"All these different subjects that had taken this chemical all experienced the same phenomena under the drug. They experienced something out there that came to them, that met them halfway. Everyone who took this chemical saw and witnessed the same thing, and they all named it the same thing 'Banshee', even though they were separate subjects. These entities were kind of malignant and threatening. And a handful of the volunteers had traumatic and terrible encounters with these entities.···The CIA didn't come up with the formula. These entities did. The chemical doesn't make you hallucinate. It turns your brain into a receiver so the entities could come through"
"Numbers stations are shortwave radio stations of unidentified origin. They generally broadcast artificially generated voices reading streams of numbers, words, letters, backwards music, or cryptic electronic code. They're in a wide variety of languages, and the voices are usually female for some reason. Sometimes it sounds like a child" (watch)
- Something is coming.
- What do you mean, something's coming? Are you okay? What's going on?
- I don't like this. It can see me.
- Who can see you? Did you hear that?
- It looked at me from the window. I turned around, and it was looking at me. I saw it. It's coming to the house now. It's downstairs now by the back door. It wants to wear us. It wants to wear us!
*
Inspired by the Project MKUltra(read<|>collection<|>watch) and the H. P. Lovecraft short story From Beyond (read)
"Detective Aubray. Talk to me about the new case. Is it a copycat killer? You think he'll kill again? Who do we call him? Why did you walk away after the Uncle Eddie murders? Is it true that there is a connection with the murders of Uncle Eddie?···You know, there are reams of paper on the Uncle Eddie case. Inquiry transcripts, supervisors commendation, case logs. But you know what? No real information. There's none. Till you're caught I mean killed the Uncle Eddie. Sure he was the one? He had to be. Killings stopped, right?"
- You just have to have it, don't you? That's your problem. You can't let go of anything, can you? Might just be the past that isn't through with you yet. Keeps pulling you back all the time. Now all of a sudden it's a copycat killer.
- We do not know if it is a copycat.
- I took a look at some photos from the Uncle Eddie killings, and I kept thinking about your painting and the presentation of the body, the pigments and gestalt. There was something about it, you know what I mean? Looking at the work in a sequence, it was like watching a retrospective.
- We killed Uncle Eddie.
- You're dealing with the same guy. ···It's weird but it makes sense. Because killer's implicating you more and more into his crime. I mean, you're already his patron. Remember you bought that painting? Without a patron there is no painting. Maybe you're his crazy object of obsession. I think you've been part of this bizarre thing all along. It's not until an artist finds his obsession that he can create his most inspired work.
- The poison heart. The poison harms. Certainly does. Now you should know that. 'Cos you've been poisoning yourself for years. Now that you've seen my work I want some feedback. You and I both like the color blue, a pigment that was once quite precious. It is also the color of Narcissism. How will you spend your final moments? Stuck on your throne? Staring at your face reflected in a pool of water? Maybe it won't be your face in the water but the body of a girl. Water, limpid and clear. Clear as crystal.
- I have a theory. Uncle Eddie got scared and stopped killing because he knew he would get caught. He knew.
- An artist never stops working. He always gathering material, preparing a new study. You should thank me. We make quite a team. If it weren't for me you'd be stuck at home riddling out your existence.
- Anamorphosis is a Renaissance painting technique which uses the principles of forced perspective to construct an alternate image within the frontal composition. If you stand at an extreme oblique angle to the picture plane, A second image, often contradicting the first will appear. All the devices at the crime scene they are like a tutorial on the mastery of perspective. But anamorphosis subverts the visual plane canceling out all that you've learned about fixed perspective. There is always another angle, another meaning.
"Hell, to sit here... Two grown up men. Watching the entrance to this whorehouse when we could be cozy inside with a cup of... [Police radio: A hold-up, post office Stockholm 6] We're on our way. Fuck the hookers. This time we'll be the first ones on the scene"
- ···395,000 is a lot of dough, but this wasn't exactly The Great Train Robbery.
- It's not about the money. The guy stayed so damned cool. He made no mistakes. Surveillance up to the roof in that post office, but he walks right in carrying a fucking parcel!···Formerly unknown offender. Even fingerprints wouldn't help us. The man's in no register, this could be pretty difficult.
- Well, this isn't an ordinary manslaughter. A drunk driver won't bother to move the corpse. There seems to be a high death rate among the ones involved in Stockholm 6 hold-up.···What is the link between a 22 year old crook, a 57 year old alcoholic bum, and an ordinary, decent, middle aged citizen?
