Dreams in the Witch House story
Walter Gilman witnesses his twin sister Epperley's spirit be dragged away upon her death to the Forest of Lost Souls. Years later as a grown man, he seeks to enter the location in hopes of saving her. He rents a room in the house of an executed witch, Keziah Mason, and takes an Indigenous drug designed to take him to the Forest. After several attempts, he locates his sister and even finds that he is able to bring a piece of her dress into the real world with him. His attempts gain the attention of the spirit of Keziah and her familiar, a human-faced rat, Jenkins Brown. When Walter successfully brings Epperley back, they learn that Keziah and Jenkins have also come back, and that Walter must die before dawn in order to bring one of them back permanently. Keziah attempts to kill Walter, but Epperley kills her and peacefully passes away herself. However, Jenkins takes advantage of the situation and burrows into Walter's body, bursting forth and killing him before dawn. He then possesses Walter's body, triumphant. Cast: Rupert Grint, Ismael Cruz Córdova, DJ Qualls, Nia Vardalos, Tenika Davis, Gaby Moreno Directed by: Catherine Hardwicke. Story by: Mika Watkins, H. P. Lovecraft.
18 total · 3 choice · 5 major · 10 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| coping with the death of a family member | choice | Walter spent his life, and squandered a promising musical talent, in order to learn about the supernatural in a vain attempt to find out what had happened to his twin sister when they were young and her spirit had gotten sucked into a mysterious vortex-like opening in a forest. She was presumed gone forever by everyone but Walter. |
| sacrifice for a loved one | choice | Walter abandoned his promising career as a musician in order to vainly pursue studies in the occult to find out about his sister's peculiar demise. Later he went through mortal peril in order to bring her back from the land of the "pretty much" dead and, indeed, ended up dead for his troubles. |
| the afterlife | choice | The story concerns a ghostly limbo-like world where people go who die but are not quite ready to move on. |
| brother and sister | major | Walter spent his life, and squandered a promising musical talent, in order to learn about the supernatural in a vain attempt to find out what had happened to his twin sister when they were young and her spirit had gotten sucked into a mysterious vortex-like opening in a forest. |
| ghost | major | The story concerns a ghostly limbo-like world where people go who die but are not quite ready to move on. It was possible for the living and the ghostly dead to transition between their respective worlds and meet each other, and thus the inhabitants there were for all intents and purposes ghosts, at least from time to time. |
| haunted house | major | The house referred to in the title was haunted by the witch, also referred to, as well as her familiar, the rat-man Jenkins. |
| twin and twin | major | Walter spent his life, and squandered a promising musical talent, in order to learn about the supernatural in a vain attempt to find out what had happened to his twin sister when they were young and her spirit had gotten sucked into a mysterious vortex-like opening in a forest. |
| witch | major | A central novelty and antagonist, referred to in the title, in the story is the witch Keziah Mason who wanted to return from the dead by sacrificing Walter. |
| Christianity | minor | Walter and Mariana visited a strange church, tended to by a surly nun that warded off the witch with prayers and holy water. |
| clairvoyance | minor | Mariana's strange paintings were windows into the future. |