Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006) Movie Script
1
( Thunder rumbling )
( Gasps )
Welcome to Glen Echo,
a picture-postcard community
that is itself representative
of a thousand small towns
found all across America.
But is there a brand of unspeakable evil
set to shatter the serenity
of this rural haven...
the same brand of evil that has
plagued a host of similar communities
for the better part of 30 years?
The stories
are well-known.
At crystal lake, a madman named
Jason Voorhees has killed dozens
over the past three decades,
leaving a devastated, deserted community
fearful of his next appearance.
Here on elm street, in the
suburban community of Springwood,
a murderer's repeated attacks
have left a psychological scar so deep,
some insist that simply
dreaming about him
can kill you in your sleep.
Excuse me, sir. Hi.
I was wondering if I could
ask you some questions
about your former neighbor Frederick...
and in Haddonfield,
a prodigal son named Michael Myers
has struck in a similar fashion
on or near Halloween
on at least four different occasions.
For these residents,
Halloween will never be the same.
Who are these men? How
do they do what they do?
What is the connection
between those towns
and Glen echo?
It will be here, our contact claims,
where the next incarnation of
unrelenting evil will emerge.
It was 20 years ago
at this
now-abandoned farm
where a boy supposedly possessed by evil
was taken from his home
by a frenzied mob
and thrown over this waterfall,
where he perished.
That boy is about
to seek revenge over the town
that murdered him.
He knows this, he says,
because he himself is the heir apparent
to that throne of terror so long held
by the likes of Voorhees,
Myers and Krueger.
This man's name
is Leslie Vernon.
( Clicks )
Man: All right, we got it.
Good job, Taylor.
Did that sound forced,
too much like Diane Sawyer?
- I'm trying to find my own voice in this.
- No, it's tight.
Ugh, you're kidding me.
Man: Taylor, this guy's not even home.
Taylor: No, wait. There, by the shed.
Mr. Vernon, hi.
Dougie, did you see that?
Doug: What's going on here, Taylor?
Wait. Second floor, in the window.
Did you see that?
- No, I didn't see it. Would I have asked?
- Hey, hello.
Mr. Vernon,
it's me... Taylor Gentry.
We spoke on the phone...
Mr. Vernon.
Hey! ( Laughing )
( Gasps )
I'm just messing with you.
I'm sorry.
I'm Leslie Vernon. Hi.
Mr. Vernon, could we
throw a Mike on you?
Yeah, sure...
This is the living room.
There's church and zo.
They are my little sweeties.
Actually, he's not.
- Don't put your finger anywhere near him.
- Okay.
But you can pet him.
He's a sweetie.
I'm so terrible with these guys.
I go away for days, forget to feed 'em.
Little bastards just won't die.
Turtles are good that way,
- very feng shui.
- Yeah yeah,
plants and turtles.
Plants and turtles.
I only keep pets I can eat.
This is my pride and joy.
The number of books is amazing.
Yeah. I haven't been able
to keep up lately, though.
I've kind of fallen behind.
I notice a lot of these
are manuals, textbooks.
Yeah, kind of boring.
- Would you say that most of these are...
- Work related?
Well, I wouldn't suggest
reading "gray's anatomy" for kicks.
This is the fun stuff...
Copperfield, Houdini...
sleight of hand,
"escape tactics."
- You wanna see a magic trick?
- Sure.
- You got a deck of cards on you?
- Um... no.
No. Yo, Doug, you got
a deck of cards on you?
Doug: Dude, why would I
have a deck of cards?
- Check your left front pocket.
- What the...?
- Todd: Holy fucking sweet!
- Taylor: Todd!
What? That was
fucking sweet.
- How'd you do that?
- Tricks of the trade, man.
Tricks of the trade. Plenty
more where that came from.
- Todd: Doug, you're in the frame.
- Sorry, dude.
In reality, aren't you talking about
terrorizing innocent people?
No. ( Laughing )
Why...
why is that funny?
Look look, you came to me
to find out how guys
like Mike and Chucky
and Freddy do what they do, not why.
I can't just sit here
on the first night I ever met
you and explain it to you.
It's gotta come from your own
understanding of the process...
Or not.
It's up to you.
All right, tell us then.
How do you do it?
Let's go.
- What? Go where?
- Where else? My old house.
Leslie: You know the story
of how I was rounded up
and drowned in Nellis falls?
Well, on the anniversary of my death,
the local kids, they dare each other
to spend the night here
at our old farmhouse.
This year
I'm going to reappear.
Home sweet home.
Taylor:
Now do you own this?
It's in a trust.
Technically, if I came
forward, I could claim it.
It used to get rented out
in the summers.
Now a local cop looks after it
every now and then.
Mostly it's empty.
Taylor: Now why don't
you live here then,
instead of so far out of town?
( Laughs )
Because I can't.
Because...
because as far as the town
of Glen echo's concerned,
- I'm dead, remember?
- Yeah.
If this is where I'm gonna reappear,
- I can't exactly be seen mowing the lawn.
- Yeah, gotcha.
So then what function does it serve you?
I am glad you asked.
Step number one...
I need an anchor for my legend.
- Let's take a look at the apple orchard.
- Great.
Creepy as hell, huh?
Labyrinthine,
cavernous.
It's taken years to get like this.
The story goes
that if you go out into the field
on the night of a harvest moon
and till the soil,
the dirt will come up wet
- with blood.
- Todd: Cool.
- Leslie: Impossible to walk through.
- Taylor: Todd...
But it's even better.
If you're brave enough
to go out into the orchard
on the night of a harvest moon
and the night
is still as death,
you can still hear my mother's body
swinging in the trees.
I'm just kidding.
- Wh...?
- I'm just kidding.
Not tonight.
We've got about a month to go.
A month.
You have no idea how much cardio
I have to do.
It's ridiculous.
Why so much?
Well, you oughta be able
to run like a freaking gazelle
without getting winded.
And plus, there's that whole thing
of making it look like you're walking
when everybody else
is running their asses off.
- Oh, right.
- And I gotta stay with 'em.
Yeah.
It's tough, man.
It's tough.
Let's get to work.
Come on.
Okay, once you have a location lined up,
then it's time to move on to step two...
find a target group.
Taylor: A target group.
You mean victims?
( Sighs )
Potato, potah-to.
Whatever. Anyway, it's not
as easy as you think.
Everybody thinks we
just wake up one morning
and start obsessing about a
girl and start stalking her,
killing everybody that gets in the way.
That does seem to happen
a lot with you guys.
No, it's that...
no no.
The girl's the key, yes,
but she's gotta have a supporting cast.
Like that bunch right there,
there's your bread and butter...
the good-looking,
athletic kids
with healthy libidos.
Look.
And those guys over there,
they don't move quite as fast
when you get 'em on the run.
So they're good to pad your
numbers with late in the game.
( Laughing )...
Look at that guy.
You gotta find a group who
will all hang together...
a little from column "a",
a little from column "b"...
and one survivor girl
- who will tie 'em all together.
- What is a survivor girl?
Oh, I'm sorry.
It's an industry term.
It's what you call a girl...
Like her, who just might be
able to walk away from me
- at the end of the day.
- Okay, what is it about this girl?
She's a virgin.
A virgin.
How do you know that?
How do the swallows find Capistrano?
I don't know.
Look at her.
She's a virgin.
I mean, you're not getting that?
Oh my God, did you get that?
- Did you get that? Did you get that?
- Doug: Yeah.
- Tell me you got that.
- I got it. I got it.
Did you see that,
how we sensed each other?
Taylor: So you've been
tracking her already.
Her? No, not her.
No, I'm eyeing her for the first time.
- No, I got a girl picked out in Glen echo.
- Oh.
I just brought you out here
so you'd have a sense
of what I've done so far.
I mean...
If I didn't have a girl
picked out already,
we'd be way too far behind schedule.
Doug: Ooh, it's like one of
those cooking shows, right,
where they have the pie
already baking in the oven,
sort of ready to go, you know?
You ever... you ever
watch those s-s-shows?
Sorry.
- Doug.
- Doug: Never mind.
Okay, so from this point on
we're dealing directly with the
specifics of my gig at the farmhouse.
This is the real deal now,
and everything's
gotta go down just right.
Taylor:
Uh, what are we here for?
For her.
Right there.
Meet Kelly Curtis, my hopes and
dreams standing right there.
- Is Kelly a virgin?
- Yep.
- Can we talk to her?
- No, no way.
I'm sorry, but there is
no wiggle room on this.
- She is off-limits.
- Okay.
- Okay?
- Mm-hmm.
Leslie:
And here we go.
Hope you got film
in those cameras, boys.
School's in.
This is step three.
It's called a "fly-by."
Every night
Kelly comes out this door,
over to this dumpster,
drops off the garbage, okay?
When she does that,
she uses this brick
to prop open this door.
You can see that I've rigged it
with some clear fishing line.
Watch this. Ping!
Very strong.
- Right.
- Usually I do this myself,
but since you're here,
you're gonna help me.
I'm gonna be sitting right over there
in the darkness.
Kelly's gonna come out,
take the garbage over
to the dumpster there.
- Uh-huh.
- Right?
I'm gonna pop out of the shadows there.
She's gonna think she sees something.
She's gonna take
a couple steps towards me.
That's when you
- give this a yank.
- Okay.
Brick slides out, door slams shut.
Boom! She turns!
I slip back into the shadows.
She turns back around.
- And you've...
- I'm gone.
- You've disappeared.
- Right.
All right?
- Sounds good.
- All right.
Here we go.
- ( Door closes )
- ( Gasps )
( Lock jiggles )
Taylor:
God, that was amazing.
Todd: Leslie, how did you do that, man?
- Todd, keep up.
- Don't be an uber-bitch. I'm right here.
All right, that is it. Gimme a pound.
Gimme a little bow.
- Who's bowing?
- Doug: Todd needs a pound.
Pound it, bow it.
All right, and you...
- you get hugs.
- Oh, okay.
Huggy. Oh...
- All right, let's get in. Whoo-hoo!
- Okay. All right.
She thinks she saw me.
Maybe not. She's not sure.
Just wanna get her a
little paranoid, you know?
Just plant the seed
that there might be some trouble coming.
You know what I mean?
Get in, come on.
- ( Car alarm chirps )
- Doug: Yo yo yo, who's that guy over there, man?
Leslie:
Who knows?
Taylor: So where are we headed now?
Leslie: To visit my two best friends,
Eugene and his wife, Jamie.
They live just down the road.
Eugene is an old pro in the biz.
He's retired now, though,
but he taught me a lot.
Gener!
I figured it'd be good for
you to meet with him,
you know, give you some perspective,
kind of a bridge between the past
and the future.
Plus, Jamie's fucking hot.
- Hey! How are you doing, Jamie?
- Hi, sweetie. How are you?
- Good. What's all this?
- It's just some grad-school kids
following me around.
- Taylor Gentry.
- Oh, yeah. Hi. This is the thing
you were telling me about. Come
on in, everyone. Is that on?
Yeah. Don't worry about it.
You look great.
- I'm embarrassed.
- Don't be.
- Is gene around?
- Yeah, he's out back in the tank.
And you should probably go get
him, 'cause I keep forgetting.
- I'm busy, and he's been out there a while, so...
- Okay.
- What are you doing?
- Eugene is in a tank...
a sensory-deprivation
chamber,
you know, like those big tubes.
- Just start over there.
- Doug: So why do you do this?
Leslie: It helps you control
your bodily functions,
you know, like those yoga guys
who can slow their breathing,
slow their heart rate down to, like,
four beats a minute or whatever.
It's good to be able to do that
in case you need to look...
You know, dead.
- You mentioned your friend is retired.
- Yep.
Why does he still need to do this?
I have no idea.
( Grunts, panting )
Oh my God.
How are you doing, old timer?
( Silent )
What time is it?
It's about 6:00.
- 6:30, quarter to 7:00?
- Taylor: Yeah.
- Tuesday.
- Tuesday?
Tuesday? Hell, no,
man, it's Thursday!
Jamie, Jamie, you didn't say he
was down here for three days.
Come on, up up.
- Get your feet under you. Good.
- Easy does it.
Easy does it.
Easy does it.
You been down for a while.
- Careful. Get your legs on.
- ( Laughing ) Oh my God.
