Sinister

[first lines]

Tracy:
Just one box?

Ellison Oswalt:
It's for my office. It's fragile.

Tracy:
Sissy.

[last lines]

Ashley:
Don't worry, daddy. I'll make you famous again.

Tracy:
What the hell are you doing?

Ellison Oswalt:
We have to leave here.

Tracy:
What's the matter? What's happened?

Ellison Oswalt:
You were right. I made a mistake, and we should have never come to this house. We have to leave now!

Tracy:
You are freaking me out here!

Ellison Oswalt:
Get the kids! Pack the car! We have to leave! GO!

Ashley:
I like that you made the movies longer, they are better this way.

Sheriff:
An autograph?

Deputy:
I just thought that...

Sheriff:
Are you kidding me?

Tracy:
Sheriff's here.

Ellison Oswalt:
Already?

Tracy:
Play nice this time.

Ellison Oswalt:
I'm always nice.

Tracy:
I'm not kidding. I'm tired of driving five miles under the speed limit only to get ticketed anyway. Be nice.

Ashley:
Are you gonna write a really good book this time so we can go home?

Ellison Oswalt:
I'm gonna write the best book that anyone's ever read.

Ellison Oswalt:
Before the Stevensons moved here, they lived where the Miller family murders happened. Holy sh*t.

Professor Jonas:
Once I saw the photos that you sent, I knew exactly what cases that you were studying.

Ellison Oswalt:
Wait, how would you know what cases I was looking at?

Professor Jonas:
The symbol that you sent me isn't a pentagram. No, it's not something that you would see teenagers or a Norwegian black metal band paint on the wall in goats blood to be edgy.

Ellison Oswalt:
[chuckling] Right.

Professor Jonas:
Or to piss of the Christians. No, this is a little bit more obscure that that.

Sheriff:
Something like this... You can never explain something like this. And if you were able to. the odds are you wouldn't much care for the answer.

Tracy:
Why was he pointing at the house? Ellison, we didn't move in a few houses down from a crime scene again. did we?

Ellison Oswalt:
Tracy...

Tracy:
No, just don't say anything. If we did, I don't wanna know about it.

Ellison Oswalt:
We didn't.

Tracy:
You promise?

Ellison Oswalt:
...I promise.

Ellison Oswalt:
[Ellison has just found a box of super 8 home movies] You gotta be kidding me... Family Hanging Out, '11? Barbeque. '79?

Reporter:
New details today in the grisly murders of a focal family found earlier this week. Police have released this photo of Christopher Miller, the missing 13-year-old son of William and Peggy Miller. The Millers, along with their younger son, were found stabbed inside their home and police now are asking for any information that could lead to Christopher's return or the apprehension of any suspects involved in this vicious multiple murder and child abduction.

Ellison Oswalt:
Well, what can I do for you?

Sheriff:
Well, not much I expect, unless I can convince you to load those boxes back on that truck and leave as soon as you're able.

Ellison Oswalt:
No, I don't think so.

Deputy:
Okay, look, clearly something happened and you want to talk to somebody about it, right?

Ellison Oswalt:
Yeah.

Deputy:
Okay, well, does your wife know about it?

[Ellison shakes his head]

Deputy:
Wait. Does she know whose house this is... was?

[Ellison shakes his head again]

Deputy:
[laughs humorlessly] Oh, man! Oh, that is a conversation that I would not want to be around for.

Ellison Oswalt:
No, me neither.

Ellison Oswalt:
[Ellison finds the 'Extended Cut' super 8 reels and watches them] It's the missing kids!

Ellison Oswalt:
[as the attic door swings open and a surreal vision of walking through super 8 film goes by] What the hell is going on?

Ellison Oswalt:
We only gave you one rule, it was a really big deal to let you paint on your wall, what was that rule?

Ashley:
Paint only goes in the bedroom.

Ellison Oswalt:
So what makes you think you can paint out here?

Ashley:
I wanted to paint her picture, but she didn't want me painting in there because that used to be her brother's room. [Ellison is shocked to see that Ashley has painted Stephanie on the wall]

Tracy:
Who are you talking about, Ashley?

Ashley:
Stephanie!

Tracy:
...Who's Stephanie...?

Ashley:
She used to live here... she's the one Daddy's writing his book about...

Tracy:
...Ashley, go to your room and shut the door!

Tracy:
Kentucky Blood was ten years ago.

Ellison Oswalt:
And?

Tracy:
And... what if that was your 15 minutes?

Ellison Oswalt:
Okay, so what if it was?

Tracy:
If it was, you can't just spend the rest of your life chasing after it. If you miss out on these years with the kids, you won't get them back.

Trevor:
Please don't talk about the dryer.

Tracy:
Are we talking about the time we found Trevor trying to pee in the dryer?

Trevor:
God mum, no!

Tracy:
I'm sorry honey, I thought that's what you were talking about.

Ashley:
Did Trevor try to pee in the dryer again?

Deputy:
Mr Oswalt, listen! You know there's a page in your books where you always say nice things about all the people that helped you out?

Ellison Oswalt:
...The acknowledgments?

Deputy:
Yeah... and in each one there's always, like a line that says, you know... "I couldn't have done this without the tireless efforts of Deputy So And So from the local police department."?

Ellison Oswalt:
...Right?

Deputy:
Well, you know... I could be like... you know, your Deputy So And So, you know, if you don't already have one...

Ellison Oswalt:
I need the street address of a crime. In 1998, St Louis, a family was stabbed to death, they had their throats cut, it was a pretty ugly affair... I also need any details you can get me on another murder. In 1979 a family was burned alive parked inside their own car, in their own garage.

Deputy:
What city?

Ellison Oswalt:
I dunno... all I have is the year and method of execution.

Deputy:
You think the two cases are... related?

