Home Before Dark
Genre: Thriller/Mystery
Director: Issa Lopez
Writers: Rene Menzie & Harmony Winters
Based on the novel by Riley Sager
Cast: Margot Robbie, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Samara Weaving, Alyvia Alyn Lind, Jonathan Bailey, Sally Field, Suki Waterhouse, Franka Potente, Edward James Olmos, Zach Woods, Kate Mulgrew, Halston Owen, Skylar Betteridge
Plot: After the Holt family, Ewan (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) and Jess (Samara Weaving), has recently moved into Baneberry Hall in Bartleby, their daughter, 5-year-old Maggie (Skylar Betteridge) thinks there are ghosts and says that "Mister Shadow" means they're all going to die.
Years Later, 30-year-old Maggie (Margot Robbie) has a scar on her left cheek, made famous by her father's book, a worldwide bestseller. Maggie meets with the lawyer handling her late father's estate. Ewan has recently passed and has left her around $400,000. At the lawyer's office, she learns that her father never sold Baneberry Hall, and now it's hers.
May 20, The Tour
The realtor is giving the Holts a tour of the house, named after the poisonous Baneberries that once covered the land. It was built by William Garson in 1875. The Garsons lived there until the Great Depression, when it was sold to a Hollywood producer. Later, it became a bed and breakfast for many owners. Ewan and Jess are considering buying it.
There are two cottages next to the main house for the housekeeper and caretaker. The property's walled off by a ten-foot wall on all sides, blocking the woods around it, with a gate at the front. The house is eccentric, but Ewan loves it. There are paintings of the Garsons painted directly onto the walls. Janie admits that the house's price is low before leaving because of the previous owners' deaths, the Carvers. Curtis Carver murdered his daughter Katie then killed himself. The Holts agree to buy the house.
(Present Day)
Maggie and her business partner Allie flip houses, and they are mid-remodel at the moment. Maggie meets up with her mother, who is now remarried to a man named Carl. Her mother and Carl are about to leave on a month-long vacation to Capri. Maggie tells her about inheriting the house. Her mother confirms the book was a lie Ewan made up, even if Maggie did start having night terrors (visions of dark figures watching her sleep) when they moved in. Her mother also offers to buy the house, saying there's no reason for Maggie to visit it. Before he died, Ewan also made Maggie promise never to return there. Maggie finds it odd they both don't want her to go back.
June 25, The Closing
After they buy the house, Ewan promises Jess not to look into the Carver's deaths. The Holts meet Walt Hibbets, caretaker, and Elsa Ditmer (Franka Potente), the housekeeper. Walt hints that there's more to the house's history than told.
(Present Day)
Against her parents' wishes, Maggie goes to Baneberry Hall. She thinks she can renovate and sell it. Looking around, Maggie notices the paintings are gone. She meets Dane Hibbets (Jonathan Bailey), Walt's grandson. Dane offers his general contracting and home repair services to help with the house renovation, and Maggie accepts.
June 26, Day 1
Ewan meets Elsa, who lives with her two daughters, Petra (Alyvia Alyn Lind) and Hannah (Halston Owen). Despite his promise to Jess, Ewan asks about the Carvers. Elsa tells him that Curtis had claimed Katie was sick and didn't let her leave her room.
(Present Day)
The Police Chief Alcott (Edward James Olmos), shows up with Hannah (Suki Waterhouse), looking for Elsa. Hannah explains that Petra ran away 25 years ago and hasn't been seen since. After they leave, Maggie notices that a letter opener engraved with William Garson's initials is missing.
June 27, Day 2
Ewan thinks he hears noises through the night. During the day, Maggie meets Petra and Hannah, who go off to play. There's a line of bells connected to the rooms from the house's bed and breakfast days. As they play, the bell for Maggie's place starts ringing urgently. Maggie claims she saw someone disappear into her armoire. Later that night, Ewan finds the armoire doors inexplicably open.
(Present Day)
In the house, Maggie reclaims her old room. She finds the doors to the old armoire boarded up, so she removes the boards. Maggie recalls what her parents had said in interviews about them fleeing without their possessions.
