[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
[CRICKETS CHIRPING]
[FATHER SIGHS]
[EXCLAIMING IN ANNOYANCE]
[UTENSILS CLATTERING]
Honey, it's family hour,
there must be something on.
DAUGHTER: Oh, wow, Candy Critters!
[FATHER EXCLAIMS]
Oh, great. It's Monsters, our favorite show!
[MONSTROUS LAUGH]
Shh, it's starting.
[MONSTROUS LAUGH]
[FATHER CHUCKLES]
[WOMAN GIGGLING] MILES: My new house.
It's beautiful.
And it's so exciting.
Wait till I tell the girls at work
that I went out with Miles Magnus.
You think they've heard of me?
Oh, everybody who likes horror knows you.
You got to be one of the biggest selling
writers in the world.
Well, the Bible still outsells me.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING]
[HARP GLISSANDO]
You keep your books in your bedroom?
I-I do all my work here.
Like Proust.
Beg your pardon?
French writer.
Marcel Proust.
He used to write in bed.
You want a beer?
Sure.
I didn't know you wrote Curse of the Mutilated.
Well, in my early days before I was famous,
my publisher had me put some of the stronger stuff
under a pen name.
[ROMANTIC MUSIC PLAYING]
Come over here.
I never met a really... famous writer before.
I'm just like everybody else.
No... you're nicer.
Then it's lucky we met.
What're you working on?
Oh, just the usual thing I guess.
You're too fast.
Slow down.
I really like you a lot, Miles.
Don't you... like me?
I think you're incredibly beautiful,
and wonderful,
and terrific.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING]
[SOFT GROWL]
Why do you like me?
I have an aching void in my life.
I think you're the only person in the world right now
that could fill it.
God, I love the way you talk.
Nobody... nobody ever talked to me that way before.
You know the guys back home,
they would just say things like,
"Let's fool around,
hurry up, I ain't got all night.
Really... crude things.
I would never talk to you that way, Barbara.
You mean too much to me.
I respect you too much.
Just lay back on the bed.
Relax.
I'll take care of everything.
[BARBARA LAUGHING]
What're you doing?
I'm just pulling the sheets down.
I don't wanna get them wrinkled.
[BARBARA LAUGHING COYLY]
[GROWLING]
[SLOBBERING NOISE]
[MONSTER GROWLING]
[BARBARA GASPING]
[SCREAMING]
[MONSTER GROWLING]
There! I promised I'd feed you tonight.
[MONSTER BURPING]
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING]
[HARP GLISSANDO]
Nice place.
Now, where're these 200 books?
Over there.
MILES: You want a beer?
No, thanks. Wow!
Mange Mon Cerveau, in French.
Eat my brains out.
I really like you a lot, Viki.
As soon as I saw you at the buffet table eating shrimp,
I wanted to ask you out for a drink.
I was really afraid you wouldn't come.
Death Tongue in German is Todeszunge.
How neat.
I think you're incredibly beautiful,
and wonderful,
and terrific.
Oh, look, Miles...
Let's cut through the romantic garbage.
You see, I have this instinct about people,
a psychic sort of thing.
And there's something going on behind your eyes,
some kind of inner secret life that really excites me.
So, that's why I came up here.
To find out what it is that makes you tick.
I'm just an ordinary guy.
No, I'm never wrong about these things.
There's something very special about you.
Something that made you...
different from the last 200 guys
who tried to pick me up at publication parties.
You're totally wrong, Viki.
I'm just like everybody else.
"The soundless scream is like an ice pick in my skull.
The unfulfilled desire breaking over my head
like a tidal wave of blood."
Give me that. No, wait. This is good.
How many times have I tried to run away
but always the master calls me back.
To offer another sacrifice at his cruel altar.
I'll bet there is more than just one page.
Aha... Oh...
Scribble, scribble, scribble.
You can't see it, it's personal.
Oh, come on. Don't be shy.
I'm a writer too.
You never said that before.
You never asked me.
There's a lot of weird fantasies in here.
Not the kind of stuff you expect
other people to understand.
Don't be silly.
Can it be any weirder than...
I Drink Your Skin or
Scream Of The Tortured?
[SQUISHING]
What is this? A waterbed?
Sorta.
It's kinda of... a new thing.
Here, lean against this pillow.
Thank you.
I like the way it starts.
"For some time now, I have been enslaved by
a hideous alien creature."
I like it when it gets right to the meat.
I try not to waste any time.
"The strange psychological bond keeps me prisoner.
It may be telepathic, I cannot say for sure.
All I know is the thought of leaving my master
fills me with the deepest dread."
You have a great imagination.
Just some words I jotted down.
I've read all your stuff. This is the best yet.
Thank you.
"When I think that if I hadn't been
exploring that old abandoned house,
I never would have met my mast...
[SOFT RUMBLING]
What's that?
It must have been that uh...
cheap fizzy champagne the publisher buys.
