- When a Spiritual Medium is called to give a seance at a mysterious hotel in Finland, his sanity is tested as the veil between reality and dream is ripped apart.
- Arthur Sydenham Sharp, a travelling spiritual medium, arrives in Finland for the final seance of his tour. Immersed in the oppressive atmosphere of an unwelcoming hotel, Arthur's sense of reality becomes increasingly distorted by eerie visions and unsettling encounters as he struggles with his dependence on medication. As Arthur delves deeper into his psychometry and research into the hotel's sinister past, he uncovers disturbing truths that challenge his sanity and push him towards a harrowing confrontation with both the past and the present.—Darren McStay
- A series of strange and eerie images flutter by, crescendoing to a peak point when a man suddenly awakens. He has been dreaming but now groggily comes to his senses and is revealed sitting in the arrivals lounge at Helsinki Vantaa Airport in Finland.
The man is Arthur Sydenham Sharp, a travelling spiritual medium who is here for the final seance of his current world tour.
Groggy and irritable, Arthur receives a voice message from his agent, Janet. He replies coldly, demanding that she call and arrange his transport.
Shortly after, Janet calls to confirm Arthur's travel arrangements. We learn that this particular leg of Arthur's tour has been arranged to extend into his post-tour recuperation period. Janet has kindly given him extra time to rest and wind down following his busy schedule.
Arthur's demanding tour schedule has taken its toll, and he is stuck in a cycle of bad habits, seeking solace in prescription medication. Janet encourages him now to quit these medications and make the most of his time in "the happiest country in the world."
Arthur's introduction to Finland is as cold and inhospitable as the weather. He takes an immediate dislike to his taxi driver and is increasingly frustrated by the lack of service and amenities he is accustomed to receiving on tour.
When Arthur arrives at his assigned hotel, he is greeted by the day manager, Helena, who explains he is the hotel's only guest and, therefore, must adhere to the hotel's limited schedule for meals and activities.
Arthur unpacks his things and starts his research in preparation for the following day, leaving a voice message for Janet to send over more details on his group the next day.
He also attempts to use a technique known as psychometry, where he hopes to extract further information from his notes by simply placing his hand on them. This proves fruitless, so instead, Arthur switches his TV on to enjoy some porn. However, Arthur is soon disturbed when he hears a dog barking and torchlight shining through his hotel room window.
Getting up to close the curtain, Arthur is further shocked to discover behind him a woman standing in the middle of his room, arms outstretched, gasping for air and pleading in Finnish (which he does not understand). The woman looks desperate and rushes toward Arthur; he screams and immediately awakens on his bed, porn still playing on the TV. He had fallen asleep.
A little unnerved, Arthur heads to the bathroom to freshen up. He considers taking two sleeping pills but, remembering Janet's words decides not to. Instead, he opens the shower curtain, commenting sarcastically on the average accommodation he has been set up in.
Arthur calls Janet for more research notes on the hotel guests the following day. He mentions his dream but explains it was more like one of his long-lost visions. This should be good news, but overhearing Arthur watching Porn, Janet, unamused, warns him against contacting her again outside her work hours.
Due to a miscalculation, Arthur's watch is set to the wrong time, causing him to miss the evening meal. Hungry and frustrated, he meets the night porter, a friendly man who offers him a free beer for his trouble. After a much warmer welcome, Arthur heads back upstairs.
Arthur researches the hotel's history and the significance of his upcoming seance, discovering several suicides linked to the local area.
He sips on his second beer, but it tastes awful, and he can see the label states it to be over seven years past its BBE date.
Undeterred, Arthur reads online articles on the events surrounding the local mysteries. He discovers that thirteen people were found dead, that they were suicides, and that it is tied to a ritual linked with a cult named "Order of the Half Moon", who used psychotropic substances as part of their mass suicide.
Arthur then makes a second attempt at using psychometry, placing his hand on his research folder, but again, nothing happens.
Arthur prepares for bed and becomes confused when the shower curtain is again closed. Realising that his tiredness and peculiar dreams are playing tricks on him, he opens it again, takes two sleeping pills, heads to bed, and manages to sleep until morning.
The next day, Arthur tours the grounds, discovering a nearby motorway at the other end of a forest surrounding the hotel. Across the road, he finds a pizza restaurant that appears operational and would have been suitable the night before, contrary to what the night porter told him.
On his way back, Arthur encounters a local resident, Sara, who eyes him suspiciously. Sara's nosy presence around the hotel unnerves Arthur throughout his stay.