Ellison Oswalt:
Aw no, I'm just doing research.

Deputy:
Okay, I can definitely get this for you, I gotta wait 'till the sheriff leaves the office but I will get it.

Ellison Oswalt:
Thank you very much, Deputy So & So!

Anchor:
So, ultimately, what feels better? Seeing justice done or seeing your book, Kentucky Blood number one on the New York Times bestseller list?

Ellison Oswalt:
The justice, without question... I'd rather cut my hands off than write a book for fame or money.

Tracy:
Then why did you come in here white as a ghost?

Ellison Oswalt:
Because I saw a dog!

Tracy:
A dog?

Ellison Oswalt:
A very big dog, like Cujo big, I mean, I'd never seen him before! He's like...

Tracy:
Did you get rid of it?

Ellison Oswalt:
Yeah, it's gone.

Deputy:
It's my home, Mr Oswalt... What happened here happened to all of us.

Ellison Oswalt:
You came back and left the box... why?

Ellison Oswalt:
[Ellison sees a large black dog outside in the backyard] I don't wanna hurt you... I just wanna get my bat... so if you come at me, I can bash your head in, okay? [Dog growls] That's okay, you keep it. [the dog runs away and several children - rotten corpses but alive - are seen standing behind Ellison. He heads inside]

Deputy:
[the deputy stares nervously at a photo of the killer on the wall] Who is that?

Ellison Oswalt:
I don't know, that's what I'm hoping to find out.

Deputy:
You think these are serial murders?

Ellison Oswalt:
Maybe... more ritualised than necessarily serial, but really spread out, and not just regionally but over time. The first one dates back to the '60s.

Deputy:
...The 1960's?

Ellison Oswalt:
Yeah.

Deputy:
That would put the killer what, in his seventies?

Ellison Oswalt:
Yeah, or his sixties.

Ellison Oswalt:
So, you don't believe in any of that otherworldly stuff, right?

Deputy:
[panicked] Are you kidding? I believe in all that stuff, I... I wouldn't sleep one night in this place, are you nuts? Four people were hung by their necks in the tree in your backyard and that little girl is probably god-knows wherever!

Ellison Oswalt:
Tracy, nobody died here! It's not like we're sleeping where somebody was killed or they had to wipe blood off the walls for the open house!

Tracy:
So you're saying it didn't happen here?

Ellison Oswalt:
No!... uh, it happened in the backyard...

Tracy:
Oh! Oh, that is so f***ed up! God, you think that makes any difference?

Ellison Oswalt:
It does!

Tracy:
No, Ellison, it doesn't! You have done some crazy sh*t in the past, but this definitely takes the cake! My God. what on earth possessed you to move here?

Sheriff:
Driving pretty fast for this time of night, don't you think? Anything I ought to know about?

Ellison Oswalt:
Just trying to take your advice, that's all.

Sheriff:
Ha! Which advice would that be?

Ellison Oswalt:
Leave town and never look back.

Sheriff:
You weren't bullied away or anything, were you?

Ellison Oswalt:
I'm sorry?

Sheriff:
What I mean is, I don't want to be reading in your book that angry town folks chased you out of here. If you've been mistreated, I want to know about it.

Ellison Oswalt:
There isn't going to be any book.

Sheriff:
No book?

Ellison Oswalt:
No, sir.

Sheriff:
Well, then... I don't see any reason for me to have your autograph. Just one more favor. Hold it under 60 till you cross the county line. Until you're somebody else's problem.

Ellison Oswalt:
Yes, sir.

Ellison Oswalt:
Pool Party '66... [Ellison plays the film reel and finds himself viewing a home video of a sun-lit swimming pool, a family dressed in 1960's fashions playing in it. The film rapidly cuts to the middle of the night; the family members are tied down to lawn chairs and an unseen being pulls them under the water. Their feet move feebly in a struggle to get out of the pool, and Ellison sees a hideous-looking man under the water, smiling at him from the screen]

Ellison Oswalt:
[Using his digital camera to film four disturbing childish drawings] Family Hanging Out... Barbeque... Pool Party... Sleepytime.

Ashley:
Maybe one day I'll paint something really good, then I'll be famous like you.

Ellison Oswalt:
Do you know what time it is?

Deputy:
Yeah, I know, I've been trying to call you all day.

Ellison Oswalt:
What's the problem?

Deputy:
The problem is that you moved.

Ellison Oswalt:
How is that a problem?

Deputy:
I was compiling all the case in chronological order and I've figured out the connection. The dates. Each family who murdered lived in one of the houses where the previous murders took place.

Ellison Oswalt:
Each family. All five of them?

Deputy:
Yes! And when you look back you can actually draw a line from murder to murder. We knew that the Stephensons lived in the same house where the Millers took place. But I found out that the Millers previously lived in the house where the DeLuzio lawn massacre occurred. Guess where the DeLuzios lived before then?

Ellison Oswalt:
Sacramento, California

Ellison Oswalt:
Exactly! the pattern goes back to the 1960 Oregon drownings. Mr Oswalt, if you've moved and this guy is still out there, you've not only sped up his timeline. You've put yourself in it

Ellison Oswalt:
[numbly] Thanks, Deputy [he terminates the call]

Tracy:
It's one thing to hear about something but it's another thing to see it.

Tracy:
Your legacy? That's Ashley and Trevor! Your KIDS are your legacy!

Professor Jonas:
[concerned]... There's been another one, hasn't there?

Deputy:
[matter-of-factly] Snakes don't have feet. [nods his head at Ellison, who in turn looks really confused] Scorpions do, but you wouldn't hear them like you would squirrels.

Ellison Oswalt:
[Ellison is reading about super 8 film on Wikipedia] Super 8 was invented by Eastman Kodak in 1966.