Renai and Josh Lambert (
Rose Byrne and
Patrick Wilson) have recently moved into a new house with their three children. One morning, Renai looks through a family photo album with her son, Dalton (
Ty Simpkins), who asks why there are no pictures of Josh when he was a child. Renai reasons that he has always been camera shy. One day, Dalton hears something in the attic and goes to investigate. He sees something that scares him and falls when the attic ladder breaks. The next day, Dalton does not awaken from sleep. Renai and Josh rush him to the hospital, where the doctors say he is in an inexplicable
coma.
Three months later, Dalton is moved back to his home while still in a coma. Shortly after, disturbing events begin to occur. Renai believes the house is haunted when she begins to see and hear other people in the house. She confronts Josh about the events and the family soon moves to another house. In the new house, increasingly violent and supernatural events reoccur. Josh's mother, Lorraine (
Barbara Hershey), contacts a friend, Elise Reiner (
Lin Shaye), who specializes in the investigation of
paranormal activity. The family, Elise, and her team enter Dalton's room and Elise sees and describes a figure to one of her two assistants, who draws a black figure with a red face and dark hollow eyes on the ceiling of Dalton's room.
Elise explains to Renai and Josh that Dalton has the ability to
astral project while sleeping and that he has been doing it since he was very young. The reason that Dalton is in a comatose state is because he has fearlessly travelled too far into different spiritual worlds (he believes the projections are dreams) and has consequently become lost in a land called "The Further"—the land is a place for the tormented souls of the dead. While Dalton's spirit is in this other world, he has left nothing but a lifeless body. The tormented souls crave another chance at life through Dalton's state, while the demon has a malicious intent. However, for a spirit to consume a body, a period of time and energy are required.
Skeptical at first, Josh later relents when he discovers Dalton had been drawing pictures which resemble the demonic figure Elise described. They run a session to try to communicate with Dalton where the demon uses Dalton's body to fight the group, along with 3 other spirits who want Dalton's body. After the session, Elise calls Lorraine and the two reveal to the couple that Josh also can astral project, and was terrorized by an evil spirit during his childhood. Lorraine shows them pictures from Josh's childhood, revealing a shadowy old woman (the same woman from the beginning of the film) nearer and nearer to Josh in each picture, which explains his fear of photos. Elise suggests that Josh should use his ability to find and help return Dalton's soul, to which Josh agrees.
Josh projects himself into The Further, finds and frees his son, who had been captured by the red-faced demon. In search of their physical bodies, Josh and Dalton flee the demon that is pursuing them. Just before the two awaken, Josh abandons his son to confront the shadowy old woman who appears to be inside his house. As he shouts for her to get away from him, she retreats into the darkness. Moments later, Josh and Dalton both awaken, just as all the spirits vanish.
With the family now happily reunited, Renai, Dalton and Lorraine chat in the kitchen as Elise and Josh pack up from the long night. Josh hands Elise the pictures from his childhood, and as she takes them from his hands, she senses something and takes a picture of Josh. He promptly goes into a rage, claiming she knows that he doesn't like to get photographed. Renai hears Josh yelling and goes into the room to find Elise dead and Josh gone. She searches for Josh and comes across Elise's camera. When she looks at the camera, she sees a picture of an old woman. It's revealed that what Elise saw was Josh's old and dirty hand and nails, similar to the old woman's, implying that she has possessed him. Josh then puts his hand on Renai's shoulder, and she is horrified to see what is behind her.
After the post-credits, the shadowy, old woman can be seen blowing out a candle.
Cast
