Original subtitles

There is a legend about this valley,

a tale carried across the winds of time.

A legend strange and sinister.

The legend of the Chooper.

That's it. That's where we're gonna stay the night.

I dunno.

Me neither.

Heard it's supposed to be haunted.

There's a legend behind it.

What kind of ghost would haunt a place like this?

It's a dump.

I dunno.

It's an old Indian ghost.

It's gonna come out at night and it's gonna get ya.

It kills people?

Eats 'em alive.

And you want us to stay here tonight?

Sure.

- And get ate up and killed? - Sure.

- No, forget it. - Hey, wait, man.

It's a challenge, man. It comes out to get us and we get it.

Come on.

- Nope, uh-uh. - Not me.

But you drove all the way up here to see it.

You want to stay here tonight, you said.

No, not me.

You guys are nothing but chickens.

We just got more sense, that's all.

Here's your sleeping bag, honey. Have a lot of fun.

We'll see you later, man.

You're chickens.

You chickens!

Chickens!

Hey! What are you doing here?

This is private property! Now get out!

Hey, man! I'm gonna spend the night here.

That's what you think.

That's right, mister.

I heard about your ghost and how it kills people.

Well, I ain't a chicken, not like my friends.

I dare it to come get me.

Well, maybe they're smart.

Now maybe you just better get outta here too.

No way, baby.

Look, I got money, okay?

I can't take your money.

I'm a foreman here and this is private property,

and I got a responsibility to the Craigs.

Old Man Craig's been dead for over a year.

- How much? - I can't take that money.

Besides, Mr. Craig's niece is coming out here

to take over tomorrow.

- That's tomorrow, baby. - What about tonight?

You're dead set on staying, aren't you?

That's right.

Even if that thing does get you?

That's right.

Well, go ahead and stay,

but if the Chooper comes to get you,

well, you just deserve it.

But I warn you, the Chooper will get you, and I know it.

Yeah, well, we'll see, okay?

"The Chooper."

This Chooper, ghosts.

Chooper.

Chooper.

If nobody's gonna stay here with me, I'll stay by myself.

Daniel?

Daniel, are you trying to scare me?

What a creep.

Daniel?

Imagination.

Who's there?

No ghosts.

Hey! Where are you?

No!

I warned you!

I told you the Chooper would get you,

but you wouldn't listen, no!

I sure am glad the Chooper couldn't use this money,

'cause I sure can.

And don't look like you're gonna be able to use it either.

But I warned you. I told you that Chooper'd get you.

This is exactly what you deserve.

Daniel!

- Daniel! - Daniel!

We wanna play!

Hi, Daniel.

- Hi, Daniel! - Hi, kids. What's up?

- Can we play here today?

- Well, you know you can play

anywhere you want to around here.

Except that old house.

How come you never let us play in that old house, Daniel?

I told you kids before, stay away from that old house.

Bad things happen in there, so y'all stay away, hear?

What kind of bad things?

People get hurt,

get hurt real bad, so y'all stay away from there

or I can't let you play around here anymore.

Promise?

- We promise. - We promise.

Okay.

Come on, Barbra. Let's go play over there.

I think we should play musical chairs.

We can't! You need three people.

Well, we can just hum and sit down.

It won't work!

How 'bout...

Sit down in the chair and...

Musical ladder, and go over and sit in the chair.

How do you play that game?

Well, all you do is just go around the chair and sit down,

and first one to sit down wins.

I sat down. I won.

No! You have to go around and hum!

I won!

I won!

That's no fun, Margie!

I think this is what Daniel washes his clothes in.

I doubt it.

I told you kids to stay away from this house!

Now, that was your mother on the phone

and she wants you at home now!

Come on. Get going.

If you want to play around here anymore,

stay away from this house!

I think Daniel's mad!

Daniel?

Daniel?

Hey, Daniel!

Daniel?

Danny Boy?

Hey, Daniel!

Daniel?

Hey, Tim! What's doin'?

Who's that?

Oh, that's old Tim Foster.

He's been around here a long time.

