Original subtitles

(PANTING)

(WATER TRICKLES)

(HE SIGHS)

(HE KISSES HAND)

(HE GROANS)

WOMAN: They say that nightmares are dreams perverted.

I've told them here it wasn't a nightmare,

but they don't believe me.

They nod and make little notes in my file.

And they watch me now,

waiting for me to scar my breasts,

to eat insects, maybe,

or to lift my dress like some crazy old woman and urinate on the floor.

But there's so little time left,

you've got to listen.

Not far from here is a small town on the coast.

They used to call it New Bethlehem.

But they changed the name to Pointe Dume after the moon turned blood red.

Pointe Dume doesn't look any different than a thousand other neon stucco towns,

but what happened there,

what they did to me,

what they're doing now...

They're coming here.

They're waiting at the edge of the city.

They're peering around buildings at night.

And they're waiting.

They're waiting for you.

And they'll take you one by one

and no one will hear you scream.

No one will hear you scream! (SHE SCREAMS)

I went there looking for my father.

He used to spend winters in Pointe Dume, painting.

Then after my mother died, he stayed.

And his letters became our only contact,

until recently,

when his letters became more and more bizarre and finally stopped.

JOSEPH: I have little time now.

I can't write again.

You mustn't worry.

And please, you must promise not to follow me.

I'm afraid to see people any more.

It's better that I wait alone for it to come.

(BELL RINGS)

(WAILING)

(GUNSHOTS)

- Fill her up? - Yes, please.

(HOWLING)

Dogs. Stray dogs.

It doesn't sound like dogs.

Has to be. Has to be dogs.

I've hunted in them woods out there. Nothing but quail and rabbits.

Rabbits don't make that sound.

That's Pointe Dume ahead, isn't it?

Why do you want to go to Pointe Dume?

I'm visiting somebody there.

I can't understand why anybody would want to go to Pointe Dume, visiting.

I mean, it's just a piss poor little town. It's deader than hell.

(BELL RINGS)

You forgot...

Hello there.

Fill her up?

Two dollars. No knock.

Yes, sir.

You forgot.

Machine's broke, lady, don't you have any cash?

- Well, no, but this is... - That's all right, forget it.

- Oh... - Get out!

Get your... your stamps?

Father?

Father?

Father?

JOSEPH: June 30th.

For three nights now I haven't slept.

I don't know how much longer I can keep this up.

The visions are coming from areas of my mind that I don't understand.

July 2nd.

These grotesque images keep crowding in on me.

At night I find myself wandering alone in town,

catching glimpses of horrid animals I know can't be there.

And along the dark beach faces haunt me.

Pale women with sleepless eyes and shadowy figures staring toward the black water.

ARLETTY: He didn’t return that night.

I walked along the beach in the morning, as I'm sure he must have,

coming out of the nightmares he spoke of,

back into the daylight.

I drove into town later.

It was hot already.

I saw an art gallery and I thought they might know my father.

The art dealer was blind.

Her fingers moved like a pale spider over my face.

Joseph Lang? Do I know who he is?

We do get magazines in Pointe Dume, which some of us can even read.

Well, I meant, I'm looking for him.

And I thought maybe you knew him personally.

Pointe Dume isn't an artist colony.

I heard he did take people out there, mostly women.

But they weren't from Pointe Dume.

Er... There were some people in this morning looking for your father,

which means some people do like his brand of art.

Who were they?

I don't know, strangers.

I think they're staying at the Seven Seas.

I'm as old as the hills.

Mama delivered me herself.

She took me from between her legs,

bloody little mess,

just about to feed me to the chickens.

And Daddy said, "Maybe we could use a boy, Lotty."

That's how I came into the world.

Excuse me...

They said at the gallery that you were looking for Joseph Lang.

- He's my father and I just... - Just come in and close the door.

- All I want to know is if you know... - Close the door.

Go ahead, Charlie.

Hard to remember back on things.

But I...

I remember the red moonlight Daddy told me about, only once.

Mama gave him a bad look when he talked about it.

He was only a boy himself, then.

He called it the blood moon.

He said that was the night that he lost religion.

(TOILET FLUSHES)

He learned that men could do...

could do horrible things...

...like animals.

GIRL: I'm really hungry.

I've got the munchies.

Shut up. Go ahead, Charlie.

What about the moon?