June 28, Day 3
In the study where Curtis hanged himself, Ewan finds a box with a camera and a series of photographs. The photos are each of Curtis, dated daily from July 3 – 11. In the pictures, Curtis looks thinner and more haggard each day. Later, Ewan takes some photos of Maggie, but there's a dark figure in the background. Finally, Maggie slips and scratches her face, and Ewan sees that the object she injured herself on is William Garson's gravestone.
(Present Day)
Maggie sees someone outside but was warned that tourists came by the house sometimes. The next day, she and Dane explore. In the study, Maggie finds the box with the photos. There are photos of her, too, and various people and scenes she can recall from her father's book, including the images taken the day she got her scar. Maggie’s confused since it seems from the pictures that she didn't get her scar on day 3. Maggie then checks the gravestone she hit her head on, and she sees it's actually for a dog, Rover. She admits to Dane she's here partially to find out what really happened.
June 29, Day 4
In the woods, Ewan locates more graves from the Garson family, including Indigo Garson, William's beautiful daughter. The rumor was that she and a man who painted her portrait had fallen in love, but William kept them apart. Desolate, she killed herself by eating baneberries. That night, Ewan finds the record player in the study inexplicably on and playing When You're Sixteen Going on Seventeen from The Sound of Music.
(Present Day)
In town, Maggie runs into Martha Carver (Sally Field), who’s working in the local bakery. Maggie feels awkward, knowing her father exploited the Carver family's tragedy. When she returns, she finds Brian Prince (Zach Woods) at the house. Brian’s the reporter who wrote an article about the Holts 25 years ago, resulting in her father's book deal. Brian wants to interview her, but Maggie blames him for helping to spread her father's lies.
Brian brings up that Petra hasn't been seen since the night they fled Baneberry Hall. Ewan had brought up the young and beautiful Petra quite a few times in his book. Annoyed, Maggie kicks Brian off the property. She goes inside to find the chandelier inexplicably on.
June 30, Day 5
At 4:45 AM, Ewan hears a thud. The next day, he finds Maggie talking to an imaginary friend who sleeps in her armoire. Concerned, Ewan and Jess decide to invite Hannah and Petra over for a sleepover.
(Present Day)
As Maggie wonders about her father's relationship with Petra, Maggie hears the Sound of Music playing. She goes upstairs to see that a teddy bear she and Dane had found is missing.
July 1, Day 6
Maggie says the ghosts have told her they're all going to die. There’s are three of them. Suddenly, they hear a series of taps, and the music comes on again. Ewan calls the police about an intruder. However, since nothing’s taken, there's not much to do. Ewan sets up some stuff like thread, chalk, and cards at the house entrances to see where the intruder’s coming in.
(Present Day)
In the present day, Maggie suspects an intruder, so she tears out pages from her father's book and puts one in the front door and every window to track where an intruder could be coming in.
July 2, Day 7
At 4:45, Ewan hears yet another thud. He goes to check things out and finds a baby snake in his coffee, followed by a hole in the ceiling that breaks open with more snakes. Jess and Maggie come down to check the commotion and they all flee in horror.
(Present Day)
The next day, Maggie tells Dane about the strange occurrences like the missing teddy bear. As Dane looks around, he notices the weakness in the ceiling. As he pushes on the weak plaster, it breaks. Maggie’s expecting snakes, but instead, a burlap sack falls down. Inside’s a human skeleton. Dane and Maggie are questioned by the police about the skeleton. Chief Alcott tells Maggie to find somewhere else to stay for the night. Hannah shows up, asking to look at the remains. When she sees a golden crucifix, the one Petra used to wear, she's sure it's her sister.
July 4, Day 9
Hibbs comes over, and they determine that there's an empty space between the kitchen ceiling and the room above the Indigo Room, the room with the painting of Indigo Garson, which is where the snakes had been. They also find a tin hidden there, with love letters written to Indigo. Petra asks to look at them. That night, Ewan hears the taps, and the music plays yet again, despite having up the record player in the closet.
(Present Day)
Maggie goes to stay at Two Pines. Allie calls to check up, but Maggie just texts her back. Instead, Maggie calls her mom, leaving a message about wanting to talk. Dane comes by to check on her. Maggie says she's not sure she wants to do the renovation any more, though Maggie still has more questions she wants to answer. Dane offers to stay (with some innuendo), but Maggie declines.
