Original subtitles

In this world, there is real evil.

In the darkest shadows and in the most ordinary places.

These are the true stories of the innocent and the unimaginable.

When the Mackies convert an abandoned roadhouse into a country music dance

hall, they awaken an old evil.

The angry dead attack the living.

and invade the bodies of the weak.

With the help of a psychic and a preacher, the possessed fight to save

their souls.

Between the world we see and the things we fear, there are

doors.

When they are opened, nightmares become reality.

In Wilder, Kentucky, an abandoned music hall stands on the banks of the Licking

River, which runs north to Cincinnati.

Local legend says that murderers and devil worshippers are drawn to this

waterway, one of the few in the world that flows true north.

Town records attest to the fact that it once ran red with blood.

Well, this is it, Mr.

Mackey. As you can see, there's quite a bit of work to be done.

I think you'll see that this facility has everything that you're going to

need. Country music artist Bobby Mackey has been on the road for 12 years.

Ever since he quit his job with the railroad to sing full time, he's dreamed

of owning his own nightclub.

Well, the type of music that I've always loved is the traditional.

country music, and lots of club owners don't understand that, and they wanted

different types of music, and it got to the place where I didn't want nobody

dictating to me the kind of music that I felt in my heart and I wanted to play.

And it was either move to Nashville at that time or get my own place.

Guess it'll work.

This will work. The former rock and roll roadhouse in Wilder, Kentucky, is

exactly what Bobby has been looking for.

What about if I just give you the key? I'd like to bring my wife by sometime to

look at it.

Later that afternoon, Bobby

returns to the club with his pregnant wife, Janet.

What do you think?

Come on, we'll go inside.

Did you see that? See what?

That door just opened.

It was just a lot. Come on in. I want to show it to you.

Janet didn't want to come in here. She didn't feel right about it at all.

Here, come on, check this out.

Watch your step, Janet, right here.

Well, what do you think?

Check it out. There's the bar right there.

And the restrooms are over here.

I don't have a good feeling about this place.

Here, why don't you go check out the kitchen?

It's really big in there.

Janet Mackey appears in silhouette to protect her privacy.

Felt like somebody was in there.

And there wasn't nobody in there but him and I.

I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

Bobby?

Who are you talking to?

Nobody.

What do you mean? I heard voices. Who are you talking to?

Janet, I'm not talking to anybody.

It's just you and me here, baby.

So what'd you think?

I don't have a good feeling about this place.

I'm ready to go home.

I'm ready to leave.

Let's come back tomorrow.

Let's think about this some more.

Because all I want to do is get out of there.

In my mind's eye, I could see it all. I could see the crowd. I could see people

dancing. And so there was nothing going to stop me. I had to have the place.

From the day that Bobby signs the bank note and buys the place, he never looks

back.

His wife tries to support his decision.

I was afraid of it, but it's always been his dream.

I knew that's what he's always wanted, and I thought, well, I'll just hang in

there and support him.

One day, Bobby and Janet are cleaning up the club when a stranger arrives.

Hi. Howdy.

My name's Carl Lawson.

Carl Lawson worked for the previous owners of the club as a handyman.

But he's been out of a job since a series of brutal murders forced the club

to shut down.

I'd seen more just unexplained acts of violence in and around that

building than you shake a stick at.

Any nightclub or bar is going to have its share of

brawls or fights. It's going to happen.

Why was it shut down?

But on this scale here...

This place used to draw really... It was abnormal.

I need an ambulance here now. I got a gentleman down on the ground. He has a

gunshot wound to the chest. The last year at the club was the most violent.

Six homicides.

Carl believes that something about the place causes people to become violent.

Something's going on with this place.

The Venturettes would get the place closed down.

Classic country music here. We're not going to have those kind of people here.

You'll see. I assure you.

That'd be a nice change of pace.

Bobby believes his brand of classic country music will attract a more

peaceful crowd.

Do you paint?

Which hand do you want me to paint with?

Bobby hires Carl as a full-time handyman and caretaker. What do you know? I just

knew right off the bat I'd get along with him.

I mean, he just seemed straightforward and just said what he meant and meant

what he said.

I think that'll just about do it.

His wife, Janet, was about the same way.

Carl and I became buddies, and he was more like my little brother.

Carl, you know what you were saying earlier about strange things happening

to people around here?

Me and her knew this place.

There's more that meets the eye.

I'm going to be in the next room. Paint.

If you need anything, just give me a holler.

All right.

Wasn't for him.

Who knows what would happen next?

I do know for a fact something forced that woman's head down in that sink.

I knew right there and then, whatever's here is not playing games.

It's become dangerous. It's become violent.

I'm telling you, Bobby, there was a hand in the middle of my back forcing me into

the sink.

Janet tells her husband what's happened, but Bobby can't believe what he's

hearing. He told me it was crazy.