100 years ago the moon started turning red up in the sky

and things began to happen.

It was like the redder the moon got up there,

the closer that people were being jerked toward hell.

Or that people started bleeding out of control.

They found children eating raw meat.

It was like the town was festering with a... an open sore,

until the night that they...

Until the night they came down out of the canyon and...

Who came down, Charlie?

I got to go.

Charlie...

Take the wine, Charlie.

Well...

Thanks for your kindly hospitality.

I'm looking for my father. Do you know him?

I know of him.

They told me at the gallery...

We drove by the gallery this morning.

I happened to see one of your father's works in the window.

I didn't know that he lived here.

They didn't have any of his paintings there.

Well, that's popularity.

Because they did this morning.

I offered to buy one and the old woman said they weren't for sale.

As a matter of fact, it was a portrait of you.

Thom likes to collect things.

Like old drunks?

Old fashioned retort.

What's a retort?

Toni, you're half girl, half child and half wit.

Sit on it, sister.

Don't be afraid.

I'm an ugly old man, but I'm harmless.

It's about your daddy.

They mustn't hear me.

I've got 'em fooled.

I get drunk, sleep on the sidewalk like a dog and they let me be.

I ain't crazy.

Hello, Charlie.

What about my father?

You have to kill him.

You're crazy.

You can't bury him. Don't put him in the ground.

You got to burn him.

You got to put fire to his body.

ARLETTTY: I spent the afternoon in town, asking about my father.

The reaction was always the same.

People would only stare

or shake their heads and back away.

JOSEPH: July 6th.

Arletty called this morning.

I listened to her, but couldn’t let her know I was here.

My voice would have terrified her.

At times I make noises which don't seem human.

And my mind is letting go.

I try to remember the past,

my daughter,

but I can't.

Instead I... I think of death.

Always death.

(WAVES CRASH IN DISTANCE)

(WHOOSHING)

(WHOOSHING GETS LOUDER)

What are you doing here?

You looked so comfortable I didn't want to wake you.

You're very pretty when you sleep.

Mm, I'm going to take a nap.

Wanna come?

Later.

But you can't stay here.

Just for the night. I'm willing to pay.

We had little trouble at the motel.

You remember the old gentleman who was telling us the story?

Of course I do. He was mad.

Perhaps, but when they found him this afternoon, he was dead.

The police came and questioned us.

Needless to say, they weren't very understanding, what with me and my two...

travelling companions.

And then suddenly, every other motel locked and shuttered its windows.

You're the only other person we know.

What happened to the old man?

They found his body in the alley.

He must have passed out or something.

The police theorise that it must've been dogs.

They found this body half eaten.

(DOOR OPENS)

ARLETTY: I let them stay.

I never understood why.

It was as if I'd come into a foreign town where I didn't speak the language

and I was sharing a house with people I'd have never met in my other life.

THOM: Would you like some wine?

Yes, thank you.

(WIND WHISTLING)

This wind is... strange.

- Mm... - It's like the sirocco.

It blows across the Mediterranean from Africa.

I was born in Portugal, in a castle.

I thought it was a villa in Spain.

My mother was a Portuguese, aristocrat.

My father was rich and American.

I have a castle that stands above the sea.

One of our legends tells that...

Thom, what are we doing in this shitty place?

I don't know.

Really. As I was saying...

Every race has their legends - the Romans, the Greeks,

even the folk here in Point Dume had their stories.

I'm interested in their story about the blood moon.

(SHE BURPS)

What was your father doing here?

He didn't know anybody here.

He could paint.

Has your father been painting long?

Laura's quite the art critic.

She used to model, photographers mostly.

She specialised in exotic poses with snakes.

Oh, Thom just gets so clever when he's trying to get into somebody's pants.

Listen, when you go to bed with him tonight,

why don't you let him...

Laura, I am tired of having to apologise for you.

Yuck, this stuff is shitty tasting.

You're not supposed to eat the fuzz.

ARLETTY: He said he was a collector of old legends.

He thought my father knew something of the legend of Point Dume.

I told him my father wasn't here.

He said they could wait.

(EERIE MUSIC)

(GENTLE MUSIC)

(MUSIC FADES)

(SLOW WALTZ BEGINS)

Are you lost?

No.

I've been walking.

Have you seen the fires on the beach?

No, I haven't.

