www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Able 2014 (FILM CRACKLES) # Let's turn it up! # Say I am the man # Are you ready for a ride # Gonna burn it all down # Are you ready for a ride # Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? # PATRICK: Shit. Okay. Humidity levels are good. Still need thermal and infrared, though. Where are those guys? Cut it out. Day 1 of our experiment into the limit of anomalistic psychology. We're attempting our own high-tech version of the Charles Experiment. Unlike the scientific seance from the 1970s, our goal is to manifest the spirit into our world. Where'd you get that? I made it up in Engineering. I thought a 3D representation of Charles would help us focus our focus. If we pull this off, we'll prove that ghosts, entities and the supernatural do exist with mass iteration of channelled, intentional belief. You think EEG amps and headbands will make a difference? Yes. Instead of just you, me, and Lydia, it'll be like there's 500 of us. Stop talking, Greg. Concentrate. Whoa. Give me a break. You kicked the table. I did not, I swear. Did you get that? Yeah, he got it. Now shut up. BREATHING HEAVILY THUD NEARBY VENTILATION DUCTS CREAKING CRASH CREAKING AND BANGING Patrick. Holy shit! Oh, my God. Oh, shit. COMPUTERS WHIRRING BEN: Lydia! Lydia! Come on! LYDIA PANTING LYDIA: Shit. What is that? PATRICK: Where's the flashlight? LYDIA: What the hell is that? LYDIA SCREAMS PATRICK: Lydia? HOWLING AND SHOUTING NEARBY LYDIA SCREAMS BEN: Lydia! Hi. Now, no biting. LINE RINGING Hey, you. Is your car out of the shop yet? Of course not. You think you can rescue me again? Why not? Kind of like being the hero. I love you. Me too. Let's try to get it right this time. Uh, no problem. Hey, stranger. You hungry? It depends what you're in the mood for. The last four days, we've covered China, India, Vietnam... Ethiopia. Okay. You choose. What exotic land do you wanna visit tonight? Can we go to Costco after this? I wanna get a giant saguaro for the front yard. What the hell is a saguaro? It's a cactus. You think they even have them? I mean, you would think so. You don't think so? How are you gonna fit a giant saguaro in the back of your car? What was that for? You get happy, and be nice. I had a bad day at work, all right? So? Get over it. Would you quit it? LAUGHING Okay. So I guess I'm buying you a cactus. CHUCKLES I could always work here if things don't work out. Oh, stop it. You can do that techie thing for a while. It's not gonna kill you. At least you're not picking up dog poop. Hey, look. What do we need that for? Could come in handy. We'll use it once, then it's gonna end up in the garage. You can't have a problem with this. It's cute, it's cheap, super low-maintenance. Just like you. Hmm. Look where we are. Not the camping thing again. I-- Before my dad first took me, I thought I'd hate it too. I like the outdoors, but sleeping in a tent on the ground... Who said anything about sleeping? When you were a little girl, I bet your dream was to live in Palmdale, wasn't it? Of course. Abandoned neighbourhoods, vacant strip malls, empty desert for miles in every direction. What girl doesn't dream about that? BOTH CHUCKLING PHONE RINGING Who was that? Work. Hi, neighbours. Hey. How's the unpacking going? Well, we're getting there, sort of. Hey, Pepper. Come on, girl. Pepper. MIKE GROANS Watch out for this one. She likes to roam. How are you, Miss Maggie? Good. This is my boyfriend, Ben. Hey. Good to meet you, Ben. Hi. BEN: Hello. See you guys soon? MIKE: Yeah, see you soon. All right, come on. When did you find time to start the welcoming committee? Well, it wasn't that hard, considering they're our only neighbours. BEN CHUCKLES Hey, Mom. Um, I'm watching your video right now. CHUCKLES Uh-huh. Damn it! Where is it? That was Ben. He can't find something. Yes, Mom, we're excellent tenants. We're taking good care of your investment home. Your parents should be happy they found renters, especially responsible ones like us. We're still settling in, but I got new curtains