Haunted 1977

In a Civil War–era Arizona town, a young Native American woman, Abanaki, Ann Michelle is falsely accused of witchcraft and driven out into the desert to die, a cruel fate that threads through the town’s dark history.

Decades later, college student Patrick, Jim Negele, and his younger brother Russell are spending the summer with their widowed mother Michelle, Virginia Mayo, at the site of the old community, which they’re renovating into a movie ranch for visitors. Michelle has recently gone blind, and her vivid, sometimes superstitious fantasies trouble Andrew, Aldo Ray, the protective brother of her late husband who guards the property and its fragile secrets. A simple afternoon installation—an old phone booth in the ranch cemetery—begins to stir strange, almost ritual whispers among the inhabitants.

Jennifer Baines, Ann Michelle, a young British woman, passes through when her car breaks down and is towed away. Michelle and Patrick insist that she spend the night on the ranch before returning to Phoenix to retrieve her car. Patrick recounts the town’s origins to Jennifer, including a legend about a corrupt preacher who stole gold from the Native Americans and hid the treasure somewhere among the Superstition Mountains, a tale that seems to cast a long shadow over all their lives. At dinner, Michelle rails about Abanaki, insisting the car accident that killed her husband and left her blind was caused by Abanaki’s curse, a claim that unsettles Patrick and pushes him toward drastic actions.

The next morning, Patrick departs with Jennifer and Michelle, leaving Russell and Andrew behind at the ranch. That night, Andrew gets drunk and disturbs patrons at a nearby saloon, while back at the hospital Jennifer learns of the deeper wounds in Patrick’s family history. After Michelle is taken away, Patrick and Jennifer spend a night camping in the desert and grow closer, a moment that will complicate loyalties later on. In the shadows of the ranch, Andrew begins receiving eerie calls from the new phone booth; a female voice urges him to seek the gold and drive deeper into the mountains. He eventually travels by boat along a winding river into the range to meet Prosperina, a Native American seer, who hints that Jennifer may be a reincarnation of Abanaki.

Prosperina’s demand for a share of the gold triggers a deadly turn, as Andrew strangles her in a furious breath of jealousy. Patrick and Jennifer return to the ranch, where Jennifer uncovers newspaper clippings that document the tragedies that have besieged Patrick’s family. Andrew arrives suddenly, accuses Jennifer of being Abanaki, binds and gags her, and confesses to causing the fatal accident that killed his own brother out of envy. As night falls, Patrick and Andrew set out again to search for Jennifer, unaware that she lies captive at the ranch.

Jennifer manages to escape and is chased through the grounds by Andrew, who breaks into the phone booth as she tries to call for help. She defends herself with a sharpened stick, and when he lunges, the stake is driven into him, causing a lightbulb to explode and set the booth—and him—ablaze. He burns to death while Russell and Jennifer arrive moments later, and Jennifer collapses from the ordeal. Some time later, Patrick and Andrew depart the ranch with Jennifer choosing to walk her own path, despite Patrick’s professed love for her. Yet in the distance, Abanaki’s spirit remains visible, wandering on horseback through the desert, a spectral reminder of a curse that still lingers in the landscape.