- A woman recovering from the death of her husband suspects that her house has been invaded by demonic spirits. She summons a paranormal expert to help her get rid of them.
- To have a phobia is trouble enough. To have Psychophobia must be terribly uncomfortable. This obscure slasher flick stars Mary Saint Peter as a young widow. Mary's life is thrown into turmoil when she and her children begin receiving anonymous threats from an unseen stranger. Nelson Mentley and Ramsey Oliver co-star. Made in 1982, Psychophobia lay largely unseen until it was leased by the USA cable network in 1986.
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---written by KrystelClaire
Mary Sercovitz (Mary Saint Peter) sends her children to bed, a boy and a girl, to the sound of The Beatles' Let It Be . She reminds them to pray for their father. Mary goes to sleep on her own, as she is a young widow who still misses her late husband. She has nightmares about a crashing plane. One morning, she goes to the real estate agent to ask for more time to pay the instalments of her mortgage, but the president of the company, Mr Prestley, doesn't want to help, as Sercovitz used to work for a powerful oil company and the case may take years to settle. Her way of dressing, with a furry coat, suggests that Mary is used to be a wealthy lady.
Mary has to leave the children on their own in their house with garden, orchard and swimming-pool. She goes to the brother of his late husband's home to talk to him and his wife. George and his wife tell her that they can owe her a couple of instalments, but that wouldn't solve her problem for long. The uncle says it's not even clear if Charles Sercovitz died while working.
Back home, Mary finds a handkerchief of hers on the floor. Her children and her friends scare her with toy gorillas hands. Her children were told that it'd be only a joke by a man who entered through the window and knew the whole house.
Mary visits James Ronald (Nelson Mentley) in Kelser Avenue, and she'll visit him the following day. The realty agent appears apologizing, but he wants to have sexual intercorse with her in exchange of help with her problem. He tries to rape her, but the bell rings at that moment. When Mary opens the door, there's nobody there, but somebody is watching the scene, lurking among the trees. Mr Prestley gets into his car, and he gets killed.
A sergeant suspects Mary, because Mr. Prestley's visit is a bit strange to begin with and his car was in the property. James also suggests Mary to remarry again. The children and Mary are watching TV when she hears a funny noise in the upper floor, but the children say that it's only the cats. Another night, divorced James and Mary share their past stories. James Ronald, who is a lawyer, tells her that she'll collect the money, but it's hard to know when. At that moment, the children start shouting and having huge migraines. They take them to hospital, but the doctor can't give any explanation to the origins of the pain, which has disappeared on both of them at the same time.
A grave-digger is plowing the soil in the local cemetery, but it sounds as if it complained. He drinks, nervously.
The children say hello to the bump who entered through the window that day. He also found it strange, and felt as if he knew the house, the children and the mum. He gives the children some sweets, and the children insists Mary should invite him to coffee. He asks for a touch of peppermint to his coffee and knows where the peppermint is. The man can only remember that his name is Albert and nothing else. He suddenly asks for permission to kiss her. He asks her to put on a particular dress with stripes. The boy calls out for Mary about the spelling of a word, and when Mary returns, it looks as if Albert had already left, because the front door is halp open. When Mary returns to her room and changes into her nightdress, Albert falls from her closet, dead.
The sergeant questions her. Albert Ramsey had escaped from hospital the night before as he had lung cancer with no record of amnesia or mental problems. Mary tells James that the dress and pepperment lead her to Charles' favourite things. Mary can feel somebody at her room sometimes. James tries to kiss her, but she's unresponsive. Another night, James comforts Mary by the fire. They reminiscence about their past years at university. They kiss each other, and a lamp explodes. Mary explains that there are strange things happening all the time. James and Mary start making love, but there is a kind of shot, which makes them stop. Mary goes hysterical, saying that the house is cursed.
James consults a specialist, Dr. Oliver (Ramsey Oliver). He records Mary. Troubles began a month ago, with the foreclosure notice. Mary talks about her nightmares with Charles' accident and the constant pounding on the walls. The specialist accepts the case.
The gravedigger's vase has broken by itself. Dr. Oliver medically examines Mary, to see if she can be a link to the other world. When she comes back home, her children are playing with a race car game she had forbidden them to take down from its place. They say it was there. The children mention another changes. When she checks those things, the children start having painful migraines again.
Dr. Oliver thinks that Charles' psychic energy was picked with the objects which used to surround him, and the place itself and that sensitive people can feel that energy, and transform it onto phenomena. There are no witches and no ghosts there. Dr Oliver tells Mary that she and the children should leave the house while he investigates. James is sorry that he won't see her for a long time. Uncle George looks jealous.
A representative of Charles' company, Mr Evans, laughs about Mary's ordeal: she may be entitled to compensation, but it's going to be difficult for her to prove it. He tells her that crying won't help her. As soon as she leaves the corporate offices and reaches the street sidewalk, the representative of the company screams in pain.
Mary has to come back to the house to pick some textbooks the children forgot. Mary and the children went to live with the uncle and aunt. George tells Mary that James Ronald's office is linked to the realty company which sold her the bungalow and now is pressing her to depart, so the lawyer may not be giving her the right advice. James was accused of conspiring to put unable-to-pay tenants out of their homes. George and his wife think that James and Dr. Oliver are the ones who are conspiring to put Mary and the children out, and they have succeeded.
All this makes Mary wonder. However, she lets Dr. Oliver and his team proceed. They think they're gonna photograph ectoplasm. The tenants previous to her, Mr. and Mrs. Forrester, used to be fond of the bungalow. They bought another house besides the sea, but they were killed. The police detective thinks that all the deaths have benefited Mary in some way or another, and that it may be alive Charles who's causing everything. Mary finds it ludicrous. The detective produces the grave-digger, who talks about strange noises and night lights around Charles' tomb.
The detective and the gravedigger unbury Charles' black-tarred corpse. They think that everything revolves around the house. There, Dr. Oliver has recorded images of energy in form of a human body, so that she is the person receptive to that energy, who has been projecting it.
Mary confides on James in spite of what George has told her. He tells her he loves her. They kiss and make love on a car at night.
James phones Mary at George's, luring her onto the house. James' has collapsed onto a chair. The recorded voice says it's Charles with James' voice. He says he's in a higher-energy realm, and that he killed all those people to make her the suspect. He has possessed that poor man to talk to Mary and his children, and he's about to make James' brain explode. James' brain explodes as Charles had said.
The equipment is working on its own. Dr. Oliver, who looks hypnotized, captures Charles' images on the camera. He wants to destroy him, because he'll destroy Mary. Mary doesn't want that. Mary wants her late husband to be with her. She becomes a "nuclear bomb" of high energy which moves things and is going to destroy the house and kill Dr. Oliver. Nevertheless, the detective shoots Mary, who lies on the floor. Dr. Oliver sets the equipment so that he'll destroy Charles' energy.
Over a glass of brandy, Dr. Oliver explains to the detective that Mary was desperately trying to bring Charles Sercovitz back to life, and that subconsciously she directed all that energy. Dr. Oliver tells her that she should leave the house, or she runs the risk of becoming obsessed, in spite of her name being legally clear. The detective won't allow charges to be brought against her, because he has witnessed the psychic energy.
On her own, at night, inside the house, Mary hears whispers in the air. Mary calls for Charles to come to her. Suddenly, a leather-gloved hand covers her mouth. It's Dr. Oliver, who has just returned in fear that there were still remains of the destructive psychic energy he felt. However, Mary uses herself to channel Charles' energy and kill Dr. Oliver. He is killed.
Mary says that she and Charles will never be separate.
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