In the aftermath of the doomed documentary project that ended in tragedy, the footage from the original “1st Summoning” was leaked onto the dark web — and quickly disappeared. A year later, graduate student and occult researcher Mara Kessler discovers fragments of the film encoded within an ancient grimoire believed to predate even the Book of Enoch. Obsessively drawn to its cryptic diagrams and reversed chants, Mara assembles a new team to investigate what really happened in that abandoned factory in Arkansas — where four students vanished without a trace.
As Mara and her team retrace the steps of the original group, the town remains tight-lipped. Locals speak of a secret sect known as The Hollowed Circle, whose rituals were said to summon not demons, but fractured echoes of the self — entities that fed on guilt, memory, and fear. The deeper the team delves into the church’s hidden tunnels and sacrificial altars, the more their technology malfunctions. Batteries drain instantly. Audio loops backwards. And Mara begins receiving voicemails from her deceased brother — each one ending with a plea: “Don’t finish the rite.”
What began as academic curiosity devolves into terror as the group unwittingly triggers the Second Phase — a continuation of the unfinished ritual from the original film. They begin experiencing hallucinations, but all identical — shared visions of flame-eyed children, impossible geometry, and a countdown etched into their own skin. It becomes clear that the ritual was never about summoning something into the world — it was about tearing something out of it: a piece of reality itself. And it’s happening again.
In the final descent, Mara is forced to confront the ultimate truth: the “first summoning” was never the beginning. It was the seal, not the opening. Her brother had been part of the original cult, and the ritual had succeeded in hiding something within her since childhood — a vessel unknowingly bred for the final act. To stop the unraveling of their world, she must either offer herself willingly… or unleash a force older than God, born from forgotten tongues and looping time. 1st Summoning: The Final Rite leaves behind the jump scares of modern horror and embraces cosmic dread — where terror comes not from what we see, but from what we awaken within ourselves.
