| Director | Ti West |
|---|---|
| Budget | $900,000 |
| Box office | $101,215 |
In the 1980s, Samantha Hughes, a cash-strapped college student, responds to an ad for a babysitting job for a Mr. Ulman. Her best friend Megan gives her a ride to the Ulmans' remote mansion. Mr. Ulman reveals the job is actually tending to his wife's mother. Samantha reluctantly agrees to a fee of $400. On the way home, Megan is shot in the head by a stranger, later identified as Victor.
Samantha orders a pizza from a number Mr. Ulman recommended. After accidentally breaking a vase, she cleans up and discovers a closet containing old family photographs. In one photograph, a family that is not the Ulmans stands next to the Volvo that she and Megan saw at the house. Later, three corpses are shown in one of the rooms, implying that they were the family in the photographs and the true owners of the house. Unnerved by the noises in the house and the arrival of the pizza, delivered by Victor, Samantha dials 911, but tells the operator it was an accidental call. Samantha then grabs a knife from the kitchen and goes upstairs to explore the creaking sounds. Drugs in the pizza cause her to pass out just as she sees movement behind a door on the third floor.
Samantha comes to during a lunar eclipse and finds herself bound in the center of a pentagram on the floor. Mr. and Mrs. Ulman, along with their son Victor, begin a ritual. "Mother" is revealed to be a grotesque, witch-like figure. She slices her arm and pours her blood into a goat skull. She then uses it to draw occult symbols on Samantha's belly and forehead, and forces Samantha to drink the blood. Samantha stabs Mother and escapes. After finding Megan's corpse in the kitchen, she kills Victor and Mrs. Ulman, but horrific images of Mother begin appearing in her mind. Mr. Ulman chases her into a nearby cemetery, telling her that she has been chosen and destined to accept "him". Samantha threatens to shoot Ulman, but he is resigned, telling her it is too late. Instead, Samantha shoots herself in the head.
The next day, TV news reports the strange lunar eclipse the night before, which confounded scientists with its abrupt ending. Samantha lies unconscious on a hospital bed having survived her suicide attempt. A nurse states that "both of them" will be fine, implying that she has been impregnated.