I Will Never Leave You Alone (2023) Movie Script

1
[music playing]
[baby crying]
[mother humming]
- Sh.
Sh.
Sh.
Richard.
Richard.
Richard!
[alarm sounds]
- Richard.
Up, up, up.
Hey.
Good luck, Bud.
- Are you going to eat it?
You think they'll give
me mine when I get out?
I'll be 64.
I'll get mine.
- Harwood, Richards,
report to the CO's office.
- Oh, bet.
For real?
- Good day today, huh?
How are we feeling?
- OK.
- OK.
Do you want to talk today?
I get your whole book on
sign, and the only thing
that you know how to
say is that phrase.
I got one for you.
I can't believe you're
getting out today, man.
It's crazy.
What's it been,
like, five years?
Six.
Wow.
- Yo!
- I like you, man.
A lot of guys here do.
You go about an AA,
and volunteer to clean,
you stay out of trouble.
You deserve this.
Nervous?
OK, now?
I wish I could tell you
it's easy, but it's not.
We don't get to go back to
the life we had before just
because we're free.
I've been through it.
Dealing drugs, getting locked
up, but you can get through it.
There's a life
after all of this.
You got a lot of life to
live, and I can help you.
I got a lot of resources,
but all you gotta do is ask.
You ever heard of Saint Jude?
I know.
I'll hit you up with some faith.
When I got out, I
didn't have anything.
But I did have faith.
Well, now look at me.
I'm helping people.
I'm living.
Saint Jude is a saint of hope.
Take it, man.
It would mean the world
to me if you wore it.
Remember, where there's
faith, there's hope.
Just don't lose it, all right?
I handpicked this place for you.
It's a brand new program.
It comes with housing and food.
It's some kind of real
estate watchmen type job.
It's your golden ticket, man.
Now, you can't leave
out of here on your own.
That's a parole violation, and
you will be right back in here
serving your full sentence.
Understand?
Because I gotta know
you want to try.
Because it's either
this, bro, or it's--
it's being back in this cell
man, and nobody wants that.
And this pays 5 grand.
M-hm.
And your parole officer will
see you in seven days, OK?
Get the fuck out of my office.
Get some fresh air.
[tense music]
- So six years, huh?
What's prison like?
You don't have to tell
me about all that.
Involuntary manslaughter.
It happened, but you didn't
even mean it to happen.
So you don't talk at all?
That's OK.
I usually do the talking.
So what I need from you
is six days in the house.
No contact.
No leaving.
Got it?
You ever hear of Hangza?
It's a Chinese superstition,
means calamity house.
Basically, it means when
someone dies in the house,
people think there are
evil spirits left behind.
So we go in and evict them.
Everybody wins.
You believe in any of that?
You shouldn't have any issues.
All right.
This is you.
OK.
You can just feel it.
It's a weird place, right?
So you all squared away?
OK.
This is going to be
a quick six days,
so just sign your work
release paperwork here.
OK, here you are.
Hangza.
From what I know, some old man
and his wife died in the house.
No kids, so they just
laid there for months.
I bought the house after
it went into probate court,
and it's been empty
for three years.
Everything is pretty much
how they left it in there,
so now, we just
need to evict them.
Great.
All right.
You're going to be fine.
Just light the candles at
dusk, say the little prayer
and be on your way.
Oh, look, this will
be easy money for you.
If you want, I always need
people who are reliable.
So plenty more.
Still wear that ring?
- How's that?
Yeah.
- Could you be dropping
any more popcorn?
- Shh I'm trying to watch.
Are you that mad
over our popcorn?
- I'm not trying
to get all buttery.
- Oh.
Oh, what?
- OK.
All right.
Oh, no.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
Stop.
- Don't like it.
- Why?
- Cause there's a
lot of rules to it.
- Hm.
Funny how stuff like that
seems to follow us around.
Hey, Mike.
- Hey, I just need a
second of your time.
- Ah, hey, hang around a sec?
OK.
