| Director | Alejandro Amenábar |
|---|---|
| Genre | crime film, drama film, mystery film, thriller film |
| Runtime | 106 min |
| Country | Canada, Spain, United States |
| Budget | $15 million |
| Box office | $17.7 million |
In Hoyer, Minnesota, in 1990, Detective Bruce Kenner investigates the case of John Gray, who admits to sexually abusing his 17-year-old daughter Angela but has no recollection of the abuse. They seek the help of Professor Kenneth Raines to use recovered-memory therapy on John Gray to retrieve his memories, and come to suspect that their colleague Detective George Nesbitt is involved. They detain him but fail to find evidence against him. Detectives suspect a satanic cult is involved because of Angela's testimony, in which Angela says that she was abused by people in masks and someone took pictures of it.
Bruce and Kenneth meet Angela's estranged brother Roy Gray in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to inquire about why he left the house. Using the regression technique on him, he recalls hooded figures entering his room while he was young. Bruce and Kenneth suspect Roy's grandmother, Rose Gray, has some involvement but find nothing after a search of her house.
Meanwhile, Bruce begins having nightmares involving satanic rituals. Angela tells him that the cult is out to kill her as she has shown her demonic mark to him and that he is in danger as well. She tells him that her mother received miscellaneous calls and saw strange figures staring at her in the street before she herself had an accident. Bruce starts to experience the same things and his nightmares increase in intensity.
Rose jumps from the window of her house after seeing ghostly figures, injuring herself. Bruce meets Angela in the church's cemetery to reassure her and after an emotional outburst, she kisses him. Shocked, Bruce leaves her there and returns to his home. He sees a soup advertisement on the street and recognizes the woman in it as the one he sees in his nightmares. He concludes that his imagination has run away with him. He tells Kenneth that all these past memories are induced by therapy and the whole situation is just the result of mass hysteria. Though the professor is initially resistant to the idea, he too comes to suspect that these memories were not real.
Bruce is attacked by two hooded figures who finally reveal themselves as George and their colleague, Farrell. George was seeking revenge after Bruce detained him as a child molester and ruined his career. Bruce offers to forget the whole situation if George tells him everything he knows. After George reveals things, Bruce confronts Angela about her abuse and she insists she told the truth. Finally, Bruce concludes that she was fabricating everything from the beginning as she wanted to escape from her family, whom she believes to be responsible for her mother's death. She wanted to elope with George, as they had a sexual relationship for some time, but he refused to elope with a minor. Angela accused her father in order to escape the house, something George hinted at before to Bruce. When Bruce confronts her, she tells him that no one is going to believe him, especially if she tells them that they kissed in the cemetery. Bruce leaves and tells John everything but John decides to still take the blame as a form of making up to her for being a bad father for all these years. Angela is shown giving interview with media outlet and pushing her 'satanic cult' narrative.