THE HAUNTING OF JULIA

Julia Lofting, an American housewife living in London, inadvertently kills her daughter, Kate, while performing a botched tracheotomy after Kate begins choking during breakfast. Kate's death traumatises Julia and fractures her already unstable marriage to her husband Magnus. Julia formally separates from Magnus, who opposes her wish to divorce.

Seeking independence, Julia rents a large, fully-furnished house in Holland Park. On the home's second floor, she finds one of the bedrooms filled with a child's possessions. Soon after moving in, Julia experiences a number of strange occurrences in the home, such as odd noises and appliances turning on by themselves. She begins to suspect Magnus is breaking into the house. In the park across the street, Julia sees a young girl that she believes is Kate, but the child disappears. Later, she again sees the girl in the park and finds a mutilated tortoise and knife where she stood.

Magnus's sister, Lily, holds a gathering of friends at Julia's new home. Lily brings with her Mrs Flood, a psychic medium who suggests that they conduct a séance. Julia is hesitant, but agrees to participate. During the séance, Mrs Flood becomes frightened and tells Julia to leave the house immediately. Moments later, one of Lily's friends falls down the stairs before Mrs Flood can explain what she saw. Later, Julia is informed by Mrs Flood that she had a vision of a boy bleeding to death in the park.

The next day, while Julia is out, Magnus breaks into her house. He sees something and follows it to the basement where he falls from the staircase, fatally cutting his throat on a broken mirror. Meanwhile, Julia, curious about the home's prior residents, learns from a neighbour that it once belonged to Heather Rudge, who sold the property after her daughter Olivia died. Upon further investigation, Julia discovers an article about Geoffrey Braden, a young boy who was murdered in the park in the 1940s. Julia visits Geoffrey's mother, Greta, who says a vagrant was executed for the crime but that she believes it was children in the park who murdered her son. Greta claims his murder was a hate crime motivated by the fact that Geoffrey was German. She says she has followed the lives of the children who were in the park with Geoffrey that day, and asks Julia to visit the remaining two, now adults: Captain Paul Winter and David Swift.

First, Julia visits Winter, but when she mentions Geoffrey, he forcefully tells her to leave. She then visits Swift, an alcoholic who explains that Olivia had a sadistic power over him and the other children: He tells Julia that Olivia taught them about sex, and made each of them perform a ritual killing of an animal. Swift recounts Geoffrey's murder, which was orchestrated by Olivia: She forced the other boys to hold him down while she shoved grass and clumps of dirt down his throat and then smothered him with a coat. After he was dead, Olivia used a penknife to castrate him. Shortly after Julia departs Swift's apartment, he slips on a broken bottle in the stairwell and falls to his death. Meanwhile, Julia tells her friend Mark, an antiques dealer, what she has discovered but he does not believe her. That evening, Mark is electrocuted by a lamp falling into his bath.

Julia visits Olivia's mother, Heather, in a psychiatric home. Heather confesses that she strangled Olivia to death after learning of Geoffrey's murder, and insists that Olivia was inherently evil. As Julia leaves she looks over her shoulder at Heather, who glimpses Olivia's eyes and dies of a fright-induced heart attack. Julia returns home, where she witnesses Olivia's apparition, first in the bathroom mirror and then in the living room playing with Kate's beloved cymbal-banging clown toy. Julia takes the toy from Olivia, offers her a hug, and asks her to stay. She proceeds to embrace Olivia, only to have her throat slashed by the sharp edges of the toy. Collapsing onto a lounge chair, Julia bleeds to death.

Julia's investigation into the house's past leads to the revelation of a series of child murders orchestrated by the ghost of Olivia, resulting in further fatal consequences for those around her.

The ending roots the haunting in past traumas that mirror Julia’s own grief, suggesting that unresolved evil and sorrow can echo through generations. The film closes on a note of ambiguity and tragedy, as Julia’s quest for closure only entangles her further in the cycle of death and loss haunting the house.