Do you see what I mean? He's the best.
Jamie:
That is so great, Les.
It sounds like Kelly's really
coming around for you.
I am very optimistic about it.
Everything comes together
when it's right.
So, Jamie, you support Leslie
in what he's trying to do?
Of course. You see how
hard he's worked for it.
And do I wish he'd chosen
something a little safer
to do with his life?
Sure.
But he knows what's best for him.
Hey there, old timer.
How are you doing?
Nothing like a cold shower to
get the blood pumping again.
- Oh, yeah,
- how's your beer?
Very good, thank you.
Highly recommend it.
- You want one?
- I'm gonna go with no.
- No. Okay.
- Thank you.
- Well, when are we gonna eat?
- Hi.
As soon as you chop up these veggies
- and get the grill ready.
- Okay.
Yeah.
( Clears throat )
So, Eugene,
Leslie tells us you're retired.
Is it all right to talk about this?
Oh, yeah. I told her that you
could give her a history
of what it was like in the old days.
Oh, shoot.
It was a whole different world
back when I was in the game.
How so?
Well, I had a good portion
of my success in the late '60s, '70s.
Back then it was about quantity of work.
How many jobs can you fit in a year?
How many places can you hit?
You know, we didn't have
all this preparation
these guys use today.
Jamie: But the good ones do anyway.
That's true.
There's always been hacks out there,
people mucking it up,
one-hit wonders
who make a bloody mess
of some sorority somewhere,
get killed
or arrested.
You can never put it together again.
Makes it bad for all of us...
( Chopping faster )
Just cheapens it.
- ( Knife clanks )
- ( Gasps )
Jamie: That's... that's great, honey.
Why don't you go start the grill?
- I will.
- Okay.
So you mentioned most of the guys
in your line of work today are...
Uh, hacks.
I'm not talking about the
guys that really worked hard,
like Jay and Fred and Mike.
There weren't nobody like
them in the early years.
We just hit hard, wiped everybody out
and disappeared as soon as we could
without ever giving
a thought to coming back.
Those boys lifted it
to a whole other level.
They made an art form of it,
turned themselves into legends
by returning like a curse
over and over again.
That was a radical change in philosophy,
changed the whole business.
The business of supernatural
killing sprees?
She's not exactly on board yet
with the whole
why-we-do-what-we-do thing.
No, young lady,
about the business of fear.
Every culture, every civilization
from the dawn of man
has had its monsters.
For good to be pitted against evil,
you have to have evil, don't you?
- Here's your doggy bag.
- Thank you so much.
- Thank you, Jamie.
- You're welcome.
Now I feel like we didn't
even have a chance to talk.
How's that thing, the
one you're working on?
Really good.
Really good.
I was telling Jamie earlier that I think
this girl's really coming alone.
Eugene: You got your red
herring all worked out?
I think so.
I think so.
She spends a lot of time at the library.
So I was gonna do it there.
She knows the janitor or somebody?
- Do you wanna walk us out?
- Sure.
Thank you, sir.
I was gonna knock off
one of her friends.
Oh, I don't know about that, son.
I wouldn't burn that one too quick.
- It turns the heat up too much.
- Right.
Is there anybody else available?
Does she talk to anybody,
a homeless person
on the way or anything?
Well, hey, how about a librarian?
If she spends a lot of time there,
I'm sure she knows a few of them.
Now that's a good idea right there, Les.
There's a lady there
who lets her stay late sometimes.
( Laughing )
Jackpot. You got a winner.
Yeah yeah.
- Yeah, I'm gonna look into that.
- You do that.
- All right, now...
- Jamie and Eugene: You keep us posted.
Both:
Jinx, you owe me a soda.
- Oh, Eugene! Got me again.
- I will.
Taylor: Leslie, what's a red herring?
It's a...
Preliminary strike
involving Kelly indirectly.
"Strike" meaning
the first person you are gonna kill?
Mm-hmm.
Next step is...
I gotta get this...
Into Kelly's hands.
- What is that?
- This is an article
about the suspect
who was questioned
in the rape of my mom.
"Mark Daniel Curtis."
- Mm-hmm.
- Is he related to Kelly?
That's her great-Uncle.
Well, supposedly.
Wow, he looks just like her.
It is her.
It's a computer-generated
image.
Pretty good, huh?
She doesn't have a great-Uncle,
at least not that I know of.
So what, you made that up?
A lot of what we use
is C.G.I.
- Leslie: Hey, Doug, can you step out front?
- Doug: You bet.
Leslie:
Thank you.
All right, kids, we are at
the point of no return.
You can either bag it and go
home with a clear conscience
or you can come inside.
What's it gonna be, stay or go?
Taylor: So how will this play out?
How will this work?
Leslie: I don't know that it will.
I just put it in front of her
and hope she takes it
and connects the dots.
It's another test
to see if we're on the same page.
In fact, a lot of what happens
from here on out,
the success or failure
of it, depends on her,
on what she does.
( Whispers ) Stay put.
I'll be right back.
Taylor:
Go go go!
- Taylor: Don't you see him?
- Todd: I lost him. I'm sorry.
Both:
There he is.
Todd: Look at him. He's
like a little monkey.
Taylor:
Just stay focused. Go!
- ( Todd gasps )
- ( Whispering ) Keep it down, Todd.
- Don't sneak up like that.
- Like the freaking town crier over here.
Whoa whoa whoa.
What's this?
Oh, all the newspaper articles
are kept on microfiche.
I swapped the real one out
for the fake one that had the story
about Kelly's great-Uncle.
If everything goes right...
and it never does...
but if it does,
she's gonna read the newspaper clipping
and wanna read the rest of the article.
She's gonna go
to the librarian for help.
Then they're gonna go to the microfiche.
They're gonna read about the
Curtis family connection.
Then Kelly is going to freak.
Then the librarian's
gonna say something like,
"it's okay, dear.
It's just
an old story."
And then...
I make my appearance.
It is going to get wet in here tonight.
Lace your boots up, kiddies.
"Paradise lost"...
found it.
All right, keep the cameras rolling.
After I've offed the librarian,
I'm gonna chase Kelly
around for a little bit.
Then I'm gonna let her go.
You wait for my signal.
When you get it, just
haul ass back to the van.
- Got it?
- Got it.
- Wish me luck.
- Good luck.
Thank you.
Doug:
Todd, Todd, come in.
We got company.
Who the fuck is this guy?
Todd:
She is hot.
Taylor: Todd, would you keep
the camera on her face?
- Taylor: She's getting up.
- Todd: So am I.
Ugh, seriously.
- Todd: She strides like a gazelle.
- Todd.
Really, he's got good taste.
Look how hot she is.
- Taylor: I can't believe that actually worked.
- Awesome.
Make sure you're getting this.
Mrs. Collinwood, would you help
me find the rest of this article?
Mrs. Collinwood:
Oh, my goodness.
This must be 30 years old.
Someone must have brought it in
and left it by mistake.
- It's not the library's?
- Oh, heaven's no.
We don't keep papers this old.
We scan them into the computer now.
But something like this might still be
on microfiche.
"Mark Daniel Curtis, described as a
vagabond drifter, was questioned
by Glen echo police Tuesday morning
for the brutal rape
of Molly Vernon."
Mrs. Collinwood:
Curtis.
Are you related to this man?
Do you know the story of the boy
in the Vernon farmhouse,
Mrs. Collinwood?
Oh, goodness, everybody knows about...
never you mind.
It's just a story.
No, I want to know what happened.
Here we are.
It's a wedding photo.
"Mr. and Mrs. Vernon
on their wedding day."
That's the first and last photograph
you'll ever see of them.
They were a strange couple.
They kept entirely to themselves.
After that night...
nine months after that night, in fact,
Molly Vernon gave birth
to a bastard son.
- Oh my God.
- He was horribly abused.
He was forced to live in the cider house
and driven like a slave
to till the fields
with only a hand scythe.
One day, legend has it,
the boy revolted.
Beneath a blood-red
harvest moon,
he murdered Silas with a hand scythe,
buried his body in the fields
and dragged Molly from the house,
hanging her in the farm's apple orchard.
When the crimes were discovered,
the incensed townspeople
marched upon the farmhouse,
dragged the boy from the house,
bound his hands
and marched him over the falls
to the banks of the Nellis river,
where he vanished into the icy waters.
Did they ever find the boy's body?
Water that cold,
bodies don't come back up.
Turtles picked his bones clean.
If this is
my great-Uncle
who raped her, that would
make the boy my...
Now you listen here.
The boy drowned.
You have nothing to worry about.
( Screaming )
Leslie!
No more.
It ends here.
Come to me, child.
It's all right.
( Screams )
Leslie:
Whoo! Whoo!
Did you get that? You got it?
You got it?
- We totally got it.
- You got the guy coming out?
- You got the guy, right? You got the guy?
- We got the whole thing.
Leslie, Taylor:
Whoo! Whoo!
- We got an Ahab!
- Whoa, we got an Ahab!
What's an Ahab?
It's a guy. It's a guy
like the guy back there.
Get in. We gotta tell Eugene.
- ( Gunshot )
- Oh! He shot you?
- Right in the shoulder.
- That's your first one. Does it hurt?
Oh, no, it feels all right.
I was wearing a vest.
It's fine.
There he is.
Eugene: I'll be damned. Doc Halloran.
- Right when you need him.
- It's unbelievable.
It looks like you got your Ahab.
( Shouting )
Leslie, who is Doc Halloran?
He's a psychiatrist.
Um, he visited me when I was little.
And after Leslie took off,
Doc Halloran always predicted
- he would come back.
- So you're gonna go after him now?
Wh... no. Hell no.
I need him.
Why?
Why do you need him?
Because he is an Ahab,
and that is a remarkable thing.
You're gonna have to define an Ahab.
Okay okay, an Ahab in this context
is a reflection of everything
that is good in humanity,
someone who is willing to
defend others against evil
even at a great personal cost.
He knows what I am. He
knows what I'll be doing.
He will stop at nothing
to try and stop me.
( Squeals )
This is such great news.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
The boy needs to focus.
Oh, gene, he's got an Ahab!
You can't get a little excited?
We are so proud of him.
We're very proud of him.
Todd: I would just like
to state for the record
what an enormously bad idea this is.
Todd, I just need to know, okay?
( Clears throat )
Hi, everyone, how are you?
- Coffee?
- Taylor: Yes, thank you.
I'll be back for your order.
Todd: What are you waiting for?
Look, Todd, when she comes back,
I'll ask her. Just be cool, all right?
Todd:
Uh-oh.
Oh, God.
- Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. What do I say?
- Just act normal.
It's the opposite of what
you're doing right now.
Why are you following this girl?
- Who are you people?
- Todd: We're just sitting here, man.
Oh, really?
- Why are you filming this?
- Uh, who are you?
Okay, why do you need to know that?
You know where he is, don't you?
He's not who you think he is.
What's he calling
himself now, Leslie Vernon?
How perfect.
I... I...
I don't know.
I don't know who that is.
His name is Leslie Mancuso
from Reno, Nevada.
You have no idea
who you're dealing with.
What's going on?
Miss, I believe these people
wish to speak with you.
Actually, no.
We're... we need to go,
but thank you anyway.
And it was nice to meet you, Mister...
...Doctor. Dr. Halloran.
Expect to see more of me.
Excuse us. Todd, let's go.
- Oh, shit.
- You wanna just pretend
that we've already had the conversation
- we're about to have?
- Leslie...
okay, that's your portion of it
right there. Now here's mine.
You asked if you could
talk to her, I told you,
"no, you'll
fuck it up."
God damn it.
I've shown you pearls,
shit no one's ever seen.
If you wanna pack it up and go home,
that is fine. It's not gonna
affect what I have to do.
And frankly, I'll be glad not
dragging you fuckers along anymore.
But don't ruin...
My life's work.
Don't do it.
Trust.
Taylor, where's the trust?
- Trust?
- Yes!
Oh, yeah, right.
Where is it?
Coming from you?
Who is that guy?
Who is Doc Halloran, Leslie?
- And who are you really, come to think of it?
- Get in the van.
- We're not gonna have this conversation in the street.
- You think he might come out
- and shoot you again?
- Get in the van!
Ever live in Reno, Leslie?
( Yells, whimpers )
That's enough.
You win.
