In Pasadena, California in 1969, a young Mexican couple rushes to the home of medium Shaun San Dena (Flor de Maria Chahua). Their son had stolen jewelry from a group of gypsies three days prior, and since then, has been complaining of seeing and hearing things not of this earth. San Dena tries to help the boy in a seance, but she and the boy's parents can only watch in horror as the boy is thrown from the balcony by an unseen force before being pulled into Hell by demonic hands.
Forty years later, Christine Brown (Alison Lohman), a loan officer in Los Angeles, hopes to be promoted to assistant manager over her conniving co-worker, Stu Rubin (Reggie Lee). Christine's boss, Mr. Jacks (David Paymer), advises her that she needs to demonstrate that she can make tough decisions when she needs to. That same day, Mrs. Sylvia Ganush (Lorna Raver), an elderly gypsy woman, asks for a third extension on her mortgage because she is struggling with economic problems due to an illness. To prove herself to Mr. Jacks, Christine, against her better judgment, denies Mrs. Ganush the extension. In desperation, Mrs. Ganush prostrates herself before Christine, begging and kissing the hem of her skirt. Christine panics and shoves the woman away, shaming her in public. As security guards escort Ganush out, Mr. Jacks compliments Christine on how she handled the situation and implies that if she can close another big loan, the assistant manager position will be hers.
That night Christine is attacked in her car by Ganush. After a violent struggle, Ganush removes a button from Christine's jacket and uses it to place a curse on her. Mrs. Ganush disappears, leaving the cursed button with Christine. Later, Christine's boyfriend, college professor Clay Dalton (Justin Long), takes her to a coffee shop to comfort her. On the way home, they pass a fortune teller's store, and Christine insists they go in. There, they meet the fortune teller Rham Jas (Dileep Rao), who tells Christine that she has a dark spirit upon her.
Alone at home, Christine is attacked by the dark spirit, which appears as the silhouette of a goat's head. The spirit breaks some windows, cuts the power, and throws Christine across the room, causing minor injuries. Clay assumes that Mrs. Ganush followed them and attacked Christine again. However, when she insists that no one attacked her, they contact a psychologist. The psychologist says that victims of assault often relive past trauma, which seems to settle Christine. That night, Christine dreams that Ganush attacks her in bed, and at work the next day, she has a violent nosebleed. Fleeing work, she tries to track down Ganush at the home of her granddaughter, Ilenka. There, Christine learns that Ganush died the previous night, and Ilenka is in the process of holding a wake for her. Christine makes a scene by accidentally knocking over Ganush's body, and Ilenka tells her that she deserves what is coming for her.
Christine consults Rham Jas again, who tells her that the spirit haunting her is actually a powerful demon named Lamia, and that she is to be tormented by the demon for three days before being dragged to Hell to burn for eternity. Horrified by this revelation, Christine sacrifices her pet kitten in hopes that it will satisfy Lamia. When Lamia torments her during dinner with Clay's parents, Christine and Clay decide to pay $10,000 to enlist the help of the now elderly Shaun San Dena (Adriana Barraza). San Dena prepares a seance, the goal of which is to trap Lamia in a live goat and kill it, which will destroy the demon. This plan backfires, however, and Lamia assaults everyone in the room. San Dena manages to banish Lamia from the seance, but dies in the process.
Rham Jas tells Christine that Lamia will still return for her in just one more day unless she can find a way to stop it for good. He then tells her the only way to get rid of the curse is to give the cursed item to someone else as a gift, thereby cursing him or her. Christine seals the button from her jacket in an envelope and considers giving it to Stu, since his actions cheated them both out of the promotion, but she cannot bring herself to condemn someone else to Hell. She then decides to give the button to Mrs. Ganush. Rham Jas confirms the plan will work, damning the Gypsy woman's soul to Hell. Christine drives to the graveyard and digs up Ganush's grave. In a torrential rainstorm, Christine jams the envelope in the old woman's mouth and leaves believing she has beaten the curse.
The next day, Christine goes to Los Angeles Union Station to meet Clay, who is preparing to propose to her; they have plans to spend a relaxing weekend in Santa Barbara. Clay gives her the envelope with the button in it. She had dropped it in his car the night before and accidentally picked up a similar one, which contained a rare coin she had given to Clay earlier in the film. Horrified, Christine falls onto the tracks as a train barrels into the station. Just before she is struck, the ground beneath her opens and demonic arms pull her down into Hell. She tries to crawl out, but to no avail as her flesh burns away in seconds and she screams desperately for help before the ground closes above her and she is damned to suffer for eternity. As the train roars through, Clay can only watch, frozen in terror as his girlfriend disappears under the stoned track. Tearful for the horrific sight that he has just witnessed, he has a brief glance at the button he is still holding in his hand before returning his attention back to the spot where Christine was dragged to her death, glancing down in horror.
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