Tethered
Genre: Horror
Director: Mike Flanagan
Writer: Joshua Collins
Cast: Jesse Plemons, Aubrey Plaza, Nell Fisher, Garcelle Beauvais, Ciaran Hinds
Plot: Richard (Jesse Plemons) and Elena Fischer (Aubrey Plaza) are delivering their twin babies. One twin is stillborn, the other(named Fiona) has a low percent chance of making it past a day. Defeated, Elena rests in her hospital bed, mourning the loss of one baby and the oncoming loss of the other. Richard tries to make her feel better, telling her they can try again another time. Elena argues there will not be another time. As Elena sleeps, Richard goes for a drive, its raining and he struggles to see the road ahead. An animal darts across the road, which Richard hits and causes severe front-end damage to his vehicle. When he surveys what happened, he sees the life-loss body of a goat laying nearby. He curses out the goat, but hears the voice of a woman telling him “life can be restored.” He looks around, doesn’t see anything at first due to the rain and the darkness. “Hello?” he asks into the darkness. He comes face to face with a cloaked woman under an umbrella, Maddam Leotine (Garcelle Beauvais).
She tells him to come with her and leads her to her home, that just seems like a dump in the middle of the woods, but its good enough for shelter. Maddam Leontine says she senses fear and desperation in Richard. He tells her about what happened with the birth of his twins. Maddam Leontine says if he gives his permission, she can heal her dying child, but won’t be able to restore the death of the other twin. While skeptical, he humors her and agrees to it. She does puts together something he could use for Fiona, placed in a vial, warning him that while using it will restore Fiona’s health, it will have disastrous effects if not handled with the upmost care.
Richard leaves Maddam Leontine’s hut and walks to a spot where he can get phone reception, calling for a ride to the hospital. When he gets there, he checks in on Elena, still sleeping and distraught. Richard sneaks into the neonatal unit, and takes a moment to reflect “Am I really doing this?” he asks himself, but he injects Fiona, took weak to let out a cry. Richard goes back to his room and sits with Elena, clutching her hand.
They wake up to the doctors telling them an overnight miracle happened. Fiona’s survival percentage jumped to 100% “what a success story, its something she can tell her own kids someday,” the doctor says. The nurses bring Fiona bundled up to Elena so she can hold her. Richard is happy, but also has an expression that makes him wonder what the cost of what he did will be.
Several years later, Fiona (Nell Fisher) is about 12/13. She is shy, quiet and reserved around everyone but her parents. Richard and Elena drops her off at school. Richard tells her “we can’t have what happened at the last school happen here,” Fiona nods, she walks through the entrance of the school, kids see her and snicker behind her back. At the cafeteria, she is sitting down to enjoy her lunch when one of the kids tells her “my seat, weirdo.” Fiona focuses intently on the kid’s lunch tray. As the kid mocks Fiona and asks if she’s deaf, suddenly, Fiona uses telekinesis to force the kid to drop his tray, make a mess. The kid is confused, and Fiona uses her power to cause the kid to step into a puddle of his juice, causing him to slip. Other kids laugh, Fiona resumes her lunch.
At the dinner table, Fiona’s parents ask her how her day went. She explained what happened at lunch. “You can’t do that honey,” Elena says, “Even if nobody thinks you did anything, eventually its gonna lead to you getting kicked out.” “And we’re running out of schools to put you in.” Richard adds. “So stop sending me to school. They’re all jerks anyway.” “Sweetie, we just don’t have the time or money for anything else,” Elena says. “Jesus, Fiona is it too much to ask of you to just act normal?” Richard shouts. Fiona twitches an eye, “You think I’m a freak too!” she bursts out in tears, the light above the dinner table explodes, she hurries to her room. Elena shoots daggers at Richard, who tries to ignore it. Elena excuses herself from the table.
In her bedroom, Fiona falls asleep, but she feels an oppressive weight pressing onto her chest. She has trouble breathing. Her room fills with fog as if the room is on fire. An unsettling creepy image of a girl who looks like her creepily crawling on her bed and crawling up to meet her stare, an unsettling expression on its face. “You aren’t supposed to be here,” the freakish being says, “You should be laying in a grave next to me.”