- Maybe they've been to the same prison?
- Hardly. That mix of clients exists nowhere. Besides, Olsson's never been in jail.···When we searched Olsson's place, we found photos from a "Pig Party" in Majorca.
- Pig! God damned! Pig! It was a pig who did that! "Pig", that's what the criminals call us. Pig! A colleague did it. Do you remember when we drove Sven-Roland Martinson to Hall? He gave us all these hints that a cop had done that job. It was Hedberg I saw at the school. Do you remember when we met Hedberg and Ost at the dressing room? I was so confused when Hedberg passed through the door. I couldn't understand why. It's the same back that I chased through the school corridors after the hold-up.
- ···We can forget the whole thing. Hedberg isn't our man. He actually has an alibi. On Tuesday, December 13th, Hedberg has an alibi for the whole day, from 9 am to 5 pm. He's got a witness, if you are familiar with that term. And according to that witness, they haven't been at Stockholm 6.
- If this witness happens to be his partner Ost, I wouldn't give a damn about his testimony.
- I'm afraid it's better than that.
- You sound as if the king himself testified for Hedberg. Who is it?
- I'm not allowed to tell you, it is a matter of state security.
- This really stinks. Fuck parties, dog leashes and state officials. He went up to the Minister of Justice's room. But something was strange. He never even knocked on the door, or waited for the green light. I mean a state minister. You'd have to know him well to just do that. When did bodyguards start to give their clients presents?
- Thanking for a favour? An alibi, for example?
- Why should the minister give Hedberg an alibi?
- Maybe he's got dirty laundry himself. Something so toxic that he's willing to cover a murderer.
- What the hell could that be?**
*
original title·····Mannen från Mallorca
language·········Swedish
**
Loosely based on the discovery of the Swedish Minister of Justice's liaisons with prostitutes in the 1970s (The geijer affair)
- Listen! I don't know how you managed to survive until now, but please, go back where you come from!
- No. Tell me how to get out of here.
- Where do you want to go? Up there? There's nothing left up there. It's over. Their paradise, their promises. It's all over, you understand? I put an end to all of it. Thanks to me, the whole world will know the price to pay.
- Did you hear that? What was it?
- The end. The end of the man you once were. You can't escape from it. I was the architect of this lie. You can't get out.
"Eden Log. Forerunner in new energies. In the beginning, they had said that with just one tree, and the exploitation of its roots, there would be enough energy for a whole city. The plant is becoming more and more toxic as it is growing. It seems that the more we take its sap, the more the plant defends itself. The warnings sent to Eden Log have remained unanswered"
- If you can talk, it means you may still have a chance, you know?
- No. I don't know anything. Where are we? What is this? You? The cages? What does it mean?
- We're between the plantation and the surface. They harvest the sap down below, and the collector is above. We're in the maintenance network.
- The what?
- The maintenance of the plant. It's the technicians' network here. Where they organize everything. Each floor has a specific purpose. I'm only a botanist here. I don't know everything that's going on.
- I need to get out of here.
- The workers went up that way. I guess they're drawn to the plant. The plant fed them. But without any control and at too high a dose, it made them rot. What I don't understand is how you were able to avoid the effects of the plant. It's sap has infinite energetic properties. Let me test you. If you're healthy, the plant will try to contaminate you. It's as if it was trying to make contact.···Impossible! It can't be! The plant has always been sterile. Where do you come from? You're not like them. I don't get it.
"We were gullible. We believed in the perfect cycle. Energy generated for the outside, distributed everywhere and to everyone. Men digging underground, impervious to the pain of their efforts, revived at the surface by the fruit of their work, will thus earn their place in this new society. We knew what we wanted from the plant. We believed in its generosity. But its conditioning comes at a price. It defends itself against us. What's happening to me now happened to the workers down below. But I won't end up like them. I've got no choice but to graft myself to it. Only the extraction from the plant can block the mutations. But nothing can reverse the process. Now I know what society does with the sick. They don't want the energy from the plant but the energy from people. Eden Log must have decided it was the price to pay. We, the technicians of the network, will not keep this lie going"
"Perhaps I had better put my point of view. Your wife died suddenly. A post mortem is carried out. Which shows the body to contain a fatal dose of arsenic. I am put in charge of the investigation.···Now, I find myself at a loss. All three of you stand to inherit money. All three of you had access to arsenic and to the dead lady's room"
- Do you remember last April, Miss? You bought a preparation for your hands. From the chemist in the village. Something to whiten the skin. A white powder to be dissolved in water. That was the second lot of that powder you bought, wasn't it?
