Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones
In June 2012, high school graduate Jesse Arista lives with his father, sister and grandmother in Oxnard, California. He begins to enjoy the summer with his best friend, Hector. In the apartment below lives a mysterious woman named Ana, who everyone believes to be a witch. When Ana is found murdered, Jesse and Hector spot classmate Oscar running from the scene, suggesting he was responsible. The two investigate the apartment, where they find black magic items, as well as VHS tapes and a journal of spells that can "open doorways to unholy lands."
After Jesse, Hector and their friend Marisol try out a ritual, paranormal occurrences gradually begin to take place in Jesse's apartment. One night, the trio begin to communicate with an unknown entity through a game. Jesse finds a mysterious bite mark on his arm and also discovers superhuman abilities, proven when he knocks out two thugs that assault him. He and Hector at first view his abilities as a "gift". At a party, Jesse takes a girl to Ana's apartment to have sex and encounters Oscar, who has oily black eyes and a similar bite mark on his arm. He tells Jesse that it's only a matter of time before "something inside them" will take over, and if they kill themselves they won't harm those they love. Oscar rushes and disappears; when Jesse and Hector search for him outside, Oscar commits suicide by jumping off a building, landing on a car.
The group discover a secret trapdoor in Ana's apartment, where they find a witch altar and photos of Jesse, his pregnant mother, Ana, Oscar and Lois; at the same time, a strange woman in black enters but leaves after finding nothing. Jesse is lured to the trapdoor one night after hearing his dog Chavo barking for help, but the door slams shut and Jesse sees the ghostly figures of young Katie and Kristi before being attacked by a roaring demon.
Jesse's personality gradually becomes dark, suicidal and extremely violent; Hector and Marisol are disturbed by Jesse's behavior and meet Oscar's criminal brother Arturo, who tells them that Oscar was in contact with Ali Rey, who had researched demons after her father and step-mother were killed and half-brother kidnapped by a possessed Katie. They meet with Ali, who tells them that Jesse has been "marked" by a worldwide coven of witches called the "Midwives", who have been brainwashing women to give up their first-born sons to create an army of possessed young men. Ali gives an address to where a final ritual is supposed to take place, and warns that Jesse will no longer exist if the demon manages to fully consume him.
Jesse's concerned grandmother Irma visits a botánica and tries to cleanse Jesse, but he telekinetically tears the living room apart. The next morning, an ill Jesse pushes Irma down the stairs before disappearing. While Hector and Marisol drive to the hospital, Jesse ambushes them in the street and attacks Hector, but Marisol knocks him unconscious with a bat. As they are attempting to leave, a van smashes into their car and Jesse is kidnapped.
With help from Arturo and his friend Santo, Hector and Marisol go to the address, which turns out to be Grandma Lois's house, where Katie and Kristi's mother and her boyfriend were killed. When they enter the garden, coven members with knives appear and begin to attack them. Arturo urges Hector and Marisol to flee and they both ran to the house, leaving Arturo alone in the garden trying to defend himself. Santo is found dead by the front door. Marisol disappears, Arturo gets killed off-screen (it is implied that he was overpowered by the coven and then stabbed to death) and then thrown and smashed into a window near to Hector, later, Marisol's corpse is thrown through a glass roof. A possessed Jesse appears and chases Hector upstairs where /hector slams the door shut. Jesse's normal voice asks Hector to open the door but after he doesn't, Jesse breaks down the door causing Hector to open a strange brown door taking him through a portal to the events of October 8, 2006, at the household of Katie and Micah. Katie goes downstairs to the kitchen and screams for Micah upon seeing Hector. Micah assumes Hector is an intruder and attacks him, but Katie goes hysterical and stabs him to death with a kitchen knife. Hector runs away but Jesse, now completely under the demon's influence, appears and attacks him off-screen (presumably killing him) as the camera falls to the ground. A witch stares blankly at it before turning it off.
paranormal, murder, prank