- When a devout woman takes ownership of a family home in the coastal hills north of Santa Barbara, she is possessed by the spirit of a Native shaman and transformed into a powerful seductress who begins to play out a trauma from her past.
- A woman lights votive candles before a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary whose bleeding heart is exposed. As she begins a silent prayer, a caregiver calls out to her from the adjacent kitchen of her home. The caregiver has brought take-out food for their dinner. The woman finishes her prayer and enters a bathroom. There, she glances at her disheveled appearance in a mirror, brushes back her hair, and opens a medicine container. It is apparent that she is weak and dealing with some malady. Meanwhile, the caregiver, who has served up their meal on plates, notices scattered financial papers on the dining table and several photos of the woman and a man, presumably her deceased husband. When the woman emerges from the bathroom, she suggests that they eat in the living room rather than clearing the cluttered table. A short time later, the caregiver has hungrily consumed his meal and sips on a beer. The woman has hardy touched her food or drink. In conversation, she reveals to him that she has recently been diagnosed with cancer and will be beginning treatment. The caregiver had been looking after her deceased husband, and he assures the woman that he will take care of her as well, if that is what she would want. She responds gratefully. In his asking about the papers on the table, the woman tells the caregiver that those are documents from her mother's estate. The woman's mother has recently passed, and an executor sent them to her. The caregiver asks the woman about her mother's house, and she answers that she doesn't know what she will do it; she hasn't been there since she was a college freshman. The only thing she wants from the home, and which the executor did not send, is an artwork, an engraving of the Mater Dolorosa (the Mother of Sorrows surrounded by daggers.) The caregiver offers to drive her to the home, which is a long-day's journey, and the woman readily accepts his generosity. Within a few days, the woman and the caregiver travel along the coast and into the coastal hills. As they drive up a winding road toward her family home, the woman and caregiver come to a sudden stop, as they make a sharp turn and encounter a friar walking on the road ahead. The friar, dressed in traditional hooded habit, steps aside to allow the car to pass. As it does, however, the friar has a vision of the woman with a native woman. Soon after, the woman and caregiver arrive at the family home, which is a unique, glass-and-steel dwelling on the ridge overlooking the horizon. Stepping out of the caregiver's car, the exhausted and casually dressed woman takes a moment to step to the edge of the property to look over a home at which she has purposely avoided. Entering the home, both the caregiver and woman are struck by the smell of something foul. The caregiver opens the glass door and encourages the women to step outside, while he looks for an electric fan to clear the air. Indeed, the woman goes to the deck and looks out. There, she sees the friar continuing his trek up the hillside drive toward the house; she sees him rest for a moment in the shade. The woman begins a slow walk around the perimeter of the large, hilltop property. She passes an unfilled swimming pool. Standing at the bottom of the empty pool is a woman dressed in the clothing of the Indigenous people who once inhabited this area. The woman does not see the Indigenous woman, and continues walking. The woman walks to the furthest point of the property and then turns back. As she turns back, the woman stops; she is startled at something that she sees ahead. After a moment, she walks toward it. At the edge of the property, the friar dispenses holy water and utters a quiet prayer. Suddenly, the woman walks up and confronts the friar. The friar, although he has never met the woman, recognizes that she is the daughter of the most recent owner. He tells the woman that he has known her mother; further, he tells her that her mother has seen the spirit of an Indigenous woman who she believed once inhabited the hilltop. At this moment, the caregiver finds an electric fan, but, after plugging it into an outlet near the glass door, it does not operate. Hearing voices outside, he goes out to the deck and witnesses from afar the woman speaking with the friar. Disbelieving, the woman asks the friar if believes in this Indigenous woman. The friar responds ambiguously, but he shows the woman a drawing that her mother had made of the "spirit" she has seen. He tells her that her mother made numerous drawings of the spirit. The woman says that she knows nothing about that. The friar suggests that maybe the drawings are somewhere in the house. With that, the woman turns away dismissively and returns to the house. The friar continues his blessing from the edge of the property. Inside the home, the caregiver asks the woman what was going on with the friar. She shrugs it off as an appeal for money and nothing more. With that, the caregiver goes to bring in supplies and their baggage from the car. While this occurs, the woman takes note of a framed photo on a table. It is a photo of a girl and women lying on grassland in long, summer dresses. Presumably, it is an image of her as a child with her mother. At that moment, the woman seems to react