for the bedroom and I ordered a-- Oh, son of a bitch! You know what, I gotta go. Give Dad a kiss? Okay. I love you too. My cactus. It's dead. So we'll return it. No, it costs $4, and we'd spend twice that much just taking it back. MALE VOICE OVER TV: Fight! BLOWS LANDING AND GRUNTING ON TV I am schooling you right now. MALE VOICE: It ain't over yet. BEN: Stop. Stop. MALE VOICE: K.O.! Yes! Ugh! I need a beer. Why don't you get me one? Loser. AUTOMATED VOICE: Armed. Did you burn something? Oh, right, because I cook so often. But you noticed it, you clean it. Thank you. KELLY WHISPERING: Ben. Ben. Wake up. What? Let me fall asleep? I missed the ending. Shh. What's the matter? DOOR BANGING Why are the doors open? IN NORMAL VOICE I don't know. Did you set the alarm? You watched me set it. KELLY SHUDDERING I'm gonna look around. I'm calling the security company. Okay. Good night. Thanks again. No sign of forced entry. The alarm's working fine. They said some kids have been messing around the empty homes. It's probably just a stupid prank. We're changing the locks. KELLY SIGHS Up, sleepyhead. Come on, I need the sheets. Kelly. Come here. Come here. LAUGHING What time is it? Nine. The hardware store opens at 8. New deadbolts, remember? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Did you get any sleep? A little. We're out of toothpaste. Yeah, we need a lot of things. You know what, can you make a--? GASPS BEN: What? What? Finish your sentence. Oh, a list. 1 What's shaking? Ah, just installing some new security cameras. All the locks are changed, too. You're pretty great, you know that? CHUCKLES You finally noticed? PANTING DRILL WHIRRING I really tweaked my back. Okay. All right, Dr. Mason. Hey, don't jinx me. I'm not a vet yet. You will be. Now, if you can lose this top, we can get started. Ah, take a look. We have a visitor. Pepper, come. BEN: Pepper! Pepper! Let's go. GROWLS WHIMPERS MOANING What could've happened to her? Oh, my God. She's barely breathing. Let's get her some help. Mike, I'm so sorry. We tried to help her, but... Kelly, I appreciate everything you've done. There's nothing more you can do. Look at this. The linoleum's cracked. KELLY: Watch out for spiders. Thanks. What the hell? THUD Ben? Ben! Ben? Did you find anyone? So far, none of the inspectors can come by for at least a week. Great. I'm gonna wash up. You wanna go first? I'm gonna keep searching. We're attempting to contain and entrap the entity we manifested a few years ago. This is where our experiment will be happening. We'll use these devices to detect our entity when he makes his appearance. The four of us will be wearing these headsets. They'll capture our belief and channel it into here. Utilizing our equipment, I'm gonna amplify the brainwaves of the participants. There'll be four people sitting around the table. But this will make it seem like there are 4000 people. All of this concentrated energy will be focused into there. My modern and altered version of a psychomanteum, or apparition chamber. The electric current acts as an amplifier as it runs through the cages. Entities manifest themselves through energy. The greater the energy, the greater the chance of manifestation. We miscalculated the first time, but now we'll be able to trap the spirit within the psychomanteum. Greg! Greg? Greg? Greg, where are you? MAN SCREAMING ON COMPUTER PATRICK: Greg! Greg! PATRICK: Our effort to entrap it has failed. I'm not sure what we've done, but something came through. We've brought it into our world. Now it's loose. It's free. We should never have done this. Ben? Yeah? What? WHISPERING Ben, maybe we should just call the cops. CREAKING BANGING AND CREAKING Where are you going? We can't just abandon our house. We can! You're not dressed! There is no way I'm staying in this house tonight! If it were a person, we would have seen them come in on the security cameras. I must have left a blind spot. Why aren't we saying what we're both thinking? Kel. Our house is too new to be haunted. It has no history. Those hangers. What could do that? And those voices. SIGHS There's gotta be an explanation. Hey, at least you finally got me camping. Promise you'll stay awake? Promise. All night? All night. 