Real Terrors

On a recurring basis Marilyn Olsen, a young management consultant, experiences what she remembers as childhood nightmares. The nightmares occur on a regular basis, but, periodically, the frequency increases. The night terrors begin to come more often and appear to be getting scarier and scarier.
Marilyn is married to Rick, a criminal defense attorney. They have two children, Jason and Alisa. Except for the night terror episodes, they lead a storybook happy middle-class life in Central Florida.

Marilyn’s and Rick’s best friends are Sandra and Barry Davidson. Sandra is a mathematics college professor and Barry is a neurologist. Rick and Sandra convince Marilyn to see Barry about the nightmares and convince Barry to accept Marilyn as a patient. Barry makes an exception on his policy against having friends and relatives as patients.

Barry refers Marilyn to an associate, Emily Franklin, a psychiatrist who is already studying a phenomenon with other patients in which women meeting a specific profile have night terror episodes on a regular basis. Emily discovers that she has a unique connection to Marilyn but she is not sure why.
Emily takes a sterile scientific approach to investigating the reasons for the night terrors. Because their occurrences are predictable, Emily makes arrangements to video some of the night terror episodes. Through regressive hypnosis, she begins to piece together what is actually taking place.

Emily determines that the night terror episodes are not dreams. They are indeed real. But they are beyond scientific explanation. They are unbelievable; but their impact can be immediate and life-changing. She is determined to find out what causes them in an effort to find a way to prevent them.

Without knowing why, Marilyn and Emily suddenly have the need to go to Honduras. There they meet a shaman named Juan Carlos. Juan Carlos has some understanding about what the episodes mean and becomes their guide. He explains to them that they must work together and learn to tap the forces of the universe to solve the problem which he describes as condemned souls attempting to make their way back to our dimension. He tells them that these souls will succeed if they are able to separate Marilyn and Emily.

The condemned souls kidnap Emily. No matter what Marilyn does, she is unable to find the key to Emily’s rescue. Finally, she is resigned to the fate that Emily is lost and that the condemned souls have succeeded. In her suffering, she accidently triggers the solution which rescues Emily and defeats the condemned souls.