I'll tell you everything
you need to know.
Okay?
Yeah.
Now please,
get in the van.
You've never lived in Glen echo.
You're not Molly Vernon's son.
Then who is Doc Halloran?
Doc Halloran
is a shrink who treated me in Reno.
And I left there to come
here, so I could do this.
And why doesn't he turn you in
if he knows the truth?
Because I...
I set him up.
I filed a restraining order against him.
And if he tries to turn me in,
he'll be arrested.
You used me!
How can you even think
this is about you, though?
This is...
this is my life.
Taylor, this is my life.
So the backstories are fake.
So what?
If you can't stay,
I understand.
Turn it off.
Todd:
So what's next?
Either stay or go...
what are we gonna do?
Doug: Todd, just stop pushing, man.
- Todd: Shut up, Doug.
- Doug: Just let her think.
( Birds chirping )
You know what? This is what
I've chosen to do, so...
Let's see it through.
Todd: Yes! Sweet. We're staying.
Leslie: Welcome to my
allegedly ancestral home.
( Squeaking )
Leslie: You wanna limit your time inside
- as much as possible.
- Taylor: Why is that?
Leslie:
Restricts your mobility.
You wanna keep your eye on
everything at the same time.
The worst thing is if you get
in a game of hide and seek.
That really slows you down.
Taylor: Now if they
hide in the closet...
- Leslie: Why not just reach in and grab 'em?
- Yeah.
Leslie: We have a code of ethics, Tay.
The closet...
Is a sacred place.
It's symbolic of the womb.
It's the safest place to be,
because in the womb
we're innocent.
So does that mean you're
pro-life, Leslie?
Anyway, you don't want
to spend too much time
on just one person.
Gives everybody else
too much time to get away,
and that's rule number one...
nobody gets away.
You mess that one up,
and not only is it a complete breakdown,
it's really embarrassing.
The bedroom is where
it's all gonna start.
If it all goes as I expect,
one guy's gonna bring his girl up here
to knock boots,
and of course I'll be waiting nearby.
This is my staging area.
I'll wait here for them
to start doing their thing,
and then it's decision time.
What's a "go" situation?
If I have a good sense
of the way things are going,
if I know where everyone's at.
Once I off the two of them,
I'll stage the area
- and make it look like they're sleeping.
- Why is that?
Well, if someone comes in
and sees two horrifically
mangled bodies,
they'll run screaming from the house.
I'll lose containment way too early.
As soon as possible
I gotta whittle it down
to just me and Kelly.
I have...
The main fuse rigged up
to cut the power.
( Clicks )
Hmm? So I can sneak
down the stairs
and take advantage of the first moments
of chaos.
Leslie: Of course, one
of the first reactions
will be to go for the
flashlights in the kitchen.
I put dead batteries in all them.
So that'll mean they have to
go down to the basement
to check the fuse box. Remember, nobody
knows about the bodies upstairs,
so they won't be panicked.
Here's how it'll go down next...
- ( rock music playing )
- Everybody will be partying.
Kelly won't be having
any of it, hopefully.
Her jock boyfriend's gonna get
frustrated, take it out on the Stoners.
The Stoners are gonna be stoned.
And then the lights will go out.
- ( Music powers down )
- One of the guys will offer to go to the cellar,
and being a raging sack of hormones,
he'll bring his girl to try to score.
Taylor:
Oh, Leslie.
Don't you think that's
a little gratuitous?
- Leslie: Now, Taylor...
- Girl: Oh, yeah.
...who's telling
the story?
- ( Unzips fly )
- Leslie: That's my cue to split 'em up.
He'll tell her to stay put
while he checks it out.
- He'll say, "everything's all right."
- Girl: Honey?
And then...
- ( Screaming )
- Taylor: You let her go?
Leslie:
She's the starting gun.
She'll run screaming back into
the house and start the panic.
That gives me time to make my next move.
There's no lock on that old toolshed
so I'll use the corpse
to scare the poop out of the
kid who goes in there next.
The shed's a safe haven.
I can't let anyone in.
- Taylor: The closet imagery.
- Leslie: Right.
Only Kelly's allowed in there.
If someone else tries
to enter that shed,
he gets it with a posthole digger.
It's so sadistic
and yet...
Genius.
Thank you.
Doug: But, uh, you do want
Kelly to go in there?
- Yes.
- You're kidding. What for?
Todd: Wait, Taylor, we
should get you asking that.
Good call.
( Clears throat )
Leslie, I feel as though
you want Kelly to enter the toolshed.
That's correct, Taylor.
Leslie: It's the first
sign of empowerment
I'll be looking for in her.
At some point she's gonna turn a corner.
It's a pivotal moment
when she makes the transition
from victim to heroine.
This is visually manifested
when she reaches for a big,
long, hard weapon.
You know what I'm talking about.
That's okay, Tay.
It's deeply symbolic.
She's empowering herself
with cock.
Come on.
Look, you go back and
research all of those women
who survived their ordeals
and I guarantee you
none of 'em did it
with a dinky little gun.
So you're saying she'll
reach for something phallic
- on purpose.
- She reaches for my weapon.
That's the ultimate, because she'll be
taking my manhood
and empowering herself with it.
So you're pro-life
and you're a chauvinist.
It's convention, Tay.
You have to respect it.
Let's go to the toolshed.
So let me get this straight...
you want her to arm herself
with one of these?
Well, sort of.
I mean, if you look right here,
I've precut the handle, so it'll snap
with the first swing, and...
I've loosened the head
on the sledgehammer.
I've filed down the
head pin on the pickax.
All the obvious weapons right up front
I've sabotaged.
I just have to hope she doesn't
get lucky with the first swing.
Yeah.
There are 11 exits from the first floor
and another eight or nine
that might be manageable
from the second floor.
You wanna eliminate as many as you can
from being practical,
so I've discreetly
nailed them all shut.
Don't they just smash them out?
You'd think so,
but you'd be surprised.
No. And when they do
smash it out,
it's on the second floor or higher.
And then they're out on the
roof and they're screwed.
I've cut down the larger
branches from the trees
to prevent anyone from climbing down.
And the smaller ones I've precut,
just like at the shed,
so any weight will bring the
whole works crashing down.
Sort of seems like cheating.
It's preparation.
Logistically speaking,
I'm at a severe disadvantage here.
Taylor:
So what's next?
Leslie: While they regroup,
I have a short window
to prepare for when it all gets outside,
then I work my way back to
the front of the house.
And here's where the
timing becomes critical...
they'll wanna wake up
the two kids upstairs.
And they find them dead and freak out.
( Laughs )
Very good.
- Kelly: Go!
- ( Clamoring )
Kelly:
Shane, Lauren!
Hurry!
Shoot!
( Screaming )
- Fucking start. Fucking start, man.
- ( Engine sputtering )
( Engine sputtering )
Oh, shit.
Oh, fuck.
Oh, start!
( All screaming )
Leslie: We're getting
down to the end now.
I think you know where this goes.
- I think so.
- Why don't you...
Why don't you take a shot at it?
Well...
Assuming they all run down here...
Not assuming.
They will run down here.
They'll try to hide and they'll see...
( Screaming )
Very good.
What next?
Well, they'll go the
only place left in here.
Yes. No, wait.
Okay, stop.
Aren't you forgetting something?
Oh! Ahab, right?
Leslie: Exactly. Doc Halloran will
have figured everything out by now,
so I'm expecting him any minute.
All I have to do is keep Kelly busy
by throwing a few bodies here and there.
And then we can have
our whole, you know,
cathartic good-versus-evil showdown.
And then we can move on.
Okay, but she's loose.
So where to now?
The piece De resistance.
Leslie: If the closet
represents the womb,
- what's this?
- Taylor: The birth canal.
Leslie:
Well done, Taylor.
Yonic imagery is extremely
important in our work.
Taylor: Yonic?
Yonic...
opposite of phallic.
It's girl parts.
So she has to go through some
kind of psychological passage
as well as this physical one.
It it works, if she's the
one, she'll emerge...
...her innocence lost,
born again as a woman
hell-bent on revenge.
If she does that...
I'm the happiest man alive.
This is the crown jewel, baby.
- Taylor: A cider press?
- Yeah.
Need I explain the imagery
of apple crushing?
You needn't.
What's going to happen with this?
Well...
Gonna crush some apples
and then juice is
gonna come pouring out.
- ( Todd laughing )
- Taylor: All right, Todd, easy.
I meant tonight, funny guy.
- Tonight?
- Yeah.
I was gonna hurt somebody.
( Thunder rumbling )
- Eugene: Break some legs tonight, kid.
- Leslie: I will.
I know you're gonna be great.
Hey, before we go,
how about some advice from the experts?
How does one survive an encounter
with someone like you or Leslie?
( Chuckling )
I like her, Les.
She's a little spitfire.
- So how about it?
- I'll tell you...
never hang out with a virgin.
You got a virgin in your crew...
either get somebody in her pants
or get the hell away from her.
Aside from that,
the simple answer is...
Run like a motherfucker
and don't stop till the sun comes up.
Pardon the French, but there it is.
And don't try to hide.
We'll find you.
Don't try to be a hero and fight us.
You'll lose.
Pick out a clear spot ahead of
you as far away as possible
and run straight
and don't ever, ever look back,
because you won't like what you see.
I promise you that.
Taylor: How about sticking together?
Well, sure, sure.
You can do that.
Just make sure there's one poor
son of a bitch slower than you
when it comes time to run.
I was fast, wasn't I, Eugene?
You sure were.
- But you caught me, didn't you?
- I did. I did.
- Okay.
- So nice to meet you.
- Jamie: All right, all right.
- Take care.
- Take care of yourself.
- Give the old lady a hug.
- Bye.
- Bye, Jamie.
Go get 'em.
This stuff here,
it's sort of a preparation H formula...
what boxers use.
What does it do?
Constricts blood vessels near
the surface of the skin.
Helps stop bleeding from lacerations,
keeps your eyes
from bulging if you get hit.
Plus, it makes you look pale.
Cider man.
And I mixed in my own special
concoction of fire retardants.
It's pretty sweet.
Are you concerned about Doc Halloran?
No. It's not about him.
I need to stay focused.
On Kelly?
My fate, my...
Longevity
depends on what she does.
Yet you're trying to kill her.
That's the paradox of what I do.
You love her, don't you?
I love the idea of her...
Of what I hope
she'll find within herself.
What doesn't kill you
makes you stronger?
This is like my Christmas.
If you don't stop and appreciate it,
goes by so quick.
I'm so happy.
( Sobbing )
I'm so happy.
( Sobbing continues )
We got a few hours left.
I'm gonna...
Take one last look around.
( Bass guitar thumping )
Okay, there are eight kids
in the house.
They're downstairs getting juiced
on vodka and beer.
Kelly's here. She's not drinking,
which is good.
Spark plugs... somehow
I just don't feel like
getting run over tonight.
You know what I mean?
Okay, the Jocko kid
and his hot little cheerleader number
should be coming up here any minute.
Um, I usually give 'em
a little bit of time
to get their business going.
It's not a bad way to go out, is it?
- Todd: Awesome. Yes.
- Taylor: Todd!
Todd:
I'm into her.
- ( Door opens )
- ( Boy and girl laughing )
( Door closes )
( Girl laughing )
All right,
here we go.
Right on time.
( Girl moaning )
( Moaning continues )
Time to dance with the devil.
( Boy and girl moaning louder )
- ( Slashing sounds )
- ( Grunting )
Doug:
Todd.
Holy shit.
This is really happening.
Todd: Should I be getting
any of this, Taylor?
I don't...
I don't know.
All right.
All right.
All right. All right.
It's begun.
It's begun.
Taylor, hey.
- Taylor, what's wrong?
- No, get that thing out of my face.
Just get it out of my face.
- Todd: Where am I supposed to point it?
- I don't give a fuck!
- Hey hey, Jesus Christ!
- Hey, shh.
Okay, outside.
Everybody outside.
Leslie:
Go, go now.
Taylor: Why are you doing this?
- Leslie: Because you have a look.
- What look?
The we-can't-just-stand-here-
and-let-this-happen look.
Doug.
Now go.
Go. Go.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
It's just I told you this is my night.
Okay?
And the fact is
this can still go either way.
After tonight I'll either be in hiding,
locked up or dead.