No, it wasn't you.
I think your waterbed is springing a leak.
[SOFT RUMBLING]
I'll drain it next week.
My pajamas or something.
Ah, these pajamas must be real cozy.
Cold nights.
[STUTTERING]
The cleaning lady was looking for her shoes last week.
Had to lend her a pair of my sneakers to go home in.
All we have to do is find the other one and she'll be so happy.
Yeah, right. Just forget about the cleaning lady.
Tell me about you.
Well... What kind of stuff do you write?
You know, I think I'd really like that beer now.
One beer, ice cold. Coming right up.
I never drink or eat anything cold.
Could you run it under the hot water tap for a moment?
No problem.
I bet I can guess what you write.
You do those romance books.
VIKI: How did you guess?
You look like the pictures of the authors they put on the back covers.
You know, these women who are glamorous
and intelligent at the same time.
[CLINKING]
[CAR ENGINE STARTING]
[CAR DRIVING AWAY]
[TIRES SQUEALING]
Viki!
She has my diary.
That means she knows about us.
[MONSTER GRUNTING]
I can't let her tell.
People would come here and separate us.
You wouldn't like that.
[MONSTER GROWLING ANGRILY]
You couldn't tell me your dreams any more.
She thinks she's smart
because I don't know her last name.
But I'm smarter.
I'll go to a book store and look up the names
of all the people who write romance books.
I'll find her.
[MONSTER GROWLING]
[PHONE RINGING]
Hello?
VIKI: Miles, it's me, Viki.
I've got to see you.
You took something that belongs to me.
The manuscript, it's fascinating.
That's what I want to see you about.
I'm at 55 Adwell Place, apartment three.
I'll be waiting.
[DIAL TONE]
[BANGING ON DOOR]
All right, where is it?
Uh, first, let me explain.
You wanna talk? Talk.
Look, I'm sorry for the way I behaved.
Miles, you must think that I'm weird or something,
but I read the first page and I just had to finish it.
I wasn't thinking.
I was reacting emotionally.
It was like an electric shock went through me.
Well, sometimes a book can do that to you.
You could've asked to borrow it.
Oh, you wouldn't have lend it to me anyway.
It's not in there, by the way.
I was struck by...
how much it was like the things I write.
The same obsessive insane love,
a longing to escape combined with
a hopeless submission to the master
only in my things the main character is a young girl.
And the master is a... handsome English nobleman.
Look. I think perhaps
we could do a rewrite together
Set in the...
You want to collaborate with me?
Yes, I think we'd make a good team.
What's the matter? You find romance drying up?
I've written dozens of books.
I'm in a rut.
I need a breakthrough.
Horror's where the action is.
You've given me no reason to trust you.
I apologized already.
Don't torture me.
Okay.
Suppose we talk about working together,
do I get my manuscript back?
Yes, of course.
I was curious about your hero.
Where will he end up?
I don't know. The story isn't finished.
Doesn't he ever try and get away?
Why can't he just walk out on his master?
You don't understand. He's tried a 1000 times.
But he needs the master.
But maybe he could find another relationship,
a different kind.
Different, how?
Like with an equal,
not a master.
I don't think it would work out.
But how does he know it won't work out,
if he doesn't try and make it work out.
[ROMANTIC MUSIC PLAYING]
Let's go to my place.
Okay... but later.
I want to spend the night here.
Whatever you want.
You just relax there on the bed,
I'll be back in a minute.
VIKI: You know what's missing in your book?
Your character never runs into anyone else.
who has a master like his own.
Because there's only one master.
But isn't that odd?
If there's one of them, there's bound to be others.
The master's very old.
One of an ancient race that lived on the earth,
before anything else did.
The master remembers the dinosaurs and the ice age.
And hairy little monkeys coming down out of the tree...
and inventing fire.
And the sinking of Atlantis.
And the building of the pyramids.
The other old great ones died out.
The master's the last one.
[DOOR OPENS]
And how does your hero know this?
Because the master tells him.
At night when they're alone together,
in his dreams.
And maybe the master lies.
Master never lies.
Everything he says is true.
Because he is the truth.
If he could lie, he would not be the master,
and I...
I mean the hero,
would not serve him.
I'm sorry.
I guess I take my work a little seriously sometimes.
I'm a little spooked.
I'm okay now.
The way you talk about that stuff,
it seems so real to you.
Like you didn't make it up.
Don't be silly.
It's all just fantasy,
just words on paper.
You're very special, Miles.
You're very special too, Viki.
What can I do to make everything all right?
Get me an ice-cold beer, will you?
You want it out of a can or in a glass?
Out of the can.
Get one for yourself too.
[HORRIFIED SCREAM]
[MONSTER GROWLING]
[YELLING]
[MILES YELLING]
[MONSTER GROWLING]
[YELLING]
You're right, Miles.
Probably wouldn't have worked out.
[SIGHING]
[MONSTER GROWLING]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]