I need to stay with Swink and take care of things for Phin.
Are you OK? Are you sure you're up to this?
Hutch, somebody ran my brother down in a horse-drawn carriage.
I'm gonna find whoever did it and hurt them.
OK.
Abigail, stay with Hutch. But if anything happens to him...
And we don't play that game, not for a second.
Hey, a little help here?
Let me guess. Your wife and kids are driving you nuts.
Need something to take the edge off? Something with a high frag-count.
- Do I look 12, man? - I take it you don't play, then.
I retired after I won the Greater Louisiana Q*bert tournament.
- Q*bert, huh? Great. - Yeah, listen.
I need information on a horror game called Stay Alive.
Stay Alive? Never heard of it.
Maybe it's underground.
- Do you know who made it? - Some basehead in his mom's attic.
You know, a game is just an extension of the mind that created it.
You wouldn't play a game by Charlie Manson.
No. Probably not.
Maybe you already have.
(phone rings)
Yeah. Yeah, I got nothing.
No.
It's probably some sort of underground game.
Yeah, right. Anyway, I'll see you in a bit.
(rumbling)
(screams)
(silence)
She must have left at least one of these windows open.
- How do you know that? - I lived with the Crowleys for a while.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, it was like, you know, Loomis's house just felt like home.
Yeah, I used to kinda run here when things got, you know...
- You don't have to talk about it. - No.
My dad went a little nuts,
thought my mom was sleeping around, which she wasn't.
He figured if she wasn't gonna be with him,
she wouldn't be with anybody,
so he set the place on fire.
Just torched it.
The firemen barely got me out alive, but my mom...
She was still in bed when they found her.
I tell myself if I'd been a little older or a little braver,
I would've...
I would've stopped him.
I didn't move.
When he gets out, he'll be 76.
Ain't nothing like family.
This window's open.
So that's why you're scared of fire?
That's why I hate fire.
- I'll go around to the front door, OK? - OK.
Come on.
Let's check out Loomis's room.
(Abigail) What could we find in here that the cops haven't already found?
They didn't know where to look.
- Huh. - What?
What is it?
(Hutch) It's the game company Loomis tested for, where he got the game.
Scary.
I found the address for the game company. Tell me where 1420 Cypress Road is.
Not a problem.
Let's see. Take the Belle Chasse Highway to Breaux Bridge.
Look, we're heading to the game developer.
- This is our only lead. - I don't necessarily think so.
- What are you talking about? - You tell me.
Who strings up her victims by shackle and chain?
Who stabs her victims with silver shears?
Who hunts for her victims in a carriage?
- October... - What?
You have your leads and I have mine. And if I'm right...
You really think her ghost could've been brought back?
I've been reading this book called The Malleus Demonium.
- "The Malleus" what? - It means "the witches' hammer."
It was a handbook for witch hunters during the Inquisition. It says if we find her,
we need to put three nails through her heart, neck, and then forehead.
The nails are gonna put her human spirit back into her body,
and then - this is really, really important, you guys -
"An undead soul is only cleansed by burning its blood."
I just can't believe this.
Detective Charles King was murdered today at Clearwater Mall.
October?
Sources say this murder may be linked...
Oh, my God! The cop, King, he's dead.
What?
- We've got another problem. - (sirens)
Oh, God. The police are here.
OK, OK. Meet us at Loomis's.
- (Swink) Loomis's? - He's right.
- If you don't wanna go to jail, go now. - Jail?
Now! Come on!
(October) Give it to me.
(cocks gun)
Toss the apartment.
What have we got?
God...
Look at this place, Hutch.
(Hutch) Seems like a strange place to create a video game.
Whoa, whoa. Hold on.
Hello?
Sorry.
What are you doing in my house?
I'm sorry. I thought... I thought nobody was here.
Who are you?
- Who are you? - Abigail.
Abigail? Oh.
- Are you looking for something specific? - No.
(Hutch bursts in)
- Get the fuck away from her. - You're both trespassing.
- Wait. - Loomis Crowley.
Loomis Crowley?
He never should've taken my game.
He created Stay Alive.
- So all this... - Is for the game.
I develop the game, then I sell it to a publisher.
But this one is different.
For years I've been wanting to create as authentic a horror video game as I could.
Growing up, I couldn't get the tales of Elizabeth Bathory out of my head.
So this woman, she was real?
Well, the element of truth is always a frightening component to a game.
- Seems it worked on you two. - This isn't about us being frightened.
The reality is... is five people have died after playing your game.
Are you saying this has something to do with me? Is that what you're saying?
