What actually happens
A one-week deadline on a three-week job
Gordon Fleming runs an asbestos removal company in Massachusetts and needs money badly, so he bids on the job of clearing Danvers State Hospital and promises to finish in a week. The work would usually take two or three. His crew is Mike, a law school dropout who knows the hospital's history, Phil, who is still upset about a breakup, Hank, who gambles too much, and Gordon's nephew Jeff, who is terrified of the dark. While surveying the site, Gordon hears a disembodied voice say his name. Once the work starts, Mike finds a box of nine audio tapes of therapy sessions recorded with a former patient named Mary Hobbes, who has dissociative identity disorder. He listens to them over the next few days. On the tapes, her psychologist is trying to find out about a crime she committed at home, and Mary switches between several personalities with different voices.
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Hank goes back for the silver dollars
Hank finds a stash of antique silver dollars and other valuables in the hospital basement, which has the old crematory and a maze of passages. That night he sneaks back to collect them and finds a lobotomy pick among the loot. Noises scare him, he sees a shadowy figure, and then an unknown attacker confronts him. The next day he does not turn up for work, and the crew hires Craig McManus to replace him. Gordon tells Phil that he hit his wife Wendy after she accidentally spilled boiling water on him, and that she has since refused his calls and will not let him see their baby daughter. In a stairwell, Jeff sees Hank standing at a window in sunglasses and talking to himself.
A generator running out of fuel in a hospital basement
Hank is missing again, so the men split up to look for him, except Mike, who cannot stop listening to the tapes. Jeff and Phil go down into the tunnels under the hospital, where Phil finds Hank half-undressed and muttering. The generator runs out of fuel and leaves Jeff alone in the dark. Mike gets the power back and plays the ninth and last tape, which says that Mary had a malignant personality called Simon, and that Simon made her kill her family. Phil finds Gordon in Mary's old hospital room, looking at photos from his daughter's baptism that he has stuck to the wall. When Jeff comes out of the tunnels, someone he cannot see attacks him by the company van.
The lobotomy pick comes back, as it always was going to
This is the scene to brace for, and it happens near the end, the day after Jeff is attacked. Gordon goes to the hospital and discovers Hank in one of the rooms, wrapped up in plastic sheeting, with the lobotomy pick sticking out of his eye. Hank is barely alive. Phil confronts Gordon and tells him over and over to wake up, then vanishes. Craig walks in and sees Gordon standing over Hank, and Gordon attacks him. Gordon pulls the pick out of Hank and stabs it into Craig's eye. After that Gordon wanders through the hospital in a dissociated state and finds the bodies of all his men in different rooms, and he remembers killing each of them. He also remembers killing Wendy, their daughter and their dog after the boiling water.
The ending, explained
Gordon's state of mind is the last thing the movie explains. He has killed Hank, Jeff, Phil, Mike and Craig, and he also remembers killing his wife Wendy, his baby daughter and their dog. Distraught, he tries to phone his house to apologize to Wendy. Over this, the film plays a piece of the ninth tape. Mary's doctor asks where Simon lives, and Simon answers that he lives in the weak and the wounded.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether there is a scene after the credits.
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Questions people ask at 1am
Is Session 9 scary?
Yes, Session 9 is a 6 out of 10. It has some jump scares, but most of the fear is slow dread from an abandoned hospital, a box of therapy tapes and a crew that keeps splitting up.
How does Session 9 end?
In Session 9, Gordon has killed all of his crew and also his wife, baby daughter and dog. He tries to phone home to apologize while a line from the ninth therapy tape plays.
Does the dog die in Session 9?
Yes, the dog dies in Session 9. A decayed dog carcass is seen in the hospital about an hour in, and the dog's killing at the very end is only heard.
Is there a post-credits scene in Session 9?
Nobody has confirmed whether Session 9 has a scene after the credits.
Who is Simon in Session 9?
Simon is one of the personalities of Mary Hobbes, a former patient whose therapy tapes Mike finds. The ninth tape says Simon is the one who made her kill her family.
