Genre: Horror/Supernatural
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Writer: Jack Slipter
Cast: Tom Hiddleston, Emma Watson, Rose Byrne, Lean Headey, Sean Bean, Julia Butters, Peyton Roi List, Dylan Sprayberry, Carolina Crescentini, Mckenna Grace, Simon Baker, Linda Cardellini, Freya Allan
Plot: Montebello Castle, Emilia Romagna, Italy.
A young girl, Gloria (Freya Allan) is a servant who is doing housework in a castle. Her face looks thoughtful and unsure. She at one point she feels something strange and sees a strange entity near the stairs. The girl backs away until she touches the wall. She then she puts a hand in front of her mouth with a terrified face.
Two young American students on vacation in Italy, Benjamin (Dylan Sprayberry) and Dina (Peyton Roi List) arrive by chance one afternoon at the castle of Montebello and decide to take part in the guided tour inside the place, intrigued. During the visit, the guide tells the group of tourists that a legend is alive in that castle. This legend tells of the disappearance of a little girl, nicknamed "Azzurrina" due to a disease. Legend has it that the little girl fell down the stairs that led to the castle icebox while playing ball. Her body has never been found again and in conjunction with the summer solstice every five years, she Azzurrina returned to be seen and heard with that scream that was the last sign of her life. Benjamin and Dina look at each other and realize they are amazed and excited to see that the period is just the right one. The two smile and then agree to stay there after closing time. At closing they manage to hide without anyone noticing their presence. The two start walking around the castle, browsing the corridors and rooms and scaring each other. At one point Benjamin, frightened by Dina, falls on the wall, discovering by chance a kind of secret room. The room is quite large and dusty and almost freezing compared to the rest of the castle. Dina finds some kind of old manuscript. The object appears to be very old and the two students begin to gently leaf through the pages and read it with interest. The manuscript appears to have been written by a priest in the 17th century and refers to events that occurred over two hundred years earlier.
Year 1446.
The renowned doctor, known throughout Italy, Dr. Enrico Bonaccorti (Tom Hiddleston) arrived in the small village of Montebello and after settling in a local inn, he meets the inspector Pietro Valli (Sean Bean). The inn is managed by Paola Bianchi (Carolina Crescentini) and is helped by her daughter, the young Giulia (Mckenna Grace). The local agent is investigating the death of a girl employed as a servant in the castle which is located on the hill above the city. The inspector summoned, in agreement with the girl's mother, Dr. Bonaccorti to the village to perform an autopsy on the girl, to the dismay of the locals, who in fact looks at the doctor with suspicion. Enrico asks Pietro to meet the dead girl's mother. The two go there and the woman named Francesca (Linda Cardellini) starts making them some hot tea. The woman, looking scruffy and depressed, says that according to her daughter Gloria, many strange things happened in the castle. At some point, as long as they are talking, the woman begins to experience an illness and then begins to lose foam from her mouth and falls to the dead ground in a few moments. The two immediately rush to help her and find that in the woman's closed hand there was a small bottle of poison. After a few moments of fear that the woman could have poisoned the two of them too, they realize they are fine and go to the autopsy site. Enrico meets the kind Monica (Emma Watson) who will assist him during the autopsy. Monica is a nurse who has just returned to the village for the first time since she was a child. At this point Dr. Bonaccorti performs the autopsy while Pietro Valli leaves the room because he does not like much blood making Monica and Enrico chuckle. After a while, the two make an incredible discovery: a gold coin set in the heart of the dead girl. Monica reveals that this is consistent with a local superstion. Only with money in the heart, can one who meets a violent death ever rest in peace, says Monica. Then they discover this identical thing in another couple of people who died in a mysterious way. Following the autopsy, Enrico assists Monica back to her home. He is then attacked by a small mob of several villagers who swear vengeance on him for profaning the dead body. Only the sudden appearance of a mysterious woman, clad in black, saves the doctor from being beaten to death. But before he can thank her, she disappears into the fog. Back at the inn, Dr. Bonaccorti receives a note instructing him to join Inspector Valli at castle. When the doctor asks Giulia, the innkeepers little girl, to direct him to the villa, she tells him to stay away from it. But Dr. Bonaccorti leaves for the villa anyway, and when Giulia goes to lock the front door behind him, she is terrified by the sight of a ghostly little girl, peering in at her through the window. Nadine tells her mother what she saw, and they send out for Carlotta