Original subtitles

In this world, there is real evil.

In the darkest shadows and in the most ordinary places.

These are the true stories of the innocent and the unimaginable.

When the Pickman family moves into their dream house, their future seems bright.

Until the ghost of a troubled child intrudes.

Unearthly vision.

violent attacks expose an evil force and fury brewing

for centuries

between the

world we see and the things we fear there are doors

when they are open nightmares become reality

Atchison, Kansas.

Home to the famed Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad.

For more than a century, it is a place that travelers pass through.

But there are some who never leave.

Restless souls whose lives were tragically cut short.

Now desperate for a ticket out of what some call the most haunted city in

Kansas.

In March 1993, newlyweds Tony and Deb Pickman rent a house in Atchison.

After weeks of unpacking, the house is finally starting to feel like a home.

I'm getting tired.

Me too.

I'm gonna go to bed, I think. Yeah, I'm coming with.

Well, we moved in.

Things seemed to be looking up for us.

My wife was expecting, and, you know, we were just wanting to start a family.

It's a good time for us.

Honey, could you go to my magazine, too?

When we found this house, it seemed perfect for us.

It was spacious, had several bedrooms, and we just knew that it was the perfect

house.

I thought you turned your TV on. For about a month, things seemed pretty

normal. All of a sudden, we noticed the television turning on and off.

We'd shut it off and it'd come right back on.

Hey.

Probably just faulty wiring. It's an old house.

I'll call the landlord about it tomorrow, okay?

Okay.

In the summer of 1993, Deb gives birth to a son they named Taylor.

Deb's sister, Karen Loader, flies in from Buffalo.

I figured I'd come in for a week and just help so that she can get some well

-needed rest.

The week passes quickly for the family.

debbie karen come up here come on look at this

look what you put i didn't do this i came in

here and they were like that karen i didn't did you do this no i was with you

all day i just threw several toys on the floor arranged in a circle

we kind of Played it off as if, you know, somebody had gotten into the house

and played a little prank.

You know who did this?

Alan.

It probably was Alan. I don't even know why I thought about it. Alan's Tony's

brother. He plays jokes on us all the time. He's like, guy's a moron.

And so that's kind of what we figured it was.

A few minutes later.

Look at that.

Yeah, it's very funny. How long did it take you to do that?

I didn't do that. I'm not kidding.

Same thing. Same positions facing outwards. How'd they get there? I

don't... We were shocked.

We could not believe what we were seeing. I don't know how he's getting in

and out of the house. Are they magnets or... The

window's locked. If this is Alan, I don't know how he's getting in and out

of here.

That night really put a chill down our spines.

To actually have something physical moved in a matter of minutes, it scared

us.

They all sleep in the same room that night, unsure what to make of the

strange event.

My sister left, and Tony's brother, who lived next door, came over.

So my question is, how did you get in and out of the house without us seeing

you at all?

We've always been pranksters with each other.

Maybe he's playing a trick on me.

Tony, I wasn't even home last night.

You had nothing to do with it at all.

I had nothing to do with it, I swear. He had no idea what I was talking about,

and I could just tell that he wasn't lying.

Come on, Tony, what do you think, you got a ghost or something?

Tony's brother finds it hard to take them seriously.

I'll stay and watch. He jokes, daring the toys to fall into formation.

Nothing weird.

No movement. Nothing weird.

No movement.

You're an idiot.

Hey, don't waste all my film. You're gonna buy me some more if you use it all

up. Come on, whoever you are.

Let's just get a picture.

That was more or less for me a warning.

This is getting out of hand. We need to get out of here.

All I could think it could be was a spirit or a ghost.

Tony's got the baby in the car seat.

And he's crying and fussing, and it's just kind of like a little frantic

moment.

I don't know, something stung me or something.

Felt like a bee sting or a spider bite on my back.

Real sharp pinch.

I kind of blew it off because we were just in a hurry to get out of there.

The Pickmans drive across town to the home of Tony's parents.

Oh,

good.

I know you did a nice job. Good?

Yeah. Oh, careful.

Are you okay?

What's wrong?

That's where I got that bug bite or something. I don't know. It's been

hurting me.