July 5, Day 10
Ewan wakes to the same thud in the morning and is in a bad mood. Ewan ends up fighting Jess, who mentions how she doesn't like how he looks at Petra. Petra then shows up with Indigo's letters. They're love letters written by someone named Callum Auguste to Indigo. They had a plan to elope, and Callum warned her that William would do anything to stop it. Petra suspects that William killed his daughter.
(Present Day)
The next morning, news crews line the street, asking whether her father killed Petra Ditmer. Chief Alcott talks to Maggie and mentions that Dane is an ex-con, which Maggie didn't know. He spent a year in prison for aggravated assault.
Back in the house, Maggie searches for clues about what happened to Petra. She finds a series of notes, one for each year, written by Hannah, demanding to know what happened to Petra and where she is.
July 6, Day 11
Ewan visits the Bartleby Library (funded initially by William Garson) to research and finds Petra there. He finds news articles detailing Baneberry's gory history, starting with Indigo's death to a bathtub drowning to the mysterious deaths of two bed and breakfast guests, etc. There's also a car accident involving the Garson family. They also find out that a maid had claimed to see Mr. Garson put baneberries into a bowl the night of Indigo's death, but he was never charged. As he goes to photocopy an article about the Carvers, Ewan runs into Martha Carver.
(Present Day)
Maggie finds Hannah, who confirms the notes were from her. Hannah tells her that Petra started sneaking out around the time the Holts moved in. Despite being 16, she would bring her teddy bear, Buster, with her. Hannah thinks Petra had a secret boyfriend. Hannah also says that she saw Ewan at the house two weeks after the Holts had left. Maggie wonders if Petra's "secret boyfriend" actually had to do with her father's illicit relationship.
Finally, Hannah says that what Ewan wrote about their sleepover was all true.
July 7, Day 12
The day starts again with a thud. On the day of the sleepover, Maggie warns that the ghosts don't want the extra guests. That night, as they are sleeping, Hannah feels something or someone pull her hair, followed by things flying out of the wardrobe. When Ewan hears a sound under Maggie's bed, he goes to check on it. Maggie suddenly seems possessed and punches Hannah.
(Present Day)
Back at the house, Maggie looks through the old photos, but then the music starts playing again. She goes upstairs to find the study empty, except for Buster, the Teddy Bear sitting on the desk. Maggie called the police, but Chief Alcott can see no signs of a break-in. When Maggie suggests something is wrong with the house, Alcott accuses Maggie of writing a sequel to the book. Angry, Maggie takes a sledgehammer to the record player.
July 8, Day 13
Jess and Ewan take Maggie to see Dr. Lila Weber (Kate Mulgrew), a child psychologist. Weber attributes her behavior to a hyperactive imagination and should address the house's history directly. After, Jess and Ewan talk to Maggie, and predictably Maggie admits that Hannah has told her about the murders. They reassure her that nothing wrong will happen while they're there. When they show her the article about it, Maggie sees Curtis's photos and recognizes him as Mister Shadow.
(Present Day)
Maggie has avoided Dane, but she needs his help to get out inconspicuously with her house surrounded by news crews. She asks him to pick her up just outside the woods, and he agrees. When Maggie chides him for not telling her about his criminal past, Dane decides he's no longer interested in working for her on the house renovation. The two split ways.
Maggie finds Lila Weber, who confirms their appointment and the story from her father's book. Lila sees her father's book as an attempt by a father to understand his daughter, but Lila confirms that young Maggie definitely believed those ghosts were real.
July 9, Day 14
That night, Jess and Ewan use an Ouija board to try to contact the spirits Maggie believes she sees. They each accuse the other of moving the cursor. The spirit confirms that it is Curtis and repeats the message "CAREFUL" three times.
(Present Day)
Maggie tries to find the library, only to learn it burned down years ago. Reluctantly, she turns to Brian Prince for help, asking to see his newspaper's archives. In exchange, Maggie offers an exclusive interview, which he readily accepts. As she goes through the archives, Maggie is surprised to see that Brian Prince was also the first to cover the Carver murder-suicide.