Goodnight.

There is something you could do for me.

What?

My zipper is stuck.

On my vest.

I'm sure one of your travelling companions could help.

Oh, they're very angry with me.

They get jealous when I’m around strange women.

How awkward.

Really.

So if you just...

It wasn't very hard.

No.

I'm sure you could have done it yourself.

Goodnight.

You don't just unzip a man and say goodnight.

You are tired, aren't you?

So am I.

Good...

night.

(MUSIC FADES)

Going out tonight?

I'm splitting.

Oh.

For how long?

For ever.

That's a long time.

- Why? - Because I'm tired.

I'm tired of him.

I'm tired of this place.

He didn't get lost, you know?

He came here on purpose.

And why Point Dume?

Have you tried the beach?

Maybe you could learn to body surf.

He's just flirting around with her.

Yeah, well let him flirt around, I'm going to San Francisco.

Mickey will take me in.

Who's Mickey?

He's a drummer.

What about me?

You're just a kid.

You'll be all right.

He's given me too many lines.

Hey, Laura...

can you get me some dope?

(WAVES CRASHING)

(WAVES QUIETER)

(CRICKETS CHIRPING)

(HOWLING)

Wanna ride?

(DRAMATIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYING IN CAR)

What the hell.

Hey, thanks.

You coming back from the wedding?

The what?

The wedding at the beach.

Nuh-uh.

Do you like Wagner?

Oh, yeah. Sure.

Super.

You can, um, let me off in town.

You guys must have been, er, working late.

Moonlighting.

Moonlighting.

Everybody was out there tonight, even the little creatures.

I found a lot of them.

A lot of what?

Beach rats.

(SQUEAKING)

What's wrong?

Nothing.

What do you do with them?

Do with them?

I eat them, that's what I do with them.

(HE CRUNCHES)

I've got another, if you'd like.

No, no, no. Thank you. I...

I'm just going to get out right here.

You don't want it?

No, no, no, no. It's a very nice night to walk.

Jesus!

(CLASSICAL MUSIC FADES)

(CRICKETS CHIRPING)

(FOOTSTEPS)

(BELL RINGS)

Hello?

Hello?

(EERIE ATONAL MUSIC)

Hey!

Hey!

Hey!

Hey!

(SOFT, GENTLE MUSIC PLAYS)

(SLURPING)

(MUSIC FADES)

(LIVELY PIANO MUSIC)

(MUSIC FADES)

(JAZZY SAXOPHONE MUSIC)

No! No! Stop!

(SHE SCREAMS)

(SCREAMING CONTINUES)

(GROWLING)

- (SCREAMING STOPS) - (MUSIC STOPS)

JOSEPH: July 17th.

I dread the nights coming on now.

The fires on the beach are more numerous.

And more of them are coming out at night from the town.

It's more horrifying than I expected.

A crazy old man told me a story today

about Point Dume a century ago

and a dark stranger arriving,

and the monstrous things that happened to people when he came.

I thought I was going mad.

But worse now,

I think the hideous things I'm seeing are not imaginary.

What are you doing?

This is bull shit.

I can't get any stations in.

(RADIO WHIZZES AND CRACKLES)

Laura didn't say anything else?

(RADIO SQUEAKS)

Give a girl a pair of shoes and she walks out.

On WUVI, radio 94 in Ludlow, the voice of Idaho.

Idaho?

Idaho?

Where are all the stations here? Why are they are all out?

There are no stations in this town. You can't hear anything.

Can we go, Thom?

It's not that I care.

It's just that I'm scared.

Of what?

I don't know.

ARLETTY: I tried to sleep

and I fell in and out of half dreams.

I remember my father saying that you're about to awaken

when you dream that you're dreaming.

Thom?

Father?

(SHE GASPS)

(LOW BUZZING TONE)

(BUZZING STOPS)

ARLETTY: I felt like I was losing control.

JOSEPH: Losing control.

It's not nightmares any longer,

but something like a sickness that’s still there with the sunrise.

I think my body is being taken over

by some unspeakable evil that's turning me into...

Arletty?

What's wrong?

I don't know.

The light was on in his studio.

I thought maybe he...

I thought someone was in there.

Come on.

Come on, it's all right.

But there was a painting.

Come on. You've been having a bad dream.

Come on, get in.

ARLETTY: I don't know what else to do.