He's got a place up near the mountains here.

Hey, Tim. Fixin' to go to the rodeo tomorrow?

You're Old Man Craig's niece, aren't you?

Yeah, this is Carol. Tim Foster.

I want to buy your ranch.

I just got here.

I don't intend to sell it.

It's been in the family for a long time.

You've got a lot of good property out here.

I can use it. I want to buy your ranch.

Didn't you hear her? She said she didn't want to sell it.

That's right, Tim. I'm sorry.

I want to fix up this place.

Fix up the ranch house.

Tear down that old water tower.

It's about to fall down on somebody anyway.

Get rid of that old house.

That's a historical monument!

It's been there for over 150 years!

You know the only history that place has got

is about 150 years' history of death in it.

You know that.

The Chooper legend?

The one my uncle mentioned a few times?

I don't know very much about it.

You don't know that people have been dying in that place

for 150 years, from then to today?

You don't know that they're still

getting knocked off in there?

Everybody in this area is gonna be a lot better off

once we get rid of that house.

I want to buy your ranch.

I don't intend to sell. Thank you for stopping by.

Well...

Well, this isn't your final decision, right?

I mean, you can't have made up your mind so soon, right?

Right?

I mean, you just came back from,

you know, wherever you come from.

You want to get a little lay of the land here, right?

We'll talk about it, okay?

If you want to stop by sometime, stop by.

Tough luck, old buddy.

Hey, Tim, when you come I'll make you

some of my Texas-sized biscuits you like so much.

Right, I love it. Okay, we'll do that later.

Okay.

This here's the guest room, Miss Carol.

I reckon you'll be staying in here.

Hey! Where you going?

I'ma take the trash down here aways.

I'll be back in a minute.

Hi. Where's Daniel?

He'll be back in a little while. Who are you?

I'm Margie, she's Barbra. Daniel lets us play here.

Can we play here today?

Sure, go ahead.

Can we play in the old house?

Why not?

Daniel says bad things happen in it.

Go ahead, it's just an old house.

It's creepy in here.

Do you think the Chooper would get us?

No.

Well, do you think we should go in?

Yeah.

Well, remember the story that Daniel told me?

He said the Chooper ate a little girl and a little boy,

and then he was trying to find more kids,

and he found two kids in the creepy house

and he ate them all up.

And he said if we go in here,

the Chooper would eat us all up,

so we better be careful in there.

You're silly. Come on, let's go in.

It looks spooky in here!

Hey! Let's go in that room.

I think this is where the Chooper sleeps.

Chooper! Chooper!

I'll never come back here! Run, run, run, run!

I told you kids! Don't play around here!

Next time the Chooper will get you!

After I unpacked my things, I showered.

Then Daniel took me for a walk around the ranch.

Daniel told me the reason

Tim Foster wanted the ranch so badly

was that he thought it belonged to him.

You see, back over 100 years ago,

this property was split up.

About half of it was owned by my great-grandfather Silas.

The other half belonged to Tim's great-grandfather Jebediah.

One night they both got into a poker game

and put up the ranches as stakes.

Well, my grandfather won,

but Jebediah claimed Silas cheated him,

so that called for a showdown.

The next day, there they were,

out in the streets of town having a standoff.

At noontime they faced each other,

and a moment later Jebediah was dead.

My great-grandfather Silas always had been a better shot,

particularly at close distances.

The shootout was fair enough,

but ever since Daniel can remember,

he said Tim Foster had a grudge.

Tim believed the deck of cards

had been stacked against Jebediah

and that all this property rightfully belonged

to the Fosters, not the Craigs.

Daniel said there had been bad blood

between the Craigs and the Fosters for a long time.

I couldn't sleep that night.

I tossed and turned, and even tried reading a book,

but all to no avail.

I felt strange.

I didn't feel like myself at all.

I felt as if, somehow,

the old house on the grounds was beckoning to me,

whispering to me across the darkling hours of the evening,

luring me towards it,

luring me into the unknown.

Carol, what are you doing here?

Never can tell when that old Chooper might be around.