You have three big scratches on your back.

What are you talking about?

Come here. Look. I simply just couldn't believe my eyes.

Look at that.

Whoa.

This is bad.

Oh, my god. What caused that? Oh, my god. I don't know.

I had three what looked like fingernail scratches down the center of my back,

and that just floored me.

All I could think was something evil is causing this.

Baby, there's something in our house.

I didn't do that.

Look at that.

Oh my God. What caused that?

So many things were going through my mind.

I don't know what that's from.

I don't know, baby. There's something in our house.

Is this...

A mean spirit that we've got in our house, and do we go back to the house?

Do we move out? Do we just never go back again?

You're just totally clueless of what to do next.

Hey, Ma. Tony tries to calm down and face the sobering facts. You look good,

and I want to know how this new mama is.

I'm doing good.

We were just starting a family and couldn't afford to move.

The resources were all bled out. We had a baby and we needed a place to stay.

So we decided to go back home that night.

Tony's brother has an idea that he thinks may help.

I know this is going to sound crazy, but my boss has got a sister who's like a

medium or something.

You mean like a psychic?

Yeah. He suggests they invite her to visit.

What could it hurt?

The psychic arrives three days later.

Have a seat. Thank you. Based in California.

Barbara lectures on parapsychology and communicates with spirits.

Can I get you anything?

No, thank you. Let's just get right to it. First, I'll explain to you what it

is that I do.

I'm a medium, and I communicate with spirits or entities on the other side.

These are people that have transitioned over, and we no longer see them.

We kind of chatted a little bit, got to know her.

We told her some of the things that had been going on.

That kept happening. It started up in the nursery.

I wasn't a big believer in psychics.

There's a lot of energy in this house.

So I kind of...

Blew her off a little bit snap a couple pictures.

Oh, yes, that would be fine. Go ahead

All of a sudden, she started to lose her breath.

Do you want some water? We have to leave. We have to get out of this room.

She said, what's here doesn't want us here.

It's all right.

We're going downstairs now.

It doesn't like this many people in this room.

Are you all right? Yes, I'll be fine.

Thank you.

Take a picture at the top of the stairs.

Okay.

You're young, Spirit.

Being my first experience with the psychic, I wasn't quite sure what to

think. Sweetheart, what's your name?

She happened to come up with the name of Sally.

She said Sally was a little girl about seven years of age and had died in the

house.

The psychic asks the girl what she's doing in the house.

Sally felt that she was the baby's protector, that he was hers to protect.

The scratch that Tony had gotten was Sally's way of protecting the baby from

harm.

She's seven years old. She was going to do anything to protect Taylor, even from

his own parents.

To Deb, the ghost seems like a sweet, guardian angel that has lost her way.

Well, if we set aside some toys for her, right, then you wouldn't hurt baby

Jordan, would you?

That would actually make her feel welcome and loved. Hold on a second. I

don't know if that's such a great idea, encouraging whatever it is that's going

on. My husband wasn't really sure that this was a little spirit that was in the

house.

He was still thinking that there was something evil about it or wrong about

it. He thought it was better not to interact at all with it, not to egg it

on.

A

couple

of days after their meeting with the psychic, Deb goes shopping for a few

special gifts for Sally.

She also picks up their developed pictures.

eager to see if little Sally has been captured on film.

The first photo that I saw, it took all the energy out of me. I felt my knees

buckle. I almost dropped to my knees.

To me, it just looked horrid.

And I thought, oh, my God.

And the next picture had the same sort of image in there.

Just the feeling that you got when you looked at it was just horror.

Tony,

you are not going to believe this. Look at these.

What is that? Somebody must have spilled something on these. I don't think so.

That's in the print.

Tony Pickman is not sure what to make of the strange photos he took inside his

home.

The picture that really got me was we were coming back down the stairs.

I turned around and took a picture, and right in that spot, just floating in

midair, is this thing.

I couldn't explain it.

Made me scared.

Just see what she says.

I'm sure it'll be fine.

Barbara said Sally's protecting the baby.

Okay. Deb continues to believe that Sally is a harmless ghost.

Barbara said we should make her feel comfortable here.

