether there was a

presence there.

To put his mother's fears at ease, Bob agrees to investigate.

I'll come visit more, and Robin will too.

I basically did it to appease her. I was hoping that it would calm her down. She

was probably a little bit scared to be living alone.

Bobby, Bobby, you don't understand.

Something was here last night.

I felt it. It pushed me. Okay, Mom, just calm down. I'm here to help.

Bob attempts to collect evidence of the paranormal using a digital audio

recorder.

Is there anything here?

Is there anything in this room with me?

Can you make your presence known?

Initially, when I was in the house, I didn't feel anything going on. It just

felt benign. Tell me something.

Is there anyone here?

Can you make your presence known to me?

I actually heard footsteps come across the floor towards me.

I could feel it in my chest. I could feel it in my face.

I felt weak in the legs. I actually felt nauseous.

And I felt something, a presence in front of me.

And at that very moment, I reverted back to my childhood.

Sure. I felt all the terror that I felt when I was a child. Everything came

right back to me.

From his experience, Bob believes his mother is dealing with a dark entity.

I think we should have this house blessed.

Just to be on the safe side.

I didn't want to relay my fears to my mother because she would probably be

very afraid, and I didn't want to do that to her.

And I'm going to bring in my team, too.

Just, you know, as a follow-up.

I had the impression that Bob was keeping some of the stuff away from me.

I love you.

Thanks for coming, Bobby. I'll be all right. Yes.

Shortly after, Bob arrives with a team of investigators.

Here I am after, you know, all these years back in the same place where I had

problems and setting up for an investigation.

It was just strange to me. Bob has worked with his colleague Joe Myers for

many years.

He's also asked Mary Kurian to assist in the investigation.

Like Bob, her childhood was plagued by the paranormal.

I grew up in a haunted house myself.

I was just terrified as a child. I didn't understand it. Nobody would

really believe me. So that kind of gave me that basis to try to help people

because you're not going crazy.

Mary is a sensitive who possesses the ability to communicate with spirits.

I'll go in and feel, and I can most likely tell you it's negative, it's not

negative, there's nothing there, there's something there, run.

Whatever it may be, I'm kind of like the radar.

And they send me in first.

I don't want to know anything about the case.

I just don't want to be influenced by anyone's statements or anything, so I go

in blind.

We came out with everything that we had.

We set up in the house trying to figure out where this thing was and what we

needed to do to get rid of it.

Within minutes of entering the house, Mary picks up on the spiritual activity.

Bob, I'm sensing a man and a woman.

Where? Here.

I sensed a lot of spirits in the house. There was a man and woman in particular.

Bob wonders if this is the man and woman that his father identified before he

passed.

Unfortunately, I missed that opportunity to help my father out when he was seeing

these entities in the house. I wasn't there for him, and I really feel bad

about that.

Could these spirits be the bodies buried under the house?

It kind of hurt knowing that All this was right in front of my nose all the

time, and I was choosing to ignore it instead of dealing with it.

Is this your bedroom?

Yeah.

When I went into Bob's old bedroom, there was, like, this heaviness in the

air. It was hard to breathe.

Mary immediately picks up on an evil presence.

What's wrong?

The strongest feeling I got is this one dark entity was kind of keeping in

there. They were kind of being held captive.

We need to investigate the cellar.

Bob leads Mary down into the cellar, hoping to battle the dark entity once

more.

The further I went down into it, you could feel the oppression. It was

growing thicker and thicker.

It feels really heavy down here.

It feels as though something really bad happened.

Without any prior knowledge of the house's history, Mary senses a tragedy

that occurred on the property.

I feel as though the spirits are not really attached to the house, but the

land. I really feel something tragic happened on the land. They kind

of drew this negative energy kind of in.

I had a vision of a body being carried and dumped on the property there.

Why were these bodies buried under the house?

They may never know the answer.

But when the dark entity appears before her, Mary knows this

is just the beginning.