Come on, I think you better go to bed.

This was the day the rodeo hit our area.

There would be traveling pros, local pros,

and local amateurs all appearing in it.

It was to last a week,

moving to different areas in the county

so that everyone would get a chance

to join in the festivities.

In the meantime, I called up Mrs. Potts

and asked her if she would show me around,

and then we could take the kids on a little shopping spree

before we went to the rodeo.

Hi!

Daniel, I'm going to town to do some shopping

with Mrs. Potts and the kids.

Hi!

- Hi! - Hi!

Hey, wait a minute! Hey!

Hi.

I'm looking for my wife.

Your wife?

The only woman around here is Miss Carol,

and she just went into town.

My wife Connie came here the other night

with a couple friends of hers to stay at the old house.

Ain't nobody here.

I know she's here. A couple friends told me so.

Kid, look, there's nobody here and I'm busy. Now get.

I've got to find her. I know she's here.

We got in a fight.

I'm gonna go look at the old house anyways.

You stay away from that old house.

I'm gonna go look at the old house anyways.

Stay outta there, you hear me? Stay outta there!

The Chooper'll get ya.

I gotta find her, man.

There ain't nothin' but bad business out there,

so you stay away from there.

I've gotta find her.

Stay away, you hear me? Stay away!

The Chooper'll get ya!

Connie?

Connie? It's me, Charlie.

Connie?

Connie?

Where are ya?

Oh my god!

I warned you!

I told you the Chooper would get you! Look what...

Oh my god.

I warned ya. Nobody listens to me.

I told you that Chooper would get you

and sure enough, he did.

We arrived at the rodeo, and guess who was there?

Tim never missed a chance to try and talk me into selling.

It seemed more an obsession than a business deal

he was trying to propose.

Anyway, I told him that I wished

he would try to forget about the ranch.

And he seemed uptight.

I wondered what really was ticking in his head

behind those weird sunglasses.

The next day I got a call from Margie and Barbra

telling me to come over to their ranch

and spend the day with them.

It seems their father just bought them a pony.

I thought I'd walk over

rather than wait for Daniel to return from town.

- Uh, Ms. Brandt? - Yes?

Yeah.

I'm the local constable. I was just on my way up to see you.

Well, is there something wrong?

Well, I'm checking most of the ranches around.

I'm looking for a couple of kids,

Connie and Charlie Forsyth.

Local kids, they turned up missing and,

well, nobody can find 'em.

Well, they're not at my ranch, Sheriff.

The only ones there are Daniel and myself.

In fact, Daniel says that except for the Potts kids,

nobody ever comes over there.

Yeah.

Uh-huh.

Well, I'll tell ya, if it's all the same to you, Ms. Brandt,

I'd like to check out that old house.

A lotta strange stories connected with that old place.

Why, clear back when I was a kid.

Aw, hell, even before that. When my dad was a kid.

He used to tell me all kinds of stories about that place.

Well, go right ahead. I'm sure you won't find anything.

I'll be at the Potts' house if you need me.

Alrighty.

Well, thank you.

It seemed strange to have John Law

checking on my ranch.

Two missing kids.

Son of a gun, there was a boy at the ranch yesterday

when I left to go shopping.

But then the constable did say two kids.

Aw, I'll check with him later.

Anybody here?

Charlie?

Connie?

Any kids in here?

Peanuts. That's what they named the pony.

She was just about the prettiest thing you ever saw.

If ever you wanted to see two happy kids, this was it.

Sugarplum, their adopted puppy,

seemed to like her new friend.

Margie took to riding her immediately.

The kids really knew how to enjoy life

out here in the desert.

No smog, just fresh air.

Mr. Potts came by to say hello.

He said his daughters really dug me, and I dug them.

He told me that I was welcome anytime, just to drop by.

They're never gonna knock you down.

They'll never knock you down. That's okay, Chooper.

You keep knocking 'em off. I'll keep burying 'em.

They're not gonna tear this old house down.

They gotta find the bodies first.

And they'll never find the bodies where I put 'em.