After his walk, Arthur arrives late for breakfast. Despite adjusting his watch and double-checking his phone, he is still an hour behind. He is handed a cold breakfast of Finland's most unappetizing food and quickly loses his appetite. He then burns his lip on a too-hot coffee.
Arthur is unhappy, but with no time to collect himself, he is rushed off to prepare for his seance in the function room with Helena's assistance.
Finally, the guests arrive, and Helena introduces Arthur to the group (in Finnish). Arthur, bemused but unhindered, begins his usual rehearsed speech to create intrigue and "sell a few books," as Janet suggests.
However, this gathering is more peculiar than ever, and Arthur is met with hostility during his opening gambit as his usual tricks fall flat. An eerie atmosphere and strange incidents take him by surprise, leading to an intense vision midway through the seance. The vision is mainly unclear, and he receives flashes of seemingly random events, much like his initial dream at the airport.
Arthur awakens from this vision and is met with further hostility and mockery as the guests now accuse him of fraud and insulting their dead relatives.
Both shaken and exhilarated by his experience and rekindled psychic ability, Arthur decides to leave the hotel and messages Janet to arrange travel accordingly. He then collects his things from the bathroom. Finding the shower curtain again closed, he snatches it open, shouting at it to "stay there!"
With some time to spare, Arthur does more research and is drawn to a symbol painted on a red-roofed house. He traces this symbol online, discovering that it is an ancient rune depicting fertility, regeneration, & Reincarnation; it also represents the thirteenth Lunar cycle. He recalls that thirteen also happened to be the number of people who were found dead. Through this research, Arthur also discovers that Certain Names from the Kalevala (the Finnish Epoch), Tuoni and Tuonetar, the god and goddess of Tuonella (Underworld), have been cited alongside the "Order of the Half Moon." Exciting discoveries, but it's still time for him to leave.
Arthur escapes in a taxi by slipping away under the cover of night. During this swift exit, however, he narrowly avoids the angry-looking Sara, who calls after him.
However, while exiting the hotel grounds, Arthur's attention is drawn to a house with a red roof, which he recalls from his research. Filtering through his notes, Arthur finds next to the image of the house another Finnish news article with the face of a woman named "Mari," the same person who pleaded to him for help in his dream the previous night.
Arthur's investigative nature lures him back, and he orders the taxi driver to turn around. Upon returning, Arthur learns of his contracted second seance the following morning and infuriated, he texts Janet for an explanation.
Once settled back in his room after an even more peculiar encounter with Helena, Arthur re-places his wash bag in the bathroom. He opens the shower curtain again, telling it again to "stay there".
Arthur, intrigued to learn more, proceeds to prepare himself for a new psychic experience, which, unlike many of his earlier attempts at instigating psychometry, comes on powerfully in the form of another vision.
He witnesses a gathering of people all taking part in an ancient-looking ritual, where Helena is at the head. One young man then has his tongue cut out, a woman whom he recognises as Mari flees the scene and a man wearing a pagan headdress looks gravely on.
A dog barks and a torch flashes through Arthurs's bedroom window, drawing him out of his trance. He hears whispering behind him and spins around just in time to catch his hotel room door slamming closed, quietening the voices.
Arthur immediately freshens up in the bathroom and, as he does, is stunned to find the voices have begun again, this time from behind the (once again) closed shower curtain. Trembling with fear and anticipation, Arthur slowly turns around to face the curtain behind which stands Mari, who lurches forward, waking Arthur up abruptly. He finds himself once again sitting on his bed in the exact position as yesterday, watching porn with his hand placed in his research notes.
Arthur realises he hasn't eaten for two days and, checking the time, may have missed the opportunity to get food at the hotel again. Not willing to take the chance, he phones a local taxi service and asks them to bring pizza from the nearest takeaway.
Waiting downstairs by the hotel entrance, cash in hand, Arthur is approached by the night porter, who, although a little disgruntled at hearing Arthur has wandered that morning through the forest, offers him a drink "on the house" while he waits. Arthur accepts the offer and heads into the bar, downing two large whiskies and starting on a third when he is seduced into a sleep-like trance induced by the alcohol and the night porter's powerful hypnotic voice.
At this point, the night porter's actions make him appear threatening and malevolent, and Arthur slips into unconsciousness.
Arthur wakes up. It's a bright and warm sunny morning. He heads down to the hotel's spa area. Leaving his robe in the changing room, Arthur is happy to discover many other people enjoying the beautiful pool and jacuzzi on this glorious sunny morning.
Entering the pool for a swim, Arthur is knocked aside by an aggressive swimmer. He yells for the man to "watch it."