Yeah.
Yeah.
- Yeah, I just want
to show you an issue
with the water leaking, the--
spooky.
All right.
- Yeah.
I'm just.
I'm just saying, like,
there's water leakage,
you don't know how far
it spreads, so maybe you
can share how long it's been--
I'm just trying to
tell you that if you
don't take care of the water
situation, the next people who
come in here.
- OK, please, please,
just handle it.
Where's Richard?
- I'm telling you, me
telling you, he's trying to--
I don't know who Richard is.
Is he going to help
the water situation?
I don't know.
[scary voices]
- Hey!
What in the hell are you doing!
You trying to run away?
It's called a witching tree.
The story goes they buried
a witch right there.
Look, I already had Mike,
that handyman, look into it.
Ain't nothing.
Well, come on!
My God.
I am definitely going to have
Mike fill in that fucking hole.
All right.
Just remember, because
my clients do believe
in all this Hangza stuff--
don't leave, or
you violate parole
and I take you back to prison.
So this gets unlocked in six
days, and I have the only key.
Oh, ah, don't worry.
- Hey, I thought you
might need these.
Well, water tastes a
little funky at first.
You'll get used to it
- OK.
That'll be all.
MIKE: Yeah, actually
going, for real this time.
- Thank you.
I appreciate it.
- Hey, before I go, do you want
me to fix that gutter there real
quick?
- I really don't.
I really appreciate it, though.
You're doing great work.
Thank you.
OK.
So that's it.
I would show you around, but
this place gives me the creeps.
OK, so have fun.
Bye.
All right, just get a
little farther in there.
I'm going to lock this up.
Great.
All right.
Bye.
[dramatic violin music]
[glass breaks]
- Hey, don't you think
three bottles is a lot?
- It's fine.
- Definitely bought two
bottles last weekend.
- We had company over
- Yeah, but it's still a lot,
and I'm not drinking anything,
so--
- OK.
I get it.
- Do you?
- What do you want me to do?
You want me to drive back to
the store and return them?
- No.
No.
I just want to be able
to talk about things.
- Let's talk.
- No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
- It's OK.
- Please leave.
I don't want you to
see me like this.
Please.
- Just tell me what's wrong, OK?
Em.
It's OK.
- I hate this.
I hate it.
- It's all right.
- You don't know!
- OK, just tell me.
- Don't touch me!
I can't do this.
I can't be a mother.
I can't.
I can't.
- Hey, look at me.
We'll be better, OK.
We'll be better.
OK, we'll be better.
- How can you be a
father when you're
drunk and high all the time?
- How can you be a mother if
you're yelling all the time?
- Get out.
Get out.
Get out.
Get out.
Get out.
Get out of here!
Get out!
Oh, no!
Oh, my god.
- I'm sorry.
- I can't.
- I'm sorry.
- I can't.
- Em, I promise you, OK?
No more drinking.
No more gambling.
No more drugs.
I promise.
- Yeah?
- Yeah.
- I just--
I just feel like there are
these little hands in me,
and I don't know
how to hold them.
Like, I'm going to drop them.
And I want to love it,
but I don't know how.
- We'll do better.
I'm sorry.
- I'm sorry.
[beeping]
- Hey, can you look up here?
And smile.
All right, let's
get another one.
Can you smile, please.
- Hey, are you OK?
Rich.
- Yeah, I'm good.
Just I'm good.
- OK.
I know you hate this stuff,
but just give me one more.
- One more.
- Give me that smile.
- I hate this stuff.
- Oh, there it is.
Beautiful.
OK, let's get one more, guys.
Hey, you want to
check out the photo?
- Yeah.
[intense sounds]
- Good morning.
- You OK?
You slept on the
couch again last night
- Is that not allowed?
- You keep your
voice down a bit.
The baby is asleep.
What are you thinking about?
- Nothing.
- Do you want to know what
I'm thinking or feeling?
- I thought we were
being quiet for the baby.
- Do you still love me?