Yeah, well, I'm not so sure about this whole Barbara situation.

Besides, he's too young to be staying in the nursery by himself. He can just stay

in here with us for a little while.

You can watch over our baby right now. All right.

Tony's concerned that his wife isn't taking the intrusion seriously.

He senses that there's something more sinister haunting his house.

Weeks pass without incident.

Deb's sister Karen returns for another visit,

this time with her husband.

Speaking of the house, it looks fantastic. Oh, it's beautiful. I love

what you've done with it. It looks so good. You guys did a really good job

with it. I love what you've done with it. It's all her.

It's all her.

Did you hear that?

I thought I heard something.

Sorry. I always think you hear something every five seconds. I thought I heard

detective. I know. Of course you didn't hear stuff.

Sorry.

She's a new mom. Look at these pictures.

I've been wanting to show them to you. And look at this.

Yeah, this is really weird.

Dad, what is this?

Yeah. What is that?

That's Sally. We don't know what it is, but it's almost... Protecting Taylor.

Yeah.

Okay, well we're gonna go get dinner. Will you help me? Sure.

Hey, do you guys need help? No, we're good.

We'll be right back. Just relax. You guys need anything or what? Some little

snack or something? You alright?

Guys, what happened?

The bed was just lit up on fire. It just lit on fire?

If it can do this, what's keeping it from setting one of us on fire or

harming the baby or, you know, my wife, any of us?

Deb tries to convince Tony that the fire was an isolated event.

He thinks she may be right when for the next few weeks, life at the Pickman

house returns to normal.

Each morning Tony returns home after working the graveyard shift at a grain

elevator

He came bursting in the bedroom and he's huffing and he's puffing.

I was so panicking, couldn't get words out.

And I'm thinking, who did you see?

And he said, Sally. And I said, you did. And what did she look like? And then I

bombarded him with like 50 questions.

It didn't try to hurt you, right? No.

There was nothing like that. Deb, however, is anything but scared.

She is more curious about the ghost than ever before.

Where did you see her? How did this start?

I was terribly jealous that Tony got to see this little apparition, this little

spirit. It was a ghost, right? Yes, she was dressed up in this little white

skirt. She had like a little bow in her hair. I was insane. I don't even know

what to make of it.

Why did she show herself to you?

The house remains quiet for months, as Deb waits anxiously for Sally to

appear to her.

But she never does.

It felt like something just grabbed me by the arm. I was literally pulled out

of bed.

It just grabbed my arm and just yanked me.

It scared me. I remember how tight it had my wrist.

I physically felt this happen.

I wasn't dreaming. It was very real to him.

Maybe it was just Sally.

No, it wasn't Sally.

I blamed a lot of what he saw or experienced on his lack of sleep and the

whole stress of being a new father.

I guess I wasn't believing a lot of the things that he was claiming.

Are you okay?

Oh, my

God.

What? Oh, my God. Look at my arms.

There were five distinct finger marks that had blistered up.

all around my wrist.

To me, how could that possibly have been a dream?

How could this little spirit have so much energy to pull somebody out of bed?

And, you know, what was the urgency?

What was she trying to say?

Sally, these toys are just for you.

If there's anything that you want, I'll get it for you. We want you to feel

comfortable here.

A stubbornness kicks in.

I just didn't feel like I could let it get the best of me.

Tony feels the baby is safe in the house, but a rift grows between him and

his wife.

I would constantly hear a whispering.

To me, it didn't sound like a little child. It sounded like almost three

grown-up people talking at once, like they were right in your ear talking to

you.

I thought you were just calling me.

What's going on? I don't know. I don't know what just happened. I was trying to

sleep. The voices started going again. I was trying to ignore him.

I'm again thinking, you know, he's lacking sleep.

He's catching things out of the corner of his eye or making things, you know,

his mind is making things up.

Tony fears the presence in the house is manipulating his feelings.

He's having trouble keeping his growing resentment toward Deb to himself.

I would get a real strong sense of hate, like I wanted to sometimes reach out and

just hurt her.

It's not like me. I love her so much, I'd never do anything to hurt her,

but... The longer we were there, the stronger that feeling was getting.