So the point is...
We're not gonna see each
other after tonight anyway.
We might as well
just say our goodbyes now.
So...
Fellas, it's been a pleasure.
Thanks.
Thank you. Best of luck
the rest of the way.
Doug: Yeah, man. You too.
Les, you...
you've... you've
chosen to live up
to a fabricated ghost story.
You've elected to fulfill a destiny
- you don't have to fulfill.
- No no no. Shh.
- What?
- Taylor, this has nothing to do
with where I came from
or what happened to me.
I would have ended up here
no matter what.
I made a choice.
I made a choice
to provide a counterbalance
to all those things
that we hold good and pure.
You chose journalism, okay?
( Both laugh )
This is what we are born to do.
Goodbye, Leslie.
( Owl hooting )
Todd: So that's it? Just like that?
I can't believe this.
Pack it up.
Todd: I'm just gonna get
one last shot of the house
for the closing credits or something.
- ( Taylor exclaims )
- That's the power, just like he said.
- Doug: He's gotta be in the cellar by now.
- Todd: Right on schedule.
- Todd: Taylor, what the fuck?
- I said turn it off.
We cannot stand here
and let this happen.
Isn't that exactly what he
said you were gonna say?
God!
It's over.
The documentary's done.
- Now he's done.
- Todd: What are you talking about, Tay?
We know what he's gonna do, okay?
We know how he's gonna do it.
We can stop him.
Whoa whoa whoa.
Hang on a second.
What are you doing?
He got what he wanted from us, Doug.
We built up his story for him.
Now I'm editing it.
Can we consider this for one second?
You saw what he's got set up in there.
You really think that Kelly's
gonna be able to stop him?
Well, then that would mean she's...
Mean... oh, she's not
the survivor girl?
She's fucking 17, Todd.
We did agree
to do this and not interfere.
Yeah, well, guess what.
Okay, look, we go in there,
we tell Kelly what's happening,
we get the fuck out, okay?
But what if he comes at us?
Okay, cool, fine. You guys
stand here holding your balls.
She had to make the
fucking balls reference.
Balls.
This is a bad idea.
I don't like that I just said
that, given the circumstances.
- Whoa.
- Hey, fellas.
- You scared the fuck out of me.
- Where's Kelly?
Um... ( Chuckles )
I think she went upstairs
with that Shane dude.
Todd: Leslie cannot
know that we are here.
Doug: Can't be in the master bedroom.
They'd have found bodies by now.
Taylor: This one wasn't
closed when we left.
Oh my God.
- ( Moaning )
- Come on, come on, Kelly!
Todd: That's like no
virgin I've ever seen.
- ( Screaming )
- Oh, baby, yeah!
Who the fuck are you?
Get the fuck out!
- She's no virgin.
- That was definitely not her first time, no.
Leslie's gonna flip his shit, man.
He's about to kill the jock
in the cellar.
- Kelly, wait wait.
- Who the fuck are you?
- Why are you following me?
- Shh shh shh.
Kelly, you have to come with us.
There's no time to explain.
Come on.
Taylor:
It's okay, everybody.
Everybody, let's go. We're taking
you all out of here right now.
- Taylor.
- Todd!
There is a man named
Leslie Mancuso here tonight.
He's in the cellar right now.
He's planned this entire evening.
He's gonna stalk and kill
each and every one of you.
No way, that Leslie Vernon dude?
No, it's not Leslie Vernon.
It's Leslie man...
where's Lauren?
She went down to the cellar
with that one other dude.
With Pete?
No no no, you can't go down there.
- Why not?
- Because...
- because it's too late.
- ( Girl screaming )
Oh my God.
Oh my God.
Oh my God. There is a man with a mask
and he killed Pete.
He killed Pete.
- Oh my God!
- We were just making out and then just came up...
come on, come on, come on.
- This isn't happening.
- I'm sorry. I'm sorry,
but it really is, and it's
about to get a lot worse.
That night, you remember,
a couple weeks ago,
you were closing down the coffee shop
and you took out the trash,
the door slammed shut?
- You were there?
- You thought you saw a guy standing
in the shadows watching you, didn't you?
No. No, I did,
but it wasn't him.
Yes, it was.
It was him.
And that night in the library.
No no.
You saw him, Kelly. You saw
him, and he's here now.
Just look at him.
( Both scream )
Oh God.
This is not cool, guys.
- Help me get her in the other room.
- Get her on the couch.
Well, this isn't working.
No, it's working perfectly for him.
We have to mess up his plan somehow.
The kids...
the kids upstairs.
They're not supposed to
find them until much later.
Right, to scare them out of the house.
- We gotta make that happen now.
- Wait, you guys, come here.
- We gotta show you something.
- Come with us.
- Sorry to show you this.
- What the fuck?
No no no, but we saw it, right?
We're off the plan.
Let's go find them then.
Dude, come on.
Kel, relax, okay?
It's just Pete and Mike
playing a joke on us, all right?
Julie's probably in
on it too, all right?
I'll call him right now.
There's no service.
Why would he change the plan like this?
He's adjusting it.
- Why? What for?
- To accommodate for the extra people
in the hou...
tell me he didn't see you
before at the window.
- Fuck me!
- God!
Let's just think this thing through.
He's got these two clowns going
to look in the toolshed.
He's only expecting one kid.
Oh, God, he's gonna
kill them both there.
( Speaks indistinctly )
Fuck it, dude.
Cover me.
I'm going in.
Cover you with what, dude?
Holy shit.
Dude, check out this scarecrow, man.
Just come on back out here, man.
I wanna put this in my room.
Come on, man.
Let's go.
No!
( Boy groaning )
- We are so fucked!
- Back to Kelly.
Come on.
Our fucking tires are
slashed on all our cars.
He's making it all happen
exactly as planned, despite the changes.
He's really good.
In a really bad way I mean,
but he's really good.
I'm a little more freaked about her.
What kind of a survivor girl
- passes out in a pinch?
- Passes out?
What kind of survivor girl hops
on the nerdy kid's Johnson
like it's a pogo stick?
Okay, all right, look. The
solution's in the plan.
That's how we're gonna beat him.
What comes next?
Todd: I didn't wanna
come back to the house.
You're the one who wanted
to go back to the house.
Doug: Dude, it's not her fault.
We're all in this together.
What, like she doesn't know?
- 95% of all whores know that they're whores.
- Doug: You made that up.
Come on, help me out here.
What's next? Come on.
The kids, they go upstairs
and find the dead bodies
- and then they head out to their cars.
- Which are sabotaged.
Yeah, but our van isn't.
- Hey, guys, let's go.
- Come here, hey hey.
Come with us.
- ( Screaming )
- Holy fuck! Fuck!
Quiet! Shh!
( Engine sputtering )
Todd, it's not gonna start.
God damn it!
He's way ahead of us.
Back to the house.
He didn't plan on that.
- What now?
- Okay, he said he hated being inside,
so we stay in a group.
We protect Kelly.
We wait him out.
Protect me?
Why not protect all of us?
Kelly, you gotta dig deep,
I mean, real deep.
We're all counting on you
from here on out.
Me? Why me?
Because he thinks
you're his survivor girl.
His what?
A survivor girl.
He think you're the one
who's going to fight him and beat him.
Well, why the hell would he think that?
Because he's been studying
you, all of you, for months.
He thinks you're showing the signs.
He thinks you're a virgin...
- Ha!
- Fuck you, bitch.
- Yeah, you would.
- Wowie wow.
...which you clearly are not
and if Leslie's figured that out...
What? What?
He'll do what?
He'll kill all of us
and leave no witnesses.
Oh, great.
Way to go, kel.
This is my fault?
Because I'm sexually active?
I am sorry I'm not a virgin!
- ( Lock jiggling )
- ( Kelly screams )
- Kelly, no!
- No no!
( Screams )
( Thud )
Cat's out of the bag now.
Taylor, they're headed for the barn,
exactly where he wants them to go.
- Fuck this.
- Todd, what are you doing?
Don't you get it?
We're in this now.
We're part of his equation.
I'll see you around.
Have a nice summer.
Leslie, no one gets away...
rule number one.
- Selfish...
- no no no, wait.
Todd:
Les, I'm doing it!
- He's gonna lead him.
- Doug, let's go. Run!
Come on, Les.
Come on, buddy.
Come on, you physical specimen.
Chase the Doughboy.
You gotta chase me.
Your rules, not mine, baby.
I'm getting tired.
What the fuck?
Come on, Les.
Come on, Les man.
Look at me.
Look at me, Les.
Look at me. Let me see you.
Let me see you.
Look at me, man.
It's fucking Todd. It's Todd.
In it together...
we're fucking doing
this thing together, man.
It's Todd.
Come on, come on.
Come on!
- God! Wait!
- ( Tearing sound )
Lauren, no! Don't go up there!
Maybe it worked.
Maybe Todd got away.
Doug:
We should go check.
Maybe his plan's all fubar
now and he bailed out.
We're right where he wants us,
all of us.
Well, you got us into this, Taylor.
We could have just gotten
in the van and driven away.
You were just gonna leave us here?
How long have you been following us?
It doesn't matter.
- You don't matter.
- Why are you saying that?
He knew.
He knew before...
We started, before...
before we even met.
That's why he agreed to do this.
He...
he found me before we ever shot a frame.
Taylor, you're not making any sense.
It's perfect.
Oh my God.
It's genius.
Taylor, knock it off. His
plan, his plan, it's fucked.
Okay, he's got no virgin,
and Todd made him run
in the wrong direction.
Now think.
It's her.
- Get up.
- Lauren's right.
It's you.
- You're the Vrgin.
- ( Crying )
This whole time it was you.
Please please,
you have to tell me...
What happens to me?
- ( Banging )
- Oh my God!
- Lauren.
- Oh my God!
- ( Gasps )
- ( Crunching sound )
Doug, don't.
( Footsteps )
Lauren, no!
( Screams )
( Slashing sounds )
Get off me.
Get the fuck off me!
Come on, we gotta go.
- Oh, shit, the hole's blocked.
- He's thought of this already.
We gotta find another way. Doug.
- Doug, it's no good.
- Help me then. Quit explaining.
He's planned for...
Oh my God.
- ...that.
- Leslie!
Hi, doc.
No, boy.
Go, let's go.
- ( Stabbing sound )
- ( Grunts )
Leslie, I love her.
You gotta go through me.
I'm sorry, Todd.
( Birds chirping )
( Shouts ) It's just you
and me now, Leslie!
It's just you and me.
Come get some.
( Yells )
- ( Stabbing sound )
- ( Grunts )
( Panting )
- ( Bones crack )
- ( Grunting )
( Stops grunting )
Taylor.
I knew you were the one.
( Screams )
( Crying )
( Screams )
Is he...?
I don't know.
I don't know what he is.
Just a man.
He's just a man.
( Leslie's voice whispers )
( Rock music playing )
I can't seem to face up to the facts
I'm tense and nervous
and I can't relax
I can't sleep
'cause my bed's on fire
don't touch me, I'm a real live wire
psycho killer,
qu'est-ce que c'est?
fa-fa-fa-fa fa-fa-far
far better
run run run run
run run run away
oh-hh
psycho killer,
qu'est-ce que c'est?
fa-fa-fa-fa fa-fa-fa
fa-far far better
run run run run run run run away
( vocalizing )
you start a conversation,
you can't even finish it
you're talking a lot
but you're not saying anything
when I have nothing to say,
my lips are sealed
say something once
why say it again?
psycho killer,
qu'est-ce que c'est?
fa-fa-fa-fa fa-fa
fa-fa-far far better
run run run run run run run away
psycho killer,
qu'est-ce que c'est?
fa-fa-fa-fa fa-fa
fa-fa-far, far better
run run run run run run run away
( vocalizing )
ce que j'ai fais
ce soir-LA
ce qu'Elle a dit
ce soir-LA
realisant mon espoir
je me Lance vers LA gloire
okay
( vocalizing )
we are vain and we are blind
I hate people
when they're not polite
psycho killer,
qu'est-ce que c'est?
fa-fa-fa-fa fa-fa
fa-fa-far far better
run run run run run run run away
psycho killer,
qu'est-ce que c'est?
fa-fa-fa fa-fa
fa-fa-far far better
run run run run
run run run away.
