The Collector

Josie, a girl about to start sixth grade, moves with her mother and seven-year-old sister Anna from Chicago to their Grandma Jeannie's large rural house, surrounded by woods. The family relocated because their mother lost her job and Grandma Jeannie's memory is fading. Grandma greets them warmly but is frail and confused, at one point speaking about Josie's late Grandpa Tom as if he were still alive. She issues three firm rules: never leave windows open after dark, no dolls in the house, and never go near the house in the woods where someone named Beryl lives. That evening, Josie hears an old woman laughing from the woods.

That first night, Anna comes to Josie's room, claiming she heard voices from the forest. Josie has a nightmare in which she is chased through the woods to a decrepit house, where a life-size doll greets her by name and drags her inside. The next morning, Grandma tells Josie that Beryl is a woman who wants them all dead.

Josie's first day at school is miserable until a stylish girl named Vanessa Graves, who wears many bracelets and a vintage gold locket, introduces herself at lunch. Vanessa quickly becomes Josie's only friend. Meanwhile, Grandma's behavior grows alarming. While playing in the backyard, Josie and Anna hear a voice from the woods hissing Josie's name. That evening, Josie finds Grandma on the porch performing what appears to be a protective spell, muttering in a foreign language and making hand gestures toward the forest. Grandma warns that Beryl knows about Josie and wants to take her. Anonymous notes appear in Josie's locker warning her to stay away from Vanessa, but Josie dismisses them.

Vanessa invites the sisters to her house, leading them through the woods. When they arrive, Josie recognizes the house with horror: It is the house from her nightmare, decrepit and surrounded by broken birdbaths filled with doll heads. Vanessa explains that her aunt, Tilda Morgenstern, cannot maintain the property. Inside, hundreds of dolls line the rooms, all turned to face the walls. Before they leave, Vanessa gives Anna a small porcelain doll, claiming it keeps bad dreams away. Josie allows it despite Grandma's rule. Vanessa then reveals that the house sits in the very woods Grandma forbade them from entering.

At dinner that evening, Grandma grows agitated, announcing that "Beryl LeFarge" is watching and will attack soon. Anna's nightmares stop after receiving the doll, but Josie's intensify. The doll appears on Josie's nightstand one morning, though Anna denies placing it there. At school, the principal announces that a classmate named Karen Little has gone missing after being last seen walking into the woods. Anna reports that her new friend Clara, whom Josie has never met, told her children have gone missing from the area for years.

During a sleepover at Grandma's house, Vanessa presses Josie about her nightmares with unusual seriousness. Josie admits she always ends up at Vanessa's house while being chased. Vanessa expresses deep sadness about feeling trapped. The next morning, Grandma sees Vanessa in the backyard, reacts with shock, and collapses. Vanessa bolts into the woods.

After another confrontation with Grandma, Josie storms to Vanessa's house. Outside the door, she hears Vanessa crying and begging to be let go while a raspy voice demands that Vanessa bring her another child. Josie panics and runs home, but her mother dismisses her claims. Soon after, a second classmate, Charlie Bean, goes missing, and Vanessa disappears from school.

That night, Josie wakes to find Anna clutching the doll and walking in a trance toward the open window while Beryl's voice calls from outside. Josie wraps her hand in a blanket, yanks the burning-hot doll from Anna, and Anna collapses with no memory of the incident. Josie shatters the doll the next morning, but the broken pieces vanish by breakfast.

Grandma finally tells Josie the full story. She, Beryl, and a girl named Victoria were close friends as children. Beryl inherited her mother's rumored powers of witchcraft and, during a childhood sleepover, turned Victoria into a doll. Grandma vowed to protect the town and eventually grew powerful enough to confine Beryl to the woods. As Grandma weakens, Beryl grows stronger. Grandma reveals that Beryl keeps her magic in a special object, and finding it is the only way to stop her. She then reveals that Vanessa is actually Victoria, her old friend.

When Josie checks on Anna, she finds the destroyed doll reassembled in Anna's empty bed. A note says Clara told Anna that Josie is mean and urged Anna to run away. Josie realizes Clara was another agent of Beryl.

Josie races to Beryl's house. Beryl appears as a hulking, shadowy figure with moonlight-pale skin, white pit-like eyes, and pointed teeth. In a side room, Josie finds two life-size dolls: Vanessa and Anna. Remembering a dream in which she saw the locket locked in a glass case, Josie retrieves it and places the necklace around Anna's neck, transforming Anna back into a girl. Anna explains the only way to break the spell permanently is to make Beryl wear the necklace. Josie tearfully removes it, turning Anna back into a doll.

She opens the door and pretends to surrender, telling Beryl she does not want to be alone. When Beryl reaches for her, Josie loops the necklace around the witch's neck. Beryl screams and disintegrates into black dust. Anna transforms back, and freed children fill the house. Josie finds Vanessa on the sofa, now aged into an old woman, her years of enchantment catching up to her. Vanessa apologizes for never being able to tell the truth, thanks Josie for showing her real friendship, asks Josie to tell Grandma good-bye, and vanishes into dust and stars.

In the aftermath, missing children return home, and Grandma recovers her strength. Josie, Anna, and Grandma bury the locket and Vanessa's doll in the backyard, where Grandma performs a protective spell. Josie befriends Karen and Charlie at school, and the nightmares stop. But about two weeks later, Josie wakes to find a doll on her nightstand that looks like Beryl, suggesting the threat may not be over.