- Of course, I still love you.
Why do you keep asking
me if I love you?
- You're drunk.
I'm-- I'm not mad.
I just need help with the baby.
- I'm not drunk.
I'm hung over, and I know
you need help with the baby.
It's always help with the baby.
I'm doing the best
that I can do!
- I didn't say
you're not, I just--
I know something's
going on with you.
- I'm good.
- I'm not.
How come I never get
to just be the sad one?
- OK, you can be the sad one!
I'm not sad!
- Shh.
- I'm not sad.
The eggs look good.
- You can't even
look at me anymore.
Damn it!
Damn it!
Damn it!
[baby crying]
I am so scared.
Richard!
What did I do?
What did I do?
[phone rings]
- (SINGING) Last night,
as I think of my pillow
Last night, as I lay on my bed
- Em, I'm home.
- (SINGING) Last night,
as I lay on my pillow
- Emma?
- (SINGING) I dreamed
that my Bonnie was dead
[humming]
- Hello.
- [humming]
- Something wrong?
- I'm fine.
- Do you want to go
back to the doctor?
She said the postpartum
could pass in a few weeks,
and you could get
outside or just exercise.
Did you walk with him?
Did you take him outside?
Emma, why don't you
let me take him?
Just for a few minutes so
you can get some rest, OK?
- I don't want to go outside.
[baby crying]
- Shh.
Just leave me alone.
Shh.
Shh.
Shh.
Richard!
Richard!
Richard!
(HUMMING)
- (SINGING) I get so
lonesome without you
Oh, like you wouldn't believe
Can't hardly hold
myself together
Without your arms around me
The days when we are apart
Time only drags on and on
Time only drags on and on
- Richard.
- Time only drags on and--
- Richard.
[static sound]
Richard!
- Hey, Hey, Hey.
How's it going?
Look, I know you're not supposed
to talk to anyone while you're
in there, but it's fine.
It's just me and you.
I just wanted to come by,
check to see if you're OK.
See if you need anything.
If you want to write
something down,
you can crack the window a bit.
All right.
What is it?
Mine's Mike.
What's up, Rich?
Yeah, pound it, brother.
Do you not like to
talk or anything?
Why not?
Shit, that was rude.
I'm sorry.
Damn.
That sucks.
How did something
like that happen?
Do you sign or anything?
Man.
Have you not really been able to
have a conversation with someone
since it happened?
Jesus, man.
How long?
Six years?
Buddy, I'm sorry.
You haven't had a conversation
with someone in six years?
I would die.
I would-- I would seriously die.
Is it weird in there?
Can I come in?
Check on the place?
I got stuff I gotta
do in there anyway
and the water line
in the back, so--
all right.
Last guy wouldn't
let me in either.
Man, I'm sorry.
I wasn't supposed to say that.
Yeah, last guy, he didn't
make it past the first night.
In fact, nobody's
made it past day 4.
So good for you.
Your number six?
Yeah.
She asked me to stay
there for the money.
No way.
It's weird.
I don't necessarily believe in
ghosts or anything like that,
but this place still
scares the shit out of me.
It's so quiet here sometimes
I just start thinking,
and I think about a lot of shit.
Yeah.
Yeah, sure.
Is it a joke?
Are you messing around just
because of whose house this is?
Well, you really
don't know, do you?
We got a bit of a
legend out here.
I shouldn't tell you
this Not while you're
stuck in there, man.
All right.
Back in the 1800s, there was
this old widow who lived here
they accused of being a witch.
Her name was Elsie Morgan,
but everyone who knows or just
calls her the crone.
There are some people at the
time were dying of some plague,
and they caught her doing
some strange ritual thing,
carrying around her dead
daughter's old dolls.
Well, she said she was
just praying for the town,
but they didn't believe her.
So they tortured her
with a crown of thorns
and locked her inside her
house, but people kept dying.
So they sewed her mouth shut
so she couldn't cast any more
spells, but people kept dying.
Then they said, well, she must
be hexing people with her looks.
