Description
Teenager Julia is orphaned after her parents and housekeeper die in a car accident on the east coast. She is taken in by her aunt Leslie and uncle Tom at their ranch in California, along with their teenage daughter, Rachel, and adolescent son, Bobby. Rachel is initially thrilled at the thought of having a girl her age around the house and even offers to split her bedroom with her cousin, but Julia seems painfully shy. The family takes note of her strange accent, which is uncharacteristic from the east coast. Trying to open up a bit, Julia gets a makeover and develops a more sophisticated façade.
One day, Rachel\'s horse Sundance attacks Julia and tries to trample her. Julia recovers and begins ingratiating herself into the family. Rachel\'s brother and dad seem particularly taken with the fetching young lady in their midst. Odd things begin to happen: After having earlier found a human tooth among Julia\'s belongings, Rachel discovers a photo of herself missing, and shortly after face breaks out in blotchy hives, preventing her from attending a dance. Julia accompanies Rachel\'s boyfriend Mike instead, borrowing a dress that Rachel had made for herself; an arrangement that Rachel should never have agreed to because Mike becomes smitten with Julia and they begin dating. To make matters worse, the cousin also forges a close friendship with Carolyn, Rachel\'s best friend. The next day, Rachel enters into a competition with Sundance, where the horse flips out, breaking its leg in the process and forcing a vet to euthanize it.
To her surprise, Rachel finds things in Julia dresser drawers that point to something sinister—burned hair from her fallen horse, and her missing photo covered in red paint spots. She speaks to their neighbor, Professor Jarvis, who tells her it may indeed be the work of someone who practices black magic. Before she can show him the evidence however, the professor collapses and is rushed to the hospital. A letter that Julia receives from a friend gets the best of Rachel\'s curiosity. Rachel phones the friend in Boston and discovers that Julia supposedly sings in her school\'s glee club. Knowing that the person living in her house doesn\'t have any interest in music, Rachel further suspects something is not right. Immersing herself in books on the occult, Rachel starts to believe Julia is a witch. During a visit to the professor at the hospital, he tells her that true witches cannot appear in photographs. The next day, Rachel encourages her mother to take pictures of a reluctant Julia. Tensions reach a boiling point when Leslie plans a road trip and Rachel finds a map with burn marks on it. Rachel believes Julia is planning on causing her mother to have an accident, and subsequently witnesses Julia making overt sexual advances on her father.
Too late to stop Leslie from leaving on the trip, Rachel develops the roll of film herself and clearly sees that her suspicions have been correct all along—Julia is nowhere to be found in the photos. Suddenly, Julia comes pounding into the darkroom and the two have a fierce struggle. Rachel manages to break away and she locks the door to the room. She then evades her dad, who tries to stop her. Julia breaks out of the room, her eyes a ghastly white and red. Rachel rushes to Mike and tells him to get in his car so they can find her mother. Julia takes off after them, hitting Mike\'s car and trying to drive them off the road. Finally, Rachel and Mike catch sight of Rachel\'s mom, whose car causes Julia to drive off a cliff to a fiery explosion below. It is then revealed that the real Julia perished alongside her parents in the car crash, and that it was actually Sarah Brown, their housekeeper, who survived the accident. The Bryant family tries to return to normal. Meanwhile, another family welcomes Julia into their home, posing as a nanny.