( vocalizing )
( Thunder rumbling )
( Gasps )
Welcome to Glen Echo,
a picture-postcard community
that is itself representative
of a thousand small towns
found all across America.
But is there a brand of unspeakable evil
set to shatter the serenity
of this rural haven...
the same brand of evil that has
plagued a host of similar communities
for the better part of 30 years?
The stories
are well-known.
At crystal lake, a madman named
Jason Voorhees has killed dozens
over the past three decades,
leaving a devastated, deserted community
fearful of his next appearance.
Here on elm street, in the
suburban community of Springwood,
a murderer's repeated attacks
have left a psychological scar so deep,
some insist that simply
dreaming about him
can kill you in your sleep.
Excuse me, sir. Hi.
I was wondering if I could
ask you some questions
about your former neighbor Frederick...
and in Haddonfield,
a prodigal son named Michael Myers
has struck in a similar fashion
on or near Halloween
on at least four different occasions.
For these residents,
Halloween will never be the same.
Who are these men? How
do they do what they do?
What is the connection
between those towns
and Glen echo?
It will be here, our contact claims,
where the next incarnation of
unrelenting evil will emerge.
It was 20 years ago
at this
now-abandoned farm
where a boy supposedly possessed by evil
was taken from his home
by a frenzied mob
and thrown over this waterfall,
where he perished.
That boy is about
to seek revenge over the town
that murdered him.
He knows this, he says,
because he himself is the heir apparent
to that throne of terror so long held
by the likes of Voorhees,
Myers and Krueger.
This man's name
is Leslie Vernon.
( Clicks )
Man: All right, we got it.
Good job, Taylor.
Did that sound forced,
too much like Diane Sawyer?
- I'm trying to find my own voice in this.
- No, it's tight.
Ugh, you're kidding me.
Man: Taylor, this guy's not even home.
Taylor: No, wait. There, by the shed.
Mr. Vernon, hi.
Dougie, did you see that?
Doug: What's going on here, Taylor?
Wait. Second floor, in the window.
Did you see that?
- No, I didn't see it. Would I have asked?
- Hey, hello.
Mr. Vernon,
it's me... Taylor Gentry.
We spoke on the phone...
Mr. Vernon.
Hey! ( Laughing )
( Gasps )
I'm just messing with you.
I'm sorry.
I'm Leslie Vernon. Hi.
Mr. Vernon, could we
throw a Mike on you?
Yeah, sure...
This is the living room.
There's church and zo.
They are my little sweeties.
Actually, he's not.
- Don't put your finger anywhere near him.
- Okay.
But you can pet him.
He's a sweetie.
I'm so terrible with these guys.
I go away for days, forget to feed 'em.
Little bastards just won't die.
Turtles are good that way,
- very feng shui.
- Yeah yeah,
plants and turtles.
Plants and turtles.
I only keep pets I can eat.
This is my pride and joy.
The number of books is amazing.
Yeah. I haven't been able
to keep up lately, though.
I've kind of fallen behind.
I notice a lot of these
are manuals, textbooks.
Yeah, kind of boring.
- Would you say that most of these are...
- Work related?
Well, I wouldn't suggest
reading "gray's anatomy" for kicks.
This is the fun stuff...
Copperfield, Houdini...
sleight of hand,
"escape tactics."
- You wanna see a magic trick?
- Sure.
- You got a deck of cards on you?
- Um... no.
No. Yo, Doug, you got
a deck of cards on you?
Doug: Dude, why would I
have a deck of cards?
- Check your left front pocket.
- What the...?
- Todd: Holy fucking sweet!
- Taylor: Todd!
What? That was
fucking sweet.
- How'd you do that?
- Tricks of the trade, man.
Tricks of the trade. Plenty
more where that came from.
- Todd: Doug, you're in the frame.
- Sorry, dude.
In reality, aren't you talking about
terrorizing innocent people?
No. ( Laughing )
Why...
why is that funny?
Look look, you came to me
to find out how guys
like Mike and Chucky
and Freddy do what they do, not why.
I can't just sit here
on the first night I ever met
you and explain it to you.
It's gotta come from your own
understanding of the process...
Or not.
It's up to you.
All right, tell us then.
How do you do it?
Let's go.
- What? Go where?
- Where else? My old house.
Leslie: You know the story
of how I was rounded up
and drowned in Nellis falls?
Well, on the anniversary of my death,
the local kids, they dare each other
to spend the night here
at our old farmhouse.
This year
I'm going to reappear.
Home sweet home.
Taylor:
Now do you own this?
It's in a trust.
Technically, if I came
forward, I could claim it.
It used to get rented out
in the summers.
Now a local cop looks after it
every now and then.
Mostly it's empty.
Taylor: Now why don't
you live here then,
instead of so far out of town?
( Laughs )
Because I can't.
Because...
because as far as the town
of Glen echo's concerned,
- I'm dead, remember?
- Yeah.
If this is where I'm gonna reappear,
- I can't exactly be seen mowing the lawn.
- Yeah, gotcha.
So then what function does it serve you?
I am glad you asked.
Step number one...
I need an anchor for my legend.
- Let's take a look at the apple orchard.
- Great.
Creepy as hell, huh?
Labyrinthine,
cavernous.
It's taken years to get like this.
The story goes
that if you go out into the field
on the night of a harvest moon
and till the soil,
the dirt will come up wet
- with blood.
- Todd: Cool.
- Leslie: Impossible to walk through.
- Taylor: Todd...
But it's even better.
If you're brave enough
to go out into the orchard
on the night of a harvest moon
and the night
is still as death,
you can still hear my mother's body
swinging in the trees.
I'm just kidding.
- Wh...?
- I'm just kidding.
Not tonight.
We've got about a month to go.
A month.
You have no idea how much cardio
I have to do.
It's ridiculous.
Why so much?
Well, you oughta be able
to run like a freaking gazelle
without getting winded.
And plus, there's that whole thing
of making it look like you're walking
when everybody else
is running their asses off.
- Oh, right.
- And I gotta stay with 'em.
Yeah.
It's tough, man.
It's tough.
Let's get to work.
Come on.
Okay, once you have a location lined up,
then it's time to move on to step two...
find a target group.
Taylor: A target group.
You mean victims?
( Sighs )
Potato, potah-to.
Whatever. Anyway, it's not
as easy as you think.
Everybody thinks we
just wake up one morning
and start obsessing about a
girl and start stalking her,
killing everybody that gets in the way.
That does seem to happen
a lot with you guys.
No, it's that...
no no.
The girl's the key, yes,
but she's gotta have a supporting cast.
Like that bunch right there,
there's your bread and butter...
the good-looking,
athletic kids
with healthy libidos.
Look.
And those guys over there,
they don't move quite as fast
when you get 'em on the run.
So they're good to pad your
numbers with late in the game.
( Laughing )...
Look at that guy.
You gotta find a group who
will all hang together...
a little from column "a",
a little from column "b"...
and one survivor girl
- who will tie 'em all together.
- What is a survivor girl?
Oh, I'm sorry.
It's an industry term.
It's what you call a girl...
Like her, who just might be
able to walk away from me
- at the end of the day.
- Okay, what is it about this girl?
She's a virgin.
A virgin.
How do you know that?
How do the swallows find Capistrano?
I don't know.
Look at her.
She's a virgin.
I mean, you're not getting that?
Oh my God, did you get that?
- Did you get that? Did you get that?
- Doug: Yeah.
- Tell me you got that.
- I got it. I got it.
Did you see that,
how we sensed each other?
Taylor: So you've been
tracking her already.
Her? No, not her.
No, I'm eyeing her for the first time.
- No, I got a girl picked out in Glen echo.
- Oh.
I just brought you out here
so you'd have a sense
of what I've done so far.
I mean...
If I didn't have a girl
picked out already,
we'd be way too far behind schedule.
Doug: Ooh, it's like one of
those cooking shows, right,
where they have the pie
already baking in the oven,
sort of ready to go, you know?
You ever... you ever
watch those s-s-shows?
Sorry.
- Doug.
- Doug: Never mind.
Okay, so from this point on
we're dealing directly with the
specifics of my gig at the farmhouse.
This is the real deal now,
and everything's
gotta go down just right.
Taylor:
Uh, what are we here for?
For her.
Right there.
Meet Kelly Curtis, my hopes and
dreams standing right there.
- Is Kelly a virgin?
- Yep.
- Can we talk to her?
- No, no way.
I'm sorry, but there is
no wiggle room on this.
- She is off-limits.
- Okay.
- Okay?
- Mm-hmm.
Leslie:
And here we go.
Hope you got film
in those cameras, boys.
School's in.
This is step three.
It's called a "fly-by."
Every night
Kelly comes out this door,
over to this dumpster,
drops off the garbage, okay?
When she does that,
she uses this brick
to prop open this door.
You can see that I've rigged it
with some clear fishing line.
Watch this. Ping!
Very strong.
- Right.
- Usually I do this myself,
but since you're here,
you're gonna help me.
I'm gonna be sitting right over there
in the darkness.
Kelly's gonna come out,
take the garbage over
to the dumpster there.
- Uh-huh.
- Right?
I'm gonna pop out of the shadows there.
She's gonna think she sees something.
She's gonna take
a couple steps towards me.
That's when you
- give this a yank.
- Okay.
Brick slides out, door slams shut.
Boom! She turns!
I slip back into the shadows.
She turns back around.
- And you've...
- I'm gone.
- You've disappeared.
- Right.
All right?
- Sounds good.
- All right.
Here we go.
- ( Door closes )
- ( Gasps )
( Lock jiggles )
Taylor:
God, that was amazing.
Todd: Leslie, how did you do that, man?
- Todd, keep up.
- Don't be an uber-bitch. I'm right here.
All right, that is it. Gimme a pound.
Gimme a little bow.
- Who's bowing?
- Doug: Todd needs a pound.
Pound it, bow it.
All right, and you...
- you get hugs.
- Oh, okay.
Huggy. Oh...
- All right, let's get in. Whoo-hoo!
- Okay. All right.
She thinks she saw me.
Maybe not. She's not sure.
Just wanna get her a
little paranoid, you know?
Just plant the seed
that there might be some trouble coming.
You know what I mean?
Get in, come on.
- ( Car alarm chirps )
- Doug: Yo yo yo, who's that guy over there, man?
Leslie:
Who knows?
Taylor: So where are we headed now?
Leslie: To visit my two best friends,
Eugene and his wife, Jamie.
They live just down the road.
Eugene is an old pro in the biz.
He's retired now, though,
but he taught me a lot.
Gener!
I figured it'd be good for
you to meet with him,
you know, give you some perspective,
kind of a bridge between the past
and the future.
Plus, Jamie's fucking hot.
- Hey! How are you doing, Jamie?
- Hi, sweetie. How are you?
- Good. What's all this?
- It's just some grad-school kids
following me around.
- Taylor Gentry.
- Oh, yeah. Hi. This is the thing
you were telling me about. Come
on in, everyone. Is that on?
Yeah. Don't worry about it.
You look great.
- I'm embarrassed.
- Don't be.
- Is gene around?
- Yeah, he's out back in the tank.
And you should probably go get
him, 'cause I keep forgetting.
- I'm busy, and he's been out there a while, so...
- Okay.
- What are you doing?
- Eugene is in a tank...
a sensory-deprivation
chamber,
you know, like those big tubes.
- Just start over there.
- Doug: So why do you do this?
Leslie: It helps you control
your bodily functions,
you know, like those yoga guys
who can slow their breathing,
slow their heart rate down to, like,
four beats a minute or whatever.
It's good to be able to do that
in case you need to look...
You know, dead.
- You mentioned your friend is retired.
- Yep.
Why does he still need to do this?
I have no idea.
( Grunts, panting )
Oh my God.
How are you doing, old timer?
( Silent )
What time is it?
It's about 6:00.
- 6:30, quarter to 7:00?
- Taylor: Yeah.
- Tuesday.
- Tuesday?
Tuesday? Hell, no,
man, it's Thursday!
Jamie, Jamie, you didn't say he
was down here for three days.
Come on, up up.
- Get your feet under you. Good.
- Easy does it.
Easy does it.
Easy does it.
You been down for a while.
- Careful. Get your legs on.
- ( Laughing ) Oh my God.
Do you see what I mean? He's the best.