Giacomini (Rose Byrne), a species of local sorceress who has the ability to ward off evil spirits. When she arrives, Carlotta is the same black-clad woman who had earlier rescued Dr. Bonaccorti from the villagers. Carlotta says several prayers over the girl before giving her a leech-vine to wear around her waist. Carlotta says that as long as she wears this, Giulia will be safe. At the villa, Dr. Bonaccorti is confronted by Baroness Vivaldi (Lena Headey). Shut away from the outside world in a morbid environment dominated by black lace curtains and remnant of the past, the Baroness appears haunted by supernatural apparitions. She curtly tells to doctor that she never receives guests, denies any knowledge of Inspector Valli whereabouts, and eventually slam the parlor door in his face. The doctor then sees a ghostly, white-clad girl, who identifies herself as Melissa (Julia Butters). He attempts to talk to her, refusing to believe the superstitions of the villagers, but she walks around a corner and disappears. Without the inspector to assist him, Enrico makes his way back to the inn. Meanwhile, Monica is plague by a nightmare in which she is menaced by a chillingly innocent-looking doll. When she wakes up, she finds the exact same doll laying at her feet. She flees from her house and runs into the doctor on the street. Together they return to the inn. Monica confesses her fears to Enrico that she may be cursed. Il dottore assures her that these strange occurrences are the products of fear and superstition, not of the supernatural. While Monica is shown to a room by the innkeeper, il dottore is distracted by moans coming from Giulia's room. He goes in and sees the young girl withering about in bed, apparently suffering from a fever. Pulling back the sheets, he finds the leech-vine. Though her mother Paola assures him that it is only for her own good, the doctor takes it off her. His care for the girl does no good, for later that night the ghost of Melissa reappears, compelling the girl to commit suicide jumping from the stairs. Enrico and Monica continue to delve into the mysterious of the death and of the ghostly little girl. A strange light appears in the nearby cemetery, and an investigation results in the discovery of Inspector Valli, who has been shot through the head at close range. Il dr.Bonaccorti brings this latest crime to the attention of the Carlo the Burgomaster (Simon Baker), who reluctantly agrees to shed some light on the situation. The Burgomaster tells them that several years ago, Baroness Vivaldi placed a curse on the whole town when her young daughter, Melissa, was trampled to death by the drunken townspeople during a village festival. Now the ghost of Melissa haunts the guilt-ridden people, and all who make mention of the Baroness or her child soon bleed to death under mysterious circumstances. The Burgomaster also reveals that to Monica that she is actually the dead girl's sister. He offers to go back to his residence to offer them proof. But when the Burgomaster goes back to his house and searches his attic for Monica's birth certificate, he too is driven to suicide when Melissa appears in the attic.
The doctor and Monica go to the villa where Monica is warmly greeted by the Baroness with open arms. She confirms the Burgomisters story and explains how Monica was smuggled out the villa by the servants when she was just a child soon after Melissa's death. When Monica suddenly disappears, Enrico searches for her in various rooms. Enrico follows her screams before catching sight of another man running through a series of rooms lined with red curtains. Enrico chases this person though apparently the same red curtained room over and over, getting closer to his target at every pass. Eventually, Enrico catches the man and when he turns around, the doctor is shocked to see his mirror image. A second later the doppelganger figure is gone, a hallucination conjured up by the supernatural forces of the villa. The doctor, frightened and disoriented, backs into a cobweb covered fresco on the wall which depicts the outside of the villa. As the image pulls back, he appears to be a fly caught in a web. He is no longer indoors, and the fresco is now the actually outside of the villa, some distance in the background. Dr.Bonaccorti shakes loose of the web, and faints. When he wakes up a little later, he is in Carlotta's care. To the people of the village, Carlotta, with he magic spells an d charms, is the only doctor of any use. Further compounding the irony is that this is the second time she has rescued the doctor. At this point, convention logic is useless to the doctor. The norms of the advanced society where he comes from, and comes to represent to the backwards villagers, are totally dissolved. With the deaths of the Burgomaster and the police inspector, social order is diminished in the village. The only authority figure to carry any weight are the Baroness, her ghostly avenger, and the sorceress whose spells prove to have more power than any medicine the doctor has. Il Dr.Bonaccorti,finally, forgets his preconceived notions and is willing to accept the presence of the supernatural.