At that moment, the mood changes, and everyone enjoying the spa moments ago is now on their feet, staring at Arthur. He panics as the same people creep towards him, now gasping for air. Mari is also present and screams at him to wake up, but he is catatonic, paralyzed with fear and confusion. The man from his vision (The one wearing the pagan headdress) appears behind him, dragging Arthur under the water.
Arthur wakes abruptly, submerged in the darkness of the actual pool. The moon shines through, illuminating the space enough for him to scramble to safety.
Arthur heads to his room and calls Janet, begging for help. She is angry with him for calling at such a late hour and reprimands him sharply for his childish behaviour.
Distraught and broken, Arthur is now completely alone and stuck in a malevolent hotel far from anywhere. Scared, lost and alone, he manages to keep himself awake all night, watching TV, taking caffeine pills and drinking coffee.
By morning, his nerves are shot. Arthur hastily packs his belongings, intent on escaping the sinister hotel. Yet, as he attempts to leave, the main entrance door is locked. Before he can figure another way out, Helena stops him, takes his luggage, and directs him to the restaurant area, repeating almost exactly the same routine as the previous day.
Arthur, still in shock from the previous night's events, subserviently follows Helena's requests. He is offered a plate of mouldy food and looks on, unsure whether it is a dream or reality.
Arthur attends his contracted second seance, stunned to discover the same people in attendance as the previous day. Helena repeats her opening speech, and Arthur watches with mounting horror, his déjà vu manifesting into reality. The local resident Sara arrives outside the hotel during this meeting and, in an attempt to get Arthur's attention, throws a snowball at the window. The guests become irritated at Arthur's silence and confusion in this new meeting, and Arthur makes his excuses and leaves.
Arthur heads out of the fire exit to get some air and clear his head. He is immediately accosted by Sara, who interrogates him and demands to know why he is there. Arthur argues back, and Sara warns that security has been contacted.
Further confused and angry, Arthur heads to his room, intent on leaving ASAP. However, upon arriving at his room, he finds the door open and water strewn across the floor. At that moment, he is pulled into another powerful vision.
Mari is dragged by her hair down the corridor. In a flash, many people lay drowned in the pool, and in another flash, Mari is held under by the same man who dragged Arthur under the pool in his dream. Standing by them, overseeing is Helena.
Arthur wakes from his vision. Hours have passed, and it is now dark outside. He enters his room and attempts to contact Janet, but this is unsuccessful.
Alerted once more to a dog barking outside and a torch shining through his window, Arthur grabs his passport and coat and heads out. The fire exit is now unusually locked and also marked with no entry tape.
The torchlight follows him from outside, so Arthur hurries to the main entrance, finding it also locked and sealed with security tape.
Desperation mounting, Arthur heads to the pool, where he escapes through the fire exit. He has to tear through security tape before running off into the forest.
Arthur travels through the forest and arrives back beside the road he had ventured to the previous morning. Fortunately, a car pulls over, and Arthur scrambles in, thanking the driver and asking for a ride to the airport.
However, as the car takes a turn onto a side road, Arthur becomes increasingly worried. The driver reveals himself as the hotel's security guard, Juha, and takes Arthur back to see the mess he made.
Arthur, past the point of confusion, rides back to the hotel. Defensive, desperate, and ready for anything, he cannot figure out why he is in trouble.
Upon returning to the hotel, they find Sara waiting outside. They all enter cautiously. Juha escorts Arthur through the pool and down the corridor to the hotel's main reception.
To Arthurs's surprise, the entire place is empty when they arrive. Arthur's sanity is further tested when they enter the bar/restaurant and see it has been empty for quite some time.
Juha and Sara discuss Arthur's case and decide to watch him until the police arrive. However, Arthur manages to steal Juha's keys and slip away while Sara and Juha talk privately.
Chased around the grounds, Arthur seeks solace in a building using the stolen key to break in.
Inside, he is faced with the same room from his vision: the ceremony room, which is empty. Suddenly, people appear as if from thin air, and the man from Arthurs's visions approaches him. He invites Arthur to drink from a chalice until Mari appears and warns him to leave.
Conflicted and way past reasoning, Arthur finally takes her warning. He rushes out on foot through the forest until he reaches a road.
He wanders, crying, disturbed, scared, and alone. At the peak of his breakdown, he crumples to the floor, inconsolable, frightened and crying. Police lights flash as Arthur lies at the side of the road, and in the height of his despair, all becomes dark and silent.
Seconds pass, and Arthur wakes abruptly. He is in Helsinki airport. He stands confused, concerned, and conflicted.
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