After Mary receives a sign from the dark entity, she realizes that they're

dealing with a force of pure evil.

It absolutely wants to get your attention by the physical manifestations

it's doing.

Bob, there's a negative entity in here with us. The thing that stood out the

most was the blackness of it and the hood and the feelings associated with

it. You saw it?

Where?

It was right over there. It was standing in the corner.

Bob can finally confirm what he suspected as a child.

That's what I used to see.

This is the exact description of the entity he saw in the basement many years

ago. I'd never described to Mary before what this being looked like, so to have

somebody finally, after all these years, see exactly what I saw as a child was

such a relief to me.

The team sticks it out through the night.

hoping to capture video evidence of what is haunting Dorothy.

While Dorothy sleeps, the team analyzes the photos Bob took during the

investigation.

Dining room.

Here's my room.

Anything there?

No. You sure?

Anything there?

Nah.

Wait, wait, wait. Go back. Go back.

What?

What's that?

Joe identifies an orb, which is often considered evidence of spiritual

manifestation.

Most of the time, orbs are nothing more than water vapor or dust.

So it's something you have to be very careful with.

But when he looks closer, Bob makes a disturbing discovery.

A face is revealed on one of the orbs captured in a photo.

This face was the same demon that I saw in the house as a child.

I didn't even know what to think at that point. Just knowing now that I have

proof in a picture was such a relief to me.

But certainly not a relief to his mother.

I woke up to being pushed on my bed as though someone had

both their hands on my back. I was absolutely terrified.

Bobby!

Bob is now certain that the demon haunting Dorothy is the same one that

tormented him as a child.

I realized I'm living in this house with something that could hurt me.

I didn't want to be there anymore.

I just wanted out.

I was absolutely concerned for my mother's safety. I was at the point

where I just felt something was going to happen at any second that was bad. So I

decided to move her out of the house, and she moved in with me.

Hi.

Bob and the team believe solving the demonic problem is beyond their

capability as investigators.

They decide to bring in Bishop Robert McKenna.

Bishop McKenna is a priest and a world-renowned exorcist, and knowing

that we had him on our team was a great benefit to us, and we knew we had a

fighting chance with him being there. I'd like to start the blessing here in

the living room.

When the bishop arrives, he goes right to work. He doesn't waste any time.

Bishop McKenna begins with the exorcism prayer and blesses each room in the

house.

When Bishop McKenna entered, I felt a lot more spirit activity going on in the

house. You could tell there was an agitation.

A blessed Michael, the archangel of the blessed apostles, Peter and Paul, and

all the saints, and powerful in the holy authority of our ministry, we

confidently undertake to repulse the attacks and deceits of the

devil. Bishop McKenna.

is drawn to the cellar maybe he has his own sixth sense about it he could feel

out where it was we need to go down there

suddenly mary receives a spiritual

warning no bishop wait the voice i heard was definitely a

mocking warning and i felt it was from that dark tall figure

What's behind this door?

The cellar.

We need to go down there.

We drive you from us, whoever you may be.

No,

Bishop! Wait!

After the demon attacks the bishop,

the team realizes this entity is out to kill.

The demon's capable of pushing a bishop down the stairs. It's capable of doing

anything.

The demon's here.

I can feel him.

He was the big gun. He was our ace in the hole.

And now he was just subdued.

God the Father commands you.

God the Son commands you.

God the Holy Ghost commands you.

Christ.

God's word made clear. The more noise that you hear, the more you know you're

disturbing it. And that's exactly what you want to do. You're looking to get

under its skin as much as possible because you're looking to rid it from

the house.

We were determined not to stop no matter what this thing did. It was trying to do

things to scare us, but it wasn't working. Everybody stood their ground.

Let us pray together.

But then, the demon suddenly makes Mary its next victim.

No.

We resolved to stay and finish because now if you had angered it, it was going

to be worse.

Worse for Dorothy, worse for Bob, worse for anyone that went into that house. So

it had to be taken to the very limit.

