Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities (2022) s01e06 Episode Script

1
H.P. Lovecraft,
the author of today's tale,
feared the universe.
He believed it to be
a haunted house of cosmic proportions,
one in which danger lurks
behind every door
revealing new realities,
dreams, nightmares.
Especially for those of us
who find the key.
Our story tonight is
"Dreams in the Witch House,"
and its director is Catherine Hardwick.
This is a fable about love and life.
The story of two fellas,
myself
and myself.
But don't you worry,
I'll help you figure it out,
and I promise ya a happy ending.
Walt.
What's wrong?
Epperley, what's the matter?
It's
It's coming.
What do you mean? Who's coming?
The ghosts.
I don't wanna go with them.
I don't wanna go.
Listen to me, okay,
you're not goin' anywhere.
I won't let you.
I'm scared, Walt.
Look at me.
I promised you I'd protect you.
You remember that, don't you?
Epperley, do you remember?
Epperley?
Hey.
Epperley?
Epperley?
Oh, Epperley. I promised!
How?
Where am I?
What's happening?
That's That's
Walt?
Am I
A ghost!
Do you hear that?
No.
Ah!
Walt, help me!
Help me!
Please, help me!
Please!
Epperley!
Good evening, people of Boston.
We welcome your interest
in other dimensions.
The bridge between worlds.
What is it?
Where is it?
And who has the power to break it down?
She was born
with the ability to cross that bridge.
She has seen the other side,
and she brings voices back.
Dear friends,
you are looking at her.
Madame Levine!
Watch as she reaches out
to this couple's poor lost son.
Beloved boy,
thou who perished in fever,
I conjure thee.
He's here.
Remain calm! You will not be harmed!
Sh! Sh! Sh!
Is it
Ectoplasm.
Madame Levine, are you all right?
Madame Levine, can you hear us?
Is she
Dear friends,
remember what you have seen here tonight.
The bridge is real.
Souvenirs and programs
are available in the lobby.
The bridge
can take me to my sister.
We have to get back there.
No.
Walter. Walter!
Walter! Walter!
So sorry.
Walter!
Goddamn turban is squeezing my brains out.
Well, we can't afford a new one.
We're not even gonna break even.
Did you see all the empty seats out there?
I can't do any more than I am.
That last part wasn't acting.
Thought I was gon' be sick onstage.
It must be the egg whites.
We'll omit 'em next time.
It's not the egg whites!
It's regurgitating tissue
soaked in a Plasticine posset.
You should try puttin'
this dirty ol' thing
in your mouth sometime.
Ectoplasm!
I'm sorry, Walter. I know
that you thought this might be the one.
I know the other side is real.
I've seen it.
But how am I ever
supposed to prove that to the masses?
Listen, um,
a family friend works for Time magazine.
My ma had him round
for dinner the other night, and he just
he asked me if I'd be interested in a job.
It's It's nothing fancy.
Just Just filing and typing, but
I just can't keep juggling
odd jobs to scrape a living.
The Spiritualist Society
barely pays anymore.
Maybe Maybe it's time that we consider
what else we can do with our lives.
There's nothing else I wanna do.
I thought you believed in the cause.
I do.
I just don't wanna be a pauper forever.
Right, so money trumps honor?
- That's not fair.
- Mm.
Speed, bonnie boat
Like a bird on the wing ♪
Onward, the sailors ♪
Cry ♪
Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women,
and blessed is
the fruit of thy womb, our Lord Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners, now
Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb
It was built on a ley line.
The house has undeniable powers.
I'll see what we can do.
Maybe we will investigate.
I cannot guarantee anything.
At least keep the painting.
Display it.
In time it will guide its way back to me.
- It is important.
- All right, I will. I pr I promise.
If anyone
would understand my visions, he would.
Your visions are from the Devil.
Don't ever contact me again!
Mr. Gilman.
What was that all about?
A painter.
She rents a room
in Keziah Mason's old house.
- The witch?
- Yes.
She makes all kinds o' claims about it.
Portals, changing dimensions.
But I fear that woman
is not in her right mind.
We need to deal with more reliable people,
don't you agree, Mr. Gilman?