He didn't believe me. He didn't believe Carl.

But it did happen.

I'm telling you, I don't want you filling her head with any more of this

stuff. Do you hear me? He's not putting anything in my head. I know what I saw,

and I told him about it.

I don't believe in ghosts.

There's got to be an explanation.

Something else. It can't be that.

I couldn't dwell on it.

Carl, sit down.

I don't want you filling her head with any more of these ghost stories. Do you

hear me?

Bobby warns Carl to keep his ghost stories to himself, or he'll have to

find another job.

Now go and clean the bar.

I had invested everything I had in here, and all I wanted to do was get it open,

and I didn't want to hear anything about ghosts, and I had told Carl over and

over not to tell people about it.

And much less quit, you know, put it in Janet's mind.

One night soon after, police officer Larry Hornsby makes his rounds.

I had a funny feeling all night for some reason.

And at full moon, something's going to happen.

This'll work.

You guys don't happen to need any help, do you?

Officer Larry Hornsby calls for backup,

suspecting a burglar may be inside Bobby Mackey's club.

Did you hear it?

Yeah.

I knew there was a man and a woman in the radio playing.

I heard the voice and I heard the music.

There's nobody back here.

What do you mean there's nobody back here?

I heard voices in here, though. Me too.

Let's try the door. Let's go.

No wind.

There was nothing that could close that door.

We were stunned.

Put it that way in plain words, we were stunned.

Hey, what are you going to call in?

We saw a ghost?

I said, if I put this in a report like this, they'll send me

to a psychiatrist.

I'm just going to put it, I went into the building.

and checked it out, made sure there was nobody in here.

I'll see you tomorrow, all right? I'm getting out of here. Have a good night.

A few nights

later, Officer Larry Hornsby returns to the nightclub in response to a fatal

traffic accident.

Nothing? All right. We need to get these guys out of the car.

We got anything to cover the bodies?

Nothing in the car.

Look, I need an EMT out here quick. I got two bodies from a car accident. We

need the EMT.

Thanks.

After we got the scene cleared, we came back up, knocked on the door, so

we could thank her for giving us the tablecloth.

But the doors were locked.

We didn't know what happened to her.

The next afternoon, Officer Hornsby tells Bobby about the woman who brought

out the tablecloths.

Did you hear about that accident last night?

Yeah, I read about it in the paper. We thought it was the waitress, and we

described her.

Bobby says there was no one at the club after 10 p.m.

I never did believe in ghosts.

Never. I would laugh at you.

Then.

But a lot of things changed since then.

I'm telling you, Larry.

These doors were locked. There was no one else here.

No, I don't want to say all these people are liars, because there are a lot of

credible people.

But I just find it hard to believe that there's anything in here, any

supernatural or any ghosts.

I just can't believe that. There's got to be an explanation for everything that

has taken place.

You all right?

I'm fine. I just broke the last of my cook balls. I've got to go get another

one. Okay.

Careful with the glass.

That's all right. I'll clean it up.

I'm good.

Janet, you don't have to clean anything up. I'll be right back.

I get it. All right. I'll be right back, okay?

I was angry.

I was terrified.

I was everything.

She told me that something forced her down a step.

And I believed her.

Bobby's concern was the business.

I mean, I can understand.

He's got a reputation online.

You gotta do something about these spirits, man. They're getting out of

control. Carl, there's no spirits. What's wrong with you?

Nobody's gonna believe you unless you experience it yourself.

You all right? Do you need anything?

All right.

Janet gives birth to a baby girl who weighs only one pound, 15 ounces.

They don't know if she'll survive.

In the following weeks, the couple monitors their newborn.

When it becomes clear that their daughter will survive, Bobby prepares

for the grand opening.

Opening night, I was kind of numb.

I had a lot on my shoulders and a lot of stress and a lot of pressure.

Wish I was a king around a million bucks. I don't wish I had a penthouse

view. I don't think about a hummer or a limousine or vacations on the finest

cruise.

Oh, I really want just a country girl. One lost me and all was true.

Carl. Carl, listen to me.

I don't want you telling any ghost stories. Carl, look at me.

I don't want you telling any of the customers that stuff.

Alright? My focus was totally on running this business and making it work.

I didn't want to hear any of this nonsense.

I wanted to make the place known for a great country music dance hall.

A few weeks later, Carl moves into an apartment above the club.

He spends every night there, alone.

Unless I had to go somewhere, I stay here.

Kept an eye on it, protected it.

It was something like from a nightmare.

I'd actually thought I was dreaming, but I wasn't. It was real.

For weeks, Carl is in denial about what he's seen.

One day, Carl is cleaning up the storage room.

My love is as deep as the sea. It flows forever.

