The Spirit Box - Recap

On Halloween in Springville, two high school students, Shelby Johnson and Becca, are at Shelby’s home trying to review for their first aid test. When Shelby worries about passing, Becca points out that their teacher, Mr. Drake, has the hots for her. Shelby doesn’t believe it and notes that it’s their last Halloween before Becca goes to Taiwan. She notes that Halloween is the most important date in the Wiccan calendar, and Becca suggests that they have a séance in honor of the holiday. Shelby warns that it could be dangerous and Becca admits it’s a lame idea. They discuss the idea of spirits and Becca asks if Shelby believes that her mother is looking down on her. Shelby suggests that they make a spirit box to contact spirits and Becca agrees.



The two girls follow the instructions in one of Shelby’s books and assemble the spirit box from a discarded pizza box. They mix a bit of their blood and make the proper symbols, then light candles and put two fingers on a makeshift pointer. Becca doesn’t take it seriously at first, jokingly telling the spirits if they’re there, but the pointer suddenly moves of its own volition to the word “Yes.” The spirit then spells out its name, “MLE,” and they realize it’s Emily Sarah D’Angelo. Uncertain if it’s really Emily, Shelby asks the spirit to tell them how it killed itself. The spirit spells out M-R-D-R, and when they ask if Emily didn’t kill herself, the spirit signals ‘Yes.” When they ask who murdered her, all of the candles blow out simultaneously and the pointer moves to three letters that weren’t there before: “L8R.”



Becca and Shelby look up an article on Emily, a cheerleader, which reports that she drowned in a car accident. Neither girl knew her very well and they wonder why Emily didn’t contact one of her friends. Before they can return to the spirit box and ask Emily, there’s a knock at the door. Shelby’s father Dan comes in and tells them that they have to break it up, and that Shelby has to be at the swimming pool for practice the next morning.

The next morning, Shelby is alone at the pool practicing. When she stops at the edge, she hears someone moving but doesn’t see anyone. She’s unaware that Emily’s spirit is standing on the edge behind her. When Shelby reaches behind her, she touches the spirit’s foot and turns, but it disappears.



Later in gym, Mr. Drake is having the students practice first aid. Becca suggests to Shelby that it was just a pervy janitor, but Shelby doesn’t believe it. Her friend admits that she got a text message consisting of L8R repeated over and over. When Mr. Drake comes over, Becca hastily puts away her cell phone as the teacher checks the tourniquet that Becca put on Shelby. Once he walks away, Shelby worries that they’ve unleashed the spirit and Becca says that they have to do what Emily wants: revenge. She wants to use the spirit box again and suggests they go to the place where Emily died.

That night, the two girls go to the river where Emily died. They come to the recognition marker put there in Emily’s honor and Shelby remembers how her father saw the corpse, with its eyes eaten out. She had texted her suicide note to a bunch of people, but they figure that Emily’s murderer could have sent the fake text message after he killed the girl. Becca goes to get the spirit box and Shelby walks down to the river to wash off her hands. As she leans over, a hand emerges from the water and clutches at her briefly. Shelby climbs up the riverbank and runs away, and Becca has no choice but to go with her.

A few days later, Becca picks up Shelby for school. Shelby has the file on Emily’s death, which she stole from the record office while visiting her father. It contains a lab report that showed lethal levels of alcohol and a prescription sedative, barbsieconyl, in Emily’s bloodstream. The sedative hadn’t been on the market since 1999 and Shelby doesn’t believe Emily would have taken a drug overdose before drowning herself. She figures that someone drugged Emily so she wouldn’t put up a fight as they pushed her car into the river. Becca goes to talk to a friend about Emily and Mr. Drake approaches Shelby. He notices a photo of Shelby’s mother that she has in her lock and notes that he went to school with Shelby’s mother and they graduated together. He offers her condolences to Shelby and says that her mother was very beautiful, and Shelby reminds him of her. The class bell rings and Mr. Drake leaves, and Becca comes over and asks what was going on. Shelby admits that she doesn’t know, and Becca says that according to her fellow cheerleader, Emily didn’t have any enemies. One student, Christian Bosch, was stalking her and got expelled, but Becca thinks it sounded harmless even though he carved Emily’s name in his leg with a ballpoint pen.



Later at home, Shelby goes through a photo album and looks at pictures of her mother. She puts the album away when Dan comes in and says that he just stopped in to shower and change before meeting with Shelby’s Aunt Jenna. Shelby points out that he’s spending a lot of time with Jenna and wonders if they’re romantically involved. He insists that there’s nothing to it and tells her to take out the trash. As Shelby takes out the garbage, she notices the police computer in her father’s car. The door is locked so she goes inside and takes the keys from her father’s jacket while he’s in the shower. She accesses the computer and checks on Christian.

Later, Shelby goes to the pool for practice. A figure in a parka and a bird mask leans over the stairway and Shelby runs back to the locker room. The figure follows her into the maze of lockers and hides in a bathroom stall. Shelby watches as the pursuer comes directly to her stall, but simply leaves a piece of paper on the floor and walks away. Once she thinks its safe, Shelby comes out and examines the paper, which reads, “Let the dead sleep in peace.”



