1200 - January 29, 1971

[bunniefuu]

[eerie music]

NARRATOR:Collinwood, in parallel time.

And the fate of all who live in the great house

depends upon Justin Collins' struggle to live.

For when he dies, one member of the family,

chosen by lottery, must spend a night

in a mysterious room,

a night which will bring death or madness

to the unlucky man.

But if he survives, the curse will be ended.

So the family waits, hoping Justin's time has not come.

But their only assurance is that no one has seen

the specter of the woman in white,

a figure who always appears before the death

and the lottery to come.

Nothing ever goes right.

Nothing.

Collinwood is a house of death.

She will make it live.

Catherine will make it alive.

I know she.

No.

The woman in white.

Oh, father.

Tonight is the night.

[eerie music]

You are feeling better, Papa.

I can tell.

Would you like me to read more to you?

[thunder crashes]

Oh, the storm.

But tomorrow, it will be a lovely day, Papa.

[startling tone]

What?

What?

It was nothing, Papa.

It was the lightning.

It was so close, it frightened me.

The woman in white.

No, no it wasn't.

Papa, don't get up.

The doctor said you mustn't get up.

Let me be.

It was nothing, Papa.

It was lightning.

PAPA: I must see.

Papa, get back in bed.

There's nothing to see, nothing.

PAPA: I must know.

Papa!

She's here.

-She has come for me. -Papa.

Papa, you didn't see her.

It was an illusion.

Just an illusion.

Once before, when father d*ed,

I saw her standing there.

I won't give in, I won't.

I'm not ready to die.

I won't.

Papa, you have to live.

You have to.

Woman in white?

Give me the key, Morgan.

I need a drink.

Give me the key.

Do you think that rum

is going to make that specter go away?

I don't know.

It makes me feel good.

It keeps me warm inside.

Burning.

If the hand of death touches me,

I won't feel her icy hand.

She has not come for you.

No, but for father.

With father gone, what's going to happen to us?

Who's going into that room?

MORGAN: There are three of us.

Three?

No, there are more than three.

There's Melanie.

MORGAN: She is not a Collins.

She was adopted, she is a Collins.

Julia.

And mother.

Are you willing to have mother

join in the lottery too, Gabriel?

The more there are--

The less chance there is of you being one.

Where are you going?

I'm leaving.

I'm getting out of here.

You can stay if you're stupid enough to.

But I'm not going to.

You walk out of this house now,

and I'll see to it that you never have another penny.

Do you think I care?

At least I'll be alive.

At least I'll be away from this madness.

And no one will know where I am.

'Cause I won't tell you.

No one will find me,

including the thing in that room.

You are going nowhere.

[tense music]

You can't keep me here.

Can't I?

Will you keep me in my room, locked?

You won't leave.

You can't live without us.

You can't do anything.

You can't get a job.

Except stand in some tavern

until you're so drunk you fall down.

You can't run.

None of us can.

It's been tried before.

I know, I know.

MORGAN: He knows where we go.

I'll change my name.

He'd recognize you.

Stop it!

We cannot leave unless one of us goes into that room

and spends the night.

And comes out in the morning, sane, alive.

Only then will it be over.

Only then will that curse be finished.

Papa was strong before he went into the room.

Remember?

MORGAN: Yes.

And grandfather too.

There's no way we can avoid this.

Why don't you go up and see father

before you get too drunk?

Gabriel, you better keep all the wits you possess.

Before this night is finished, you're going to need them.

Well, the wanderer.

He has returned.

I heard you were back, Bramwell.

Did you come joyfully bearing bad news?

Did you see a mysterious figure outside the house?

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

but I came to see how your father is.

GABRIEL: He's dying.

Well, I want to see him.

Absolutely not.

We want his death to be peaceful.

Oh, did you make good your childish boast?

Did you come back here, the rich,

successful gentleman as you promised?

Well, what's the world like outside, Bramwell?

Is it easy to become a success?

I came back as penniless as I went away.

GABRIEL: Now, how can that be?

You're so bright, Bramwell, so ambitious.

My situation will change.

Well, don't expect father's death

to change it for the better.

BRAMWELL: I'm not expecting anything from your father.

But you will get something.

A chance at the lottery.

Well, you are a Collins aren't you?

You do live on the estate?

And you have certain obligations.

I have none.

Are you frightened, Bramwell?

Are you too scared to join us?

Your family has done nothing for me.

GABRIEL: Oh, oh, indeed.

Nothing.

And I will do nothing for your family.

Except share the grief for your father's death.

That is, if you have the decency to grieve.

He saw her.

I couldn't stop him.

You should not be here alone with him.

One of us should always be here.

He wants me.

I know you resent that.

If I'd been here he would have not tried

to get out of bed.

I would not have let him.

He would not have seen her.

I did the best I could.

It's not enough.

It's never enough.

Shh, Melanie.

You'll wake him.

He's so calm.

So peaceful.

As if he's saving all his strength.

[snorting]

Father, are you feeling better?

The room.

-The room! -Papa.

Papa, there's no one here but us.

No one.

She's here.

She's here.

[ominous music]

[exclaims]

The pain.

She brought the pain.

Papa, it'll be all right.

You'll be all right.

There's no one here, look.

The medicine.

Alone.

With Melanie.

I won't leave you.

Alone Morgan.

It's all right, Papa.

There's no one here now, except me.

No one else.

Your concern about my father is very kind.

Everyone else around here seems to be concerned

about what's going to happen after he dies.

Well, if there's anything I can do to help you.

You really mean that, don't you?

Even after the way you were treated?

Come on in.

Join us won't you?

The death watchers.

Bramwell, how badly do you need money?

Oh no, no, no, right.

You're a Collins.

I forgot.

Even if you do deny the lottery, you are a Collins.

So, I suppose I'll just have to find someone else

to pretend to be me.

QUENTIN: What are you talking about?

The village.

In the village, the fishermen,

they're always anxious for money.

I could hire one of them.

Dress him up in my clothes, and put him in the room.

And fool the ghost completely.

I think I'm going to do that.

Will you stop talking nonsense?

I'm perfectly serious.

QUENTIN: You're not going to get anyone else involved

in this that doesn't have to be,

because I'm not going to let you.

Oh, brave brother.

Now, listen to me.

I'm no braver than anyone else in this house.

Now, you depend on the Collins name to make a living.

So take some of the bad things that go along with it.

You're the one who scoffs at the room.

You're the one who says it's all legend.

Then you say, "Well, all those

"horrible things that happen in that room

"are just self-imposed."

All right, maybe I said that at one point in the game.

Now, I'm not so sure I believe it.

But I'll make a wager that I'll find out about it

before I die.

And when I do, I'm not going to be a coward about it.

Morgan.

Do you want him, Papa?

Get Morgan.

There's a letter.

In the safe.

Brutus Collins' letter.

The lottery must happen.

Papa, what if we don't have the lottery?

Let us take that chance.

No, no!

Papa, you know, and I know

that no one must go into that room.

Unless someone goes into the room,

it will be worse for everyone.

For everyone.

Don't cry.

Don't cry.

Unless lottery, everyone is doomed.

Papa, we are doomed with it.

I wish I could save you.

-I know, I know you would. -I wish.

I know you.

Where are you going?

-I must try to.. -What?

What are you going to do?

I must do something.

Papa, you can't leave this room.

I won't let you, I won't.

PAPA: I must try.

Papa!

Papa!

Papa, don't go there.

Not to the room.

It will do no good.

Papa, please!

It will do no good.

[mysterious music]

[gasps]

No, no, don't go in.

Don't.

Be still.

No.

No more of us.

Can't take anymore of us.

Am I not enough?

No more.

No, you hear me?

Do you [screams].

Papa!

Papa!

The bottle is empty.

Did you know that one time this bottle was full?

[laughing]

Father is dead.

What a time for the bottle to be empty.

Quentin, I have told mother, if you would go to her.

GABRIEL: I'm going too, yes.

MORGAN: Do you think it wise to let her see you in your condition?

I am going to see her.

MORGAN: There is no reason for you to stay, Bramwell.

I'm going to see Melanie.

MORGAN: She is not up to it.

She was with father at the end.

She'll want to see me.

I had to come back to his room.

He loved me, Bramwell.

Even if I wasn't his real daughter.

Once, once I wanted to find out who my real parents were.

He told me not to try.

Wasn't it enough to have him and Mama?

And it was.

It was.

Oh, the boys.

They resent me as they do you.

Melanie, you must get away from Collinwood now.

Get away?

Your father must have left you enough money.

Where would I go?

Somewhere.

Anywhere where you can have a life of your own.

of my own?

Wouldn't you like that?

Away from this house.

With all its superstitions and its fears.

I couldn't leave.

Why?

I couldn't.

Anymore than any of the rest of them.

I couldn't.

Don't ever ask me about it again.

[clock chimes]

QUENTIN: It's barbaric.

Father's body should be in a chapel in town.

GABRIEL: Father doesn't want it that way.

QUENTIN: Yes, because of her,

no one can come to this house.

No strangers are allowed at Collinwood,

and everyone's a stranger to us.

GABRIEL: Well, we must do as mother wants.

QUENTIN: Yes.

So father has to be buried as if he had the Black Plague.

As if we were ashamed of his death.

What have you got there?

You know as well as I do.

Brutus Collins' letter.

Dated .

Father told Melanie I was to read it this evening.

You're not going to read it aloud, are you?

[laughing] What's the matter with you?

Are you afraid to hear it?

We must do as father wanted.

"To my children.

"There is a curse upon our family.

"On this house.

"I sit this night in the room where it started,

"knowing I must stay till morning and confront our enemy.

"If I live through the night,

"come from this room in sound mind,

"this letter will never be read.

"But if I should die

"or be changed by what must happen here,

"then one of you must do as I am doing now.

"The curse will continue.

"The room is quiet now, but I have the feeling

"it will not be for long.

"Oh, my children, what a heritage to leave you with.

"You must choose the one to enter the room fairly.

"I would suggest a lottery.

"You will know when the time comes.

"One of you will see the specter of a woman in white.

"I will not explain why this curse started,

"but I know in the depths of my soul,

"that it is useless to run,

"to leave this house we love so much.

"And if you do not follow what I have said,

"doom and destruction will come to you all.

"I write this hoping that in the morning I will burn it.

"But I fear not.

"Written on this day, the th of March, ,

"Brutus Collins."

here's no way out.

There's gotta be.

We can't go on living like this.

It's insane.

GABRIEL: What are you going to do?

I'm preparing the lottery slips.

There are three of us.

GABRIEL: Now we don't have to do this tonight.

MORGAN: You know we must.

Why?

Because if we don't, we all may be punished.

What the Devil did Brutus Collins do?

He brought the curse on us.

No, you don't have to do this tonight.

I bet this doom and destruction, nobody believes that.

I do, and father did.

There's got to be a way out.

There's got to be a way out!

There is not.

[ominous music]

[eerie music]