From Within is a horror film directed by
Phedon Papamichael Jr. and written by
Brad Keene. Filming took place in Maryland in fall 2007. The film premiered at the
Tribeca Film Festival in April–May 2008.
Premise
When a series of suicides start happening in Grovetown, the townspeople turn a blind eye and cling to their beliefs. Lindsay (
Elizabeth Rice) is a student who instead investigates the mystery of the suicides and befriends Aidan (
Thomas Dekker), a non-believer. Lindsay discovers that something evil is behind the suicides and that she is next to die.
Plot
The film begins with a teenage girl, Natalie (
Rumer Willis)
sitting with her boyfriend Sean as he reads from a black book. He
finishes reading, and kisses Natalie passionately. Natalie believes he
wants to have sex with her – until he pulls out a gun and commits
suicide.
In the main town high school girl, Lindsay, is shopping with her
mother, Trish, for new church clothes. As they argue, Natalie bursts
into the shop covered in blood and mumbling about a girl following her.
Lindsay watches over her and notices the black book she holds. When
Lindsay goes to fetch Natalie's father, the door to the back room slams
shut on Natalie. Natalie's father knocks down the door, only to find
Natalie dying, with a pair of scissors lodged into her neck.
That night Natalie's father is haunted by a ghostly figure and is
found the following day, hanged in the same room Natalie died in, by his
niece Molly.
On Monday at school Lindsay's boyfriend, Dylan, who is the son of the
local pastor, is found publicly attacking Aidan Spindle, a newly
returned local misfit. Dylan blames Aidan's family for the recent
deaths. Following the fight, Lindsay helps Aidan with his minor wounds
and drives him home. It turns out that Aidan's brother is Sean, the
young man who killed himself at the start of the film but whose death
has been overshadowed by Natalie's.
The same night Molly starts seeing a ghost that looks exactly like
herself which slits Molly's wrists. The following day, Lindsay's best
friend Claire drives past Molly's body, and immediately begins to hear
voices. Later the same day, a duplicate of Claire is seen in the toilets
while Claire is using the facilities.
Simultaneously, Lindsay becomes aware of the religious fervor Dylan
is stirring up against Aidan among the townsfolk and goes to warn him of
the danger. On entering his house, she meets his cousin, Sadie who had
traveled down from New York for Aidan's brother Sean's funeral.
Meanwhile, Claire encounters and unsuccessfully tries to evade her
doppelganger. It finally catches up with her as she is driving and her
car explodes in front of Lindsay's mother Trish.
Aidan takes Lindsay to a stream running underneath a bridge, and
confirms that his mother practiced a form of witchcraft, which may be
the cause of the suicides. He tells her to leave Grovetown.
Lindsay arrives home that night and is abducted by Dylan and Roy,
Trish's lover, with Trish's consent. She is taken to the local church to
be "purified". Returning home that night, Trish is jubilant about
"being saved" but is later haunted by doppelgangers of herself on the
television. After being stalked throughout the house, Trish's
doppelganger compels her to drink drain cleaner, believing it to be
whiskey.
Lindsay finds Trish's body and she rushes to Aidan's house, frantic
in her belief that a curse has gotten inside of her and will demand her
death. Aidan admits that victims of the curse see themselves, but swears
that all victims commit suicide because they are compelled to, not
because something takes over them. Aidan supplies Lindsay with an oil on
her skin that will slow the progress of the curse. Aidan realizes that
the black book is the key to lock up what Sean had unlocked.
Lindsay suggests the church as the new location of the book and
Lindsay and Aidan break in. Dylan, Roy, Pastor Joe and Paul, another
member of Joe's congregation, realize that Aidan retrieved the book.
Back at Aidan's house Sadie pulls a gun on Aidan and Lindsay; she wants
the book and explains that Sean deliberately killed himself in order for
the curse to start.
They manage to rescue the book just as Sadie attempts to burn it.
Paul, Roy and Dylan burst into the home. Aidan and Lindsay escape to the
woods, Dylan and Paul following as Roy guards Sadie. While running,
Aidan and Lindsay split, intending to meet up at the pier.
Back at the home Roy tells Sadie how he became a religious man and
then sets her alight with gasoline, claiming that he is doing God's
will. In the woods, Lindsay makes it to the pier, but her doppelganger
ghost is hot on her tail. She stops at the edge of the platform and
starts reciting a prayer, when she falls into the water.
Meanwhile Dylan continues to hunt Aidan but he is surprised from
behind by Aidan. Aidan puts Sadie's gun to Dylan's head when Lindsay's
screams for help draw him away. Lindsay panics in the water as her
doppelganger emerges from the water behind her. Lindsay quickly climbs
out of the water alive, then blood drips onto her back, the ghost's eye
is bleeding as Lindsay sits up. The ghost grabs the rope and hands it to
Lindsay, who starts to wrap it around her own neck, and almost
strangling herself.
Aidan rushes to her and stops her, they continue with dispelling the
curse. He merges his own blood with Sean's on the book, when he says to
Lindsay that a sacrifice started the curse so a sacrifice must end it.
Aidan passionately kisses her and tells her to burn the book, before
seemingly shooting himself.
Dylan and Paul then show up, Dylan believing Lindsay to be a devil
worshiper he pulls his gun on her. Lindsay stands, Sadie's gun in her
hands as she begs Dylan to walk away. He raises his rifle at her and she
shoots him. Paul quickly runs off. Not long after the cops arrive, but
they find that Aidan's sacrifice doesn't count; Dylan had actually shot
him in the chest as Aidan was pointing the gun at his own head.
In the woods, Lindsay tries to burn the book, but to no avail as the
curse is still around, the ghost creates a gust of wind blowing the fire
out before claiming Lindsay.
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