Without a doubt, sir,
but I have two very credible mediums.
Both out of state.
It's just two trips, Mr. Labuschagne.
An Edward Brace in New York
and an Ellen Blackman in Baltimore.
Sniff.
No.
Apparently over 50 people can attest
to Blackman's powers of levitation.
I told you, Gilman, we can't afford it.
Sir Callahan didn't feel we'd provided
the results to merit further funding.
But sir, we're so close
to finding a real medium.
It's just tough to vet the hoaxes.
Well, be that as it may,
our investors can't keep paying us
to, you know, hit dead ends.
Listen, we may have to face
the very real possibility
that the Spiritualist Society
will close the Massachusetts office.
In the meantime,
we're putting a hold
on all paid fieldwork.
I'm sorry, Gilman.
But, uh, you've still got
your second job, haven't you?
Here's your bourbon.
- Thanks. Keep the change.
- Thank you.
Excuse me.
You got the job.
Ha!
I had no idea
how much hullabaloo is going on in Europe.
D'you D'you know
that there's a vegetarian superman
rising to power in Germany?
- It's madness!
- Congratulations, Frank.
- They said they need someone else.
- Not interested.
For God's sake, Walter.
Can't you just get off your high horse?
We can keep reading
and researching in our spare time.
- Just with proper roofs over our heads.
- Buy a drink or get out.
You know, you
you care more
about your dead sister than the living.
- He has the money.
- Yiyíistś áá.
He's a fool if he thinks
he can affect another dimension.
We visit the forest,
but we don't leave ripples.
What do you mean, "another dimension"?
I've seen a forest.
A forest that takes the dead inside.
- Hey.
- Mm.
It's real, isn't it?
Not here. Outside.
My name is Walter Gilman.
I'm a researcher
for the Spiritualist Society.
Another bilagáana
looking to broadcast tribal insights.
No, not at all. I'm
I'm looking for my sister.
Uh, we we were twins.
I was there when she died,
and I saw her spirit.
She was pulled away from me
into some kind of vortex.
I looked inside,
and and there were trees.
They call it the forest of lost souls.
A limbo for those
who aren't ready to move on.
You've been there?
I have.
How?
Can you take me?
What can you pay, friend?
Era yo una chiquilla todavía ♪
Cuando tú casualmente me encontraste ♪
Y a merced de tus artes de mundano ♪
De mi honra el perfume te llevaste ♪
Luego hiciste conmigo lo que todos ♪
Los que son como tú con las mujeres ♪
You brought him?
He pays.
ahora ♪
En tu cara te diga lo que eres ♪
Mal hombre ♪
Tan ruin es tu alma
Que no tiene nombre ♪
Eres un canalla ♪
Eres un malvado ♪
Extracted from a cactus flower.
Óola ditléé.
It translates as "liquid gold."
Is it dangerous?
How badly do you wanna see
your sister again?
tiempo después en el arroyo ♪
And remember,
don't cause any ripples in the forest.
Una noche con otra tú pasaste ♪
Y al mirarme sentí que te decía ♪
¿Quién es esa mujer, tú la conoces? ♪
Y a la vez, respondiste una cualquiera ♪
Al oír ♪
Agh.
Agh! Ah!
Epperley!
Epperley!
Walt.
Walt!
Ugh!
Next time,
lie on the pillows, bilagáana.
Frank!
Sh!
What
Coming. Coming!
Mm!
- I saw her, Frank.
- Walter, it's gone two in the morning.
I saw Epperley.
What are you talking about?
I met a gentleman in the pub.
He said he could access other worlds.
And it worked, Frank. It fucking worked.
Slow down, slow down, slow down.
He took me to a place.
They sell a substance called Liquid Gold.
No, you mean a drug.
- Have you lost your senses, Walter?
- No.
I found a facilitator
to get you to the other side!
Wait, wait, you're telling me
that you put an unknown chemical
from an unknown gentleman into your body?
- Have you gone mad?
- If you used it, you'd understand.
We need to go back. We need to buy more.
No, no, no, we don't.
We don't need to do any of that.