The doctor returns to the villa to find Monica, but Carlotta also tags along and comes face to face with the Baroness at last. Carlotta attacks the Baroness, but who gets the upper hand and stabs Carlotta in the chest with a fireplace poker. Ignoring the seriousness of her wounds, Carlotta strangles the Baroness to death with her bare hands before she expires too. With the Baroness death, a force flows out and the ghost of Melissa, on the verge of having Dr.Bonaccorti commit suicide himself, disappears having been put to rest at last. Il Dr.Bonaccorti and Monica realize that they are now free to leave the village to start their lives over elsewhere.
Dina closes the manuscript and witnesses the excitement of Benjamin who says that the object could be sold and take a lot of money from it. However, the girl says no with her head. Then the two begin to discuss whether the story is true or not, they say there are so many strange things inside it. Meanwhile, behind them, the camera shows that the opening from which they had entered is closing more and more slowly. Suddenly a whisper followed by a girlish voice that greets the two visitors, makes Dina and Benjamin wince. Benjamin backs away as the girl tries to establish a dialogue with this mysterious presence. Then his attention is drawn to the discovery that the passage from which they had entered has practically disappeared and they are trapped there. The two begin to panic until they start to hear giggles and steps inside the room. Suddenly they hear the sound of a ball bouncing until they see it rolling towards them. The two start looking for a way out of there without success. Suddenly the little voice apologizes to them for having frightened them and that she just wanted to play a bit and then asks for help crying saying that she wants to be helped to leave the castle and rest in paradise. Dina accepts asking what they have to do. At that point a bluish reflective light begins to show up in front of them until it takes on a human shape that reflects a blue light becoming a girl who smiles sweetly. "I'm Melissa ... or Azzurrina if you prefer," says the girl. After a few moments when the two were amazed, Dina began to ask if the story they had read in the manuscript was real. Melissa shakes her head saying that some things had really happened and others hadn't. Meanwhile, Benjamin starts taking pictures of the girl on his cell phone. The girl began to laugh as the ghosts are not seen in photography calling him a Silly Billy. Benjamin chuckles at that expression. Then Dina, after scolding her friend, asks the girl, what they had to do to help her. At that point another narrow opening opens into the wall and Melissa tells them to follow it. The two enter the dark following the ghost that walks in front of them. Then Melissa stops and turns still whining, asking the two if she could give them their hand and walk with them like a happy little family. Benjamin and Dina look at each other and approach Melissa holding out their hands. They were appalled to be able to shake hands with a ghost. At this point they began to walk in the dark corridor illuminated by Benjamin's cell phone. Dina asks the ghost where they are going, who says they are going to the place where she died. The three arrived near a deep hole. The girl sadly says that she died there, fell into the hole while chasing her ball. Benjamin can be seen from the hole, illuminating it with his cell phone without being able to see the bottom. Melissa is behind him trying to look too. Then Dina asks her what should be done now. Melissa, who is always close to Benjamin, says they have to pray and then joins her hands in prayer as she begins to whisper something. Benjamin begins to follow her in prayers and Dina does the same although with a more doubtful face. In her mind, in fact, something was wrong. Shortly thereafter, Dina begins to notice that the expression on Melissa's face is changing. A moment later he begins to laugh frantically, turning to Benjamin again calling him a Silly Billy again. Then she pushes him into the deep hole. Dina screams desperately asking why. Melissa slowly approaches her asking the girl if she remembered when he had told her that some things written in the manuscript were true and others not. Melissa says it was true that she was dead and indicates her body with a nice smile and then adds that it was true that the various people had been killed by her. Then she adds, that now after many centuries she has become weaker and rarely manages to have her physical shape but that she is having a lot of fun that night. Dina starts to run and runs away making herself light with her cell phone. In her eyes all the roads are the same and around her she hears giggles in all directions. At some point an invisible force triggers Dina, who falls ruinously forward on the ground, also banging her face violently. Then she hears the girlish voice say "Now come with me" next to her. At that point while Dina is on the ground, she raises her head showing tears in her eyes and her nose and mouth bloody from the fall. A moment later she is dragged away into the dark as she screams and tries to cling to the floor with her nails.
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