They all died the same way their characters died in the game.
You made the game. You tell us.
- Those are my friends. - Jesus...
There's a book that was written by a local author some time ago.
She's not too hard to track down.
I think she might be able to help you.
The book is called "The Lady of Blood."
(deep-South accent) It is a disturbin' tale, to say the least.
- Might keep you up at night. - Probably.
Elizabeth Bathory.
- God, she really was beautiful. - Oh, yes.
She came here from Romania over 200 years ago.
Romania?
Why did she leave?
Nobody knows for sure.
But I assume it was due to her obsession.
Obsession?
See, she had an unhealthy passion for torturing young girls.
- Why would she do that? - Ugliest sin of them all: vanity.
She wanted to remain young forever.
- Sit, honey. - Thank you.
Went so far as to shatter all the mirrors in her mansion.
What does torturing girls have to do with staying young?
Well, their blood.
Their blood?
As the story goes, a young chambermaid was trimmin' the countess's hair
and she accidentally cut her. Fatal mistake.
The countess stabbed that girl to death with the shears,
and then she thought the young girl's fresh blood made her skin softer, younger.
- Like the fountain of youth. - Thus began her obsession.
The Blood Countess.
The countess would hunt the countryside, kidnapping young girl after young girl,
take them back to the most hideous torture chamber.
And there she would bleed 'em dry
and then bathe in a tub of their warm blood.
- Jesus. - No.
Not in her house, precious.
But a local magistrate could ignore the rumors of Gerouge no longer.
They raided the estate, and what they found...
In all, 39 young girls were slaughtered.
Oh, my God.
As punishment,
the townspeople walled Elizabeth up in her tower alive,
condemning her to a death while living.
And she cursed this parish,
vowed that she would be resurrected.
And she promised when that day came,
her wrath would come down upon men, women and children.
Do you know where this plantation is now?
It burnt to the ground over 100 years ago.
But supposedly the black tower and the underground chambers remain.
Their location is a mystery because the parish buried its secret.
Sealed the records. Vowed never to speak of her again.
Do you believe Elizabeth's ghost could be brought back?
You listen to me.
I hope you know better...
than to meddle with the evil of Elizabeth Bathory.
We do, believe me.
But is it possible?
Oh, yeah.
A strong spirit can be conjured up by the proper text.
Proper text?
One day the word will become flesh.
- You remember her diary? - Her diary?
- Yeah, in the game. - Why?
- What if that's it? - What?
The proper text.
Her diary with the prayer, and "one day the words will become flesh."
That would mean that...
This is not about some ghost.
You expect me to believe we conjured up her evil spirit with a game s�ance?
- To start, we all had to recite that prayer. - That just... It's highly unlikely.
What is it, Swink?
October and I were talking about this. I don't know. Maybe she's onto something.
- Why is the game on? - What?
The game.
I didn't turn it on.
I told you not to play.
- Where's October? - (Swink) She's out smoking.
But you said if we didn't play the game we'd be fine. I thought those were the rules.
I don't know what the rules are. Maybe there aren't any.
October!
It's not possible. I didn't play. None of us did.
- If nobody played the game, that means... - The game's playing by itself.
(jangling)
OK.
- October! - October!
Shit!
No!
(screams)
Let me go!
(screams)
- October! - October!
October!
(screams)
Help me!
October!
Let me go!
- Open the window! Come on! - (screams)
Come on!
Go fuck yourself.
(splutters)
Come on.
It's open. It's open.
Oh, no! No, no, no, no.
You're gonna be OK. You're gonna be OK.
I can fix this. Come on, don't fuckin' leave me.
Goddammit! Please, don't do this to me!
Fuck, fuck, fuck! You can't leave me. You can't leave.
Fuck. Fuck.
- I shouldn't have left her alone. - This isn't your fault, Swink.
This is all my fault.
You should've left when you had the chance.
Your life was perfect before this.
My dad's not an architect.
- What? - My dad's not an architect.
My mom doesn't teach first grade.
- You mean kindergarten? - Whatever. I'm not heading to Princeton.
Pretty much everything I said was bullshit.
- So this van is... - Home sweet home.
I hate telling people the truth and watching them get embarrassed for asking.
We gotta end this.
We gotta stop it.
- I don't think we have much time. - You're right. We don't have a lot of time.
We need to find her body.
- Which means we need to find her tower. - OK.
The game developer knows everything about Elizabeth Bathory.
He's gonna know exactly where her plantation really is.
Hey, Swink, what are you doing?
It's obvious we have to stay alive in the game until we end this.
