Gothika is the story of a psychiatrist, Dr. Miranda Grey (Halle Berry), who works at a mental hospital and has a car accident after trying to avoid a girl on a road during a stormy night, while driving back home. She rushes to try to help the girl, who turns out to be a ghost of the deceased daughter of her boss (Bernard Hill). The girl, in turn, gets possession of Miranda's body by burning her after she extended her hand to the girl.
Miranda next wakes up in the very hospital she works for, but as a patient treated by her co-worker, Dr. Pete Graham (Robert Downey Jr.). Drugged and confused, she remembers nothing of what happened after the car accident. To her horror, she learns that her husband Douglas (Charles S. Dutton) was brutally murdered and that she is the primary suspect.
While Miranda copes with her new life in the hospital, the ghost uses her body to carry out messages (most noticeably, she carves the words "not alone" into Miranda's arm) which leads her former colleagues to believe Miranda is suicidal and is inflicting the wounds on herself.
Meanwhile, Miranda bonds with one of her former patients (who is now her fellow inmate), Chloe Sava (Penél
ope Cruz). Several times in sessions, Chloe had claimed that she'd been raped while in the hospital, but Miranda had always attributed these stories to mental illness. One night, the door to Miranda's room in the hospital is opened by the ghost that has been haunting her. When she passes Chloe's room in the hospital, she can hear the rape occurring and momentarily sees a man's chest pressed against the window. The man's chest bears a tattoo of an anima sola. Miranda realizes that Chloe was not making up these stories, and when she sees Chloe the next day, she apologizes, and the two embrace. Chloe warns Miranda that her attacker was going to target Miranda next.
Miranda begins regaining some of her memories bit by bit, and slowly comes to remember herself killing her husband. She realizes that the ghost had used her body to murder Doug. This is why all of the physical evidence points to Miranda.
Miranda escapes the hospital, having recognized the girl as a ghost. Seeking clues to the mystery of why she killed her husband, she goes to a farmhouse in Willow Creek, Rhode Island. In the cellar of the barn she discovers a ro
om containing a blood-stained bed, what appears to be a box containing injectable drugs, restraints, and video equipment. She watches the tape that is still in the camera and the viewer hears a woman screaming as if tortured or raped. In the final seconds of the video, Doug walks into the shot, covers a woman's lifeless body on the bed with a sheet, and winks at the camera. At this point, police arrive, and one officer comes closer to Miranda and draws a gun to her while she is holding a knife to him. Miranda backs up to a stair case, and all of a sudden a pair of hands are seen coming from between the stairs, and they wrap around Miranda. The hands belong to an injured, frantically screaming girl trapped in the crawlspace behind the stair case. The police release the girl, and Miranda is taken to jail.
While waiting in jail, the sheriff (John Carroll Lynch), who was Doug's closest friend, listens sympatheticall
y to Miranda's idea that the rapist with the anima sola tattoo was also Doug's accomplice. Insulted by Miranda's unflattering psychological profile, and realizing that she suspects him, the sheriff reveals that he is the accomplice with the tattoo and attacks Miranda. Miranda kills the sheriff in an act of self defense, with the help of the ghost.
After proving their innocence and sanity, Miranda and Chloe are released from the asylum a few months later. Miranda claims to be free of the ghost's influence, but finds that she has become a medium and still sees ghosts, one as a young boy standing in the middle of the road. As she walks away, a poster is seen with the words "Have you seen Tim?" and a picture of the same boy.
Miranda next wakes up in the very hospital she works for, but as a patient treated by her co-worker, Dr. Pete Graham (Robert Downey Jr.). Drugged and confused, she remembers nothing of what happened after the car accident. To her horror, she learns that her husband Douglas (Charles S. Dutton) was brutally murdered and that she is the primary suspect.
While Miranda copes with her new life in the hospital, the ghost uses her body to carry out messages (most noticeably, she carves the words "not alone" into Miranda's arm) which leads her former colleagues to believe Miranda is suicidal and is inflicting the wounds on herself.
Meanwhile, Miranda bonds with one of her former patients (who is now her fellow inmate), Chloe Sava (Penél
ope Cruz). Several times in sessions, Chloe had claimed that she'd been raped while in the hospital, but Miranda had always attributed these stories to mental illness. One night, the door to Miranda's room in the hospital is opened by the ghost that has been haunting her. When she passes Chloe's room in the hospital, she can hear the rape occurring and momentarily sees a man's chest pressed against the window. The man's chest bears a tattoo of an anima sola. Miranda realizes that Chloe was not making up these stories, and when she sees Chloe the next day, she apologizes, and the two embrace. Chloe warns Miranda that her attacker was going to target Miranda next.Miranda begins regaining some of her memories bit by bit, and slowly comes to remember herself killing her husband. She realizes that the ghost had used her body to murder Doug. This is why all of the physical evidence points to Miranda.
Miranda escapes the hospital, having recognized the girl as a ghost. Seeking clues to the mystery of why she killed her husband, she goes to a farmhouse in Willow Creek, Rhode Island. In the cellar of the barn she discovers a ro
om containing a blood-stained bed, what appears to be a box containing injectable drugs, restraints, and video equipment. She watches the tape that is still in the camera and the viewer hears a woman screaming as if tortured or raped. In the final seconds of the video, Doug walks into the shot, covers a woman's lifeless body on the bed with a sheet, and winks at the camera. At this point, police arrive, and one officer comes closer to Miranda and draws a gun to her while she is holding a knife to him. Miranda backs up to a stair case, and all of a sudden a pair of hands are seen coming from between the stairs, and they wrap around Miranda. The hands belong to an injured, frantically screaming girl trapped in the crawlspace behind the stair case. The police release the girl, and Miranda is taken to jail.While waiting in jail, the sheriff (John Carroll Lynch), who was Doug's closest friend, listens sympatheticall
y to Miranda's idea that the rapist with the anima sola tattoo was also Doug's accomplice. Insulted by Miranda's unflattering psychological profile, and realizing that she suspects him, the sheriff reveals that he is the accomplice with the tattoo and attacks Miranda. Miranda kills the sheriff in an act of self defense, with the help of the ghost.After proving their innocence and sanity, Miranda and Chloe are released from the asylum a few months later. Miranda claims to be free of the ghost's influence, but finds that she has become a medium and still sees ghosts, one as a young boy standing in the middle of the road. As she walks away, a poster is seen with the words "Have you seen Tim?" and a picture of the same boy.