PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: NEXT OF KIN

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

March 2021 – A young woman named Margot (Emily Bader) is in a restaurant filming a documentary with her cameraman friend Chris (Roland Buck III). They meet a man named Samuel Beiler (Henry Ayres-Brown), who is supposedly an Amish relative of Margot’s. Samuel says he is on his Rumspringa year to see the outside world and managed to get in touch with Margot. He invites her and Chris to join him at his family’s farm.

At home, Margot and Chris are with their friends discussing the documentary and her reasoning for doing it. She has a video of her mother Sarah abandoning her at a hospital, and Margot has always been looking for answers for why her mother left her.

Margot and Chris fly to where Samuel lives and meet their sound guy Dale (Dan Lippert). They drive to the farm where Samuel’s father Jacob (Tom Nowicki) tells him that the guests can’t stay. The three go to a motel to sleep, but later are startled by Samuel’s brother Eli (Colin Keane). After they bring him back to the farm, Jacob decides that they can stay there. As they are settling into their rooms, Margot looks out the window towards the woods where she sees glowing red lanterns making their way further into the woods.

The next morning, Margot joins Samuel as he gives her a tour of the area. They go to the barn where Margot nearly falls down a hole onto a piece of machinery, but Samuel gets her before it happens. She then talks to the women on the farm who talk about Sarah having been in a relationship with an outsider, which led to some tension in the family. Margot, Chris, and Dale later join the family for a traditional dinner. When they try to go to bed, the generator for the heat goes out, so Chris goes outside to turn it back on and finds one of the boys sleepwalking outside. Chris gets two adults to take him back inside the house.

The trio continue to try and get to know the rest of the family. Dale gets a makeover from the kids and is given a traditional Amish outfit, while Chris shows the kids how the camera works. Margot tries talking to a little girl playing with a doll, who says she named it Sarah like Margot’s mother. The girl says Sarah is still “there” and that she doesn’t like Margot before casually walking off without the doll.

Later that night, Margot hears a noise coming from the attic. She takes the camera to investigate using the nightvision setting. She finds a drawer containing belongings of Sarah’s, including a letter she wrote to the family saying she will not allow her daughter to be part of whatever they are involved with. Margot hides when she hears someone coming and finds Jacob investigating the noise, but doesn’t hear anything. Margot hides under the bed and feels something sitting on there, but when she crawls out, she finds nothing. When trying to climb out a window to avoid detection, she sees what looks like a ghoulish face reflected in the window.

The following day, Margot conducts an interview with Jacob regarding what he knew about Sarah. He tells Margot that she was the family’s “wild flower” who rebelled and suffered from mental health problems, with several suicide attempts having happened. After she fell in love with the outsider, the family shunned her. Margot shows Jacob the letter she found and asks what it means, to which he says that Sarah was “forced” to give Margot away.

Margot, Chris, and Dale later walk through the woods and come across a chapel built in the middle of the area. When they try to go in, Jacob comes out to admonish them for it and says nobody may enter. They go back to the house to help prepare dinner, but one of the elderly women just stares at the window while scraping her hand with a potato peeler.

At night, Chris overhears a screeching noise and wakes Margot up. They go to investigate and come upon the barn where they find Jacob and other members of the family delivering a baby goat and then killing it. They throw the bodies down a hole. Margot and Chris once again see the people with red lanterns going deeper into the woods.

In the morning, Dale distracts Samuel by having him teach him how to ride a horse while Margot and Chris break into the chapel. They find cult-like drawings and descriptions of a demonic entity that will make people suffer. The two find a hatch with a hole leading underground. They make a harness so Margot can descend, and she hears an inhuman growling sound coming from below.

Back at the house, Margot goes through Sarah’s old room and goes into her closet, where she finds that Jacob has his own personal computer and several files on Margot’s personal life, like her work and school schedules and even her home address, meaning they have been tracking her for over a year and always intended for her to come to them.

That night, Margot tries to wake up Chris and Dale when she hears a noise, but they are both deep asleep. She is found by the unseen entity that thrashes her around the room. In the morning, the guys find Margot’s bed and the ceiling all bloodied, as well as her pajama pants, like she had her period. The family checks on her and says she is just “exhausted”.

Chris and Dale try going into town to get a new battery for their car since it died. They are picked up by a mailman, and when the two mention staying with the Beilers, the mailman confirms that the family is NOT Amish. At the store, they ask to use the computer, and the two learn that the family is a cult involved with a demon called Asmodeus, who is the source of great violence among groups of people.

Later, Chris and Dale plan their leave, but they can’t find Margot. Chris goes to the chapel, but he is met by Jacob with a rifle. He tries to stop Chris from interfering in their plans, saying that if they don’t go through with their ritual that “it” will possess anybody, but Chris fights Jacob and wrestles the gun out of his hands. Jacob attempts to choke Chris, but he bashes Jacob in the head, causing him to stumble and fall down the hole to his death. Chris straps on the harness and makes his way down where he finds one of the elderly cult women attempting to perform a ritual on Margot. He looks over to see a horrific demonic creature that contains Asmodeus chained to the ground, with the woman trying to have the creature inhabit Margot’s body to stop it from possessing anyone else. Chris wakes Margot up and gets her to run. The creature becomes angry and kills the cult woman. Margot and Chris run to the harness where Dale pulls them up. However, the creature starts climbing up the hole and chases the three. They try to run, but the creature slashes Dale’s throat.

Margot and Chris hide, but they realize they left the van keys with Dale. They run back outside to his corpse and recover the keys. As they run back to the car, they find the cult and the farm in chaos, with one man on fire and another with his eyes gouged out as the creature runs rampant. The creature finds them and attacks Chris, but Margot has come to realize that the creature has taken over Sarah’s body. She tries talking to the monster as Sarah, then takes an opportunity to stab it in the neck with a hook. Margot gets Chris and they make it back to the van. After a few failed tries, they manage to burst through the barn door and escape the farm for good.

Cops later arrive at the farm and come across the bloody scene. One officer hears a baby crying but then sees it is just Samuel, now possessed by Asmodeus. He uses his power to get the officer, plus another, to commit suicide before taking their van and making their way into town.

A young woman named Margot films a documentary as she connects with a supposed relative named Samuel that has a link to her mother Sarah, who abandoned her when she was a baby. Together with her friends/crew Chris and Dale, they travel to Samuel's Amish family's farm to learn more about Sarah's past.

The truth about the family is that they are a cult, and Sarah left Margot to prevent her from becoming tangled up in it. The cult uses women as vessels for a demon called Asmodeus to prevent it from possessing anyone else. As the three friends try to escape, the cult takes Margot and begins the ritual. Chris goes to rescue her and kills cult leader Jacob before going to find Margot. After interrupting the ritual, Asmodeus attacks in the form of a grotesque creature that is actually Sarah. It kills Dale, but Margot and Chris manage to escape the farm.

Cops come across the scene and find Samuel is now possessed by Asmodeus. He uses his powers to get the cops to commit suicide before taking their car and driving into town to unleash unspeakable evil.