- One of us has to play. - If you die in the game...
Something won't let us stop playing. Am I right?
If it's gonna play with or without us, at least I can use myself as a decoy.
I can protect us.
Let's go.
- All right, buddy, you know what to do. - Stay alive.
Go on, get out of here. I got these punk-ass bitch motherfuckers handled.
Game time.
This thing is gay.
Hold on. I'm gonna check it out, OK?
Wait here.
Holy shit.
(phone rings)
Thank God, man. Tell me you haven't died in the game.
- No, we're fine. - The place is deserted.
- OK, I need you to get to the back door. - I'm not really sure where that is.
- What room are you in? - Some kind of parlor.
All right. Hold on.
(rumbling)
- (Swink) You're looking at two entries? - Yeah.
Move through the archway, not the doorway, back into the hall.
There should be a staircase to the right and the kitchen to the left.
What's going on, Swink? How do you know all this?
Just pay attention. All right, go through the kitchen and out the back door.
Just keep walking until you see the steps with the statues.
- (Swink) Do you see the iron gates? - (Hutch) Yeah, I see them.
(Abigail) Just like the game.
Jesus Christ.
This is Gerouge Plantation.
We're in the bitch's backyard.
(crash / she gasps)
Elizabeth.
- What does this mean, Hutch? - It means her body's up in that tower.
No shit.
Elizabeth's diary.
All these girls. She killed them all.
(rumbling)
- (screeching) - (Abigail screams)
(Abigail screams)
Abigail's in trouble upstairs. Which way do I go?
Uh...
It's faster to take the staircase around the side.
OK.
(screams)
It's locked! It's locked. I need a crowbar or something.
(Swink) Do you see one on the step?
You gotta be kidding me.
(screams)
- Which way? - Right, to the bedroom.
Come on, Swink.
(screams)
- (Hutch) I can't get in. It's locked. - Wait. I have a key.
- This is... - Fucking insane. Now go!
Hutch!
Swink, I'm not gonna make it.
Let me try something.
(sobs with relief)
What happened? Are you guys all right?
Yeah. You saved her life, man.
- Goddamn sweet! - (Hutch) So, what now?
We need three nails. And one last thing. Remember what October said.
The way to cleanse a witch's soul is to burn her blood.
Wait. The roses. If you're gonna go up there, you can't forget the wild roses.
- You never know, and I bet... - (rumbling)
No! No!
Hell, yeah!
Swink!
Come on, you bitch.
Oh, shit.
Bitch, that's cheating! I'm not dead yet.
(Abigail) Go!
Swink!
- Swink! - (Swink) Help me!
Get away! Get away from me!
Swink!
Hutch, I'm sorry.
OK, we're gonna need a hammer.
That'll work.
All right.
(amplified breathing / hooves)
- You hear that? - Move.
Move, move, move.
Come on.
(Abigail) Open the door!
Hutch!
Hutch, come on. Come on! Hutch!
(screams)
Thanks, Swink.
- (Abigail whimpers) - I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
It's OK. It's all right.
OK?
- I'm gonna go first. Stay right behind me. - OK.
It's OK.
- (rumbling) - Wait. Did you hear that?
OK. All right.
(high-pitched wail / wind howls)
Come on.
This way.
Come on. Come on.
Go.
Fuck.
There should be a second door in here.
This should be the tower. Yeah, come on. Let's go.
(creaking)
(gasps)
Hutch!
- (Hutch) It won't open. - Open it!
OK, wait. Let me think. I can get this open.
- How? - I don't know. Just give me a second.
- Hutch. - It's just a... What?
We don't have the time!
Just think about it. You gotta finish this.
No.
- Listen. - I'm not leaving you.
Hutch.
I want you to go.
You're our only chance.
OK?
- This can't be happening. - Well, it is.
I won't let her take you.
I know.
You be careful of that.
OK.
He loves me,
he loves me not.
He loves me,
he loves me not.
He loves me,
he loves me not.
He loves me...
(moans)
Go away!
(clank / jangle of chains)
(groans)
(screams)
(whimpers)
(moans)
(metallic clunk)
(another clunk)
(clunk)
(yells)
- Hutch! - Come on! Move!
Come on, hurry. Move! Come on, man!
- Move! - Hutch!
Come on. Come on, man! Come on!
Come on! Come on, Hutch!
(distant sirens)
Killer.
(group) Come to me, clouds.
May you rise as an evil storm born to rip them open.
Let the cover of night bear witness and destroy those who resist
so they shall harm me not.
Let the blood of many cleanse me,
preserving beauty eternal.
I pray you.