There was a noticeable change in Tony's demeanor.

We fought a lot more.

He was very short-tempered with me. He was almost argumentative in starting

issues.

The Pickmans call in the psychic for a second consultation.

And I got yanked up by something.

I mean, it was so bad I had blisters and marks on my wrists.

Well, I'll try and contact Sally and see if she can give us some answers to

what's going on.

It's her.

There's another entity in this room.

Sally?

Sally, what do you mean it's her?

There's another entity in this room.

A much older and much stronger than our little Sally is, okay?

It seems to me that this other older entity is the one that is doing these

things. And Sally is the one taking the blame.

She's communicating with Sally because this other female would not interact

with her at all.

This is really more beyond my expertise.

What I would like to do is contact a very qualified paranormal investigative

team who has extraordinary experience in things like this. I think it's a good

idea. I think it's a really good idea. You really want a whole team of people

in here? My first reaction was, no way.

We live in a small town.

We'd be laughing stock.

What other option do we have right now? This thing is in our house, and we're

not going to be able to get rid of it unless we have a team come in and tell

us exactly what it is. Exactly. In my mind, if it wasn't a spirit in the

house, it could only have been one thing, and that was the devil.

That just scared me to death.

Maybe someone coming in to intervene could help explain what was there or

either help explain it or help get rid of it.

Within days, a team of paranormal investigators arrives, led by world

-renowned medium and researcher Peter James.

A ghost is the ethereal double of its physical counterpart.

We become a ghost

Depending upon the circumstances as to how we die, if we die untimely,

tragically, or violently, then we're rendered a ghost.

I prefer not knowing any details of any specific haunting.

It was my job to identify the anomalous activity.

I have a little chat here. I need to find out exactly what's been going on.

He asked if we had a little daughter.

about the age seven, because as they pulled up, there was a little girl

staring out the upstairs window.

She wasn't doing anything in particular. She was just looking at me with a lot of

curiosity, as any other normal-looking child would do.

Bear with me a minute while I get a feel for it.

An electromagnetic frequency monitor, or EMF, indicates a change in the

electromagnetic energy in the room.

Peter senses the presence of two spirits, a child

and an adult female who is very powerful.

What's your name Sally

I Just had this big broad smile on my face because that was a second person

who had Basically backed up the fact that there was a little girl named Sally

in our house

Peter proceeds cautiously.

He knows that people experiencing sudden or brutal deaths can be thrust into the

spirit world confused, fearful, and even angry.

This is their space, and I'm invading their space.

And if they dislike it, they'll let you know.

i definitely feel the presence of the female spirit here the whole focus had

been on the fact that we had this little girl spirit and now we're having an

entity that is more resembling an adult female and we're you know wondering why

why do we have an adult female in the house i feel that female spirit

here definitely definitely

But she's... But she's trying to repel me.

Trying to repel us.

She's trying... We are not afraid of you.

What's happening?

I don't know. What?

My back.

Oh, my God, Tony. You have huge scratches on your back.

Oh my god.

Something's happened.

I don't know.

Something's going on.

I was so scared the whole time.

He was telling me, you know, don't be afraid. We can't let it know that we're

afraid of it.

The nursery is a hotbed of electromagnetic energy.

So now... See, there are two cribs here.

I thought you told me you only had one child.

We do. We got this crib and these toys for Sally.

We thought she'd want her own space.

Make her feel comfortable.

I'm getting something.

Sally?

Sally, if that's you, you be nice.

Peter tries his best to keep Tony calm.

He was really petrified.

He just couldn't move.

And of course, I tried to put him at ease, saying not to be nervous.

But he was very, very shaken by all this.

Peter James and his team continue to investigate the entire house, inside and

out.

Peter tries one last time to communicate with the powerful spirit in the house.

Go back to your room. Don't go down there.

Don't go down there.

Go back to your room.

Finally, the ghost reveals herself.

And a troubled past life comes sharply into view.

Peter sees images from a previous century.

The woman was a servant to a physician who owned the house.

She was also his mistress.

I've done everything I can think to.

They kept their affair hidden, fearing a scandal in such racially divided times.

So that's looking much better.