Give me
What we need to do
is knock some sense into you.
You aren't hearing me!
I saw my sister.
She was the same age as when she died,
wearing the same clothes.
And she was trapped.
You think I'm making this up?
I think you're desperate, Walter.
I think you'd do anything, anything,
to prove that what you've been
fighting for is real.
You never believed at all, did you?
I've never seen anything.
You say you've seen all of this, but
but I never have.
Vengo a cantar mis penas ♪
En mi soledad ♪
Y como lloraba ♪
Epperley!
como ♪
Epperley!
lloraba ♪
What are you doin' here?
The witch house.
Walt?!
Epperley!
- It really is you!
- I knew I'd find you. I knew it!
I never thought
I'd see you again!
You look
exactly the same.
And you're a man.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry I couldn't save you
when I had the chance.
It was my time.
I realize that now.
If I hadn't been so afraid,
I wouldn't have ended up here.
Did you make it into
the Boston Symphony Orchestra?
I stopped playin' after you died.
I haven't touched the keys in years.
Walt, you were so talented.
I couldn't think of anything else
but seeing you again.
That's all I've ever wanted.
To find you.
No, not yet.
Come back with me.
- I can't. I've tried to leave.
- I'm not leaving you.
Ah!
"Ours is only one of infinite worlds."
"Keziah Mason."
"Mason claimed the ability
to travel to different dimensions."
"She used an ancient ritual dagger
as a key."
"She was tried for witchcraft
and hung from a tree on her own property."
"Her body was retrieved
by an unknown person or persons
on the third night."
"The corpse was never found."
"The Witch House."
"33 Osgood Street,
just 17 miles from Boston."
I have to investigate that house.
You have to believe me.
It's from my sister's nightgown,
I swear it.
No. Do you understand
how your behavior makes us look?
Sir,
if you just tried Liquid Gold
No, that is enough.
Things are bad here, Gilman.
We're trying to retain our credibility.
And you come here,
in the aftermath of drug use,
begging for funds?
Your membership
in the Spiritualist Society is terminated.
What?
Go on.
Return to us
when you're an honorable man again.
It's a little overgrown.
Don't trim nothin'.
There's a painter
living here, right?
Just one tenant at the far end.
You won't see her.
Are there rats here?
Rats, bats, who knows?
Looks damp.
It is.
Fuck me.
"The existence
of other dimensions"
"is indisputable."
"Our visitation of such lies solely
in states of altered consciousness."
Altered consciousness.
"The next breakthrough
is the transport of matter."
"There is a key."
A key
that will allow us to bring something
back from the next world to ours.
Oh.
The key.
Epperley, is this it?
Ah!
Smells like poverty, this one.
Twins.
Jenkins Brown.
Is this the one
we've been waiting for, Keziah?
Has he come to free us both?
G G
That's the key.
Twins.
Is this the one
we've been waiting for, Keziah?
The transport of matter
from the next world to ours.
Back again.
Walt!
You have to go, now.
Something stalked you here.
It followed you through the door.
Mm-hmm-hmm.
You're disturbing the forest,
causing ripples.
- Oh my God.
- Run.
Hide!
- She's gone.
- You never should've come back.
Listen to me, Epperley,
I can take you with me.
What?
When I ripped your gown,
that piece of fabric came back with me.
- That's impossible.
- We're twins.
The key that allows matter
to travel between dimensions.
- I saw it in Keziah Mason's research.
- Keziah Mason?
She wants to come back too.
I promised to protect you.
- Please let me take you home.
- Ha! Home.
I would rather see
the wonders of the world
than live dully at home.
Drink, dance, enjoy life.
Keziah, they're over here!
No! You're not getting away!
You're not going anywhere!
Fuck off!
Go!
I will have you.
Walt! No!
Get off him!
He's mine!
No!
Epperley.
You brought me back.
This is wrong.
Be careful.
Greetings, Walter.
Go.
Run!
You can't escape me, boy!
Open up, please!
- What do you want?
- I live in the room on the other side.
There's something in there
trying to hurt us.
It's not human.
I've seen you before.
You've been meddling
in Keziah Mason's work.
