| Movie DescriptionAfter a boathouse fire kills her terminally ill mother, Anna (Emily Browning) is in a psychiatric institution for a suicide attempt. Ten months later, she is going home but has no memory of the fire. She has dreams about it involving three strange children. While packing, she is startled by another patient who wants to tell her stories. Unnerved, Anna leaves with her father, Steven (David Strathairn).
Anna is reunited with her sister, Alex (Arielle Kebbel). They share a tight bond and a tense relationship with Steven's girlfriend, Rachel (Elizabeth Banks), who was their mother's live-in nurse. Alex thinks they were sleeping together before her mother died and criticizes Steven but he ignores her. Anna describes her dreams to Alex, which now happen while she is awake. The sisters are convinced their mother is sending a message; the fire was murder and Rachel is to blame.
Anna sees her old boyfriend Matt (Jesse Moss), who saw everything at the fire. The two make secret plans to meet but he doesn't show up. Later, Anna awakens from another dream to find him climbing in her window. He says she needs to know the truth and that her mother warned him. His body warps, his back breaking. Anna runs from the room and it is suddenly morning. Matt's dead body is pulled out of the water, his back broken just how Anna saw it.
The sisters are unable to find a record of Rachel with the State Nursing Association. Eventually they learn she is actually Mildred Kemp, a nanny who killed the three children from Anna's dreams because she was obsessed with their widowed father. They try to warn Steven but he gets upset and leaves for work. The girls try to gather evidence but they are confronted by Rachel who drugs Alex. Anna escapes and goes to the police. Skeptical, they call Rachel to sedate Anna and drive her home.
Rachel carries Anna to bed. Anna sees Alex in the doorway with a knife and passes out. Later, Anna wakes and finds a large blood trail leading to the dumpster and Rachel's body inside. Alex is nearby with the knife. The girls comfort each other and Steven comes home. Anna explains that Rachel attacked them and Alex saved her. Confused, Steven says that Alex died in the fire. Anna sees she's not holding Alex's hand like she thought, but the bloody knife.
Anna finally remembers the fire. After witnessing the affair between her father and Rachel, Anna filled a watering can from a large gasoline tank in the boathouse and carried it towards the house, intending to burn it down. She left a trail that ignited when a candle fell over; Alex and her mother were killed in the resulting explosion. She remembers meeting Matt as planned and killing him. She realizes that Steven was not ignoring Alex earlier; her sister was never there. She sees that she had the knife used to kill Rachel all along.
Steven tells the police that Rachel changed her name because of an abusive boyfriend as Anna is arrested and taken back to the institution. The police ask why Anna would make up the Mildred story but Steven has no answers. Anna is welcomed back by the patient that scared her earlier; the name plate on the door says "Mildred Kemp." |
