Devil’s Cinema. Crypt of the Seven Angels. Natalie Yacobson

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      In the morning everything was quiet in the studio. The caretaker explained to him that everyone had gone to shoot the crowd scenes in the city. Daniel’s presence was not required. All these scenes were with Jane.

      “I heard that for filming they fenced off the old part of the city, where historical buildings are still preserved,” Daniel tried to start a conversation with the caretaker. “I remember it surprised me. The town is so tiny, the population is so small, there are forests and sparse highways around. And in such a wilderness, such rare historical monuments were suddenly discovered that for their sake it was worth coming here to photograph them in a film. Does your city really have so many values?

      The caretaker, of course, did not know about the arrival of the group in the wilderness, solely due to the low budget and the presence of old streets in the city, which can be cheaply rented for a day or two, so he kindly nodded.

      “There are many interesting things.”

      Often moving from filming to filming, Daniel drew attention to the fact that all the indigenous people of even the most unassuming settlements love it when their hometown begins to be praised. Especially praise was received from tourists. And the film crew, who came here only for two and a half months, could only be compared with tourists. Some of the staff actually intended to take a short stroll around town, visiting local bars first and catching a glimpse of the sights. This attitude is already similar to travel plans. Daniel himself was considering a much narrower range of visits. He was only interested in one place. But he was not going to be considered a madman, asking exclusively about the Devil’s Cinema. By the way, why did the locals call it the Devil’s Cinema, because its real name is “Blue Lotus”. And what does the devil have to do with it? Nothing demonic was used in the design of the building. In addition to angels, there are only scarabs, a fountain with a lotus, sphinxes, a barely noticeable script of hieroglyphs on the walls in the hall, and many other mysterious symbols of the Ancient Egypt. What is the connection between the devil and the Ancient Egypt? Daniel felt that the desire to justify everything drove him into a trap. Indeed, in the film about the Ancient Egypt, which he saw there, the devil was equated with the patron saint and lord of the local pharaohs. And this devil names a seductive girlish look.

      “And his name is Dennitsa” – read the title of the film, crushing all the established ideas of mankind about the world, history, religion and even love. But why does the title say “him” and not “her”, because it is more about her. Alais!

      Was the girl he met after the session real, or was he just dreaming? And who is she? A dead star that rises from death only on the territory of the cinema, where did she die? Or a star who just faked her death for some reason? What if Alais is a different girl? Or is it just a dream?

      “I heard that you have something like a haunted house here,” Daniel began carefully approaching the topic.

      “No, definitely not at home,” objected the talkative caretaker.

      “Then, probably, the building of some closed organization where ghosts allegedly live? Factory? Factory? Or maybe a theater?”

      Daniel, as if by chance, nudged the interlocutor so that he himself raised the necessary topic.

      “Yes, there is one such cinema,” the caretaker finally admitted. “But it is located outside the city, and there are no excursions.”

      “Why not?”

      “It’s not all pretend there,” the inspector hesitated, choosing his words. “Not like places where tourists are attracted by fictional ghost stories.”

      “What is it like?”

      “Well, people disappear there.”

      “Maybe there was a gang of smugglers, criminals, and, after all, terrorists who had a weapons store there.” It was easy to assume all this after he himself had not found anything of the kind there. “I heard something about a terrorist attack that took place there.”

      “Terrorist attack?” There was doubt in the voice of the inspector, as if he had not read about it in the newspapers. “Rather, a mass madness. People went there to watch films, and then did not return. And those who returned pulled others along with them.”

      “And they disappeared together.”

      “No, I meant…”

      “What does it mean: to drag others along with you?”

      “Well, there are many different strange cases in the city.”

      “What, for example?”

      “Those who began to behave strangely, as if infecting others with madness, and now instead of one potential suicide, a whole gang leaves them. Suicide is preceded by an attack on the police, acts of vandalism, some kind of rituals with black magic. I myself have seen the symbols that teenagers drew in blood on walls and roads.”

      “Where have we stopped?!”

      “Don’t be alarmed! All this was and ended several years ago. Since then, the city has been almost calm, apart from rare repetitions of the past. It’s safe to walk everywhere, but it’s best not to go to the old cinema.”

      “It’s not that old,” Daniel almost let slip that he was there and nothing bad happened to him. Nobody even tried to attack him. Well, unless the film watched there hit hard in the head, suspiciously resembling the effect of a drug, after which a withdrawal occurs. He wanted to look at something like that again with just one eye. But for this he need to go to the СКАЧАТЬ