to something within her. Indeed, from behind, the Indigenous woman inexplicably stands reaching toward her with an open hand, sensing and healing something within her. At that moment, the caregiver enters carrying their overnight bags, and he drops them on the floor. The Indigenous woman is no longer seen. The caregiver senses a slight change in the woman and asks how she is feeling. The woman smiles as if she has suddenly been rejuvenated. The caregiver goes back outside for the groceries. The woman strikes a match and lights a votive candle beside the framed photo of her and her mother. Reentering, the caregiver takes the grocery bags into the kitchen. On an impulse, the woman picks up one of the overnight bags and then the other. She does so with surprising new-found strength. She carries them both upstairs and goes out of sight. The caregiver enters from the kitchen expecting to do this task himself, and he is surprised to see the woman accomplish this task herself. Upstairs, the woman drops one of the bags into a unadorned bedroom. She carries the other to another bedroom, one that is obviously the master bedroom. She enters with some hesitancy, drops the bag, and moves to exit. Suddenly, she stops. She sees a photo of herself as a teenager with an adult man embracing her, presumably her father. At that moment, she hears the seducing voice of her father in her head, and she freezes. The caregiver enters the bedroom and makes mention of the photo. The woman does not answer his question but only says that he will use this room. The woman reenters the first bedroom, slips off her shoes, and lies down on the bed. The room appears familiar to her, as if it were her former bedroom. After a moment, she closes her eyes and falls asleep. Soon, the Indigenous woman appears at the foot of the bed. She extends her arm and opens her hand over the woman. Gradually, the sleeping woman begins to react to some power that the Indigenous woman possesses. In a dreamlike sleep, the woman sees herself emerging from darkness into a mysterious light. In this light, the woman sees the Indigenous woman waiting for her. The woman approaches close and sees that the Indigenous woman has a bleeding wound above her heart. The woman reaches out and touches the wound. The Indigenous woman reaches out and touches the woman's cheek. She turns the woman's head to look at something to the side. As if part of the dream, the caregiver is in the kitchen putting away groceries into a refrigerator. The Indigenous woman holds the woman's gaze on the caregiver for a long moment. Suddenly, in close up, the caregiver opens a drawer in the refrigerator to put away something, but he stops when he finds something strange inside. The caregiver takes out a crumpled sheet of paper and unfolds it. He sees that it is a drawing of a stick figure with a knife at its bleeding heart and the words "she's real" written alongside. Suddenly, the woman calls out, and the dream is dispelled. She appears at the far end of the kitchen wearing a long summer dress, while her hair hangs loose and flirty about her shoulders. The caregiver shows her the drawing. She remarks that it was probably done by her mother, as mentioned by the friar. The caregiver takes note of the dress that she wears. The woman says that it was her mother's, which she found hanging in her own closet. Flirtatiously, she asks him if he likes it. He says that it is "nice." He tells her that in putting away groceries that he realizes that they forgot to bring beer. Familiarly, the woman says that there is sure to be some alcohol around, as hers was a "vodka family." After a glance into a couple of cupboards, they find a bottle. The woman reaches for a glass from another cupboard and takes the bottle from the caregiver. She pours a generous amount and hands it to him. The caregiver takes a modest sip. The woman takes the glass from him and drinks the entire contents in the face of the caregiver's cautionary words. Seductively wiping her lips, the woman asks if he would like to go for a walk. The caregiver, concerned about the woman's health, wonders if that is a good idea. The woman turns toward the glass doors, and she nearly skips her way out to the exterior deck. Nonplussed, the caregiver follows. Outside, the woman strides quickly along one edge of the property that leads toward a lookout. The caregiver strives to keep up with her. At last, the woman reaches the lookout and indicates to the trailing caregiver that the fog-shrouded mountain range ahead was sacred to the Indigenous people who once inhabited this area. In recognition of that, the colonizing Spanish called it "escalera de los angeles," or Angels Ladder. With that remark, the woman slides behind the caregiver and begins to questions him flirtatiously. The caregiver is visibly uncomfortable, and he tries to keep up boundaries. But the woman seems newly possessed with an insistent libido, and she begins to caress the caregiver until at last he is forced to break away. The woman's sexual spell is instantly broken, and she sees what she has been doing. She is repeating a sexual abuse that was carried out on her by a loved one when she was indefensible. Shamed and embarrassed, the woman runs back to the house. The caregiver goes after her, trying to ensure that no further harm comes to her. Left in the place is Indigenous woman who seems pleased with herself at having driven away this new set of interlopers.
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