You ask me when will it end, I tell you never.

my love is as bright as the sun it shines forever you ask me when will it

end i tell you never the world may disappear like a castle of sand i will

be waiting here with my heart in my hand you ask me when will it die i tell you

never

The diary contains the personal confessions of a woman named Johanna, a

dancer who performed at the club in the 1930s.

Tuesday.

She was in love with a musician, and Johanna's father did not like this guy.

He said he'd kill him if we didn't stop seeing each other. I'd rather be dead

than lose Robert.

Johanna writes that her lover mysteriously disappeared.

She feared that her father had killed him, so she poisoned her father and then

herself.

Her final entry in the diary proclaimed that she would roam the halls of the

club for all eternity, waiting for her lover to return.

couldn't breathe maybe i just got a medical problem i should get checked

carl is

unable to sleep then the power goes out

Carl goes to the basement to check the breaker panel.

He stumbles onto a latch that he had never noticed before.

Desperate and frightened, Carl returns to the basement, carrying a vial of holy

water.

I'm a firm believer in Jesus Christ.

I try, if it's evil, get some holy water or something, keep what's down there

from getting back up here.

Carl knows that whatever is inside the well is stronger than him.

In the following weeks, Carl's behavior becomes unpredictable.

How come you haven't cleaned up the place?

It got to the point where I wouldn't know which Carl I was talking to. Carl,

you okay? I would have to talk to him for just a little while to figure out,

you know, how to deal with him because he always seemed to be different.

You think you're alone here, but you're not.

Carl, you okay?

You'll see.

See what?

I've been trying to tell you, Bobby.

Tell me what?

Don't you see? This play sorted. It became a, uh... It was part of me.

Bobby Mackey stays focused on his business.

He asks a friend, Doug Hensley, to help him produce a television commercial.

So, come on down to Bobby Mackey's Music World.

Where the good times never die.

Cut.

Although Bobby refuses to believe the nightclub is haunted, he confides in his

friend about the strange occurrences.

So how's everything going?

Pretty good. I'm having a problem with one of my employees, though.

Who? A kid named Carl.

Once Bobby had told me the story, I asked him why he kept it quiet.

And he said that a lot of people are afraid of ghosts.

And he didn't want the word out.

He firmly said he didn't believe in it, but his wife and Carl Lawson believes

the place was haunted.

As a writer, Doug is intrigued by the incredible story.

Do you mind if I talk to him, though?

I guess. You want to talk to him, you can talk to him, but I'd love to.

I just want you to tell me what you experienced, best as you can say.

This place is evil.

I've seen stuff I can't explain.

I found a loose floorboard.

Carl tells Doug about Johanna's diary.

And the two men he saw in the basement.

Carl told me that this place...

was filled with evil and the only reason he stayed here was to protect janet and

bob had it not been for that he would have left here a long time ago but he

also told me that they don't want us here something always pulled him back

here hensley is a natural skeptic but he takes their stories at face value

i was five and a half months pregnant

And I felt this hand in the middle of my back, but I was alone.

I found Janet to be more believable than Carl in the beginning because her

demeanor was total and complete trepidation.

She was afraid to even talk about it.

You would have to know Janet Mackey to know that she would not make up

something like this.

Though he remains skeptical, the stories pique his interest.

He goes to the local library to research the history of the club.

I really thought Carl Lawson was schizophrenic until I started doing

hours and hours of research, learning the history of this place.

Hensley finds an explanation for Carl's story in a 19th century article from the

Kentucky Post.

I learned of two men that were hung.

in Newport, Kentucky, in 1897.

Their names were Alonzo Walling and Scott Jackson.

Alonzo Walling and Scott Jackson, two Cincinnati dental students, were

convicted and sentenced to die by hanging for the murder of a young

socialite named Pearl Bryan.

Her headless body was found near the site of an old slaughterhouse in Wilder,

Kentucky.

She was five and a half months pregnant at the time of her murder.

Alonzo Walling swore a curse on the gallows and said that he would come back

from hell and haunt everyone involved in his trial and haunt the place where

Pearl Bryant's head was.

Hensley tells Carl and Janet what he has found.

He explains that after Pearl Bryant's body was discovered,

Bloodhounds led investigators to the slaughterhouse.

Locals suspected that the killers had disposed of Pearl's head in the old well

in the basement of the slaughterhouse as part of a satanic ritual.

But the head was never found.

Doug explains that the nightclub rests on the foundation of the old

slaughterhouse.

Satan worshippers came to this spot at night.

and gave blood sacrifices down inside that well to worship the devil because

of all the blood spilled on his crown.

There was a culvert pipe that all the blood of the animals was rinsed into the

linking river.

It is my opinion that Alonzo Wally and Scott Jackson both dwell at this

nightclub because this is where they disposed of Pearl's head.

One striking similarity among Johanna Pearl Bryan and Janet Mackey.

is hard to ignore.