1 TWIGS CRACKING (DRAMATIC MUSIC) Hey! Listen. I know last night was rough. Everything is gonna be okay. Houses make weird noises. Maybe some animal got inside. I'm gonna stay home today, I'll clean up, call someone to check out the closet. And then what? Do you wanna leave? SIGHS No. My parents are counting on us to look after their place. I can't tell them their house is haunted. Have a great day at work. If anything else happens, I'll get us a hotel. I promise. PHONE RINGING 1 Hey, neighbours. Maggie, I'm so sorry about Pepper. But this little guy really needs a good home, so I thought of you. Can I? Yeah, I don't see why not. You didn't have to. No, I... I did. Have you noticed anything weird happening in your house lately? Such as? Lights going on and off, doors opening by themselves, moulds? Sounds like shoddy construction. Oh, damn it. What? We have the same builder. CHUCKLES And do you mind just letting me know if anything happens? Absolutely. Thanks. GASPS Maggie! You scared me. Your house killed my dog. DEVICE BEEPS THEN HUMS LYDIA ON COMPUTER: Okay, humidity levels are good. Still need thermal and infrared, though. Where are those guys? Cut it out. PATRICK: Peripherals online and ready? LYDIA: All set. All right, let's light this candle. FAST-FORWARDING CHATTER RUMBLING GROWLING LYDIA: Oh, my God. Shit. BEN: Lydia, come on. Lydia, come on! LYDIA PANTING PATRICK: Where's the flashlight? LYDIA: What the hell is that? LYDIA SCREAMS BEN: Lydia! LYDIA SCREAMING Lydia! Lydia! Oh, my God. Shut that thing off. I said, shut that thing off! DOOR OPENS KELLY SNIFFS SIGHS I can explain. This girl, Lydia? You two were together? Not the way you and I are, but... Yes. What happened to her? She's, um... Gone. Gone? What does that mean, "gone"? Like she's dead? Is that what's gonna happen to me? Nothing is gonna happen. How do you know that? How can I trust you any more? What is this? What is in my house? I honestly don't know, okay? We were trying to contact something from the other side. We were in college, it was just an experiment. Why didn't you tell me about this? You knew what was happening and you didn't tell me. I mean, I don't know, maybe I'm part of this experiment too. No. This is all in the past. I thought if you didn't know about it, you'd be safe. In my own way, I was trying to protect you. I'm sorry. How am I supposed to believe anything you say? Get out of my house! Get out now! CRYING Patrick. It's Ben. Call me. SOBS What are you? KELLY SCREAMING Stop. Look at me. Stop. Stop! Look at me! Still no answer from Patrick. We're safe now. What else can I do? You can get off the bed. GASPS KELLY GASPING KELLY GROANING Kelly! GRUNTS GRUNTING KELLY PANTING It's okay. It's okay. 1 Where are we going? PHONE RINGING It's Patrick. Your house isn't haunted. You are. By the ghost we contacted. If it is a ghost, it's not the ghost of anything human. What does it want from us? Exactly what it's getting. It wants to be in our world. It wants us. It feeds on life. It'll punish you. It'll manipulate the way you see the world, and it takes you. We opened the door and it came through. What door? A rift between our world and theirs. Our second session opened it more. What the hell were you thinking? Yeah, at least I didn't run away, act like it never happened. That's not what I did and you know it. We tried something new. We tried to contain it. Remember the psychomanteum? I've re-routed the current so it gives off a negative magnetic field. It's like a bomb shelter for brain waves. I've been living in there for weeks. That's perfect. The only way to protect ourselves is to live in a box. We still have a chance to end it here. How? Place these transmitters everywhere you saw it try to manifest. Anywhere it's tried to get a foothold. I recorded the EEG emissions of our experiment. We're gonna use that power against it. We're gonna play the