How to Sell a Haunted House

Louise and her daughter, Poppy, are arguing about what book to read. Poppy insists on The Velveteen Rabbit, but Louise worries that the book is too sad. Her mother sent the book because she is convinced it is Louise’s favorite childhood book, but in fact, Louise has always hated it. She manipulates Poppy to focus on other books, feeling guilty because her mother had manipulated her own children and Louise had sworn she wouldn’t do the same.

When her brother, Mark, calls, she panics because they haven’t spoken for years. He tells her that their parents have died in a car accident. She realizes he is drunk and gets angry. Her anger increases when she finds out that the accident happened nearly two days ago. She hangs up on him and calls her Aunt Honey. When she confesses that she doesn’t know what to do, Aunt Honey tells her to come home.

When Louise was a child, her mother avoided all talk of death, and so she vowed to be honest with Poppy. She tells Poppy that her grandparents died and then holds her until she falls asleep. Louise knows there were good things about her mother, but she was also opinionated and exhausting, and so Louise relied on her calm, patient father. Now, she calls their answering machine and listens to her father’s voice. She leaves a message, hoping that Mark is mistaken, but knows deep down that she is an orphan.

When Louise flies to Charleston, she leaves Poppy with her father, Ian. After she lands, she checks into her hotel room and decides to visit Aunt Honey. On the way there, she drives past the scene of her parents’ accident, noticing the debris left behind.

She decides to go to her parents’ house first, and when she arrives, she sees it for the first time as an adult. It looks small and shabby compared to the rest of the neighborhood. She is surprised to find the door unlocked and can hear a man’s voice inside. When she steps inside, however, she realizes that the voice comes from the television. The living room is home to her mother’s extensive doll collection, as well as the two large dolls that her mother had called Mark and Louise.

When she sees her father’s cane, she remembers that he broke his leg nearly a year ago. His recovery had been so intensive that her mother had given up her puppets to take care of him. Louise feels something wrong in the house—her father’s cane is on the floor, when it should have been with him in the car. There are dolls in his chair and a hammer on the floor nearby.

In the bedroom hallway, Louise sees that the string hanging from the attic door is gone and the attic door has been nailed shut. Then, she notices that a vent cover in the wall has been removed and again wonders why everything feels so wrong. She goes into her own bedroom and lies on her bed with her stuffed animals, thinking she may finally be able to cry over her parents. She then hears the television go on again.

Louise goes into the living room and turns the television off, but as she leaves the room, it turns back on. She unplugs the television and takes the Mark and Louise dolls out into the garage. While she is out there, a cleaning crew arrives in hazmat suits. She finds out that Mark has hired them, telling them that Louise would pay.

When Mark arrives, he and Louise begin to argue while the cleaning crew watches the show. Louise thinks they should take their time during the two weeks she is there, while Mark argues that he has already handled it. He tells her he has arranged the funeral as well. He wants to scatter their ashes in a Hindu ceremony, while Louise wants a more traditional funeral on a Saturday. Louise argues that she is the executor, but Mark has all the paperwork and is immovable. She steals the paperwork from his hand and locks herself in her car.

Later, Louise tells the story to the rest of the family: Aunt Honey; her daughter, Aunt Gail; and Gail’s daughters, Mercy and Constance. They all support her, and Louise feels vindicated. Aunt Honey calls Mark and overrides all his protests, and in the end, he agrees to come to her house. Aunt Honey talks about Freddie, Nancy’s brother, who died when he was a child. Louise thinks that, although she and her mother should have been close because of being overshadowed by a younger sibling, they weren’t.

Louise asks what happened the night her parents died—they left her mother’s purse and father’s cane behind, and she feels that something wasn’t right. Nancy called Aunt Honey that night, telling her that their father, Eric, had some kind of attack. Mercy, a realtor, asks if they will sell the house, and, although Aunt Honey is against it, Louise replies that she will decide after they clean it.

When Mark arrives, Aunt Honey pushes for a conventional funeral, and Mark finally agrees. When they are talking about food for the funeral, Louise realizes how close Mark was to Nancy and offers to let him organize the service. When he sees that she is sincere, he accepts.

Louise leaves, and Constance walks her out. She tells Louise that Mercy is one of the top local realtors, which surprises Louise—she still thinks of her cousins as mere girls. Constance also suggests that she reconcile with Mark, as he is now her only family.

Driving back to her hotel, Louise thinks about her mother’s art: She had a Christian puppet ministry. However, she thinks Nancy’s strange profession was balanced out by Eric’s steady personality. She remembers that, after Freddie died, Nancy, who was only seven, had lived with several relatives until her father died. She then returned to live with her mother, who died four years later.

She drives by their family home again, remembering when she and her father planned his will. Eric named her executor, and they planned to put Mark’s inheritance in a trust. As she passes the house, she notices that the television is on in the house again—she can see the blue light flickering through the windows.

The house is locked, and so she breaks a window to get in. She picks up the hammer she found earlier to confront the intruder. Instead, she finds Pupkin sitting in her father’s chair and thinks that Mark must have put him there. Pupkin is her mother’s oldest puppet—she has had it since she was a child, and Louise hates it. She puts Pupkin in a trash bag, takes it out to the garage, and stuffs it in a trash can.

When Louise Facetimes with Ian and Poppy, her daughter is so miserable that she doesn’t want to talk. Poppy is afraid that if she gets older, Louise and Ian will die, and she starts to cry. Just before Louise falls asleep, she remembers Mark mentioning her mother’s group, the Fellowship of Christian Puppeteers, with regard to their parents’ funeral.

Louise is standing outside her parents’ funeral, watching a stream of puppeteers and their puppets go inside. When Mark arrives, he is wearing a red seersucker suit with shorts and sandals, and he fits right in. Everyone at the service knows and loves him.

When Louise and Mark were young, their parents were poor. Since they didn’t have a television, Nancy entertained them with puppet shows, and this is how her career began. At the service, people tell stories about Nancy and Eric, and at the end, Mark leads the crowd in singing “The Rainbow Connection.” Louise realizes that Mark’s service is perfect and that she doesn’t want to fight with or control him anymore.

Afterward, at Aunt Honey’s house, Mark is surprised when Louise tells him she loved the service. She feels like a puppet herself, performing when she would rather be alone. She gets a text from Ian that he is thinking about taking Poppy to a child psychologist. Before she can say no, Constance finds her. Her husband, Brody, was her parents’ lawyer, and Mark is bothering him about the wills. Louise goes to find them.

Louise and Constance find Mark and Brody in Aunt Honey’s office. Brody tells them that Nancy’s and Eric’s wills are separate but impact each other. He emails copies to them, and Mark begins scrolling through them while Brody is still talking. He is upset to find that, in Eric’s will, Louise gets everything, even though she tries to explain the plan. However, Brody explains that Eric predeceased Nancy, which means that her will is the final one, and she has left everything to Mark.

Louise tries not to cry, while Mark gets up to dance. He has no intention of sharing with Louise. As Louise leaves, Brody gives her an envelope from Nancy. Constance holds Louise, who realizes that Mark hates her, as she cries.