Fiona lets out an ear-piercing shriek, her bedroom windows crack, her dresser drawers pull out, her closet door flings open so hard it nearly breaks off the hinges. Its apparently that the more intense her emotions are, the more things around her react. Elena rushes into the room and the spirit is gone, Elena holds Fiona, Richard stands in the doorway.
Richard is in his car, speeding as fast as he can, trying to remember after over a decade where he last saw Madam Liontine. He passes the hospital, where Fiona was born, in an effort to retrace his steps. He pulls over and wanders into the woods, coming across the decrepit shack he visited before. “Ah, I sensed you were coming, old friend,” Liontine says. Richard explains about what has been happening. He explains that most of these incidents just seemed like silly pranks. Elena thinks the house is haunted, “I never told her what happened when Fiona was born,” he says. “And the things Fiona does in school are just childish pranks, but they seem to be affecting her the more she’s growing up.” Richard mentions how Fiona says someone malevolent has been coming into her dreams. Liontine explains that it could be the spirit of the stillborn twin, trying to reclaim what it feels is its rightful place in Fiona’s body. “So how can we make it go away?” Richard asks. “Poor naive Richard. Did you really think you could alter someone’s fate without a price to pay?” She asks him to bring Fiona, and see if there’s anything she can do.
Elena is researching on people living in paranormal houses in her home-office. When it seems like she isn’t getting what she wants, she looks up paranormal children. Richard comes into the room and sits with her. She tells him she’s been trying to look up accounts from other people experiencing similar things to Fiona. Richard asks if she found anything, she just shrugs and says “just more of the same conspiracies and easily debunked theories.” she turns to him, “How come we never baptized her?” Elena asks. “Well first of all, we just haven’t been the religious type, baby.” “But what if whatever is happening to her is demonic and we just need a priest to bless her?” Richard shrugs, skeptical if Elena’s idea will work, “If that’s what you think we should do.” Elena shakes her head in annoyance, “At least I’m trying to do something to help our daughter, Richard. You seem totally fine with her eventually destroying the world. It was cute when she was four and making her dolls levitate, but she’s getting older and will get more dangerous.”
At Fiona’s school, the bell rings and the class starts filing out of the room. As Fiona gathers her books and supplies into her backpack and leaves the room. She happens to notice one of her female classmates is having a problem with one of the boys. A crowd of kids are around to see the commotion. He tugs at her dress, saying “show me your underwear, if you’re wearing any,” as he laughs. The girl tries to get him to back off, but he pins her against one of the line of lockers, trying to kiss her. Fiona focuses hard on the boy’s hands, and starts controlling them, moving them away from the girl and wrapping them around his own neck. He tries to fight, panics that he has no control over his own hands. The girl manages to escape, she glances at Fiona, whose just in a trance, her telekinetic grip is tight around his neck. She seems to have put two-and-two together and figured out what’s happening. “Please, don’t kill him,” the girl pleads, “I just wanted him to leave me alone,” she says. Fiona whispers, “stop” and Fiona releases her grasp, the boy coughs, saliva seeping out of his mouth. Maybe Fiona still has some control over her powers still. Fiona turns her head to the girl, “How do you do that?!” she asks. “I wish I knew,” Fiona says.
We see Fiona is brushing her teeth in the bathroom at her home. She hears the tub faucet turn on. She looks around, unsure if she made the tub turn on with her power or not. “Fiiiiiiiona,” she hears a whisper coming from the tub. She slowly walks toward the curtain. She yanks the curtain back, the tub is now full of water. The creepy twin submerges from the seemingly bottomless depth of the tub, grabs Fiona’s head and pulls her into the water. Fiona thrashes and struggles, trying to breathe “Why did you stop us?” she says, “Why didn’t you let us kill that pig?!” “And since when do we listen to the slugs who fear us? You’re weak Fiona, we don’t need you holding us down.” Fiona struggles and tries to act quick how to get out of this, she sees the tub drain plugged in. She holds her breath and focuses on the drain to get it to lift up and drain the water. She lays in the tub, wet mounted hair, for a moment she looks like her ghostly twin. A little puddle of black goo creates a little stream going down the drain. Fiona, soaked in her clothes, trying to catch her breath like a fish out of water. Elena opens the door after hearing all that commotion and sees Fiona in her state of chaos. She holds Fiona in her arms and cries.