Nobody in town knows him.

I don't know where else he'd go.

Arletty, I think you should leave here.

That's a great idea.

Why don't you both leave? Then maybe I can get a little sleep!

(PHONE RINGS)

Hello?

Yes, it is.

What?

Uh...

I don't...

Where?

ARLETTY: The police said it must have been a mental problem.

They had picked up my father twice in town.

He was found wandering around before dawn.

He never knew where he was or what he was doing on the dark streets.

And then people reported seeing him on the beach,

building a huge sculpture.

The tide must have collapsed it on top of him.

After this is over and we get through with the paperwork,

I think you should take the young lady out of town.

We're not really a tourist town and strangers only bring problems.

JOSEPH: July 20th.

If the cities of the world were destroyed tomorrow,

they would all be rebuilt to look like Point Dume,

entirely normal, quiet.

Silent, though, because of the shared horror...

I know what's hiding now beneath its stucco skin.

(SHE SINGS) Amazing grace...

♪ How sweet the sound

♪ That saved a wretch like me.

♪ I once was lost, but now...♪

How is she?

I remember the night my father died.

He was coming home from work, drunk.

He started...

CHARLIE: He started bleeding out of control.

They found children eating raw meat.

And it was like the town was festering with it.

An open sore until the night that they...

We're never going to leave this place, are we?

Until the night they came down out of the canyon...

Somebody came while you were gone.

Who?

I don't know.

I heard this noise at the other end of the house.

It sounded like somebody crying.

I looked all over, but I didn't see anybody.

I'm bored.

Why don't you, uh...

...go to a film?

A what?

A movie.

Oh, a show.

Great. I get to take the car.

Then you two can be alone together.

ARLETTY: I sat in my father's chair.

The mundane scenes around me were of Point Dume.

They were slightly distorted and foreboding,

as if they were hiding some message,

just as I knew now -

the town was hiding some dark fear.

JOSEPH: July 21st.

My body temperature has dropped to 85.

This morning I passed blood again.

It's as if the thing that’s taking over my body

no longer needs human blood.

(FOOTSTEPS)

Arletty, what's wrong?

What is it?

(EERIE ATONAL PHRASE)

(WIND WHISTLING)

Oh!

Your hand.

Thom, I didn't feel it.

Why didn't I feel it, Thom?

I don't know.

JOSEPH: It's as if the thing that's taking over my body

no longer needs human blood.

My father had beautiful hands.

They were fine,

long, almost trembling fingers.

He was ashamed and went away.

He used to laugh and say that after the revolution he'd be shot,

that pale hands were the mark of a decadent life.

That's how I knew.

Thom, why did they lie to me?

Those weren't his hands.

They were coarse and large.

That wasn't my father.

- Are you sure? - Yes!

God!

Toni.

(MUSIC PLAYS)

(MUSIC FADES)

(FILM MUSIC BEGINS)

(HE LAUGHS)

You can't take all three of us.

Wrong.

Life isn't always milk and honey.

Help!

Help!

(SHE SCREAMS) Please!

No! No!

Wait, please.

You've got to help.

We only live a couple blocks from here.

We were... we were watching TV when we heard them.

They... they came crashing through the sliding glass door making that...

that noise. That awful noise.

We tried to get the children, but they already had them in the hall.

They went after them like sharks.

My husband dragged me out and we ran to some neighbours who had guns.

But it didn't stop them. They kept attacking anyway.

He's still there.

- You've got to help. - I... I can't.

What's wrong?

Your eye.

Oh no.

It's too late.

It's starting.

I'm very sorry.

(SHE BREATHES DEEPLY)

JOSEPH: July 28th.

I cut myself this morning.

My finger was nearly severed.

- Without feeling any pain I... - (SHE SHOUTS)

I ripped it off at the joint.

I felt nothing at all.

I... I've been disintegrating rapidly.

(SHE SOBS)

(SHE SCREAMS)

(SHE RETCHES)

(SHE SOBS)

(SIREN WAILS)

OVER TANNOY: Would you please disperse?

You are ordered to disperse.

(GROWLING)

Thom?

Father?

Arletty, I tried to warn you.

I dragged one of the bodies they killed up on the beach, but you still didn't leave.

There's little time left.

You'll have to go.

Tell people on the outside.

