They (2002)

[bunniefuu]

Mom?

Mommy?

Mommy!

Are you okay?

No. I'm scared.

It's just thunder, sweetie.

I know. I'm scared of thunder.

Can I sleep with you tonight?

You're almost six, Billy.

I think it's really important that you
learn to sleep in your own bed.

Even when it's thunder and lightning?

Even when it's thunder and lightning.

But mom...

But what?

They come for me when it's dark.

Honey, nobody's coming for you.

Except maybe me
if you don't go to sleep.

Okay?

Okay. Check first?

Yes sir.

Do you want to look?

Daddy and I are right downstairs.

If you pull the covers over your head,

you're safe, right?

Right.

Okay.

I'll leave the door open a crack, okay?

Okay.

Mom?

Mommy?

Mommy!

It's mom. I'm not going to
make my Friday visit, but honey...

What else is new?

You got to keep up
with those pills.

Yes mother.

Julia, hi, Doctor Crowley.

The thirteenth's fine
for your thesis defense.

Say nine a. M.

I'll let Professor Essex know.

Please confirm as soon as you can.
Thanks.

Jules, take off the bike shorts and
listen to me...

The ambulance threw a rod
so I'm switching shifts

and I got the night off,
are you free?

Julia, it's Kim.

Join us here in
the 21st century, huh, get e-mail.

I hate e-mail.

Think of it as an actual "date".

Foreign concept, I know,

but a break just
might free your fevered mind.

I can't go out tonight,
I have to study.

And don't say "I can't go
out tonight, I have to study."

I'm picking you up at eight.

You've done a year of research.

Presented your thesis...

So all that's left's the defense, right?

Hmm hmm. Then I've got my Masters.

Great.
Then you can psychoanalyze me.

Well, I can do that now.

C'mon, give me credit
for being a little mysterious.

Raised by puritanical
Midwestern parents,

you are hardworking,

honest to a fault,

and very, very empathetic.

Okay, my turn.

Raised by an overbearing mother,

you're passionate,
driven, maybe to a fault,

and just a little bit moody.

Moody?

The highs are high, the lows are low.

It means you feel.

That's a good thing. Trust me.
That's why we're good together.

Body and soul.

Playing a good game of pool is a sign
of being well-rounded, you know.

- Says who?
- Some dead English guy.

What do you want me to say?
I'm feeling it.

Let's see if you "feel it"
when something's riding on it.

- Twenty's yours if you sink it.
- Alright.

No pressure.

Oh.

One more time.
Double or nothing.

- Driven to a fault, remember?
- It's your money.

Alright. Here we go.

Steadfast
in their stance on the issue.

Earlier this week
civic government announced...

- Hey, what's up?
- Hey.

Uh... Sorry we're home.

We were just - actually - uh...

Reese kind of flaked on us
so we decided to be domestic.

Power crises intensify,

the specter of rolling blackouts
goes from threat to reality.

Speaking of,
you guys pay the electric bill?

Tragedy struck
a downtown warehouse today...

- Well, Paul, you see there isn't...
- Come on.

You know what?
We were thinking, like,

why should we pay for something
we're not even going to get, right?

You got fired again.

Yeah.

So you don't mind
fronting us again, right?

Just, like, until I get back on my
feet, man, I swear to God...

It won't be long.

Anyone comes
in my room, they're dead.

You got it, man, you got it.

- That's what I'm talking about...
- It's not my fault.

Alone at last.

- You gonna get that?
- I have to... It could be Crowley.

- On a Friday night?
- I paged him.

Hello?

Billy. Hey.

What's wrong?

I can't leave right now.

I'm kind of in the middle of something.
I could see you tomorrow.

Um... Okay.
I'll come and meet you.

Hmm hmm.

I'll be there in a half hour.

Okay. Bye.

- What now?
- He didn't say.

- But he sounded terrible.
- He always sounds terrible.

- The guy's permanently freaked out.
- You know the sh*t he's been through.

Yeah, well, who hasn't?

Look, I know you guys are close,
and I'm cool with that,

even if you have known him
since you were, like, five.

But you can only expect so
much understanding from one mortal.

But you're not just any mortal.

I won't be long.

Julia?

Billy?

My god, I almost didn't recognize you.

- What's wrong?
- I look bad, huh?

Terrible.
What happened to your hand?

- It's... It's hard to explain.
- Try.

- They're here!
- Who?

Billy, it's just
a power surge from the storm.

No, it's not.

Listen to me...

You remember those night terrors
that we used to have?

What, when we were kids?

That's when they marked us.
And now they're back.

Who?

- You see that?
- What?

Listen to me: When you hear a baby
crying, or you hear a kid crying

you keep moving, okay? Children
can sense them. It's your warning.

- Warning against what?
- Also, they affect the electrical things.

They affect the lights and the
phones. They... They affect things.

Billy, stop!!
You're not making sense.

- Just tell me what happened.
- What I am telling you.

They can't be in the light.

They hide in the
dark so you can't see them.

I mean I've been
doing research, and reading

and... I don't think I'm alone.
Poe... I think he saw them too.

His writing's dark, and hopeless.
And he went crazy too.

I don't know
what you're talking about.

Well of course you don't. I have
to work nights so I can sleep days!

My own f*cking mother has to look
at me like I should be locked up.

I even tried to find out if there's other
people like us.

I made friends,
to see if it wasn't just me.

And you know what I found out?

- What?
- Nobody can help me.

- I'm going to help you.
- No! You can't.

I shouldn't have called you.

No, you did the right thing.
Just try to explain it to me.

I'm scared.

I'm scared.

- There's nothing to be scared of.
- You're wrong.

Billy.

- I'm sorry.
- Sorry for what?

No...

Hello?

Hello?

Hello?

Paul?

Paul?!

Paul?

Paul?

Julia?! Julia!

Julia... Stop!

JULIA!!!

Julia! Stop!

Hey, listen, I'm not going to hurt you!
I'm going to stay right here.

Honey, listen. Hey...
hey... There's nothing to be afraid of.

- How did I get here?
- You must have been sleepwalking.

It's nice to see
someone else born after 1950.

Hey.

- So, how did you know Billy?
- We were friends since we were kids.

I'm Julia.

Right... Yeah... Um...
Billy talked a lot about you.

Um... I'm Sam,
this... This is my roommate...

- Terry. Hi.
- Hi.

Billy, Sam and I
were really close in college.

Yeah.

You were with him, weren't you?

- The night that he...
- Yeah.

I'm sorry.

Did he say anything to you?

Nothing I could understand.
It was all pretty incoherent.

Sort of like
maybe he was on something again.

You know he was taking Prozac.

I guess it didn't work.

Excuse me.

What?

Hey...

I just wanted to apologize for
Sam's comment back there.

The guy engages his mouth
before his brain sometimes.

It's okay. I'm just a little
over-sensitive right now.

We all are.

So, had you
seen much of Billy recently?

Yeah, until he moved
back here about 3 months ago.

Do you know what he
was trying to tell us with all this?

Maybe he was planning
for a really long camping trip.

- Or that he was afraid of the dark.
- I know that feeling.

You had night terrors as a kid, right?

Did Billy tell you that?

Yeah. For a while
that was all he could talk about.

In fact, it is the reason
that him and Sam and I met.

- We all had'em.
- What?

It's crazy, huh?

See, we all got
really close freshman year,

but it was only later that Billy
told us he had sought us out.

- He was obsessed back then.
- And what about lately?

He'd come to me,
recently, a few times,

babbling about how
we shared the same problem,

how we need to stay in the light.

I guess I should've
taken him more seriously,

but I was so used
to Billy acting crazy, you know?

It never occurred to me that
the same thing could happen to us.

You are the string days collected
like tiny silk beads

and counted before sleeping.

Julia!

Hey, baby... Welcome home...

- Are you drunk?
- I prefer intoxicated.

Come on,
I'm just having a couple of drinks.

What's with all the hostility?

- I had an accident.
- What?

- On the way home. I had an accident.
- Are you hurt?

No.

Okay. Tell me what happened.

I was driving out
in the middle of nowhere and...

I thought something
ran out in front of me,

so I had to slam on the brakes and
I nearly went off the road.

Did you hit the 'something'?

I don't know.

I don't think so.

I thought I saw what...

I'm just not...
exactly sure what happened.

Okay, well, was it an animal?

- I don't think so.
- Okay, so what'd you hit, an alien?

I should have known...
I should have known!

- Oh, hey!
- No, I should have known.

- What do you want me to say!
- that you would make fun of me.

I don't know...

I just know
that something scared me.

I've got my defense
the day after tomorrow.

I just don't need to come home and
find you getting wasted

with your idiot roommates!!

Look, let me
tell you what I've been up to.

There was a thirteen car pile-up
on the 80 last night.

So for the past 24 hours I've been
cutting dead people out of their cars.

There's a difference between what
you've been through

and what I've been through.

Yours is in there...

Mine's out here.

Don't get confused
about which is which.

Billy must have been writing
in this diary since childhood,

so we thought you might
want to take a look at it.

Maybe you can make more
sense out of it than we could.

It's pretty deranged stuff.

Like this:

"Saw them again,
beneath my window, in the alley."

"Always in darkness and shadow."

"Where do they come from?"

"Could it be that darkness
is their way in and out?"

"Origins. Incubus,
bringers of nightmares."

"Grendels lurking in the darkness,"

"can only assume
that light is my savior..."

"Maybe it's all in my head."

"The insane nightmare of a schizo."

You don't seem
surprised by any of this.

It's a lot like the stuff he talked
about the night he died.

It's not too surprising that
he would write about it too.

No, I guess not. It's just that...

We were wondering if...

What?

If you've had any
recent 'night terrors'?

Yeah, actually, I have.

Us, too.

Ever since Billy k*lled himself,
I've had this uneasy feeling.

You know, like I'm being
watched or something.

I mean, I'm 24 years
old, and I walk in a dark room

and it's like I'm 5 again...

C'mon, you guys.

We've all been through an
extremely traumatic experience.

It's only natural that
certain uncomfortable feelings

would be stirred up...

You don't remember.

Remember what?

- How powerful those feelings were.
- What do you mean?

When I was five,

I watched my sister drown in a lake
where we used to spend our summers.

Right after, I started to suffer
from terrible night terrors.

There was one particularly bad night.

I woke up screaming my head off.

My parents finally
managed to get me to sleep,

and a couple of hours later, my
mother came back to check on me

and I was gone.

They looked everywhere:

In the attic. In the basement.
All over the house.

My mother was hysterical,

she thought I'd been kidnapped,
or I'd run off, or who knows what.

Then my father
went into the backyard

and he heard a noise in
the doghouse, of all places.

He stooped down, looked in,
and there I was, huddled in the back.

Naturally, he reached in. And...

that's when I stabbed him in the eye
with a kitchen knife.

I was convinced
he wasn't my father.

That he was some
kind of demon coming for me.

I was absolutely sure of it.

I haven't had that
feeling since I was a kid,

but I have it now...
and so does Sam, and...

we thought you might, too.

Julia?

- Yes, Dr. Booth.
- I hardly recognize you!

In fact, I don't recognize you at all,
but come on in.

It's hard to think of you
as that frightened little girl

who used to come in here.

My god, it's been what...

Twenty years.

Twenty years.
It's a wonder I'm still around.

So, what have
you been doing with yourself?

Well actually, I'm going
for my masters in psychology.

Psychology?! That's wonderful!

Now, tell me, outside of studying,
how are you doing?

I'm not doing that well, Dr. Booth.
That's why I came to see you.

I haven't been sleeping that well.
I think I had a recurrence.

- A recurrence? Of what?
- Night terrors.

What makes you say that?

A few nights ago, I woke up
in my bathroom. Totally disoriented.

My boyfriend came to
help me and I attacked him.

Well, it certainly
sounds like a night terror.

It's not unheard of in adults.

But really quite abnormal.

Yes, that's right.

Night terrors can be part
of normal childhood development.

But I've found that the most violent
and persistent cases

occur in children who've suffered
profound emotional trauma.

If I recall, you
came to see me shortly after

your father took his
own life, isn't that right?

Yes.

So, your recent night terror
could possibly have been triggered

by an increase in stress or fatigue.

Am I far off?

No. No.

Julia, why don't we schedule
a formal session.

I don't usually treat adults,
but since we have a history,

you could come in here, describe
the things you're going through,

and we'll try to figure out
if it really is a recurrence

of night terrors
or if it's... Something else.

You scared the hell out of me.

Sorry...

What do you think went through
Billy's mind when he did it?

The b*llet.

I don't know, Terry, the same thing
that goes through everybody's mind

before they k*ll themselves:

That they hate their life;

They're better off dead than alive.
Blam! Blam! Blam!

I wonder what it's
like to get to that place.

Terry, stop picking it
or it's never going to heal, okay?

It's not healing anyway. I might
as well get some satisfaction.

- I think it's getting worse.
- Maybe it's cancer.

There is something seriously demented
about you, do you know that?

You know, maybe
I should've gone to law school.

Like I said... Demented.

Look, I'm going to go out,
try to detox for a little bit.

Are you going
to be alright by yourself?

Yeah.

Sure?

Yeah.

Okay. Bye.

Got you!

Damn rats.

Understanding your Child's Dreams

- Hello?
- Hey, Julia. How goes it?

Lousy.
I'm still on chapter four in Crowley,

and I can't remember half the other
sources in my bibliography.

Well, look at the bright side.

If you flunk, it's only another 12
months of hell and another 20 grand.

- But it could be worse.
- How?

I'm not sure exactly.

Hey, listen Kim, will you call me later?
Make sure I'm still awake.

- Okay, bye.
- Thanks. Bye.

STATE MENTAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION

experiencing emotional difficulty...

paranoid delusion...
subject claims demon...

Could somebody turn
the lights back on, please?

Hello?

Open the door!

Please, somebody help me!!

Damn it!

Moore's Theory of Discordance
postulates that subjects,

when presented with evidence
hostile to their world view,

experience
dissociative discordance

or fight or flight reflexivity.

And discordance here is defined...

as... Delusions of reality stemming
from childhood trauma

and... A heightened
state of anxiety...

Yes. Sorry.

By increasing the number of
familiar external stimuli

individuals will...

well, individuals will try...

individuals experiencing
discordance will...

- Would you please excuse me?
- Yeah. Certainly.

Hey, it's Julia.
Leave a message after the beep.

Julia, come on,
pick up. I know you're there.

I'm sorry about the other night.

So consider this the official apology.

Besides, I want to
hear how your defense went.

I bet you knocked
'em dead, but I need specifics,

so pick up the phone.

Alright, I can take a hint.

But I'm gonna harass you
until you call me back.

Hey, it's Julia.
Leave a message after the beep.

Paul...

Hello?

Julia. This is Sam.

Oh, hi.

I need to talk to you.

- Hello?
- Hey, it's Julia.

Yeah, come on in.

Okay.

Hello?

Sam?

Depressing, isn't it?

Look, I'm sorry that I called you.

I just figured that you'd be the
only one that would understand.

- Understand what?
- I mean, you see it, right?

- I don't know what I see.
- But you can feel it.

You definitely feel that
something bad is happening, right?

Yes.

You see, you do understand.

Terry's missing.

What do you mean, 'missing'?

She didn't come home last night.

The rec center
called me this morning.

And they said that they found her
bag with all of her stuff in it.

Sam, slow down. Maybe...

Maybe she just
forgot her stuff in her locker.

And what, left the
building in her bathing suit?

Did you call the police?

Yes, I did.

They're not going to find anything.

I've been studying Billy's diary
ever since we found it.

You know, I can't seem to do much
of anything else. It's like...

Sam...

No, wait, wait. Just listen.

Okay, now I can't make
sense of all of it, but...

"I was taken to their world when I was
five and marked, but it faded."

"They only mark kids
who have night terrors."

Listen to this...

"Last week the mark reappeared."

"It means they're coming for me."

Just listen to his last entry, okay?

"I can't write much longer,"

"the mark on my hand
keeps getting worse."

"I can't stand it."

"I pulled out
this thing they planted in me."

Sam, Billy was unstable,
we know that.

No...

This is ridiculous...
he'd had problems since he was a kid.

We all did.

Now, don't you think it's possible...
that something that scared us as kids

has come back... To collect us?

What are you saying?

I never saw Billy's mark,
but I did see Terry's...

and hers looked a lot like this...

Hi.

Hi.

What's your name?

Sarah.

My name is Julia.

Are you all by yourself?

Where's your mom?

Heaven.

Do you work here?

No.

I don't either.

I'm a patient.

Sarah... Do you have bad dreams?

Sometimes.

What happens in your dreams?

They come for me.

Who comes?

They.

Why do they come for you?

To eat me.

Does anything keep them away?

Lights.

You think I'm crazy?

No.

Why don't you tell me what
you think it all might mean.

Our night terrors may not have been
induced by emotional trauma at all.

Maybe something really did
come for us when we were kids,

and planted something in us.

And whatever it was, it left a mark.

- Just like that little girl's.
- And now they're coming back?

Yes! And that's why the marks
reappear. So that they can find us

and take us back to the place in
our night terrors... Out of the light.

I know how it sounds.

Julia, you say you failed your thesis
defense with Dr. Crowley?

Perhaps you'd like to tackle this case?

Subject is suffering
post-traumatic stress

from witnessing the
suicide of a close friend.

Influenced by the erratic behavior
of two strangers,

she allows herself to entertain...

the paranoid schizophrenic delusions
of her dead friend.

And why does she do that?