July 10, Day 15
Once again, Ewan awakes to the taps, the thub, and music. The bells attached to the rooms start ringing. Ewan believes it's a message and assigns letters to the 20-ish bells. Ewan asks questions aloud. The bells indicate it's Curtis Carver, but he didn't kill his daughter.
(Present Day)
Next, Maggie goes to find Martha Carver at the bakery. She's surprised that Martha readily agrees to talk about the book, and she offers to meet her at the house to discuss.
July 11, Day 16
Ewan goes to visit Martha Carver at the bakery. She's initially reluctant to talk, but when Ewan mentions the trouble Maggie is having, she agrees and meets at the library. Martha describes how Curtis had heard tapping. She'd been awoken by the "thud" as his body fell strictly at 4:45 AM. She'd found him dead in the study and Katie's smothered body in her room as well. When Ewan suggests that someone else may have killed them, Martha gets angry and leaves.
(Present Day)
Martha confirms the story that Ewan provided in the book, but she says that the part about him suggesting that Curtis was innocent never happened. Martha confides that Curtis left a note admitting to it, but it was kept secret. Martha also brings to Maggie's attention that items from the house are being sold on online auction sites. Martha gives Maggie a pie.
July 12, Day 17
Ewan asks Petra to babysit for Maggie while he does some research, but Elsa says that she's grounded. Instead, Elsa comes over to watch Maggie. Ewan looks over the articles about the house's history. In 1926, William Garson's granddaughter was hit and killed by a car in an accident where her father was the driver. In 1941, the Hollywood producer's 4-year-old daughter was drowned when the producer blacked out while bathing her. The three bed and breakfast deaths were all girls, 15, 13 and 4, and all staying with or witnessed by their fathers. As the music turns itself on, it replays the part in the song where it says "careful."
Present Day
Maggie suspects Hannah is the one taking the stuff from the house, and she confronts her. Hannah offers no apology. Instead, she says that her mother was sick, so she needed the money. Hannah admits that she'd been ringing bells and playing the music to get her to leave. That's also why she said that the sleepover stuff was real. However, Hannah denies having anything to do with Buster. She says she hasn't seen the bear in 25 years. Maggie demands the keys but tells Hannah she can have anything in the mansion to sell. Finally, Hannah admits that there's a hidden back door to the house.
July 13, Day 18
Jess wakes Ewan, screaming about Maggie having been choked in her sleep, with red marks around her neck. Jess thinks Ewan did it, even after he tells her about the house's history. Jess takes Maggie and leaves.
(Present Day)
Maggie finds the hidden back door, which leads up to the armoire in her room. She understands then why it was boarded up, to begin with. Maggie realizes then that it wasn't ghosts in her room, but real people.
July 14, Day 19
After awaking to the usual thud and music, Ewan waits for the bells to chime. When they do, "Curtis" communicates to him to go look at Indigo's portrait. She is holding a rabbit, but he sees that it was painted over on further inspection. He chips away the paint to find a snake underneath.
(Present Day)
Maggie asks Dane for assistance in boarding up both the back entrance and disassembling and boarding up the armoire area. She plans to board things up, go home to Boston and then sell the house as-is. Maggie goes to the study to find the book opened up to the page describing how Ewan had asked Hibbs to patch up the ceiling. Hibbs had brought a boy from town to help. Maggie wonders if that person was Petra's "secret boyfriend" who killed her when she had secret thoughts about running away with him.
Maggie checks the old photographs for hints. She gets a magnifying glass, and just as she recognizes the boy as a teenaged Dane, he shows up.
July 15, Day 20–Before Dark
Ewan wakes up, having been knocked unconscious on the floor. He realizes that the snake was indicating Indigo's true nature, that she was a predator. He draws the conclusion that Indigo is the evil spirit making girls kill themselves in the house and placing the blame on their fathers, possibly out of anger that her father had kept her away from Callum or maybe because her father killed her.
The bells ring out another message, to check to the camera. Ewan fits the old photos and sees that in the last picture, July 15, of Curtis, Miss Pennyface is in the far corner. Miss Pennyface is Indigo Garson. Ewan takes photos of himself and sees that she's visible in them as well, but he feels safe knowing that he's not her intended target. But then Maggie and Jess return.