Janet Mackey told me she was five and a half months pregnant when she was thrown

down a flight of stairs.

Bobby, you gotta do something.

Pearl Bryan was five and a half months pregnant.

Johanna, the dance hall girl who poisons herself inside this nightclub, was

pregnant. Janet?

Right around five and a half months.

Doug Hensley knows that there are angry spirits inside Bobby Mackey's nightclub.

Hoping to bring peace to the building, he invites a psychic named Patricia

Michelle.

Michelle is a nationally known medium and psychic counselor.

She claims that since she was a child, she has been able to communicate with

the dead.

Patricia, this is Carl. When I arrived at the club, I met Carl, the caretaker.

They're here.

He started to talk, and I said, do me a favor, Carl.

I said, don't talk to me about any spirits.

I said, let me walk through the club. Let me experience what I experienced.

I have what they call inner vision, or second sight.

Patricia senses the presence of a spirit.

What's your name?

And she said, my name is Johanna.

I said, what happened to you?

Why are you here?

She said, I know I'm dead.

I said, why don't you let me send you to the light?

And she said, no, lady. She said, don't send me to no light.

Patricia realizes that Johanna's spirit has chosen to remain earthbound.

I think that what is in Bobby Maggie's nightclub are ghosts that

believe there is no place for them to go.

And so they would prefer to live in this nightclub

than to go on to a place where they may burn for eternity.

That's what they think.

i don't see the room as it is i see the room like it used to be

patricia

sees a vision of a decapitated head i got this overwhelming feeling

of nausea

I felt like I was spinning.

I couldn't wait to get out of there.

Are you okay?

Are you sure?

Doug's bringing you a glass of water, okay?

You're good.

Thank you.

The psychic senses the presence of two evil spirits.

Carl, the two men in the room.

I think they're trying to use your body. I said, Carl, these two men in this

room, I said, I believe that they're trying to use your body.

I think it makes them feel comfortable.

They were enjoying their senses, touch, smell, taste.

For me, I was controlled.

Carl, they're gone now.

Carl, it's okay.

They've gone. The psychic tells Carl he cannot fight these spirits alone. I

think you're going to need to get a minister to help you. I definitely felt

that Carl was possessed.

And I told him then, I said, you really need to get a minister or someone to

help you.

Doug Hensley brings a Pentecostal minister to meet with Carl.

And he told me that this was the most evil site that he'd ever stepped foot on

in his life, that it was full of evil. Why don't you guys wait here?

He said, I've been doing this for years, and I'm telling you, Carl Lawson is

demonically possessed.

The minister has agreed to perform an exorcism.

Pray for it.

He asked me to stand outside the room, and he and Carl went into the old

kitchen and sat at a table, and the minister started performing an exorcism.

You're a living gateway for violent spirits.

It's not a natural type of thing.

They want to live inside of you.

So what I'd like to do is to have us pray together.

I don't think you understand, preacher.

They're going to kill me.

They're going to try to kill you, too. No, no, no. It's all right.

It's going to be okay. We have God on our side.

Just pray with me.

It'll be better. You'll see.

Let's just go ahead.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive

those who trespass against us and Lead us not into temptation But deliver

us from evil Carl

Who are you?

Alonzo.

Alonzo needs to leave Carl's body.

And therefore I say unto you, be with the Lord God, and the devil will flee

from you.

Carl. Carl.

Submit yourself to God.

Flee from the devil, and he will flee from you. In the name of Jesus Christ of

Nazareth, I command you to leave Carl's body.

The exorcism started to become violent, and Reverend got afraid, and he called

us other men into the room to surround Carl.

In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to leave.

He started speaking in Latin, and then he started speaking in English

backwards, and it says, I am Satan.

And the Spirit said, like a dog growling, I am Natas.

At that time, none of us had any idea what that meant, but later on, after the

exorcism the preacher showed us, he wrote that backwards, and it says, I am

Satan.

Number seven says submit to God.

I woke up, everybody was looking at me, and I was on the floor, and I didn't

know what happened.

After the exorcism, Carl decides it is time to move on.

I felt different.

I wish you the best of luck, Carl. If you ever need anything, you know what to

find. I felt changed.

Time for me to go.

So, uh, I guess I'll be getting on, too.

How about a cup of coffee? Come on.

No, it's okay.

You take care.

I didn't need that spirit to tell me to get out.

And I never went back.

To this day, Bobby Mackey claims he himself has never witnessed paranormal

activity at his nightclub.

I don't know if the place got a hold of me

or anything unforeseen.

is holding me here if that's a supernatural experience then so be it

and i'm gonna stay here beneath the active nightclub in

the bowels of the old slaughterhouse the well remains some

say that it is still a gateway and that an ancient evil hides deep inside

Waiting.