Jamie:
That is so great, Les.
It sounds like Kelly's really
coming around for you.
I am very optimistic about it.
Everything comes together
when it's right.
So, Jamie, you support Leslie
in what he's trying to do?
Of course. You see how
hard he's worked for it.
And do I wish he'd chosen
something a little safer
to do with his life?
Sure.
But he knows what's best for him.
Hey there, old timer.
How are you doing?
Nothing like a cold shower to
get the blood pumping again.
- Oh, yeah,
- how's your beer?
Very good, thank you.
Highly recommend it.
- You want one?
- I'm gonna go with no.
- No. Okay.
- Thank you.
- Well, when are we gonna eat?
- Hi.
As soon as you chop up these veggies
- and get the grill ready.
- Okay.
Yeah.
( Clears throat )
So, Eugene,
Leslie tells us you're retired.
Is it all right to talk about this?
Oh, yeah. I told her that you
could give her a history
of what it was like in the old days.
Oh, shoot.
It was a whole different world
back when I was in the game.
How so?
Well, I had a good portion
of my success in the late '60s, '70s.
Back then it was about quantity of work.
How many jobs can you fit in a year?
How many places can you hit?
You know, we didn't have
all this preparation
these guys use today.
Jamie: But the good ones do anyway.
That's true.
There's always been hacks out there,
people mucking it up,
one-hit wonders
who make a bloody mess
of some sorority somewhere,
get killed
or arrested.
You can never put it together again.
Makes it bad for all of us...
( Chopping faster )
Just cheapens it.
- ( Knife clanks )
- ( Gasps )
Jamie: That's... that's great, honey.
Why don't you go start the grill?
- I will.
- Okay.
So you mentioned most of the guys
in your line of work today are...
Uh, hacks.
I'm not talking about the
guys that really worked hard,
like Jay and Fred and Mike.
There weren't nobody like
them in the early years.
We just hit hard, wiped everybody out
and disappeared as soon as we could
without ever giving
a thought to coming back.
Those boys lifted it
to a whole other level.
They made an art form of it,
turned themselves into legends
by returning like a curse
over and over again.
That was a radical change in philosophy,
changed the whole business.
The business of supernatural
killing sprees?
She's not exactly on board yet
with the whole
why-we-do-what-we-do thing.
No, young lady,
about the business of fear.
Every culture, every civilization
from the dawn of man
has had its monsters.
For good to be pitted against evil,
you have to have evil, don't you?
- Here's your doggy bag.
- Thank you so much.
- Thank you, Jamie.
- You're welcome.
Now I feel like we didn't
even have a chance to talk.
How's that thing, the
one you're working on?
Really good.
Really good.
I was telling Jamie earlier that I think
this girl's really coming alone.
Eugene: You got your red
herring all worked out?
I think so.
I think so.
She spends a lot of time at the library.
So I was gonna do it there.
She knows the janitor or somebody?
- Do you wanna walk us out?
- Sure.
Thank you, sir.
I was gonna knock off
one of her friends.
Oh, I don't know about that, son.
I wouldn't burn that one too quick.
- It turns the heat up too much.
- Right.
Is there anybody else available?
Does she talk to anybody,
a homeless person
on the way or anything?
Well, hey, how about a librarian?
If she spends a lot of time there,
I'm sure she knows a few of them.
Now that's a good idea right there, Les.
There's a lady there
who lets her stay late sometimes.
( Laughing )
Jackpot. You got a winner.
Yeah yeah.
- Yeah, I'm gonna look into that.
- You do that.
- All right, now...
- Jamie and Eugene: You keep us posted.
Both:
Jinx, you owe me a soda.
- Oh, Eugene! Got me again.
- I will.
Taylor: Leslie, what's a red herring?
It's a...
Preliminary strike
involving Kelly indirectly.
"Strike" meaning
the first person you are gonna kill?
Mm-hmm.
Next step is...
I gotta get this...
Into Kelly's hands.
- What is that?
- This is an article
about the suspect
who was questioned
in the rape of my mom.
"Mark Daniel Curtis."
- Mm-hmm.
- Is he related to Kelly?
That's her great-Uncle.
Well, supposedly.
Wow, he looks just like her.
It is her.
It's a computer-generated
image.
Pretty good, huh?
She doesn't have a great-Uncle,
at least not that I know of.
So what, you made that up?
A lot of what we use
is C.G.I.
- Leslie: Hey, Doug, can you step out front?
- Doug: You bet.
Leslie:
Thank you.
All right, kids, we are at
the point of no return.
You can either bag it and go
home with a clear conscience
or you can come inside.
What's it gonna be, stay or go?
Taylor: So how will this play out?
How will this work?
Leslie: I don't know that it will.
I just put it in front of her
and hope she takes it
and connects the dots.
It's another test
to see if we're on the same page.
In fact, a lot of what happens
from here on out,
the success or failure
of it, depends on her,
on what she does.
( Whispers ) Stay put.
I'll be right back.
Taylor:
Go go go!
- Taylor: Don't you see him?
- Todd: I lost him. I'm sorry.
Both:
There he is.
Todd: Look at him. He's
like a little monkey.
Taylor:
Just stay focused. Go!
- ( Todd gasps )
- ( Whispering ) Keep it down, Todd.
- Don't sneak up like that.
- Like the freaking town crier over here.
Whoa whoa whoa.
What's this?
Oh, all the newspaper articles
are kept on microfiche.
I swapped the real one out
for the fake one that had the story
about Kelly's great-Uncle.
If everything goes right...
and it never does...
but if it does,
she's gonna read the newspaper clipping
and wanna read the rest of the article.
She's gonna go
to the librarian for help.
Then they're gonna go to the microfiche.
They're gonna read about the
Curtis family connection.
Then Kelly is going to freak.
Then the librarian's
gonna say something like,
"it's okay, dear.
It's just
an old story."
And then...
I make my appearance.
It is going to get wet in here tonight.
Lace your boots up, kiddies.
"Paradise lost"...
found it.
All right, keep the cameras rolling.
After I've offed the librarian,
I'm gonna chase Kelly
around for a little bit.
Then I'm gonna let her go.
You wait for my signal.
When you get it, just
haul ass back to the van.
- Got it?
- Got it.
- Wish me luck.
- Good luck.
Thank you.
Doug:
Todd, Todd, come in.
We got company.
Who the fuck is this guy?
Todd:
She is hot.
Taylor: Todd, would you keep
the camera on her face?
- Taylor: She's getting up.
- Todd: So am I.
Ugh, seriously.
- Todd: She strides like a gazelle.
- Todd.
Really, he's got good taste.
Look how hot she is.
- Taylor: I can't believe that actually worked.
- Awesome.
Make sure you're getting this.
Mrs. Collinwood, would you help
me find the rest of this article?
Mrs. Collinwood:
Oh, my goodness.
This must be 30 years old.
Someone must have brought it in
and left it by mistake.
- It's not the library's?
- Oh, heaven's no.
We don't keep papers this old.
We scan them into the computer now.
But something like this might still be
on microfiche.
"Mark Daniel Curtis, described as a
vagabond drifter, was questioned
by Glen echo police Tuesday morning
for the brutal rape
of Molly Vernon."
Mrs. Collinwood:
Curtis.
Are you related to this man?
Do you know the story of the boy
in the Vernon farmhouse,
Mrs. Collinwood?
Oh, goodness, everybody knows about...
never you mind.
It's just a story.
No, I want to know what happened.
Here we are.
It's a wedding photo.
"Mr. and Mrs. Vernon
on their wedding day."
That's the first and last photograph
you'll ever see of them.
They were a strange couple.
They kept entirely to themselves.
After that night...
nine months after that night, in fact,
Molly Vernon gave birth
to a bastard son.
- Oh my God.
- He was horribly abused.
He was forced to live in the cider house
and driven like a slave
to till the fields
with only a hand scythe.
One day, legend has it,
the boy revolted.
Beneath a blood-red
harvest moon,
he murdered Silas with a hand scythe,
buried his body in the fields
and dragged Molly from the house,
hanging her in the farm's apple orchard.
When the crimes were discovered,
the incensed townspeople
marched upon the farmhouse,
dragged the boy from the house,
bound his hands
and marched him over the falls
to the banks of the Nellis river,
where he vanished into the icy waters.
Did they ever find the boy's body?
Water that cold,
bodies don't come back up.
Turtles picked his bones clean.
If this is
my great-Uncle
who raped her, that would
make the boy my...
Now you listen here.
The boy drowned.
You have nothing to worry about.
( Screaming )
Leslie!
No more.
It ends here.
Come to me, child.
It's all right.
( Screams )
Leslie:
Whoo! Whoo!
Did you get that? You got it?
You got it?
- We totally got it.
- You got the guy coming out?
- You got the guy, right? You got the guy?
- We got the whole thing.
Leslie, Taylor:
Whoo! Whoo!
- We got an Ahab!
- Whoa, we got an Ahab!
What's an Ahab?
It's a guy. It's a guy
like the guy back there.
Get in. We gotta tell Eugene.
- ( Gunshot )
- Oh! He shot you?
- Right in the shoulder.
- That's your first one. Does it hurt?
Oh, no, it feels all right.
I was wearing a vest.
It's fine.
There he is.
Eugene: I'll be damned. Doc Halloran.
- Right when you need him.
- It's unbelievable.
It looks like you got your Ahab.
( Shouting )
Leslie, who is Doc Halloran?
He's a psychiatrist.
Um, he visited me when I was little.
And after Leslie took off,
Doc Halloran always predicted
- he would come back.
- So you're gonna go after him now?
Wh... no. Hell no.
I need him.
Why?
Why do you need him?
Because he is an Ahab,
and that is a remarkable thing.
You're gonna have to define an Ahab.
Okay okay, an Ahab in this context
is a reflection of everything
that is good in humanity,
someone who is willing to
defend others against evil
even at a great personal cost.
He knows what I am. He
knows what I'll be doing.
He will stop at nothing
to try and stop me.
( Squeals )
This is such great news.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
The boy needs to focus.
Oh, gene, he's got an Ahab!
You can't get a little excited?
We are so proud of him.
We're very proud of him.
Todd: I would just like
to state for the record
what an enormously bad idea this is.
Todd, I just need to know, okay?
( Clears throat )
Hi, everyone, how are you?
- Coffee?
- Taylor: Yes, thank you.
I'll be back for your order.
Todd: What are you waiting for?
Look, Todd, when she comes back,
I'll ask her. Just be cool, all right?
Todd:
Uh-oh.
Oh, God.
- Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. What do I say?
- Just act normal.
It's the opposite of what
you're doing right now.
Why are you following this girl?
- Who are you people?
- Todd: We're just sitting here, man.
Oh, really?
- Why are you filming this?
- Uh, who are you?
Okay, why do you need to know that?
You know where he is, don't you?
He's not who you think he is.
What's he calling
himself now, Leslie Vernon?
How perfect.
I... I...
I don't know.
I don't know who that is.
His name is Leslie Mancuso
from Reno, Nevada.
You have no idea
who you're dealing with.
What's going on?
Miss, I believe these people
wish to speak with you.
Actually, no.
We're... we need to go,
but thank you anyway.
And it was nice to meet you, Mister...
...Doctor. Dr. Halloran.
Expect to see more of me.
Excuse us. Todd, let's go.
- Oh, shit.
- You wanna just pretend
that we've already had the conversation
- we're about to have?
- Leslie...
okay, that's your portion of it
right there. Now here's mine.
You asked if you could
talk to her, I told you,
"no, you'll
fuck it up."
God damn it.
I've shown you pearls,
shit no one's ever seen.
If you wanna pack it up and go home,
that is fine. It's not gonna
affect what I have to do.
And frankly, I'll be glad not
dragging you fuckers along anymore.
But don't ruin...
My life's work.
Don't do it.
Trust.
Taylor, where's the trust?
- Trust?
- Yes!
Oh, yeah, right.
Where is it?
Coming from you?
Who is that guy?
Who is Doc Halloran, Leslie?
- And who are you really, come to think of it?
- Get in the van.
- We're not gonna have this conversation in the street.
- You think he might come out
- and shoot you again?
- Get in the van!
Ever live in Reno, Leslie?
( Yells, whimpers )
That's enough.
You win.
I'll tell you everything
you need to know.