- Yes. The first one turned color and I had to get some more.
- Did you use all that powder on your hands? What became of the remainder?
- I had it in my room in a bowl. A silver bowl. Mr Black told me that the chemist said. It must be kept from the air or it would discolor. Like the first lot. It was in my room. But I couldn't find it there some days ago. I suppose I must have mislaid it.
- Mislaid it, Miss? That's a pity. It was the remainder of that powder that killed Mrs Black. And that powder you used for your hands Miss, was pure arsenic. They are apt to be a bit careless in these country districts. The poison laws need tightening up.
.............................................
- You mustn't let your tea get cold, ma'am. And mine isn't quite sweet enough. How about yours, ma'am?
- Why, That's not the sugar bowl. Where was it? You didn't find it in the kitchen. Did you put some of that into my tea?
That is not sugar.
- Well, what is it, ma'am? The arsenic. How did you know it wasn't in the kitchen?
- You have poisoned me, giving me this stuff. I want a doctor.
- I haven't poisoned you, ma'am. I took good care of that. This is the arsenic that was in the bowl. What's in there now is sugar. And your mistress died of a heart attack. And that's exactly what the doctor said. Until you went to him and mentioned poison. Now, ma'am. I suggest you stole this from Miss Graham's room. And gave your mistress arsenic a few seconds before you knew she was going to die. Why? I want the truth.
- If I may say so, Miss. Sir. We human beings are very open to suggestion. In the dark. A coat hanging on a door becomes a monster. A tree becomes the devil himself. And this house has been a dark place for the last few days. So. A travel booklet grows into a menace. And medicine becomes a deadly poison.
- That is exactly what Edwina wanted.
- Do you think she would have succeeded as far as she did unless..
- Unless what?
- Well, the ground has to be fertile before you can plant a seed.
[A man awakens in the woods after being buried alive. Unsure of who he is, where he is, or how he got there. Things escalate from bad to worse when he makes his way to a cabin in the woods and discovering a videotape of a woman being murdered, he decides to search for help but whilst wandering around the woodland, he soon realizes he's being hunted down by a unknown assailant]*
"Wilder paranoia this time, please. Give me some motherfucking monsters"
"The future of Wing Chun (watch)rests on my shoulders. This is the hand that fate dealt me"
- If we don't start teaching our secrets soon, the foreigners will figure out our tricks. Our grandchildren will be in danger.**
- So, teach.
- I can't. None of the Tianjin masters dare challenge the customs. We need an outsider, someone who can break the taboo. If you promise to teach your secrets, I will allow you to open an academy.
- To preserve Wing Chun's integrity, I won't hand down my secrets. Aside from your blessing, there's an old rule: If I beat the champions of eight academies, I can open my own school.
- You don't have to fight. If you fight, you'll be expelled, even if you win. You must teach an apprentice; he will fight for you.
- They won't accept me, but they'll accept him?
- The apprentice must be a local. Tianjin has nineteen academies. After your apprentice defeats eight of them, the heads of the academies will select a champion to defeat your apprentice, and they will banish him from Tianjin forever. But his victory over the eight academies will be absolute. As his master, you can stay and start an academy of your own.
- If they can't get to me, they'll take revenge on you.
- You're my husband. If they do come after me, so be it.
- Wherever there are academies, there are challengers! I'm here to issue a challenge. Who will go first?
- Aren't you forgetting your place? It seems like you've been planning this for a while.. but this is a bad idea. Are you aware of how tough human bodies are? How many can you kill before your blade loses its edge? We sympathize with your loss; so we'll treat this little outburst as a joke.
- ···I was like you. I couldn't wait to sacrifice Geng. Beat eight schools, get exiled from Tianjin. Sacrifice a genius to glorify Wing Chun. I'm not his master. I'm just a fellow conspirator.
- We are thankful for what you've done, but you must die here. Do you have a last request?
- ···If we don't share our secrets, we'll never train great fighters! If I die, Wing Chun will die with me.
*
original title·····師父 (Shīfu)
language·········Mandarin
**
Set in pre-WWII China.