So you just kill all you want,

and I'll keep burying 'em.

But they'll never knock this old house down.

As the days wore on

and I became more accustomed to life at the ranch,

I couldn't help feeling there was

something troubling Daniel.

But then again, maybe it was only the same thing

that was bothering me: Tim Foster.

Tim kept coming around, but unfortunately,

not the way I might have preferred it.

All he ever seemed to have on his mind

when he came to see me was the ranch,

and if anything, he seemed only to be getting

more adamant about it all the time.

"The ranch, the ranch."

"The ranch. I want your ranch, Carol."

It's all I heard from him.

It's all we ever talked about, time and time again.

If it weren't for Margie and Barbra being around,

I don't know what I'd have done.

They helped lessen the pressure I was under.

Tim Foster was right though

when he said I owned a lot of good property.

For one thing, it was the biggest spread around.

Daniel said I had over 10,000 acres

that were situated directly over an underground lake.

Drill down a couple hundred feet and there was enough water

to irrigate not only all of my own property

but about half the rest of the state as well.

Beside that, it was artesian water

filtered through limestone.

So I not only owned very good property

and excellent artesian water,

but Daniel said I also had

the water rights to the whole area,

and out here that means just about everything.

Let me shovel a while, Barbra.

Wait a second. After I try to smooth this dirt out.

Okay. Here you go, Margie.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

And do it like I promised.

Look, Carol, there's nothing but wind and desert out here.

You own 10,000 miles of wind and desert.

Who in their right mind wants to hold nothing

but 10,000 miles of wind and desert?

- Desert, girl, that's all you- - Desert my foot!

Daniel told me about the lake that's under here,

and the water rights that I own to it.

- He did? - Yes, he did.

Well, wait a minute.

We can forget about that for a second.

There must be 10,000 other reasons

you don't want this ranch.

Look at that corral. Look at the corral!

There ain't a horse in the corral.

And even if you did put horses in that corral,

they'd just die out there, you know that.

It's too hot. You can't keep horses out there.

I'm not gonna sell the ranch.

Look, that water tower, you're gonna walk under it someday

and it's just gonna fall down on you,

hit you on the head, splatter you all over.

You're gonna die. You want that to happen?

Sell me the ranch. I want the ranch, Carol.

Is that a threat about the water tower?

It's no threat. I just want to buy the ranch.

Come on, I'm serious.

- Forget it. - Look!

- Look, I want to- - Get off!

Oh, come on and stop it.

Don't kick. You're garbage, buddy.

Come on, break it up.

Margie, we don't wanna get sand on your sneakers,

so move a little bit.

Stop that.

All right, Daniel.

Daniel, come on. Stop it.

Come on, please?

- You! - What's this garbage, man?

Stop it!

Come on now!

- You're garbage, buddy! - Get up there and soak your-

Stop!

Daniel, stop.

That's enough.

I said stop it and I mean stop it!

Now get.

Just get out of here.

Go on! Get out of here, dammit!

Get out!

Where's my hat?

Carol.

Come here!

Carol.

Just get off the ranch.

You're gonna sell. You're gonna sell, baby.

Get out. I don't want to see you again.

- Just get away. - We're gonna talk about this.

The next day, in order to forget

the terrible scene with Tim Foster,

I took the kids down to the county line

to see the rodeo again.

All I wanted to do was to forget Mr. Foster.

Somehow that man didn't seem to belong

with everyone else I'd come to meet.

As we were leaving the rodeo,

Tim came by with a halfhearted attempt to apologize.

I just said the whole scene was too heavy

and I just wanted to pass.

Daniel?

Daniel?

Daniel?

Daniel?

Daniel?

Daniel!

I know he's not the Chooper.

No!

That's not the Chooper. He's not 150 years old.

That's Tim Foster.

He was just trying to scare you off your ranch.

Don't let anybody ever tell you different.

Don't ever go in that old house,

or the Chooper will get you.

Tim is dead. Daniel's dead.

I don't know what I'm going to do.

And I think I'll just worry about it tomorrow.

If tomorrow ever comes.