Desolation(2018)

Plot Summary

• Los Angeles - Having been driven mad, actress Monica Leskova commits suicide by setting herself on fire.Elmira, New York - Rape survivor Katie Connor learns from her friend Debbie that Hollywood actor Jay Cutter is staying at the hotel where they work while he shoots a movie locally. Katie and Jay gradually develop a romantic relationship.Katie avoids discussing her rape and subsequent abortion with her therapist, who is distracted by a virus that disables his tablet containing session records.Katie agrees to go to Los Angeles with Jay. Katie moves into Jay's apartment in The Providence, a dark old building with a sordid history of suicides and murders. Katie meets Jay's upstairs neighbor Father Bill O'Shea.After gifting her with a new wardrobe, Jay takes Katie to a party where she meets three of his insensitive friends. Katie later overhears the friends discussing the suicide death of Jay's previous girlfriend Monica. Katie also discovers she is out of her prescription medication.Upon returning to the apartment building, Katie has an odd experience while alone in which the stairwell goes dark and she seemingly sees a ghostly little girl named Grace.Katie and Jay bond over a discussion of their respective suicide attempts. Katie meets another of Jay's strange neighbors, an overweight woman who works as an online camgirl.Katie experiences another vision of Grace. Katie also has a disturbing encounter in which she thinks she sees a window washer recording her from outside.Jay leaves Katie alone in the apartment while he goes on a three-day film shoot. Katie meets a confused resident named Angela Marcus. Katie asks Father Bill about Grace, who confirms no children live in the building. Katie begins using pills found in Jay's medicine cabinet. Katie follows strong vibrations to a massive server room. Katie sees Grace again.Words written on the ceiling instruct Katie to enter the kitchen and count to seven. When she does, the phone rings. The man on the other end asks to speak to Grace. The man calls a second time claiming to be Katie's rapist Charlie. By the time Katie retrieves Father Bill for help, the ceiling message is missing.Unable to use her cellphone since losing her charger, Katie calls Debbie from a payphone. Katie gives Debbie the address and phone number for Jay's apartment. Afterward, a man on the street claims to recognize Katie, cryptically referring to a website involving gambling.Three men attack Katie in the apartment, but only take her purse. A male police officer and a female officer arrive to question Katie. The male cop makes disparaging accusations while the female cop uses her hand to sexually assault Katie.In frustrated anger, Katie smashes the bathroom mirror. She discovers a camera hidden in the wall.A straight razor as well as a chair and electrical cord conspicuously appear within Katie's line of sight. Katie tries calling Debbie, but a different person claims to be living at Debbie's address. Katie finds more cameras throughout the apartment as well as the building. Katie calls Jay, who tells Katie that her claims make her sound crazy. Katie accuses Jay of being involved in a conspiracy seemingly designed to drive her to suicide.Katie tries leaving the building, but is stopped by one of the men who attacked her along with the two police officers. Katie encounters Grace, who asks why Katie killed her.Katie goes to see Father Bill. Bill tells Katie that everything is in her mind, and stems from the guilt of having aborted Grace. Katie is shocked that Bill knows her personal details.Katie encounters another strange resident, Karen Delgado, as Karen looks for Jay's cat Flirt. Katie finds a copy of her hometown newspaper reporting her suicide. While smashing up Jay's apartment, Katie uncovers a secret passage.Revealing himself as part of the conspiracy, Bill phones a superior about Jay's apartment going dark.Katie follows the secret passage to a staging area where she discovers that Jay's friends and the police officers are actors. Props and scripts confirm that Katie is an unwilling participant on LifeBet, a voyeuristic gambling website that sponsors betting on how suicidal people will kill themselves. Katie uses an ax to murder the actress who played the female police officer.Debbie shows up at The Providence looking for Katie. Katie witnesses Bill stabbing Debbie to death.Katie finds a suicide victim who had also been manipulated by Jay in another apartment. Jay enters. Katie takes Jay at knifepoint and escorts him to the roof where she has a confrontation with Bill.Bill intentionally shoots Jay. Bill then exploits Katie's growing despondency by convincing her to jump off the roof. Katie does, but she survives the fall. As authorities arrive at the scene to take Katie away in an ambulance, Bill orders over the phone for all of the servers to be wiped clean.Bill proposes moving the LifeBet operation to Bulgaria. Bill and a casting agent interview an actress for a role that involves breaking a man as their next victim.

Storyline

• In New York, the cashier of a restaurant Katie is a traumatized woman since she was raped and got an abortion some time ago. Katie is under therapy and uses pills to keep stable and her best friend is Debbie that works with her. When she meets the handsome movie star Jay in the restaurant, they have a love affair and Jay invites Katie to move to his apartment in Los Angeles. She meets Father Bill on the arrival and stays with Jay a couple of days. But he needs to shoot a film and leaves Katie alone in the apartment. Soon strange things happen driving Katie to question her sanity. — Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil