Our
film begins by immediately going through the credits. These are pretty cool, and
consist of mildly blurry white text hovering in some dense foliage in the deep
dark night. We can hear the rustling of the leaves as the credits pass through
them, as well as a few insects. Other than that, things seem oddly hushed. When
the title of the movie comes up, we hear the first instance of what I will call
Demented Child Laughter, or DCL. If you have guessed that this will be making
regular appearances, you've earned a gold star. As we continue through the
brush, we begin hearing what sounds like a woman sobbing, and taking little
gasps of breath. In addition to the normal insect noises, odd snarls and barks
pepper the soundtrack as the quiet ambient music that has been building for a
few moments begins to get louder. Finally with an exciting whoosh, we emerge
from the underbrush and find ourselves on a road, watching as a man rides his
bike towards us.
The man passes out of shot, and goes off of the main road, where he slows
down due to the general lack of light and the dense plant life. He seems to be
enjoying the evening, calmly making his way along and singing quietly to
himself. As he turns a corner, he notices the sounds of the weeping woman we
heard in the credits. He stops his bike, and takes a survey of his surroundings,
listening intently. He dismounts his bike, and props it up on the kickstand. He
sees the shape of a young woman with her back to him, sobbing softly into her
hands.
Intrigued
and a little concerned, the man walks over to her and cautiously asks her what's
the matter. As a point of interest, we get a shot that establishes the young
woman sitting near a gnarled old tree. An overhead shot lets us see the man
approaching her. He asks her why she's sitting out in the woods at night all
alone, but she still hasn't given him any indication that she even knows he's
there. As he steps closer to her, a loud snarl comes from behind him and a dark
shape quickly passes through the woods behind him. He turns to look, but can't
see anything. Just before going back to dealing with the girl, he notices an old
tennis ball lying on the ground that wasn't there before.
As he completes his turn back to the girl, we see that she has vanished. A
strong wind has picked up and is blowing against the tree, making some ominous
creaking sounds and stirring up a lot of fallen leaves. Confused and a little
apprehensive, the man tiptoes around the tree to look for the girl, but she's
nowhere to be found. Suddenly, something catches his eye and he looks back at
the camera. With a harsh and panicked cry, he tries to get away from us, running
as fast as he can through the grass back to the road. After sprinting a few
yards, he stops suddenly, almost as if he ran into something. He looks up in
horror, and sees that he is somehow back in front of the tree the girl was
sitting beneath. As he gazes up in terror, the screen fades to black.
A
title card tells us that a few years have now passed. We see a smaller red car
driving along a country road. They turn off to follow a dirt path to an
out-of-the-way house that is quite nice. The people get out of the car, and we
meet our new homeowners - Jhilmil (Jhil from here on out) and her husband Virag.
They lean on the hood of the car for a moment to let us get a good look at them,
then they go inside.
With an oddly loud bang, they close the door and begin exploring the place.
It's huge, with lots of open air space and many cool windows within the rooms
that all look into the central atrium area. They say little for a few moments as
Jhil scopes the place out. From what I gather, she wasn't consulted on the
purchase and is seeing it for the first time.
After
a minute of orientation, Jhil asks him which direction is east. Virag gets her
lined up, and she seems happy that the main entrance is facing east. She then
mentions that having the entrance on the east is
good vaastu
shastra.
They continue through the house, giving us a good look at the layout and
telling us what the rooms will be used for. They head back out to the car, and
Virag asks her if she's okay with the place. Jhil is more than happy to be
there, and is pleased that the layout is in accordance with vaastu shastra.
They get in the car and head out, while the camera lingers on a suspiciously
familiar looking banyan tree in the front yard.