Shelby calls in her father, who talks to the janitor and confirms that he leaves the door open at 5 for swim team members. He asks about the note but Shelby claims she doesn’t know what it means. She suggests that Christian may have left the note and Dan agrees to pick him up for questioning. He picks up the boy but Christian denies being at the pool and has a supervisor who can confirm where he was. Dan asks Shelby if it might have been a practical joke by one of her ex-boyfriends, but Shelby insists that it was no joke.

Later, Mr. Drake is supervising the cheerleading practice while Becca talks to Shelby. She wonders why her friend didn’t tell Dan, and Shelby says that her father wouldn’t have believed a spirit contacted them. Mr. Drake calls Becca over and she clutches at her stomach in pain. Mr. Drake comes over but Becca yells at him not to touch her. Shelby takes her to the nurse but partway there, Becca vomits up a charm bracelet with Emily’s name on it.

That night, Shelby and Becca go to Emily’s grave and bring the spirit box with them. They set up the box and the candles and ask Emily to talk to them. The candles go out as a strong wind comes up and the spirit spells out M-R-D-R again. It then spells out A-K-E and they realize she’s spelling out M-R-D-R-A-K-E: Mr. Drake.



A groundskeeper drives up and spots the girls, who hastily run away. Back at home, Shelby comes in from the rain and Dan is waiting for her. He asks where she was and suspects she was out drinking or taking drugs with Becca. When Shelby denies it, Dan wonders what she was doing and she admits that they stopped at the cemetery for a séance. He asks if Shelby is trying to communicate with her mother, but Shelby explains that they’re talking with Emily who supposedly committed suicide. Dan points out that she lied to him when she didn’t know what the note meant, and then asks what she means by “supposedly.” Shelby says that Becca believes that Mr. Drake killed Emily because they were involved sexually. When Shelby mentions the barbsieconyl, Dan realizes that she peeked at the dead girl’s police file. He warns her that he could lose her job and grounds her.

The next day, Shelby is practicing at the pool and inadvertently drops her goggles. She swims down to the bottom to get them but fingers reach up through the grille and she swims back to the surface. Later, Shelby catches up to Becca and discovers that she’s wearing a brace for her knee. Becca explains that something pulled her down during practice. Mr. Drake approaches them and asks about Becca’s knee, and she says that she was distracted. He then asks how Shelby is doing and says that he’ll see them in class. Once he leaves, Becca insists that they have to convince Dan to reopen the case. She’s stolen a key from Drake’s house where he left it out for the maid.



The girls go to Drake’s house and Becca gives Shelby a taser and sends her inside while she stands watch. Shelby goes in using the key and Becca calls and tells her to check the medicine cabinet for the prescription sedative. As Shelby goes up the stairs, she sees a collection of bird masks just like the ones that her stalker was wearing. Shelby wonders why Mr. Drake would keep the pills around, but Becca figures that he’d keep them because nobody would suspect them. The cell phone goes dead as they lose the connection briefly, but Shelby reestablishes contact. She gets to the medicine cabinet but doesn’t find anything, and starts searching the bedroom. Shelby looks under the bed and is startled when she finds the first aid dummy that Drake uses in his class.



Shelby continues searching and finds the barbsieconyl pills in the nightstand. However, the cell phones lose the connection again. Drake pulls up and Becca tries to call her friend but only gets her voice mail. Shelby hears Drake come in and hides, but Drake hears the floor creak. He grabs an electric carving knife and goes up the stairs. Becca calls again and Drake hears Shelby’s cell phone goes off, while Becca calls 911 and reports a break-in at Drake’s house.

Drake yanks open the closet door and finds Shelby, and demands to know what’s going on. She has no choice but to claim that she’s attracted to him. Drake starts to caress her and Shelby stuns him with the taser. He falls down the stairs and breaks his neck, but is still breathing. Becca comes in and tells her that the police are on the way and that Shelby should sit outside and wait for them. Once Shelby goes outside, Becca looks down at Drake in satisfaction and watches him die.



One Month Later

Shelby goes to the cemetery at night and leaves flowers at Emily’s grave. She notices that the gravestone is loose and pries it up, and discovers that there’s another gravestone beneath. Shelby calls Becca in Taiwan and tells her what she discovered. When Shelby points out that Becca went to Emily’s funeral and saw her buried, Becca suggests that someone at the cemetery might be double-selling funeral plots. As they talk, Becca goes to her car and says that she now remembers that Emily was cremated. However, she says that it doesn’t matter because Drake deserved to death. Shelby realizes that Becca was the one who took Emily to the river, drugged her, pushed her car into the river, and texted the fake suicide message. Becca then planted the drugs in Drake’s nightstand, stalked Shelby at the pool, and fake-vomited up the necklace. When Shelby accuses her of freaking her out at the pool, Becca says that she had nothing to do with that.

Becca sarcastically tells Shelby to use the spirit box to contact her dead mother, and then admits that she faked the messages from Emily. She boasts that Shelby proved that Drake killed Emily, and that Taiwan has no extradition treaty with the U.S. Shelby asks why she did it, and Becca tells her that Drake was hers first, and that she saw him with Emily.

As Becca opens the garage door with her remote, the door opens and then closes despite her efforts. The doors lock and the sunroof closes. The car starts up and carbon monoxide fumes pour in through the vents. When Becca tries to call out, her cell phone screen keeps texting L8R over and over. Emily’s ghost appears in the car and then walks away as Becca suffocates.



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