After talking with his girlfriend on his cellphone, a black man,
Andre Hayworth, is abducted while walking through a suburb late at
night.
Months later, black photographer Chris Washington and his white
girlfriend Rose Armitage take a trip to meet Rose's parents,
neurosurgeon Dean and psychiatrist Missy. Rose says that although she
has never had a black boyfriend before, she is sure that everyone will
be welcoming. At the house, Chris is greeted by Rose's parents and
brother Jeremy, but he is disturbed by the odd behavior from the black
groundskeeper and housekeeper, Walter and Georgina. That night Chris
talks to Missy about his mother, who died in a hit and run
when he was eleven. As they talk, Missy hypnotizes Chris into a
paralytic state, sending his consciousness into a void that Missy calls
"the sunken place". Chris wakes up in bed the next morning and believes
he had a nightmare, but later realizes that Missy has hypnotized him
into quitting smoking.
Guests arrive for the Armitages' annual get-together, where various
older white couples take an uncanny interest in Chris. He meets Logan
King, a black guest whose bizarre demeanor and familiarity unsettles
him. He calls his best friend, TSA
Officer Rodney "Rod" Williams, whom he tells about his hypnosis and the
unusual behavior of everyone. He later tries to stealthily take a
picture of Logan with his phone, but its camera flash causes Logan to
suffer a nosebleed, and then hysterically yell at Chris to "Get out!" Dean claims that Logan has suffered an epileptic seizure,
but Chris is skeptical. Chris and Rose go on a walk, and he convinces
Rose to leave with him. While they are away, Dean holds a mysterious
auction, a picture of Chris on display, with Jim Hudson, a blind art
dealer, placing the winning bid.
While packing to leave, Chris sends the picture of Logan to Rod, who
recognizes Logan as Andre Hayworth, a past mutual acquaintance. Chris
also finds dozens of photos of Rose in prior relationships with many
black people, including Walter and Georgina. Alarmed, Chris tells Rose
that they need to leave immediately, but Rose and her family block him.
Chris tries to escape but is incapacitated by Missy's hypnosis. Rod
worries when Chris does not return or answer his calls and discovers
that Andre Hayworth went missing months ago. He goes to the police, but
is derided.
Chris wakes up strapped to a chair. A video explains the family's
method of pseudo-immortality in which Dean transplants the brains of his
older friends into the bodies of younger black people, selected by Rose
and hypnotically prepped by Missy. Jim Hudson wants to use Chris as a
host so he can regain sight, with Chris being doomed to exist in "the
sunken place" for the rest of his life. When Chris asks "Why black
people?", Jim says that black people are currently in fad. Seeing
stuffing is protruding from holes in his chair, Chris uses it to plug
his ears, blocking the hypnotic commands that render him unconscious.
Gaining the element of surprise, Chris breaks Jeremy's neck, slashes
Missy's throat, impales Dean in the chest and leaves Jim in the
operating room with his brain exposed.
As Chris drives away, Rose trusts that Walter and Georgina, being
vessels for her grandparents, will stop him. Chris hits Georgina and
takes her into the car, feeling guilt over the failure to help his
mother. Georgina wakes up and causes a car crash which kills her. Rose
and Walter catch up, but before Rose can shoot him, Chris uses his
phone's camera flash to free the real personality inside Walter. Walter
takes Rose's rifle and shoots her in the gut, then kills himself. Chris
begins to strangle Rose, but cannot bring himself to kill her and stops
trying just as a police car pulls up. Rose cries out for help, hoping
that Chris will be seen as the attacker, but the driver turns out to be
Rod in a TSA vehicle. He and Chris drive away as Rose succumbs to her
gunshot wound.
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