Written and directed by Xu Haofeng (writer of The Grandmaster 2013)
[Tonight's lead story is the daring and deadly paramilitary robbery at Camp Pendleton. It left three marines dead and at least nine others critically wounded. Earlier this evening, a heavily armed commando unit held up the payroll office at the base and fled with $3.5 million. The robbers exchanged gunfire with military police as they raced to a nearby airfield and then escaped in a twin engine cargo plane. The pilot and his teenage daughter are believed to be held hostage on board the Baja Air...] "Turn that bloody radio off.···Stop shooting. He tossed a grenade.Watch out, it's rolling back. Throw it out! The money is gone. He bailed with the money. Get ready to jump, we're going after him. I saw a house back there where he jumped"
- What the hell is that? This is some creepy shit, man. I'll tell you, whoever lives or lived here was very fucking weird. Into devil worship or some shit. Mailbox says "Fowler". There's a picture of three very mangy guys. Bert could have killed them but there's no bodies, just some very ugly vibes. We're running out of time. If we don't find that money soon the Army's gonna have us for breakfast.
- Do you get the feeling we're being watched?
- No.
- Then how come your finger's on the trigger? I think this place is possessed by Demonic demons.
- Your head's gonna be possessed by the butt of my gun if you don't shut up. Demonic demons. Christ.
- I don 't like this one bit. We're being set up bigger than shit. I can feel it.
- Listen, I fired at this thing and it just kept coming. Bullets don't stop it! The scarecrows, man! Like Humans. There were three of them. They're just fucking scarecrows and all I shot was straw. They're never gonna let us out of here alive, you know that, don't you? I mean, it ain't the money they want, it's us. We're dealing with some kind of zombie, or something. I mean, man, they ripped his fucking liver out with their bare hands. They're just gonna pick us off one by one, that's all, just like those crows on that fucking fence? Well, you do whatever you want to do. I ain't going out there again. No fucking way.
- Alright, you got a better idea?
- Yes, I have a better idea. Let's just wait till daybreak, okay?
- And leave three and a half million dollars..
- Guns don't work! Don't you understand? I tried it already, okay? The motherfucker just kept coming. I mean, you understand what's happening here, don't you? Think about it. You think it's an accident we're here? We got away too clean, don't you see that? What if... Maybe... We're dead. And we're not... I mean, we're not really here. This isn't real. I mean, we're here, but... none of this is really...
- There is somebody out there. They're after us. We're surrounded. We're fucking surrounded. The fucking corn. It's everywhere.
"This kid killed his brother and hid him in the cornfield as a scarecrow. And now the brother, I mean his spirit, it's trapped out there. And it waits for someone to come into the field and it jumps from scarecrow to scarecrow, killing whoever enters. But the spirit can only inhabit one scarecrow at a time. They can't all come at us together. And so after it kills someone, it takes them upstairs, turning them into another scarecrow, to use against the next"
- Can the internet dial you up itself? It said, "Do you want to meet a ghost?"
- Which website was that? Something about meeting ghosts?
- I don't really know. It just appeared last night.
- Know the address?
- What? Um... address? I really don't know anything about computers.
- What have ghosts got to do with us? Besides, we're alive.
- Then, who are they? Are they really alive? How are they different from ghosts?
- They're all crazy. Nobody knows what happens when you die. All this about ghosts, but I won't believe in them, even if I see one. But I do know that I'm definitely alive and so are you.
- Ghosts won't kill people. Because that would just make more ghosts. Instead, they'll try to make people immortal. By quietly trapping them in their own loneliness.
- Forever...Death was...Eternal loneliness...
- You're not real. I refuse to acknowledge death! I'll catch you. Then you'll disappear.
- I am...Not an illusion...
"The spirit. Or consciousness, the soul, whatever you want to call it, it turns out the realm they inhabit has a finite capacity. Whether that capacity accommodates billions or trillions eventually, it will run out of space. Once it's filled to the brim. it's got to overflow somehow, somewhere. The souls have no choice but to ooze into another realm, that is to say, our world. Maybe, at first it started with something really simple. Once that realm reached critical mass any device would have sufficed. Thrown together with the means and materials at hand. That's how I see it. After many hours or days or many weeks, it finally happens.Through that process, it spread around the world. But now they're no longer the faint presence they began as. It's all hypothetical. But if this really happened, there's no turning back. No matter how simple the device, once the system's complete, it'll function on its own and become permanent"
*
original title·····回路 (Kairo)
language·········Japanese
- You must stop at once. Destroy your slides. Burn your notes. You must listen to me before it is too late.