In the next scene, Elena is taking Fiona to a church. “I just don’t see why we even have to do this,” Fiona protests. Elena turns toward Fiona. “I love you with every ounce of my being, but you can’t be oblivious to what is going on with you, Feepea.” Elena says. Fiona rolls her eyes. “Are they gonna dunk me in water?” Fiona asks, frightened by the thought after what happened in the bathroom. “Father McMichaels won’t do that here, he’ll just bless you in his presence. Whatever he’s going to do will hurt less than a pinch.”
As they leave the car, Fiona blinks and the car makes the car-armed sound. “Sweetie, don’t do that,” Elena says with a slight smile on her face.
Father McMichael (Ciaran Hinds) stands before Fiona. He is performing a ritual to bless Fiona and rid of her any demonic presence inside her. Fiona is in a prayer stance with her eyes closed. When she opens them, she seems to be the only one in her church with Father McMichael gone. “This isn’t going to work, Fiona,” she looks up and sees her twin on Jesus’ crucifix. “It’s really cute to see you try though.” “Just stop it,” Fiona shouts, “What do you want from me?!” Fiona opens her eyes and sees Father McMichael staring at her, perplexed. Fiona rushes out of the church, Elena is just as confused as Father McMichael as she stands up and runs after Fiona.
Fiona lays in her bed, she can hear her parents arguing about her in the other room. Elena, talking about what happened at the church, and Richard telling her this isn’t something that’ll just go away by looking at a crucifix all day. Fiona uses her power to plug her ears, drowning out the argument. We see Elena and Richard, both seemingly at wits ends. “Madam Liontine,” Richard blurts out. “Who?!” Elena asks. Richard takes a deep breath and explains to Elena about that fateful night. And what she said about the spirit of Fiona’s stillborn twin is trying to overtake Fiona. “But she thinks she can help, honey. I know I should have told you this a long time ago, but I couldn’t even figure out how to even tell you. I honestly didn’t even think that shit was going to work.”
Elena, at first is unsure how to even respond to Richard, her cold stunned face just says it all. Richard tries to sit beside her with encouraging words, “I swear, Elena, we will make this right.” Elena is just beyond disgusted with Richard, shoves him away and storms out of the house. She takes off in her car, not knowing even where shes going, she just had to get out of the house. She sees a quick glimpse of what looks like Fiona’s twin standing in the middle of the road, Elena slams on the brakes, tries to swerve, but flips her car.
Elena is in the hospital. Richard and Fiona hurry through the hospital corridors and see Elena in her bed. Fiona, upset at the sight of her mother in the hospital bed hooked up to machines and looking torn up, decides to sit in the waiting room. Richard sits with Elena, trying to talk with her. Elena, with a weak smile, says, “Can you believe it? That bad wreck and all I got was a broken arm.” Fiona patiently sits in a seat in the waiting room. She hears someone having trouble with the vending machine, he smacks it, cursing at it. Fiona uses her power to make the snack fall. “Great, finally something good happened today,” he grumbles to himself.
Richard kisses Elena on the head, “I promise we will get through this.” he tells her. He lets Elena get some rest, leaving the room and bringing Fiona with him. He takes them to Madam Liontine’s hut. Fiona is confused on what they’re even doing. Richard reminds Fiona about how she had a twin who died when she was born. Liontine adds her own flair in the conversation, telling Fiona about how her twin has been trying to push Fiona out. She explains that she can try to sever the ties between the twins. Fiona, understanding that she nearly lost her mom, agrees to Liontine’s ritual,”then we’ve got no time to waste,” Liontine says.
Liontine starts her ritual. She plays her hand firm but calm on Fiona’s head. Liontine closes her eyes, chanting and speaking in a foreign tongue. Fiona closes her eyes. Suddenly, Liontine’s eyes roll as far back in her head as possible. Her body starts twitching and contorting. Her voice becomes angry, as she speaks under the influence of Fiona’s twin. Fiona opens her eyes, Richard is frightened at what he’s seeing. Liontine, speaking as Fiona’s twin, asks, “How many times must I tell you, you can’t get rid of me? No amount of exorcisms or rituals will sever us. You’re going to have to kill me, better yet, I should just kill you.”