(Present Day)
Maggie confronts Dane with her findings. He admits that he and Petra had a summer fling but denies that he killed Petra. When Dane moves towards her, Maggie shoves him hard and runs into the Indigo Room. Maggie skips the gap, but Dane forgets about it and falls down into the lower floor.
July 15, Day 20–After Dark
Ewan shows Jess the photos of himself with Miss Pennyface/Indigo in the background. Jess is horrified. They want to pack up and leave, but Maggie gets thrown up to the ceiling before they can. Ewan threatens to kill himself, which would ruin Indigo's plan. Indigo drops Maggie, but the room fills with snakes. The family runs out, leaving all their possessions.
(Present Day)
After Dane's fall, Maggie calls 911 and fills Alcott in on what she found out. Dane is taken out on a stretcher to be questioned later. Maggie's mother shows up, demanding to know what's going on. Maggie tells her mother what happened. They go into the kitchen, and Maggie eats some pie on the counter. Finally, her mother tells her the truth: It wasn't Dane. Maggie was the one who killed Petra.
Ewan wanted a house with an exciting history to write a non-fictional account of them fixing it up. They had loved the home. Parts of the book were right, and parts were false. Many parts about Indigo were right, but others less so. There never were any portraits of Indigo or William. Maggie had imaginary friends, but no ghosts.
The night of the murder, Ewan and Jess wanted a night away. Petra had gone to babysit Maggie without her mother's knowledge. When Ewan and Jess returned to Baneberry, they found Petra dead on the floor, with a torn shirt and scratch marks, having been pushed from the stairs. Maggie kept insisted it was Miss Pennyface, but they knew it must've been Maggie after Hannah's violence. Maggie also had a cut under her left eye, indicating some type of altercation. They covered it up and disposed of the body in the hole to protect Maggie. Afterward, Jess knew she couldn't live there anymore, so they left.
Ewan knew enough about the house's history to believable that they'd been spooked into leaving. He hadn't expected the media attention that followed. Jess had been against writing the book, but they needed the money, and the book offer had been quite lucrative. He came back each year out of guilt.
Maggie demands to know what's going on and eats pie as she chats with her mom. After finding out the truth, Maggie lashes out at her mother for keeping all this from her. Her mother leaves, and Maggie throws herself onto her bed and cries. Then, a figure emerges from the armoire. It's Miss Pennyface, except there were never pennies on her eyes. It was the moonlight glinting off her spectacles. Miss Pennyface is Martha Carver.
Martha tells her she'd visited the house to watch Maggie sleep, to think about Katie. The memories come flooding back, and Maggie remembers that night finally. Petra had walked in on Martha in Maggie's room and flipped out. There was a scuffle, resulting in Petra falling down the stairs.
Maggie is sweating and feels weak. Martha tells her the pie she ate earlier had baneberries mixed in. Martha says that she realized when Maggie returned that it was just a matter of time before the truth came out (about Martha killing Petra). However, it was indeed Curtis who killed Katie and not Martha. Martha tries to suffocate Maggie, but Maggie manages to knock her off. Maggie tries to leave, but Martha trips her at the top of the stairs, sending her falling down.
In her injured and poisoned state, Maggie sees a glow of light. She thinks it looks like Petra. She then watches as Martha tumbles down, cracking her neck and dying. As her vision clears, Maggie sees it's not Petra but Elsa, and she looks lucid and as alert and aware as ever.
It's now in October. Maggie is planning on listing the house soon. The news has widely covered the truth about what happened at Baneberry Hall, but some still believe it's haunted.
Maggie finds out that Elsa was the one she had thought was Mister Shadow as a child. Elsa had visited her and was superstitious about the house's history. She had warned Maggie that they were going to die there. Elsa has now been moved to a care facility. Dane listened to Maggie's explanation of her actions but had nothing else to say to her. He moved out.
Meanwhile, Maggie's mother is being sentenced for her part in the Petra cover-up next week. After Maggie kicked her out, Maggie's mother was determined to prevent Maggie from confessing. Instead, Jess admitted to it. As a result, Chief Alcott went to the house and found Maggie half-dead at the bottom of the stairs and saved her. Maggie wonders if Petra's spirit really was involved in getting Elsa to push Martha down the stairs.
Having been offered a sizable advance, Maggie sits down in the Baneberry Hall study to write the sequel to her father's book.
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