So they hammered nails into
her eyes, but more people died.
Then they just figured hang er.
That'll be that, but
she didn't die No, sir.
She just screamed.
They left her out
there for days,
coming by, taking turns
pulling down on her legs
to choke her out, but
she just didn't die.
They just left her there.
They could hear her
choking and crying
until finally, they
decided to go out, take
what was left of her, and bury
it under a tree somewhere.
And people say they can
still hear it, her hollering.
If you're out in these woods,
you'll come across that doll,
she'll come for you.
I don't know.
Everybody loves a story where
the ends justify the means.
Nowadays, though, people
don't think like that anymore.
Supposedly, she just lost
her husband and her daughter,
and she was living all alone.
It was not an easy life.
She carried around her
dead daughter's old dog
because she missed her.
That's all she
had Yeah, I wonder
what would happen if
someone just asked her
if she was OK, like really asked
her, rather than torturing her
to death.
I say, if you do see old
Elsie Morgan, just be nice.
It can't be easy being
a ghost, let alone
having kids running
around making fun of it.
Shit, that's probably
who made the doll
in the first place, just some
fucking neighborhood brats.
All right.
Well, that's enough for me.
I'm going to go Hey, I'll
see you, day 5, champ.
[muffled voices]
- Hey, if you still
want those tickets,
I can talk to my cousin,
and he'll get them for you.
- I'll take those tickets, man
- No, man.
Taylor Swift sucks
- Hey, man, she's good,
and you can make 400%
on those fucking tickets.
Now, are you going
to play or go?
- Are you going to
answer that, or are you
going to keep losing money?
- Fuck that.
Let's see that baggy.
- OK.
- Sure, bro?
- Yeah, I'm sure.
- I mean, it's late.
She's at home with your kid.
- She should be.
Line or Tutsky?
- A line.
- Oh, fuck you.
Then we'll talk about
me going in, 7, deuce.
- We'll see.
He's bullshitting.
Look at him.
- Try me, motherfucker.
You in, or are you out?
- I call.
[phone rings]
- Come on.
You gotta get--
- Gotta what?
I'm just going to get it
chewed out for existing.
She keeps calling.
She won't leave me alone.
I'm just trying
to be a good dad.
I just need a night by myself.
Is that OK?
Just need a night.
Just need a night.
Sorry.
Sorry.
Just joking.
- Yeah, I'll tell
you what's not funny.
Full house.
- Take it.
[phone rings]
- No.
No!
What the fuck did you do?
- I couldn't handle it.
It's crying.
It was cold.
I was trying to warm him.
- No, no, no.
Why?
What the fuck did you do?
What the fuck did you do?
- I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
- God, Emma.
Oh!
- I'm sorry.
- It's OK.
It's OK.
It's OK.
We'll figure this out.
I have to call somebody.
I have to call--
- No.
- I won't.
I will never leave you alone.
- 911.
What's your emergency, please?
- Come on.
Yeah, there's been an emergency.
I don't know.
God, I don't know.
Emma.
Emma!
Ah!
[microwave alarm]
[intense music]
- How's it going?
You good?
Hey.
Look what I got.
You, ah, ah, ah, it's soda.
It's fine.
Come on.
Are you telling me
you don't like soda?
It's OK.
Come on.
Yeah, we're in
business now, baby.
Yeah.
I just figured I'd come by,
see how you're holding up.
Pretty terrible by
the looks of it.
Looks.
Oh, buddy.
Oh.
There ain't nothing like
glass bottles, is there?
So we buddies enough yet, you
can tell me what happened here?
You got divorced.
Oh.
She broke your heart?
Oh, shit.
I'm sorry.
I know what that scar is.
I happen to have
one just like it.
My kid died in a car wreck
when he was eight years old.
I was driving that car.
It wasn't my fault,
but I was drinking.
Some kids threw a
rock off the overpass
and crashed through
the windshield.
It crushed his
face and his chest.