We couldn't give up.

As the bishop continues in Latin, the demon grows angry.

It refuses to leave without a fight.

I felt the strength of that dark entity.

I didn't feel it weakening.

I felt myself weakening.

And all that I could think is,

I don't think this is going to work. I really don't think this is going to

work.

As far

as I was concerned, at the end of the exorcism, we thought we had a success.

We thought for sure we had gotten rid of it.

That night, Bob thinks he can rest knowing that the demon is gone.

But is it?

The nightmare that haunted Bob as a child returns.

Once I started having the dreams again, I knew we probably weren't successful.

Over the next several months, Bob and his team worked tirelessly to fight the

demon. We decided to try a number of different types of blessings in the

home. We tried everything that you can imagine.

And nothing seemed to work.

Bishop McKenna realizes that prayer alone has failed.

And he returns for a second assault against the demon.

Using holy incense, the bishop hopes to purify the house by filling every inch

of it with smoke.

Holy incense is used with the belief that it will affect the demon. It will

force it out of wherever it is.

Persistence.

was our objective in trying to get rid of this thing. I think anything that we

could have put our hands on, we would have done at that point.

I can't thank you enough.

You're most welcome.

May God be with you.

I hope it worked.

No offense, Bob.

Your mom's got a beautiful home, but I hope to never step foot in it again.

This is one of the strongest forces that I've ever had to deal with in all my

years of doing this. We left there feeling pretty positive. It was going to

be a good thing, a good outcome.

A week later, the smoke completely clears.

Bob and Joe return to the house to hopefully close the case.

We wanted to make sure that the demon was gone.

They compare notes before they investigate.

We had been in there for quite some time talking and discussing things, and we

actually heard footsteps in the living room, the floor cracking again.

What's that?

What's that? For Bob and Joe, it becomes quickly obvious that their investigation

is not ready to be closed.

The spiritual attack robs both men of their ability to breathe and delivers

heart attack-like chest pains.

It felt like an elephant sitting on your chest. You couldn't not breathe at all.

We ran for our lives. It was that bad.

For Bob, the near-death experience is enough to call it quits.

You all right?

We can't do this anymore.

That thing is stronger than us.

I think you're right.

I'm a fighter. I want to keep going back at it and keep doing what I do.

But I finally realized it's just too strong. This thing is so strong that it

could probably actually kill us.

Bob knows that he can no longer fight this demon.

He vows to never return to the house again.

I'm very proud of him because he took on a big fight, a big battle.

Here you go, sweetie.

He kept fighting and fighting and fighting, and I think within himself, he

continues to fight.

I'm sorry I let you down, Mom.

I know you did your best, Bob.

But sometimes you just, you just have to walk away.

I know.

The hardest part of this experience for me was having to walk away from my

mother's house knowing that I hadn't helped her and knowing that I had to

give in. And I feel defeated by that.

Neither Bob nor Dorothy has ever set foot in the house again.

No one has.

When you investigate your own home, it's very difficult to remain objective.

You can't have an open mind because you're so close to the action.

You're actually being affected by what's going on, so you can't make proper

determination as far as what should be done and what's the right thing to do.

I should have stepped back, let somebody totally handle it, because you become

emotionally attached to everything, and it's hard to make the right decisions

when you're doing that.

You're going to make mistakes.

Today, the house remains empty, still in the same condition as it was left.

To me, it's heartbreaking because my grandfather owned this land.

He allowed my parents to build a home on it.

We grew up on this property.

My mother still wants to live there somehow, but I know there's no going

back.

What I would say to a skeptic is go into that house.

You never know what could present itself.

But more so I would say to the skeptic, look at this woman.

She's leaving her whole life behind.

All her memories, her marriage, her children, their childhood. This house

was built for them.

And leave its contents there.

Something had to terrify her enough to get her to leave.

Unfounded fear?

I don't think so.

Walk in her shoes.