The Risen

Amanda Knowles (Alberta Watson) is rushed to Emergency. The diagnosis: an ectopic pregnancy that threatens her life. Her husband David (Eugene Lipinski), convinces her to terminate the pregnancy but the operation means Amanda will never be able to have a child of her own.

In the hospital corridor, awaiting surgery, Amanda has a strange encounter with a young boy named Bobby (Daniel Maslany). Bobby tries to pull the sheet covering her body over her head and a priest with a strange birthmark on his face passes them in the hall.

It is an eerie premonition.

On the operating table, Amanda suffers a cardiac arrest and undergoes a near-death experience. When she awakens in the presence of her husband and her sister Lynn (Helen Shaver), she can’t remember anything. The doctors diagnose temporary amnesia, caused by the trauma of losing her capacity to have a baby.

Once Amanda arrives home, weird things occur. She has recurring nightmares that include Bobby and the priest. She sees her own funeral, her own burial and at times herself as a walking corpse. Her husband is frustrated and infuriated by her strange behavior. Amanda is afraid to tell David what is happening but eventually confides in her sister.

Amanda sees a psychiatrist who interprets her experiences, as a natural chemical reaction to what she’s gone through. Her sister, a believer in the supernatural, pushes Amanda to pursue other explanations. Amanda begins to question her own sanity as the hallucinations become worse. She believes that Bobby is somehow connected to what is happening and becomes obsessed with finding him and, thus, perhaps, the answers to her nightmares.

Amanda breaks into Bobby’s home and is caught by his father (Peter Outerbridge) while standing over Bobby’s bed staring at him. When Amanda’s problems are explained, the recently widowed father does not press charges.

Amanda’s behavior becomes even more erratically. She is drawn to the recent grave of Bobby’s mother who she discovers died in the same hospital. The cemetery begins to trigger her memories. Knowing she could now never have a child of her own, Amanda looses all will to live. During the surgery, her heart stopped and she died. In a neighboring room, Bobby’s mother Kathryn, terminally ill, could not accept parting from Bobby. Her spirit moved through the hospital and found Amanda.

Amanda finally realizes what has happened, and understands the real nature of her connection to Kathryn and Bobby. In the film’s tense climax, she takes the first step forward in her new life as The Risen.