I just remember sitting
there in the car with him
like that for about 30 minutes.
I was just thinking
to myself, oh, maybe I
hadn't been drinking,
I could have seen him.
I could have swerved.
Just sitting there with my boy.
No face.
Just blood everywhere.
And that smell.
It was his hand, though,
because I was holding it.
I stopped drinking.
I still feel his
little hands sometimes.
They call it phantom pain.
Anyway, to our dead
and to us living.
It's probably just a draft.
[whistling]
- I missed you.
I missed you.
Shh.
Shh.
Shh.
Shh.
Shh.
- [whistling]
- No!
Please.
Please.
Please.
Richard, please.
Richard.
[laughter]
- What the fuck?
Richard.
Hey, Richie!
It's Mike, buddy.
Come on, man.
Are you in there?
It's day six, buddy.
No points for extra days.
Come on.
Rich!
Buddy, if you don't answer me, I
have to come through, all right?
I just have to.
I'm coming in.
Peekaboo, buddy.
No fucking around.
Come on.
Just fucking with me.
I'm going to hate you
for making me do this.
Richard.
Come on, bud.
This ain't funny.
Richie.
Come on, man.
Who are you?
What the fuck did you do?
Richard!
Richie.
I'm gonna lock your ass
down, if you don't come out.
[phone rings]
- Rich, you up there?
Richard, if you fucking
killed yourself,
I'm going to kill you, man.
All right, I'm coming up.
- Dad.
- Who is this?
- Please come home.
Come home, Dad.
- That shit ain't funny, man.
You come out.
You come out now, OK?
All right, are we about
done with this bullshit?
- Dad, please come home.
- Stop!
Not fucking funny!
God.
[phone rings]
- Fuck it.
Fuck it.
Richard.
Richard.
Oh, my god.
Are you OK?
Shit, Richard.
Hey, man.
Ah!
Help!
Help!
Help!
Help!
Hey.
No.
You.
Please.
- Richard.
Are you ready to come home?
You look so handsome in
your little suit, baby.
What are you waiting for?
Hi.
Where do you want to go?
We can go anywhere.
Do anything.
Just close your eyes and ask.
- I don't want to
be alone anymore.
I want us to all be together.
[baby crying]
- Do you want to go say hi?
- I just know you're kind
of it if you're going
for a little farmhouse sheik.
- Gutters need some work.
I like the property.
It's going to need
a lot of work.
Honey, what do you think?
- I'm not sure.
- You're gonna love it.
And we just had it cleared out.
- Really?
- Take a look.
All right.
Look.
Take a look.
- It's going to need an overhaul
- OK, but the price
is for 10 acres.
This is the opportunity
of a lifetime.
I mean, hell, demolish
the whole place
and build a neighborhood
for all I care.
This is an investment
in your future.
- And you're sure we're
not buying cursed land?
I mean, you've done the work?
- We stand by our
Hangza clearings.
We're certified.
Go ahead.
Go take a look.
Not a single haunted
thing around here.
So what do we think?
- It doesn't feel right.
There's something
wrong with this place.
- OK, what can I do to
put your minds at ease
and get you to into your home?
- I don't think
my wife likes it.
- I want to go now.
Please, right now.
- OK.
- OK.
- We're just going
to think about it.
- Ah, why?
- What the fuck?
Is this a joke?
- Ah, OK.
OK, let's put that down.
- No, there is a man in there.
- It's fine.
There's nothing to worry about.
What matters right
now is that we
get you two into your new home.
Oh.
Hi, Richard.
- No, no, no.
Wait, wait, wait,
wait, wait, wait.
- Oh, my god!
No, please, listen No,
please don't hit me.
Please don't.
Please.
No, Richard!
Ah!
[eerie-sounding music]
- (SINGING) My Bonnie
lies over the ocean
My Bonnie lies over the sea
My Bonnie lies over the ocean
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me
Bring back, bring back
Bring back my
Bonnie to me, to me
Bring back, bring back
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me
[music playing]