Possessed Liontine grabs Fiona by the top and chin of her head, trying to move it in a way to break Fiona’s neck. Richard tries to fight Liontine off, but the sinister power of the twin shoves Richard into a table where he knocks a bunch of stuff over. Suddenly Liontine stops, as Fiona has used her own power to hold a blade to Liontine’s throat. “I’m still in control, bitch.” Fiona says.
Everything seemingly goes back to normal. Richard picks himself up, Fiona has passed out from exhaustion and trying to use all of her power to stop her twin. Madam Liontine has returned to normal. “What happened?” Richard asks. “I’m afraid your daughter’s tether to her twin has gotten stronger than we thought. A simple ritual will not spare her life away from this horror, and she will only succumb to it in due time.”
“There’s absolutely nothing we can do?” Richard asks. “There is one last thing we can try, but,” Madam Liontine says, looking somber. “But what, Madam? I’m at my wits end here.” Richard says. “In the shadows of your choices, the roots of this darkness intertwine. To sever the tie that binds, the seed must be rooted from its source. Only through the blood of the bearer can the chains be undone. You hold the key, Richard, but to unlock it, you must pay the price.”
Richard lets it sink in, he swallows hard as he understands what that price is. He looks at Fiona, looking as vulnerable in her sleeping state as the night he saw her in the neonatal unit. He nods, “Can I just see my wife one last time?” he asks.
Madam Liontine nods, “Go, I will perform a protective spell over your daughter while you’re gone, but it will only keep her safe for a brief time.”
The drive to the hospital stretches into an eternity for Richard. Each passing moment feels heavy with the burden of what he must do to save Fiona. Brief flashes of their life together flicker through his mind—birthdays filled with laughter, Christmas mornings bustling with excitement, school pageants where Fiona shone brightly. He recalls the joyful moments: Fiona demonstrating her powers by levitating dolls, her playful pranks like grabbing the steering wheel during car rides, her laughter echoing in the air.
But those memories are intertwined with darker reflections. He thinks of the shattered windows and the broken glass, the worried teacher who had approached him with grave concern, claiming his daughter had forced a classmate to punch himself in the face. And now, the image of Elena, vulnerable and asleep in the hospital bed, haunts him. The stark reality of her fragility is a constant reminder of why he’s resolved to do the unimaginable. Richard is now with Elena, asleep in her bed. He holds her good hand and kisses her, whispering that he loves her and Fiona.
He returns to Liontine, where she begins a new ritual for Richard, which would ease him into eternal slumber. As objects start to move and the scene around the hut becomes dark and distorted with shadows, Richard finds himself face to face with Fiona’s twin. She taunts him, telling him his sacrifice will only be in vain as it will have no effect. It will only prolong the inevitable. “But if you wanted an early grave, I don’t mind doing that either. It’ll be fun. I’ll start with you, then I’ll head to the hospital, maybe pull the plug on your wife. And when your daughter is alone with nobody around to attend her funeral? I’m gonna have a lot of fun with her.” By trying to kill Richard before the ritual can complete, it would indeed ruin the ritual, allowing the twin to continue her quest to overtake Fiona.
When hope seems lost, Fiona’s Twin gets interrupted by Fiona. Fiona focuses on her twins hands, moving them up to her mouth and forcing her mouth to open beyond the point that it should be open. This would buy the time for the “ritual to be complete” where Richard’s sacrifice will sever the tie between the twins.
When all returns to normal, Richard has collapsed. Fiona rushes over to console him. Madam Liontine gives a word of condolence and comforting words, reminding her that he did it to rid her of the evil lurking within her.
Fade to a few months later. Fiona and Elena are driving home. Elena is still in an arm cast, but both seem to be happy with their lives. Fiona is telling Elena a funny anecdote about school. They pull up to their house and hop out of the car. Elena has a couple of grocery bags in her ‘good’ arm, while Fiona has her arms with bags. As they step foot inside, Elena says, “Sweetie, did you remember to close the trunk?”
Fiona turns her focus to the trunk of the car. After a moment of tense concentration, the trunk closes, “Yeah mom, its closed,” she says. A quick flash of her twin’s reflection in Fiona’s eyes is shown.
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