A family moves into a home once the site of a mass killing, and soon the dad starts displaying murderous tendencies of his own. George Lutz moves into a new place with his wife Kathy and three kids. The house is a steal, only because murders once happened there, when a boy killed his brothers, sisters, and parents. Once they move in George keeps waking up at 3:15 AM, approximately the time of the killings. The youngest, Chelsea has an imaginary friend, who turns out is the ghost of one of the murdered siblings, Jodie. One night, Chelsea gets into a near drowning accident in the boathouse at the back, prompting George to lock the area. On another night when he can't sleep, the boathouse is unlocked and none of the kids say it's them. Another time, when the babysitter comes, the boys dare Chelsea to go into the closet, where Jodie was killed. Inside, Chelsea is attacked by Jodie and goes into shock. George is constantly plagued with weird dreams and visions of the past murders and acts more irritable than usual. When Chelsea almost falls off the roof this time and swears it was Jodie's fault, Kathy sees the town priest. Meanwhile, George, in another one of his half-awake half-asleep moments, ends up in the boathouse, and kills the family dog with an axe. When the priest comes over to bless the house, he is spooked out of oblivion and runs out. Kathy learns that even earlier, the house belonged to a crazy cult who killed many people. George is possessed and starts to chase after his family with a gun hallucinating that they are evil spirits. Kathy and the kids take George on the boat and flee the house to safety.
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Best part of story, including ending:
I know the original story from the book, although didn't like the addition of the cult plot line because it's overreaching it already.
Best scene in story:
When Chelsea is in the closet with Jodie, and puts her finger in the bullet wound.
Opinion about the main character:
George can't be faulted for deciding to stay in the house because he has no control over entities that can take over him.