Sally was their seven-year-old

daughter.

It's a tragic portrait of a secret family.

I became empathic.

and I was able to sense how she died.

Young Sally contracted pneumonia.

A hundred years ago, they didn't have the kind of technology nor the

medication that could save a child dying from pneumonia.

This is how she died.

The forces within the house are strong.

But Peter believes the Pickmans don't have to be victims in their own home.

Well, what do we do then? I mean, do we get an exorcism? Well, not exorcism.

Cleansing.

And that takes a lot of data gathering, takes a lot of preparation.

That's not what you need.

You people are in control.

You. This is your house.

And you set the rules.

Now, you've got to let these spirits know that they need to comply with those

rules or they can't stay here.

Okay. Comfortable with that?

Yeah, I mean, I have to be, right? Yes, you do. You have to be.

Deb lobbies to stay in the house She feels the more they know about the

ghosts the safer they'll be I Was so

enamored with the activity

Deb

handled it better than me

She's a little more open to the paranormal.

It's been several weeks since Peter James and his team visited the house.

Hey, how's work?

Great.

You want some tea?

Sure, the Pickmans have saved some money, but Deb is still reluctant to

leave.

Peter James called today.

He wants to do another investigation on our house.

I think it's a good idea, Tony.

Hasn't done much good so far, has it?

No, I just really... Everything in the house, the longer we stayed there, it

just seemed everything got heavier.

I don't know how much more of this I can take.

Every time they come, we learn something new about Sally.

What do you always... What's going on about Sally for? I'm sick of worrying

about Sally. You act like it's a sweet little ghost, but it's not.

It's like a demon or something.

Look what it's doing to me.

Look at my arms. It's trying to kill me. You don't even care.

Sweet little girl.

Tony realizes

the fight with his wife was all in his head.

Being her husband and the man in the house, I wasn't all the time admitting.

How scared I was.

I didn't want to scare her too much, so I kept a lot to myself.

I think we need to get out of here. We have to get out, because if we don't get

out, someone's going to get hurt.

And I'm scared to death it could be you.

Why would I get hurt?

I keep having these weird daydreams or something, and they always... Tony

describes the dark, brooding thoughts that have slowly consumed him.

And I keep zoning out. The inexplicable desire to assert his power and to hurt

her.

He can't explain why, but the feeling is there.

He cannot let the entities control him any longer.

I think we need to get out right now.

Okay.

I'll start looking at ads tomorrow.

All I could think about was evil thoughts.

This isn't me.

Why am I thinking this way?

All I could think was, I just want to hurt her.

What just happened? Are you okay?

What happened? Are you okay?

Get the baby. We're getting out of here.

What happened? I'm all right. Just go get the baby. Let's go.

That was it for me.

I said, we're moving.

We got to get out of here. Somebody's going to get hurt if we don't.

And I'm scared it's going to be you. And that was the final straw.

Peter James theorizes that Sally's mother caused the scratches and welts on

Tony's body and not young Sally as Barbara originally thought.

The activity escalated because Tony wanted less and less to do with the

ghost. This is why she sort of pounced on him literally, violently.

Once we moved, the heaviness, the bad thoughts, everything just instantly

gone.

You know, I've never felt that way since.

No matter how much it wanted me to hurt my wife, I wasn't going to let it. Are

you okay?

Yeah, I'm fine.

I mean, how could a guy not be protective of his family in that

situation?

It's been more than 10 years since we've lived in that house.

And, you know, people come up to us and ask, what do you think was going on

there? Why do you think these things happened to you?

And it's such a very open-ended question because we really, we don't know.

It just kind of leaves a hole in that part of your life. You experienced it,

but you can't explain why. You have no reason.

You have no justification.

That's kind of a hard thing to deal with.

It's affected me.

I have personally, I think, become a little more spiritual.

I'm not a doubter anymore. There's no way I could be.

Not after what I went through. I won't doubt anybody.

I've got to take their word for it.

An investigation of cemetery records from the late 19th century reveals that

a young girl named Sally did indeed live in the Pickman's house.

She died at the age of seven.

Her gravestone still stands, but any writing has long been washed away by

wind and time.