recording of the session in reverse. I'm gonna tap into the power lines and feed all that energy into our system. Four thousand minds put this together. Four hundred thousand can destroy it. TRANSMITTER POWERING UP POWERING UP Instead of aiming the transmitters in, we aim them at us, and the house too. With us inside, we flood every inch. Open everything, right? The fridge, the microwave, the dishwasher, everything. In the first experiment, our amplified EEGs, they acted like a key. In the second, we opened a gateway. We can reverse this process. If we can link the two recordings, we can-- Amplify and transmit the EEGs in reverse. And with all the additional power, we shut the door and we turn the lock. Okay. TRANSMITTER POWERING UP TRANSMITTER POWERING UP TRANSMITTER POWERING UP Ben! Ben, help me! Ben! SCREAMING Ben! KELLY SCREAMING Ben! Ben, help me! BEN: Move back! SCREAMING BEN: EEG transmitters linking. TRANSMITTERS HUMMING Initiating reverse playback. SHOUTING AND SCREAMING IN REVERSE ON COMPUTER Linking process complete. Amplifying transmitter feed. SHOUTING AND SCREAMING IN REVERSE ON COMPUTER RUMBLING PATRICK: EMF readings are high. Tapping into the main grid. RUMBLING RUMBLING STOPS Did it work? WOMAN: It's a quiet neighbourhood. It's about 3,400 square feet. DRILL WHIRRING Here's directions to my house. The safe room. Just in case. Thanks. I'm gonna take this out. I'll help you with that. Two days and nothing freaky at all. We got a life again, right? One day at a time. I'll take that. SCREAMS BEN: Don't ever say that, ever. Patrick! Patrick! APPARITION GROWLS APPARITION GROWLS VOICES SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY ON TV Patrick's gone. ENGINE STARTS We gotta go to Patrick's. He lived in that thing you guys built, that chamber. Patrick said he built it to keep this thing out. We'll be safe there. Then what? I don't know! But I'm not giving up. PATRICK ON RECORDING: The lack of pattern leads me to believe that it's toying with us. It toyed with the members of the '70s seance and it's toying with Greg and I. Of the six people who performed the '70s experiment, two died, one committed suicide, and three went missing. I didn't tell Ben or the others. I couldn't. This knowledge might have tainted our results. But now I see I was wrong. This thing is older than any demon or ghost. It's been trapped in purgatory for an eternity. But I believe that purgatory contains not just human souls, but countless entities and malevolent spirits. I've done my best to figure out what this thing is but from what I can tell, it doesn't have a name. I've tried to understand its attack pattern, a logic that I can use for our benefit-- Patrick's journals. PATRICK: There is none. And that scares me to death. For the whole of human existence, people have believed in the supernatural. Ghosts and spirits. Angels and demons. What we will prove is that the supernatural is actually part of the natural world. It is something you can quantify and qualify. It isn't magic, it is science. And we will make contact. The human body is essentially a walking battery full of bio-energy, which is generated by the brain. MACHINE POWERING UP Ben, please, how long-- BEN WEAKLY: Kelly. GASPS SOBBING METAL CLANKING PATRICK: The first sounds acted as a beacon, drawing the entity to our world. Then we allowed it to cross over. It's clear to me that it wants what it doesn't have. It wants to exist in our plane. It's getting stronger. With each person it takes, it gets smarter. More powerful. It's learning about us. We cannot tell what is real and what is our imagination. We believed we were studying this entity... GASPS ...but this whole time, it's been studying us, testing our defences, our weaknesses. This is but the first of them. They are entering our world. They have taken life, we opened the door and now it's too late to stop it. SCREAMS It wears you down until you can't resist any more. And then it takes you. SCREAMS SOBS GHOSTLY VOICES WHISPERING www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Able 2014