In a forgotten countryside village nestled between crumbling cliffs and dense black forest, a widow named Elena Mirek moves into an inherited ancestral home with her mute son, Jakob, hoping to escape the sorrow of a tragic past. But soon after settling in, Jakob begins to speak—not to Elena, but to the basement floorboards. He says there’s a boy beneath the house, one who whispers secrets and asks to come play. At first, Elena dismisses it as trauma-fueled imagination, but strange occurrences start piling up: creaking beneath the floors, dirt in Jakob’s bed, and drawings of a pale child with hollow eyes.
Curious and unnerved, Elena descends into the basement and discovers a sealed trapdoor hidden under rotted crates. The villagers, when questioned, grow silent at its mention. One elderly man mutters only, “He was buried down there for a reason.” That night, Jakob is found sleepwalking near the trapdoor, his hands caked with soil. The boy from below begins to infiltrate their lives—mirrors fog with messages, animals vanish, and Jakob grows increasingly distant, repeating phrases no child should know. Elena begins to suspect this is no ordinary ghost, but something older… and hungry.
Researching the town’s history, Elena uncovers that in the 1800s, a child named Adrik was born during a blood moon, rumored to be the offspring of a forest demon and a human mother. As livestock died and townsfolk suffered violent fits, they blamed the child and locked him beneath the Mirek estate, where he was said to have scratched at the walls for years before falling silent. The trapdoor was sealed with a ritual. Now, that seal is weakening—and Jakob, through dreams and whispers, is being used as a vessel for Adrik’s return.
In the final act, the trapdoor bursts open, and a shadowed figure crawls forth—not fully boy, not fully beast, with a voice that mimics Jakob’s to lure Elena into mercy. She must decide whether to banish the entity, risking her son’s soul, or allow the reunion that may doom them all. With the help of a reclusive folklorist and an ancient rite involving fire, salt, and blood, Elena confronts the thing from below. In a heart-wrenching climax, Jakob briefly breaks free from Adrik’s influence, begging her to let go. Elena lights the flame. The house burns. In the ashes, no bodies are found—only a single child’s drawing… of two boys, hand in hand, walking into the woods.