Okay?
Yeah.
Now please,
get in the van.
You've never lived in Glen echo.
You're not Molly Vernon's son.
Then who is Doc Halloran?
Doc Halloran
is a shrink who treated me in Reno.
And I left there to come
here, so I could do this.
And why doesn't he turn you in
if he knows the truth?
Because I...
I set him up.
I filed a restraining order against him.
And if he tries to turn me in,
he'll be arrested.
You used me!
How can you even think
this is about you, though?
This is...
this is my life.
Taylor, this is my life.
So the backstories are fake.
So what?
If you can't stay,
I understand.
Turn it off.
Todd:
So what's next?
Either stay or go...
what are we gonna do?
Doug: Todd, just stop pushing, man.
- Todd: Shut up, Doug.
- Doug: Just let her think.
( Birds chirping )
You know what? This is what
I've chosen to do, so...
Let's see it through.
Todd: Yes! Sweet. We're staying.
Leslie: Welcome to my
allegedly ancestral home.
( Squeaking )
Leslie: You wanna limit your time inside
- as much as possible.
- Taylor: Why is that?
Leslie:
Restricts your mobility.
You wanna keep your eye on
everything at the same time.
The worst thing is if you get
in a game of hide and seek.
That really slows you down.
Taylor: Now if they
hide in the closet...
- Leslie: Why not just reach in and grab 'em?
- Yeah.
Leslie: We have a code of ethics, Tay.
The closet...
Is a sacred place.
It's symbolic of the womb.
It's the safest place to be,
because in the womb
we're innocent.
So does that mean you're
pro-life, Leslie?
Anyway, you don't want
to spend too much time
on just one person.
Gives everybody else
too much time to get away,
and that's rule number one...
nobody gets away.
You mess that one up,
and not only is it a complete breakdown,
it's really embarrassing.
The bedroom is where
it's all gonna start.
If it all goes as I expect,
one guy's gonna bring his girl up here
to knock boots,
and of course I'll be waiting nearby.
This is my staging area.
I'll wait here for them
to start doing their thing,
and then it's decision time.
What's a "go" situation?
If I have a good sense
of the way things are going,
if I know where everyone's at.
Once I off the two of them,
I'll stage the area
- and make it look like they're sleeping.
- Why is that?
Well, if someone comes in
and sees two horrifically
mangled bodies,
they'll run screaming from the house.
I'll lose containment way too early.
As soon as possible
I gotta whittle it down
to just me and Kelly.
I have...
The main fuse rigged up
to cut the power.
( Clicks )
Hmm? So I can sneak
down the stairs
and take advantage of the first moments
of chaos.
Leslie: Of course, one
of the first reactions
will be to go for the
flashlights in the kitchen.
I put dead batteries in all them.
So that'll mean they have to
go down to the basement
to check the fuse box. Remember, nobody
knows about the bodies upstairs,
so they won't be panicked.
Here's how it'll go down next...
- ( rock music playing )
- Everybody will be partying.
Kelly won't be having
any of it, hopefully.
Her jock boyfriend's gonna get
frustrated, take it out on the Stoners.
The Stoners are gonna be stoned.
And then the lights will go out.
- ( Music powers down )
- One of the guys will offer to go to the cellar,
and being a raging sack of hormones,
he'll bring his girl to try to score.
Taylor:
Oh, Leslie.
Don't you think that's
a little gratuitous?
- Leslie: Now, Taylor...
- Girl: Oh, yeah.
...who's telling
the story?
- ( Unzips fly )
- Leslie: That's my cue to split 'em up.
He'll tell her to stay put
while he checks it out.
- He'll say, "everything's all right."
- Girl: Honey?
And then...
- ( Screaming )
- Taylor: You let her go?
Leslie:
She's the starting gun.
She'll run screaming back into
the house and start the panic.
That gives me time to make my next move.
There's no lock on that old toolshed
so I'll use the corpse
to scare the poop out of the
kid who goes in there next.
The shed's a safe haven.
I can't let anyone in.
- Taylor: The closet imagery.
- Leslie: Right.
Only Kelly's allowed in there.
If someone else tries
to enter that shed,
he gets it with a posthole digger.
It's so sadistic
and yet...
Genius.
Thank you.
Doug: But, uh, you do want
Kelly to go in there?
- Yes.
- You're kidding. What for?
Todd: Wait, Taylor, we
should get you asking that.
Good call.
( Clears throat )
Leslie, I feel as though
you want Kelly to enter the toolshed.
That's correct, Taylor.
Leslie: It's the first
sign of empowerment
I'll be looking for in her.
At some point she's gonna turn a corner.
It's a pivotal moment
when she makes the transition
from victim to heroine.
This is visually manifested
when she reaches for a big,
long, hard weapon.
You know what I'm talking about.
That's okay, Tay.
It's deeply symbolic.
She's empowering herself
with cock.
Come on.
Look, you go back and
research all of those women
who survived their ordeals
and I guarantee you
none of 'em did it
with a dinky little gun.
So you're saying she'll
reach for something phallic
- on purpose.
- She reaches for my weapon.
That's the ultimate, because she'll be
taking my manhood
and empowering herself with it.
So you're pro-life
and you're a chauvinist.
It's convention, Tay.
You have to respect it.
Let's go to the toolshed.
So let me get this straight...
you want her to arm herself
with one of these?
Well, sort of.
I mean, if you look right here,
I've precut the handle, so it'll snap
with the first swing, and...
I've loosened the head
on the sledgehammer.
I've filed down the
head pin on the pickax.
All the obvious weapons right up front
I've sabotaged.
I just have to hope she doesn't
get lucky with the first swing.
Yeah.
There are 11 exits from the first floor
and another eight or nine
that might be manageable
from the second floor.
You wanna eliminate as many as you can
from being practical,
so I've discreetly
nailed them all shut.
Don't they just smash them out?
You'd think so,
but you'd be surprised.
No. And when they do
smash it out,
it's on the second floor or higher.
And then they're out on the
roof and they're screwed.
I've cut down the larger
branches from the trees
to prevent anyone from climbing down.
And the smaller ones I've precut,
just like at the shed,
so any weight will bring the
whole works crashing down.
Sort of seems like cheating.
It's preparation.
Logistically speaking,
I'm at a severe disadvantage here.
Taylor:
So what's next?
Leslie: While they regroup,
I have a short window
to prepare for when it all gets outside,
then I work my way back to
the front of the house.
And here's where the
timing becomes critical...
they'll wanna wake up
the two kids upstairs.
And they find them dead and freak out.
( Laughs )
Very good.
- Kelly: Go!
- ( Clamoring )
Kelly:
Shane, Lauren!
Hurry!
Shoot!
( Screaming )
- Fucking start. Fucking start, man.
- ( Engine sputtering )
( Engine sputtering )
Oh, shit.
Oh, fuck.
Oh, start!
( All screaming )
Leslie: We're getting
down to the end now.
I think you know where this goes.
- I think so.
- Why don't you...
Why don't you take a shot at it?
Well...
Assuming they all run down here...
Not assuming.
They will run down here.
They'll try to hide and they'll see...
( Screaming )
Very good.
What next?
Well, they'll go the
only place left in here.
Yes. No, wait.
Okay, stop.
Aren't you forgetting something?
Oh! Ahab, right?
Leslie: Exactly. Doc Halloran will
have figured everything out by now,
so I'm expecting him any minute.
All I have to do is keep Kelly busy
by throwing a few bodies here and there.
And then we can have
our whole, you know,
cathartic good-versus-evil showdown.
And then we can move on.
Okay, but she's loose.
So where to now?
The piece De resistance.
Leslie: If the closet
represents the womb,
- what's this?
- Taylor: The birth canal.
Leslie:
Well done, Taylor.
Yonic imagery is extremely
important in our work.
Taylor: Yonic?
Yonic...
opposite of phallic.
It's girl parts.
So she has to go through some
kind of psychological passage
as well as this physical one.
It it works, if she's the
one, she'll emerge...
...her innocence lost,
born again as a woman
hell-bent on revenge.
If she does that...
I'm the happiest man alive.
This is the crown jewel, baby.
- Taylor: A cider press?
- Yeah.
Need I explain the imagery
of apple crushing?
You needn't.
What's going to happen with this?
Well...
Gonna crush some apples
and then juice is
gonna come pouring out.
- ( Todd laughing )
- Taylor: All right, Todd, easy.
I meant tonight, funny guy.
- Tonight?
- Yeah.
I was gonna hurt somebody.
( Thunder rumbling )
- Eugene: Break some legs tonight, kid.
- Leslie: I will.
I know you're gonna be great.
Hey, before we go,
how about some advice from the experts?
How does one survive an encounter
with someone like you or Leslie?
( Chuckling )
I like her, Les.
She's a little spitfire.
- So how about it?
- I'll tell you...
never hang out with a virgin.
You got a virgin in your crew...
either get somebody in her pants
or get the hell away from her.
Aside from that,
the simple answer is...
Run like a motherfucker
and don't stop till the sun comes up.
Pardon the French, but there it is.
And don't try to hide.
We'll find you.
Don't try to be a hero and fight us.
You'll lose.
Pick out a clear spot ahead of
you as far away as possible
and run straight
and don't ever, ever look back,
because you won't like what you see.
I promise you that.
Taylor: How about sticking together?
Well, sure, sure.
You can do that.
Just make sure there's one poor
son of a bitch slower than you
when it comes time to run.
I was fast, wasn't I, Eugene?
You sure were.
- But you caught me, didn't you?
- I did. I did.
- Okay.
- So nice to meet you.
- Jamie: All right, all right.
- Take care.
- Take care of yourself.
- Give the old lady a hug.
- Bye.
- Bye, Jamie.
Go get 'em.
This stuff here,
it's sort of a preparation H formula...
what boxers use.
What does it do?
Constricts blood vessels near
the surface of the skin.
Helps stop bleeding from lacerations,
keeps your eyes
from bulging if you get hit.
Plus, it makes you look pale.
Cider man.
And I mixed in my own special
concoction of fire retardants.
It's pretty sweet.
Are you concerned about Doc Halloran?
No. It's not about him.
I need to stay focused.
On Kelly?
My fate, my...
Longevity
depends on what she does.
Yet you're trying to kill her.
That's the paradox of what I do.
You love her, don't you?
I love the idea of her...
Of what I hope
she'll find within herself.
What doesn't kill you
makes you stronger?
This is like my Christmas.
If you don't stop and appreciate it,
goes by so quick.
I'm so happy.
( Sobbing )
I'm so happy.
( Sobbing continues )
We got a few hours left.
I'm gonna...
Take one last look around.
( Bass guitar thumping )
Okay, there are eight kids
in the house.
They're downstairs getting juiced
on vodka and beer.
Kelly's here. She's not drinking,
which is good.
Spark plugs... somehow
I just don't feel like
getting run over tonight.
You know what I mean?
Okay, the Jocko kid
and his hot little cheerleader number
should be coming up here any minute.
Um, I usually give 'em
a little bit of time
to get their business going.
It's not a bad way to go out, is it?
- Todd: Awesome. Yes.
- Taylor: Todd!
Todd:
I'm into her.
- ( Door opens )
- ( Boy and girl laughing )
( Door closes )
( Girl laughing )
All right,
here we go.
Right on time.
( Girl moaning )
( Moaning continues )
Time to dance with the devil.
( Boy and girl moaning louder )
- ( Slashing sounds )
- ( Grunting )
Doug:
Todd.
Holy shit.
This is really happening.
Todd: Should I be getting
any of this, Taylor?
I don't...
I don't know.
All right.
All right.
All right. All right.
It's begun.
It's begun.
Taylor, hey.
- Taylor, what's wrong?
- No, get that thing out of my face.
Just get it out of my face.
- Todd: Where am I supposed to point it?
- I don't give a fuck!
- Hey hey, Jesus Christ!
- Hey, shh.
Okay, outside.
Everybody outside.
Leslie:
Go, go now.
Taylor: Why are you doing this?
- Leslie: Because you have a look.
- What look?
The we-can't-just-stand-here-
and-let-this-happen look.
Doug.
Now go.
Go. Go.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
It's just I told you this is my night.
Okay?
And the fact is
this can still go either way.
After tonight I'll either be in hiding,
locked up or dead.
