After they naively try to resurrect their father by opening a door between worlds, three long-sequestered sisters face supernatural and psychological attacks based on their family history while trying to escape their haunted house.

SYNOPSIS:

Daddy (76) lies on his deathbed, and his daughters Adeline (20), Rosalind (17), and Coralina (16)—whom he has isolated in the house with him most of their lives—are frantic. Rosalind knows a resurrection ritual, and when Daddy passes, the sisters try it. The ritual opens a spiritual door, but what it accomplishes is unclear. When the sisters check on Daddy’s body, it’s gone. As they search the house unsuccessfully, shadows seem to attack Coralina and Rosalind. The sisters decide they must leave the house for help.

Efforts to escape prove futile: the house’s exits lead right back into the house. As the sisters struggle for comprehension, the electric lights go out. Adeline and Rosalind go for flashlights and candles. Staying “safe” by the fireplace, Coralina receives a visit from Daddy, now in his 40s. He starts out comforting but becomes menacing, growing shadow tentacles by the firelight. Coralina flees. The sisters meet by the main stairway, where they hear their little brother Dougie, who died falling down the stairs, crying. They go to see him but soon hear Daddy calling them to the dining room. Rosalind and Coralina respond to Daddy, but Adeline, who blames herself for Dougie’s death, pursues the boy to her own bedroom.

They find Daddy, who appears in various ages and costumes, in both locations. After making lewd advances at Adeline—hints of an incestuous past—he unleashes shadows from which she barely escapes. In the dining room, he explains that the house fell through the door the ritual opened, and they are now stuck between worlds. Worse yet, Mother, who killed herself after Dougie died and has returned in demonic form, is holding the door open, keeping them trapped. Adeline’s screams interrupt, and the other sisters join her in time to see Dougie repeat his own gruesome fall down the stairs. They then encounter Mother, who taunts them with the idea that Daddy raised them as pets to be sacrificed so he could go on living. Mother attacks, and they flee. Regrouping, they realize the truth in Mother’s claim and resolve to fight back.

The forces in the house resist. First, the sisters are separated into different rooms, where each faces a different horror. Then, as they try to reach the room where they can perform a ritual to close the spiritual door, they end up in one random room after another, facing more horrors. When they finally perform the ritual, the door appears in a wall. Adeline prepares to sacrifice herself to close it and free her sisters, but Rosalind takes her place, pushing Daddy and Mother through the door, sealing it shut and returning the house mostly to normal. The next day, Adeline and Coralina consider leaving the house. Rosalind, now the house’s only haunter, encourages them. The sisters decide to wait and see, staying put for now.

THEIR FATHER’S WORLD was a finalist for Best Horror Feature Screenplay in the Oregon Scream Week Horror FF (2021), a selection in the Screamwriting Festival (2021), a finalist in the 13Horror.com Film & Screenplay Contest (2020) and a semi-finalist in both the Stage 32 7th Annual Search for New Blood Screenwriting Contest (2020) and the Lit Scares International Horror Festival (2020).