- Are you ill? You do not realize what we have here. In our very hands we have the cosmic force of creation itself. In our very hands we can shape life, take it apart, put it together again. Mold it like putty.
- But what you are doing is mad. It is diabolic. You are tampering with powers reserved to God.
- That is good. That is very good. That is just what I am doing.
"Vocal chords quite unimpaired. That's a very good sign. Muscular coordination, perfect. Reflex actions, perfect. Physical structure, perfect. Marvelous. Exactly in character. Brain and nervous system have come through undamaged. You should be proud. I have been able to alter the size of many organisms, but you are the first specimens to survive the ordeal by more than a few hours. You should be proud, I repeat"
[Once the game begins, only two paths exist. Completion and death]
- So how was the store today?
- It was good, you know, we found this, like, weird probably banned VCR game.
- What's a VCR game?(watch)
- It's like a board game, you know, but you gotta watch it. here... check it out. Well, it's really old.
[Welcome, curious viewers. Are you ready to step into the ultimate nightmare? A world of unimaginable horror with deadly consequences. Have you the courage to go... Beyond The Gates? You may now open your game board. The blue, gray and red players place your pieces on the starting point. To collect the keys and unlock the gateway. a series of challenges must be undertaken. Failure to do so will turn your souls over to our world. Obtaining the four keys allows passage Beyond The Gates and a return to your world. Only there can your father's soul be saved. The other world awaits you]
- What the fuck? Did you just hear that? Where did you say you found this again?
- Our dad's office.
- Do you really think this tape has something to do with Dad's disappearance? Wait, wait. How's that possible?
- Well, there's four keys on the board. She wants us to play the game. It's fucking unbelievable as that sounds. I don't think we've got any other choice.
[A wise man would read the instructions. To initiate your fate roll the dice. The number played will dictate guidance for your next action]
- What'll happen to us!
[You'll be granted access to the other side. Only there can you see your father and complete the game. Removing the poisoned heart of the father with a pure dagger will free all the captured souls and allow you passage back into your world]
"Once a vengeful ghost connects to you, it will not relent until you do whatever it is it wants from you.Ghosts are not the beings of free will the way spirits are. The consequences of refusing to cross over is entrapped in one tragic moment. All other memory is lost. Ghosts cannot read, they cannot write, they cannot speak. Those images are our only means of communication. They're carefully chosen fragments of her final memories meant to lead you to do whatever she wants you to do. Somehow, some way, those images tell you everything that you need to know"
"You are such a pretty girl. This is for your own good"
"EV, namely Emmanuel Virus. There is no cure. So if you were to get infected during the experiment all is lost. Now. Instead of the usual answer. What is your real purpose for volunteering for this experiment?"
"Grant me the following in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ Like a leper rotting in flesh, let all avoid me. Like a cripple without limbs, let me not move freely. Remove my cheeks, that tears may not roll down them. Crush my lips and tongue, that I may not sin with them. Pull out my nails that I may grasp nothing. Let my shoulders and back be bent that I may carry nothing. Like a man with tumor in the head let me lack judgment. Ravage my body sworn to chastity leave me with no pride, and have me live in shame. Let no one pray for me. But only the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me"
"I've become strangely sensitive to sound and smell. It makes me feel dizzy and nauseous. When I drank blood the blisters disappeared. It's as if the vampire cells suppressed EV. But, it doesn't last very long. I didn't choose the blood that was transfused into me! You know I went there to do good! Now, I thirst for all sinful pleasures. I am no longer a priest nor a friar. Forget the rules! Forget the Vatican! Do you know how hard I tried not to kill people? You can't even begin to imagine! A bloodthirsty beast is growling inside me! But I tiptoed around afraid to hurt anyone"
- I'll get the blood!
- Stealing from the hospital?
- There's more. I'm helping people who want to commit suicide. I know many people like that from listening to confessions. If I run out, I'll find more through the Internet. They face death more peacefully if I help them.
- If they just give it to you, what fun is that? It tastes much better this way.
- How many have to die for your taste?
- Stop acting so humane! You're not even human.
- Then what are we?
- We're human eating beasts, that's what.
- Don't make me regret saving you.
- Kill me or save me, you'll regret it either way.
*
original title·····박쥐 (Bakjwi)
language·········Korean
Written and directed by Park Chan wook (The Handmaiden 2016, Stoker 2013, The Vengeance Trilogy - Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance 2002/ Oldboy 2003/ Lady Vengeance 2005)