So the point is...
We're not gonna see each
other after tonight anyway.
We might as well
just say our goodbyes now.
So...
Fellas, it's been a pleasure.
Thanks.
Thank you. Best of luck
the rest of the way.
Doug: Yeah, man. You too.
Les, you...
you've... you've
chosen to live up
to a fabricated ghost story.
You've elected to fulfill a destiny
- you don't have to fulfill.
- No no no. Shh.
- What?
- Taylor, this has nothing to do
with where I came from
or what happened to me.
I would have ended up here
no matter what.
I made a choice.
I made a choice
to provide a counterbalance
to all those things
that we hold good and pure.
You chose journalism, okay?
( Both laugh )
This is what we are born to do.
Goodbye, Leslie.
( Owl hooting )
Todd: So that's it? Just like that?
I can't believe this.
Pack it up.
Todd: I'm just gonna get
one last shot of the house
for the closing credits or something.
- ( Taylor exclaims )
- That's the power, just like he said.
- Doug: He's gotta be in the cellar by now.
- Todd: Right on schedule.
- Todd: Taylor, what the fuck?
- I said turn it off.
We cannot stand here
and let this happen.
Isn't that exactly what he
said you were gonna say?
God!
It's over.
The documentary's done.
- Now he's done.
- Todd: What are you talking about, Tay?
We know what he's gonna do, okay?
We know how he's gonna do it.
We can stop him.
Whoa whoa whoa.
Hang on a second.
What are you doing?
He got what he wanted from us, Doug.
We built up his story for him.
Now I'm editing it.
Can we consider this for one second?
You saw what he's got set up in there.
You really think that Kelly's
gonna be able to stop him?
Well, then that would mean she's...
Mean... oh, she's not
the survivor girl?
She's fucking 17, Todd.
We did agree
to do this and not interfere.
Yeah, well, guess what.
Okay, look, we go in there,
we tell Kelly what's happening,
we get the fuck out, okay?
But what if he comes at us?
Okay, cool, fine. You guys
stand here holding your balls.
She had to make the
fucking balls reference.
Balls.
This is a bad idea.
I don't like that I just said
that, given the circumstances.
- Whoa.
- Hey, fellas.
- You scared the fuck out of me.
- Where's Kelly?
Um... ( Chuckles )
I think she went upstairs
with that Shane dude.
Todd: Leslie cannot
know that we are here.
Doug: Can't be in the master bedroom.
They'd have found bodies by now.
Taylor: This one wasn't
closed when we left.
Oh my God.
- ( Moaning )
- Come on, come on, Kelly!
Todd: That's like no
virgin I've ever seen.
- ( Screaming )
- Oh, baby, yeah!
Who the fuck are you?
Get the fuck out!
- She's no virgin.
- That was definitely not her first time, no.
Leslie's gonna flip his shit, man.
He's about to kill the jock
in the cellar.
- Kelly, wait wait.
- Who the fuck are you?
- Why are you following me?
- Shh shh shh.
Kelly, you have to come with us.
There's no time to explain.
Come on.
Taylor:
It's okay, everybody.
Everybody, let's go. We're taking
you all out of here right now.
- Taylor.
- Todd!
There is a man named
Leslie Mancuso here tonight.
He's in the cellar right now.
He's planned this entire evening.
He's gonna stalk and kill
each and every one of you.
No way, that Leslie Vernon dude?
No, it's not Leslie Vernon.
It's Leslie man...
where's Lauren?
She went down to the cellar
with that one other dude.
With Pete?
No no no, you can't go down there.
- Why not?
- Because...
- because it's too late.
- ( Girl screaming )
Oh my God.
Oh my God.
Oh my God. There is a man with a mask
and he killed Pete.
He killed Pete.
- Oh my God!
- We were just making out and then just came up...
come on, come on, come on.
- This isn't happening.
- I'm sorry. I'm sorry,
but it really is, and it's
about to get a lot worse.
That night, you remember,
a couple weeks ago,
you were closing down the coffee shop
and you took out the trash,
the door slammed shut?
- You were there?
- You thought you saw a guy standing
in the shadows watching you, didn't you?
No. No, I did,
but it wasn't him.
Yes, it was.
It was him.
And that night in the library.
No no.
You saw him, Kelly. You saw
him, and he's here now.
Just look at him.
( Both scream )
Oh God.
This is not cool, guys.
- Help me get her in the other room.
- Get her on the couch.
Well, this isn't working.
No, it's working perfectly for him.
We have to mess up his plan somehow.
The kids...
the kids upstairs.
They're not supposed to
find them until much later.
Right, to scare them out of the house.
- We gotta make that happen now.
- Wait, you guys, come here.
- We gotta show you something.
- Come with us.
- Sorry to show you this.
- What the fuck?
No no no, but we saw it, right?
We're off the plan.
Let's go find them then.
Dude, come on.
Kel, relax, okay?
It's just Pete and Mike
playing a joke on us, all right?
Julie's probably in
on it too, all right?
I'll call him right now.
There's no service.
Why would he change the plan like this?
He's adjusting it.
- Why? What for?
- To accommodate for the extra people
in the hou...
tell me he didn't see you
before at the window.
- Fuck me!
- God!
Let's just think this thing through.
He's got these two clowns going
to look in the toolshed.
He's only expecting one kid.
Oh, God, he's gonna
kill them both there.
( Speaks indistinctly )
Fuck it, dude.
Cover me.
I'm going in.
Cover you with what, dude?
Holy shit.
Dude, check out this scarecrow, man.
Just come on back out here, man.
I wanna put this in my room.
Come on, man.
Let's go.
No!
( Boy groaning )
- We are so fucked!
- Back to Kelly.
Come on.
Our fucking tires are
slashed on all our cars.
He's making it all happen
exactly as planned, despite the changes.
He's really good.
In a really bad way I mean,
but he's really good.
I'm a little more freaked about her.
What kind of a survivor girl
- passes out in a pinch?
- Passes out?
What kind of survivor girl hops
on the nerdy kid's Johnson
like it's a pogo stick?
Okay, all right, look. The
solution's in the plan.
That's how we're gonna beat him.
What comes next?
Todd: I didn't wanna
come back to the house.
You're the one who wanted
to go back to the house.
Doug: Dude, it's not her fault.
We're all in this together.
What, like she doesn't know?
- 95% of all whores know that they're whores.
- Doug: You made that up.
Come on, help me out here.
What's next? Come on.
The kids, they go upstairs
and find the dead bodies
- and then they head out to their cars.
- Which are sabotaged.
Yeah, but our van isn't.
- Hey, guys, let's go.
- Come here, hey hey.
Come with us.
- ( Screaming )
- Holy fuck! Fuck!
Quiet! Shh!
( Engine sputtering )
Todd, it's not gonna start.
God damn it!
He's way ahead of us.
Back to the house.
He didn't plan on that.
- What now?
- Okay, he said he hated being inside,
so we stay in a group.
We protect Kelly.
We wait him out.
Protect me?
Why not protect all of us?
Kelly, you gotta dig deep,
I mean, real deep.
We're all counting on you
from here on out.
Me? Why me?
Because he thinks
you're his survivor girl.
His what?
A survivor girl.
He think you're the one
who's going to fight him and beat him.
Well, why the hell would he think that?
Because he's been studying
you, all of you, for months.
He thinks you're showing the signs.
He thinks you're a virgin...
- Ha!
- Fuck you, bitch.
- Yeah, you would.
- Wowie wow.
...which you clearly are not
and if Leslie's figured that out...
What? What?
He'll do what?
He'll kill all of us
and leave no witnesses.
Oh, great.
Way to go, kel.
This is my fault?
Because I'm sexually active?
I am sorry I'm not a virgin!
- ( Lock jiggling )
- ( Kelly screams )
- Kelly, no!
- No no!
( Screams )
( Thud )
Cat's out of the bag now.
Taylor, they're headed for the barn,
exactly where he wants them to go.
- Fuck this.
- Todd, what are you doing?
Don't you get it?
We're in this now.
We're part of his equation.
I'll see you around.
Have a nice summer.
Leslie, no one gets away...
rule number one.
- Selfish...
- no no no, wait.
Todd:
Les, I'm doing it!
- He's gonna lead him.
- Doug, let's go. Run!
Come on, Les.
Come on, buddy.
Come on, you physical specimen.
Chase the Doughboy.
You gotta chase me.
Your rules, not mine, baby.
I'm getting tired.
What the fuck?
Come on, Les.
Come on, Les man.
Look at me.
Look at me, Les.
Look at me. Let me see you.
Let me see you.
Look at me, man.
It's fucking Todd. It's Todd.
In it together...
we're fucking doing
this thing together, man.
It's Todd.
Come on, come on.
Come on!
- God! Wait!
- ( Tearing sound )
Lauren, no! Don't go up there!
Maybe it worked.
Maybe Todd got away.
Doug:
We should go check.
Maybe his plan's all fubar
now and he bailed out.
We're right where he wants us,
all of us.
Well, you got us into this, Taylor.
We could have just gotten
in the van and driven away.
You were just gonna leave us here?
How long have you been following us?
It doesn't matter.
- You don't matter.
- Why are you saying that?
He knew.
He knew before...
We started, before...
before we even met.
That's why he agreed to do this.
He...
he found me before we ever shot a frame.
Taylor, you're not making any sense.
It's perfect.
Oh my God.
It's genius.
Taylor, knock it off. His
plan, his plan, it's fucked.
Okay, he's got no virgin,
and Todd made him run
in the wrong direction.
Now think.
It's her.
- Get up.
- Lauren's right.
It's you.
- You're the Vrgin.
- ( Crying )
This whole time it was you.
Please please,
you have to tell me...
What happens to me?
- ( Banging )
- Oh my God!
- Lauren.
- Oh my God!
- ( Gasps )
- ( Crunching sound )
Doug, don't.
( Footsteps )
Lauren, no!
( Screams )
( Slashing sounds )
Get off me.
Get the fuck off me!
Come on, we gotta go.
- Oh, shit, the hole's blocked.
- He's thought of this already.
We gotta find another way. Doug.
- Doug, it's no good.
- Help me then. Quit explaining.
He's planned for...
Oh my God.
- ...that.
- Leslie!
Hi, doc.
No, boy.
Go, let's go.
- ( Stabbing sound )
- ( Grunts )
Leslie, I love her.
You gotta go through me.
I'm sorry, Todd.
( Birds chirping )
( Shouts ) It's just you
and me now, Leslie!
It's just you and me.
Come get some.
( Yells )
- ( Stabbing sound )
- ( Grunts )
( Panting )
- ( Bones crack )
- ( Grunting )
( Stops grunting )
Taylor.
I knew you were the one.
( Screams )
( Crying )
( Screams )
Is he...?
I don't know.
I don't know what he is.
Just a man.
He's just a man.
( Leslie's voice whispers )
( Rock music playing )
I can't seem to face up to the facts
I'm tense and nervous
and I can't relax
I can't sleep
'cause my bed's on fire
don't touch me, I'm a real live wire
psycho killer,
qu'est-ce que c'est?
fa-fa-fa-fa fa-fa-far
far better
run run run run
run run run away
oh-hh
psycho killer,
qu'est-ce que c'est?
fa-fa-fa-fa fa-fa-fa
fa-far far better
run run run run run run run away
( vocalizing )
you start a conversation,
you can't even finish it
you're talking a lot
but you're not saying anything
when I have nothing to say,
my lips are sealed
say something once
why say it again?
psycho killer,
qu'est-ce que c'est?
fa-fa-fa-fa fa-fa
fa-fa-far far better
run run run run run run run away
psycho killer,
qu'est-ce que c'est?
fa-fa-fa-fa fa-fa
fa-fa-far, far better
run run run run run run run away
( vocalizing )
ce que j'ai fais
ce soir-LA
ce qu'Elle a dit
ce soir-LA
realisant mon espoir
je me Lance vers LA gloire
okay
( vocalizing )
we are vain and we are blind
I hate people
when they're not polite
psycho killer,
qu'est-ce que c'est?
fa-fa-fa-fa fa-fa
fa-fa-far far better
run run run run run run run away
psycho killer,
qu'est-ce que c'est?
fa-fa-fa fa-fa
fa-fa-far far better
run run run run
run run run away.
( vocalizing )