Warn them...

that what happened 100 years ago is happening again.

What?

Listen.

Please listen.

He came 100 years ago.

A hunter first saw him.

(HORSE SNICKERS)

JOSEPH: He told the hunter that he had been a minister

and had come over the mountains with the Donner party.

He passed that horrible winter with them

and saw men commit hideous acts.

He said that he himself had eaten human flesh,

but had survived because he had faith,

faith in a new master.

The hunter didn't understand...

...when the dark stranger said he was spreading his new religion.

(GUNSHOT)

(HE SCREAMS)

(HORSE NEIGHS)

When they found the hunter...

...he looked as if he'd been attacked by some kind of animal,

half eaten.

As he was dying, he told them of the dark stranger.

And they assumed he was delirious.

When he went into a fit, biting them like a rabid dog, they shot him.

The dark stranger watched the chaos

and he walked into the sea.

And said he would return 100 years later

to a world tired and disillusioned.

A world looking back to old gods

and old dark ways.

Our world.

You've got to go now.

Most of this town's infected.

He's got to be destroyed before the moon turns blood red

and he returns to lead them up the coast and inland into the cities.

We can both go.

(SHE SCREAMS)

They took me

and they did this to me.

Help me.

No! No!

(HE SOBS)

(HE SHOUTS)

Help me!

Help me!

Help me!

Help me! Help me!

Daddy...

We'll go home.

I can't.

I already tasted human flesh.

CHARLIE: You got to kill him.

If you love your daddy, you will kill him.

Can't bury him.

Don't put him in the ground.

Got to burn him.

Destroy his body.

Stay back!

Arletty?

(HE COUGHS)

Arletty?

(HE COUGHS)

Arletty?

Arletty?

(SHE SCREAMS)

Why didn't you leave?

I came back here to get you.

Thom, it's too late.

God!

I saw them in town.

They're travelling in packs, like wolves.

- I think they'll hold out. - Thom!

I was dreaming.

We were in a forest and it was snowing.

The trees were wet and you were looking up.

And I asked you what...

what you were thinking.

You said you were thinking about all the people who were born and...

and died

while the trees went on living.

(HE SIGHS)

Then we came to a village and we spent the night in the wood room.

The next day it was so cold we stayed in bed to keep warm.

Thom, help!

Get out, get out.

ARLETTY: We thought we must have made it out of the town.

And then we saw the first one.

They were coming down to the beach as they did every night,

to stare at the ocean and wait.

We could go no further.

They were all around...

watching us, staring at us.

as if we were trapped animals,

caught, already bleeding,

yet still struggling hopelessly.

We hoped to make it to one of the small boats on the horizon.

And then we would drift out and head for safety down the coast.

He was having trouble with his arm.

I had hurt him

and now I couldn't help him.

Boats didn't seem any nearer.

Thom!

Thom!

Thom!

Thom!

(SHE SCREAMS)

And the last thing I saw was the setting sun.

They hadn't let me drown.

They had pulled me from the water.

They had prevented my last escape.

That night most of the town was on the beach.

They built their fires,

not for warmth, but as beacons to be seen from the black ocean.

They dressed me in an old gown.

I was to be offered.

And following their prophecy, the moon turned blood red.

And the dark stranger returned.

He let me go with a story that condemned me,

knowing that they wouldn't listen.

He was right.

I made it back and they put me here.

JACOB: He told them of the dark stranger and they assumed he was delirious.

When he went into a fit, biting them like a rabid dog, they shot him.

The night the moon turned blood red...

CHARLIE: The redder the moon got up there,

the closer the people were being jerked toward hell.

- Men... Men could do horrible things. - (JOSEPH'S VOICE CONTINUES)

(JOSEPH AND CHARLIE'S VOICE MINGLE)

(SHE SCREAMS, DROWNING OUT THE VOICES)

(SCREAM ECHOES)

(SCREAM FADES)

ARLETTY: During the day they let me out with the others.

We sit in the sun and wait.

We sleep...

and we dream.

Each of us dying slowly in the prison of our minds.

And at night

I roam the empty halls

listening to their whispering

and try to find someone who can hear me

because I have to warn them

that back there in that small town on the coast

they're growing in number

and moving out into the rest of the world

spreading their sickness

and in order to live they'll take you one by one

and no one will hear you scream.

No one will hear you SCREAM!