FULL SYNOPSIS

Maggie, age 8, finds a sparrow with a broken wing while out walking in the hills. She takes it home, hoping to nurse it back to health, but when a candle tips over onto the tinsel Christmas star she’s using as a “nest”, her attempt to save the bird becomes an animal sacrifice in a flaming pentagram.

A crack opens up in the darkest corner of the cupboard under the stairs, all the way down to hell. Four demonic imps creep out. Maggie hides, terrified, but when the imps find her, they bow and direct her to the cupboard, where the devil is waiting. He asks Maggie what she wants. She admits, “to fly away”. So the devil offers her a deal: he’ll give her the gift of flight and if she can master it and fly away within 12 days — for good — she’ll be free. But if she can’t, her soul is forfeit. Maggie agrees.

Over the next few days, Maggie tries to fly. She falls a hundred times. She manages to get off the ground, just, but not high enough to clear the garden wall. When she asks the devil for advice, he says no one can teach her how to fly — but he can tell her the truth when everybody lies.

On a family visit, Maggie blurts out to her grandfather that she can fly. He challenges her to prove it and laughs maliciously when she falls. Burning with shame, Maggie hears the devil whisper that he knows how to kill the old man. Maggie insists she only wants to teach him a lesson, so the devil directs her to the churchyard at midnight to take ivy from a grave. Maggie tastes the vine to make sure it won’t kill Grandad and it makes her delirious. In this state, she sees the imps trashing her family’s prized possessions — and joins in. In the morning, Maggie is horrified to find it wasn’t a dream. But the police take everyone’s fingerprints to rule them out — no one suspects a thing.

Maggie slips the ivy into Grandad’s gin. But he doesn’t become delirious, he dies instantly. After the funeral, Maggie returns to the cupboard, but instead of the devil, she finds Grandad, risen from hell to hold her accountable. Maggie flees, screaming at the top of her lungs. But, her mother tells everyone to ignore her — she’s just looking for attention.

Maggie packs her things and flies away to a different neighbourhood. A man coaxes her into his house and forces her to touch his penis. Maggie runs. The devil comforts her — it’s okay, he’ll show her how to summon a demon to kill the pervert tomorrow.

Maggie returns to the pervert’s cul-de-sac with her friend Katie. She draws a chalk pentagram and sacrifices an ant. The suburb is immediately cloaked in fog. A towering demon appears. Maggie watches as the pervert’s house burns, but when she hears sirens, she runs.

When the girls return home, Katie’s mum is furious, but Maggie’s mum doesn’t know what the fuss is about. Maggie finds the dead bird where she left it - in the cupboard at the mouth of hell. She wants to bury it before she leaves for good again. The devil tells Maggie her time is up, but she insists the day’s not over yet.

As Maggie buries the bird, her brother taunts her. She flies to get away, making it to the top of the tallest tree in the garden. Her family finally see her fly.  She’s thrilled — until she falls and twists her leg.

That night, Maggie hears the imps. She limps downstairs. With only minutes until midnight, she climbs the tree and flies into the night sky — but the imps chase her and drag her back down, hitting every branch on the way, through the house to the darkest corner of the cupboard. Her soul belongs to the devil now.

Years later, Maggie returns home for her father’s funeral. She looks uncannily like the devil in female form. She plays nice at first — polite to the minister, gracious to guests — until she sees the pervert at the wake. She realises he survived the fire. The chasm to hell opens up again. But this time, it’s not the devil who climbs out, but Little Maggie — her lost soul, her childhood self.

Little Maggie tells Big Maggie it’s all her fault. It’s her fault the pervert lives and it’s her fault hell has opened up again. She still has a piece of the devil inside her - she’s making this happen. Big Maggie ignores the warning. It’s her father’s funeral and her brother would never forgive her for leaving.

When Big Maggie finally tells her mother about Stuart the pervert, her mother deflects. Big Maggie backs down, but an imp bursts out of the cupboard and chases her mother. Maggie catches the imp and holds it for as long as she can, but the more she restrains it, the more it hurts. So she releases the imp and watches from the doorway as it destroys the funeral spread and screams in her mother’s face.

Maggie decides to leave before things get worse, but meets her old friend Katie at the door. She realises that Katie remembers things differently. Katie doesn’t remember the demon they called. And when Maggie’s mother passes in the hallway she doesn’t seem to remember the imp - she blames the dog. Then Maggie watches as her brother is knocked over by an imp, but quickly adjusts his memory to something more realistic. Her family can only glimpse her demons for a fleeting moment before forgetting.

Maggie realizes the chasm won’t close if she leaves. It’s bound to her. She decides the only way to seal it is to take revenge — for good this time. With the help of her niece and nephew, she summons another demon. When the pervert drives away, the demon crashes his car. Maggie watches until she’s certain he’s dead. But instead of vanishing, the demon turns on the house and its guests.

Big Maggie returns to the cupboard but finds that Little Maggie has gone. She’s alone. Maggie calls the devil, this time on purpose. When he shows up, the devil tells Maggie she’s ungrateful. He gave her a gift most people would kill for. She sees the world differently. She knows what it’s like to fly. There’s a fault line to hell with her name on it. What else could she possibly wish for? Maggie says she wants to stop the demons from running amok. But the devil tells her they’re her demons - she must stop them.

Big Maggie takes her leave from her mother and brother. She tells them she’s sorry she can’t stay to help with the washing up but she’s evil and she has to go get her soul back.

Big Maggie enters the chasm under the stairs - the tunnel to hell. She struggles to get through it, and finds it opens out on the hill near her house. Up ahead, she can see Little Maggie running in the grass. Little Maggie takes flight. Big Maggie catches up and pulls her out of the sky and pleads with her to wait — she wants her soul back.  But Little Maggie leaps up and runs away. She takes to the air again. Big Maggie gets a hold of her foot. As she watches her younger self struggle to fly away, Big Maggie understands what she must do. She lets her go and watches Little Maggie disappear into the clouds.

The clouds part and Maggie can see the whole town laid out before her. Back at the house, the demon dissipates and the imps clamber back into the cupboard. Maggie is left alone on the hill above the town. She stands on her rock. The air flows around her. And it feels like flying.