She lived in this house.
In your room.
I feel the energy her anger left behind.
She was tortured at Salem.
They stuck pins in her
to see if she would bleed.
She compels me to paint
my visions.
What does it mean?
My God.
I know you.
It's you.
- What have you done?
- She won't hurt us.
This is my sister. Her name is Epperley.
You opened a door.
You opened a door inside the witch house?
Tell me Keziah didn't follow you.
You brought her back with you.
You left a ripple?
I just wanted my sister back.
See?
She's getting stronger.
Your sister is dead!
Don't you understand that?
It's you.
Mutually exclusive.
What?
Your sister and Keziah in one circle.
Yourself in the other.
Two lost souls.
And a living one.
But they are mutually exclusive.
For the dead to become flesh,
the living must die.
Walt, I didn't ask for this.
There has to be another way.
No.
My paintings never lie.
The witch
will have you dead by sunrise.
Epperley?
Epperley!
What can we do?
Come.
Quickly.
You.
I told you never to come back here.
Sister, we are in need of sanctuary.
You chose to meddle in forces
that have no place in God's house.
Get out,
before I throw you out by the hair.
And you
What demons have you been conjuring, boy?
The dead want you now.
Well, you won't bring them in here.
Sister! We need your help.
We can't fight this darkness alone.
Neither of us want to submit to the Devil.
We need your guidance to keep us firm.
Please.
Aren't all souls worthy of salvation?
I will give you shelter
and pray for your souls,
but I must warn you,
even holy ground may not keep them at bay.
I hope you understand
what you brought to this world.
Thank you, Sister.
Bless you.
And don't mess up my floor.
Is there a phone I could use?
Walter!
Frank!
Walter!
Frank.
Walter.
- What's the matter?
- Spirits are after his soul.
He brought them
from the Realm of the Dead.
She's back, Frank.
I brought Epperley back.
- You need to see a doctor.
- No, no.
It's true, I swear.
She disappeared.
I think she's trying to protect me.
She knows that for her to live,
I have to die.
Mutually exclusive.
This is madness.
I'm taking you to the hospital.
You can't! He won't be safe there.
Silence.
Wal-ter.
- She's trying to get in.
- Who?
- Keziah Mason.
- Walter.
She wants Gilman dead
to make her body flesh.
Mutually exclusive.
Come to me.
Walter, let me in.
Hold him!
For your sister to live,
you must die.
Hold him!
Walter!
Come to me.
Be gone, Devil!
Walter!
Get the fuck out of my church!
Help me!
Move!
Agh!
No!
Epperley.
Help!
Someone help me!
I can't.
Do it, Keziah!
Free us both!
Stop!
No!
Oh-oh!
Epperley,
I don't wanna lose you again.
I'm not scared anymore.
Let me go.
I love you so much.
I love you, Walt.
I'm finally free, Walt.
It's over. It's over.
The world will never know
what we went through last night.
My painting said
he'd be dead before the sun rose.
I'm glad I was wrong.
I spent seven years
working at the Spiritualist Society,
and all that time, I
I never saw a ghost.
But you were right all along.
What is that?
Hand me that lantern.
It's It's the attic.
Be careful.
Still wet.
It's rotten.
Oh! Oh!
Ah! Ah! Oh.
That's her.
Ah.
Their corporal bodies.
It's a human skull.
It's in me!
It's in me! Argh!
Walter! Walter!
- Walter.
- Walter!
No. What is it? What is it?!
Walter. Walter!
Walter! What's happening? What do we do?
Is he dead?
Ah!
Oh, oh, oh.
I think I hear something.
A heartbeat.
Agh!
What I've done cannot be undone!
Walter. Walter.
Get a doctor!
We need to get some help.
Call a doctor!
You're gonna be okay.
Gonna be okay.
- Stop it!
- There's nothing we can do.
- We need to get help.
- Look.
My paintings never lie.
She won.
- But
- Look.
I told you, you couldn't escape me.
And there it is,
a happy ending if there ever was one.
Home sweet home.
I'll ride this body
as long as it will last.
After all,
he wasn't doing anything with it, was he?