Summary
Highlights
Cynthia, a supernatural psychotherapist, enters her patients' minds to heal their inner demons. Her abilities manifest physically, as seen when an encounter in a patient's subconscious leaves her hand injured. Her daughter, Jordan, helps by researching the patient's past. A young girl, Riley, seeks Cynthia's help, exhibiting unsettling burn marks and claiming to see a dark entity. Cynthia, witnessing the powerful demon attached to Riley, is hesitant to take the case due to a past tragedy involving her husband.
Jordan, driven to help Riley, contacts Agatha Baker, who reveals Riley's father, Randall, recently lost his wife and that Riley had burn scars. Jordan goes to Randall's house to persuade him, but he turns her away. Meanwhile, Cynthia uses her influence with a police friend, John, to anonymously investigate Larry's former teacher, Doug. Jordan secretly enters Randall's house and discovers a hidden basement.
Cynthia, worried about Jordan, learns from Agatha that Jordan went to Randall's. Jordan awakens in the basement, tied up with a disfigured woman. Randall reveals his daughter must 'feed' the entity, which then drains Jordan's life force and burns her arms. Randall plans to dispose of Jordan, but Riley, still hoping for Cynthia's help, secretly gives Jordan pliers to escape. However, Randall, holding a gun, accidentally shoots and kills Riley during a struggle. The demon then transfers to Jordan, causing her immense pain.
Jordan escapes and is reunited with Cynthia and Agatha. At the police station, John informs Cynthia that Randall has been doing this for a while. Jordan, experiencing demonic influences, struggles to communicate what happened. Cynthia, realizing Jordan is in immense danger, agrees to confront the entity. She enters Jordan's subconscious, encountering visions related to her husband's death, and is attacked by the demon, forcing her back to reality.
Cynthia researches at the hospital, learning from Larry about Riley's mother, Samantha, who died from a terrifying flesh-eating disease. Dr. Whitaker, Samantha's doctor, reveals the disease was supernatural, with Samantha whispering 'it's hungry' and leaving him with burn scars. Back home, Jordan is tormented by nightmares and abducted by Randall, who aims to starve the demon in a coffin in the woods.
Randall, after burying Jordan alive, turns himself in. Cynthia desperately tries to get John to let her use her abilities to find Jordan. John, convinced by Cynthia's earlier intuition about Doug, allows her to enter Randall's mind, where she follows his memories to locate Jordan in the woods. Cynthia, with Agatha, races to the location, while John mobilizes his unit to follow. Cynthia finds Jordan in the coffin, weakened by the demon, and prepares to enter her subconscious again.
As police arrive, Agatha distracts them while Cynthia enters Jordan's mind. She finds herself in their old, dilapidated home, where she confronts the ladder that represents Jordan's fear. Climbing it, Cynthia discovers her deceased husband. The demon attacks her, but Cynthia, prepared, enters its subconscious, finding herself in a vine-covered demonic world. Simultaneously, Jordan, inside her own subconscious, also confronts her father's body. In the demon's lair, Cynthia prepares for battle, but John's interjection in the real world temporarily distracts her, allowing the demon to bind her.
Just as the demon is about to consume Cynthia, Jordan, who also entered the monster's subconscious, frees her mother. Together, they relentlessly attack and defeat the demon. Cynthia and Jordan awaken in the real world, scarred but alive. Six months later, Cynthia helps Jordan face her ultimate fear, climbing the ladder in their old house to untie her father's spirit, finally embracing her mother, free from their past trauma and the demon's reign.