Because she feels
a sense of personal failure...

and guilt that Billy...

that her friend died.

And you are going to be
an excellent psychologist.

I'll see you on Thursday.

Thank you, Dr. Booth.

Oh, Julia...

If these demons were coming back,
wouldn't you have the mark too?

Remind me what I'm looking for?

Like an infected mark-thing.

Little, pinkish. Like the size of a dime.

Well... Nothing yet.

- But it's early.
- Paul, this is serious...

Okay. I'm sorry. You're all done.

No marks.

You sure?

Double-checked, trust me.

Not that I'm complaining, you know,
but why'd you need me to do that?

I met these two friends
of Billy's at the funeral.

And?

Well, they both had marks like Billy's.

And so I went to tell Dr. Booth, and...

Oh, you're just
gonna think this is crazy.

Julia. Didn't we just search
your entire body and find nothing?

So, what have
you got to worry about?

You're right.

You're right.

Jesus!

Somebody!

Hey! Over here! Help!

Hey! Over here!

Come on!

Hey, Paulie! We're
going down to the...

- Woah. Hello, nurse.
- Get out! Get out!

- You mad?
- Not mad. I'm embarrassed.

But I'll get over it.

Troy may not, however.

I'm sorry about
the last couple of days.

Hey, you feel. Don't apologize for it.

Good night.

I'll see you tomorrow.

And all for less than a dollar.

What do you think of that?

You can't beat that kind of value.

As the power shortage
reaches critical levels,

residents are asked to save
energy and turn off the lights

in an effort to avoid more rolling
blackouts this weekend.

And in a related story, officials
say the rolling blackouts

will have an effect
on emergency services provided

in the largest metropolitan hospital.

This comes as another blow to the
already beleaguered medical center

as eleventh-hour talks broke
down today between doctors

and hospital administration.

Hospital spokesperson
Jason Hildin

stated that the doctor's strike
is a foregone conclusion.

This is getting ridiculous.

On the lighter side
of civic news...

Paul!

Paul!

Paul!

Let me in!

I'm coming!

My God, what happened to you?

Julia, what happened?

Look at me.

Let me see you.

Look at me. Look!

Look!!

I've got it!

Just like Billy and Sam...

I've got this thing on me...

Jesus, how the
hell did you manage that?

Ouch!! Be careful! It hurts...

Don't move. Don't move.

There was... There was this thing...

like a... Like a big splinter,

and I pulled it out of me...

I pulled it out of me...

You pulled what out of you?

It was in my head.
This thing was in my head!

Slow down. Slow down.
What was in your head?

I don't know... Like a kind of a bone...
or something...

I don't know...
they grabbed me in my apartment.

In my apartment, they tried to get me...

I ran down the street and I...

I was in this bathroom and...

Because of the light.

It has something to do with the light.

I think that they can't be in the light.

Billy wrote it all down...

Drink this.

And electricity!!

Which is why the
whole blackout thing...

- They could be everywhere...
- Sit.

- No... Everywhere.
- Sit down.

Okay, take a few deep breaths, okay.

- You'll be asleep soon.
- Asleep?!!

I'm not going to go to sleep!

Honey, you need to go to sleep.

Okay?

I can't go to sleep!

What did you give me??!!

Don't touch me! Get away from me!

Listen to me! Nothing's
going to happen to you.

I will not let anything happen to you.

I won't let anything happen to you.

Now, sit down. Sit down.

I'm going to get you
some clean clothes,

and then I'm going to take
care of everything... Okay?

Alright?

Alright.

Everything you're feeling is
perfectly understandable

considering the week you've had!

The best thing you can do is
just stay here and get some rest.

No!

No! Let me out!

Somebody!

Wait! No!

No!

Stop!

Stop!

No!

Help!

Hey!

This really isn't like her.
She's just confused.

All we can do is to wait,
see what happens. Make sure that...

Julia!

It's okay. It's okay, Julia.

It's okay. You're safe now.

You're safe.

Did you think
something was attacking you?

- They found you in the subway...
- With a concussion.

You're pretty banged up.
Let's get you back into bed.

I was trying to get to the red light...

Okay, we'll work all that out.
But right now you need to rest.

Everything's going to be fine.

How could she
get out of a locked room?

That door was bolted.

Julia?

What is it?

Nothing.

Nothing.

Help!

Help me! I'm here!

Help me!

I'd better go call security.

Help me! Hey! I'm here!

Help!

Are you coming?

Wait! I'm here!

Nooo! I'm here!

I'm here!

No!