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For the sake of your sanity, pray it isn't true!
Physicist Lionel Barrett is enlisted by an eccentric millionaire, Mr Deutsch,
to make an investigation into "survival after death" in "the one place where it
has yet to be refuted". This is the Belasco House: the "Mount Everest of haunted houses," originally
owned by the notorious "Roaring Giant" Emeric Belasco, a six-foot-five perverted
millionaire and supposed murderer, who disappeared soon after a massacre at his
home. The house is believed to be haunted by numerous spirits; the victims of
Belasco's strange desires.
Accompanying Barrett are his wife, Ann, as well as two mediums: a mental medium and Spiritualist minister,
Florence Tanner, and a physical medium, Ben Fischer, who is also the sole
survivor of an earlier investigation. The rationalist Barrett is rudely
skeptical of Tanner's Christian faith and spiritual beliefs, asserting that
there is nothing but unfocused electromagnetic energy in the house. Barrett
brings a machine he has developed, which he believes will rid the house of any
paranormal presence or force. Though not a physical medium, Tanner begins to manifest physical phenomena
inside the house. When, after a quarrel with Tanner, Barrett is attacked by an
invisible force, he suspects that Tanner may be using the house's energy against
him. Meanwhile Fischer remains aloof, with his mind closed to the house's
influence, and is only there to collect the generous pay offered him to
return.
Ann Barrett is subjected to erotic visions late at night, which seem linked
to her lackluster sex life. She goes downstairs and, in a seeming trance,
disrobes and demands sex from Fischer. He instead strikes her, snapping her out
of the trance, and she returns to herself, horrified and ashamed. Her husband
arrives a moment later, and is resentful.
Tanner, convinced that one of the "surviving personalities" is Belasco's
tormented son Daniel, finds a human skeleton, chained behind a wall. Believing
it to be Daniel's, Tanner and Fischer bury the bones outside the house, and
Tanner performs a funeral. Despite this, Daniel's personality continues to haunt
Tanner; she is scratched violently by a possessed cat and Barrett, seeing the
scratches, suspects that Tanner may be mutilating herself. In an attempt to put
the supposed Daniel to rest, Tanner gives herself to the entity sexually, and
later appears to be possessed herself, temporarily.
Barrett's machine is assembled. Tanner attempts to destroy it, thinking that
it will harm the spirits in the house, but is prevented. She enters the chapel, the unholy heart of the house, in
an attempt to warn the spirits, and is crushed by a falling crucifix. (During her dying moments, she leaves a clue
written in her own blood, to the true source of the haunting, which she now
knows.) Barrett meanwhile activates his machine, which seems to be effective.
Finally activating his psychic abilities as he wanders in the house, Fischer
declares the place "completely clear!" in astonishment. However, soon
afterwards, violent psychic activity resumes and Barrett is killed.
Fischer decides finally to confront the house, with Ann accompanying him
despite her misgivings. In the chapel, a confrontation ensues: Fischer deduces
that Belasco is the sole entity haunting the house, masquerading as many. He
taunts Belasco, declaring him a "son of a whore", and that he was no "roaring
giant", but likely a "funny little dried-up bastard" who fooled everyone about
his alleged height. Even as objects begin to hurl themselves at Fischer, he
continues to defy the entity, until all becomes still, and a portion of the
chapel wall shatters, revealing a hidden door.
Going inside, Fischer and Ann discover a lead-lined room, containing
Belasco's preserved body seated in a chair. Pulling out a pocketknife, Fischer
rips open Belasco's trouser leg, discovering his final secret: a pair of
prosthetic legs. Fischer and Ann realize Belasco had had his own stunted legs
amputated, and used the prosthetics in a grotesque attempt to appear imposing.
Belasco had built the room specially, in the event of his death, to preserve his
spirit, afraid of what may happen otherwise.
With the room now open, Fischer activates Barrett's machine a second time,
and he and Ann leave the house, expressing hopes that Barrett and Tanner will
guide Belasco to the afterlife
without fear.
 Copyright(C) 2007
- 2020. All rights reserved.
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