The hairy ones shall dance

In the smoky backroom of a Washington hotel, Talbot Wills – a former stage magician turned skeptic of the occult – squares off with his old rival, Doctor Otto Zoberg, a charismatic champion of spiritism. Their lively debate over telepathy and the legacy of Houdini sets a tone of intellectual rivalry that masks a deeper curiosity about the unseen. When the two agree to attend a seance at the notorious Devil’s Croft, the evening promises more than clever retorts.

The séance quickly descends into a nightmarish tableau: chilled air, flickering candles, and a palpable sense that something ancient has been awakened. As the participants sense an oppressive presence, strange noises echo through the croft’s crumbling walls, and a sudden, inexplicable death shakes the assembled skeptics and believers alike. Wills finds himself thrust from observer to unwilling actor, forced to confront a horror that defies the rational explanations he has long defended.