"Are you interested in the advert?" "Yes." "Don't be deceived by appearances." "I can pay you well." "Follow me." "Do I have to undress myself?" "Do you mean pose in the nude?" "No." "That is not my sort of thing." "Stand over there, in the background." "Is this OK?" "Yes... fine." "Don't move." "Wait." "The camera isn't on." "I forgot something, I'll be back in a minute." "Stay there." "OK." "I'll wait for you here" "But be quick." "Yes." "I'm afraid to be here alone." "(telephone rings)" "(telephone rings)" "(telephone rings)" "(telephone rings)" "(telephone rings)" "(telephone rings)" "Yes?" "Russell are you at home?" "I have to talk to you." "Is that you Howard?" "I'm on the street just below your window..." "I can't talk from here... can I come in?" "Yes of course." "I'm coming... wait." "Howard... wait... but..." "Howard !" "Howard... what's happening?" "Russell... sorry for dropping in on you so late... but I have to talk to you!" "You look tired, please sit down." "Have a drink." "And what's that?" "Another piece from your collection you want to sell me?" "It's wonderful." "I'm happy you like it." "I was sure that you would." "I have never seen this painting before." "But the stroke work and the style is unmistakable" "I realize who the artist is of course." "Do you remember his last exhibition at the art club?" "I can see you remember him too?" "He was in all the papers." "I must con fess that Pickman and his paintings always made me feel queasy." "But how did you manage to get this one?" "Now I remember." "The last time I heard about him was a week ago." "The newspapers said he had disappeared." "He had rented a house under a false name then an anonymous caller reported strange noises coming from the basement of that house" "When the landlord and the police forced entry into the house they were repelled by a terrible smell of decaying corpses." "Although they say they didn't find anything there." "For now." "No, I have read the papers." "People from the art club insist on asking me about his paintings ...it's incredible but nobody can find them." "Not even me." "Nobody could have imagined they would became so valuable and popular in such a short time." "Russell!" "Russell please stop!" "I don't have time to explain." "I can't keep the painting." "Do whatever you want with it, sell it, burn it, but please take it off my hands!" "Howard." "Howard." "It won't be difficult to sell." "But I'd like to know why it upsets you so much." "Pills aren't the answer, they won't help you." "Laughter)" "They are the only thing I can cling to and not go insane." "Howard." "I kn ow you." "Your eyes can't lie to me." "What the hell is happening?" "OK Russell." "I'll tell you everything." "What I'll tell you will seem absurd even to you" "I have been watching you Mr. Marsh." "Are you interested in this work in particular?" "Pardon?" "This painting." "It was this one that started my journey toward the unknown." "It was this one that started my journey toward the unknown." "I was young and I had just found my... muse." "My paintings are reflecting drops of the horrible human psyche." "Look around you." "They are all blind." "Most of them are here only to be seen or to buy works they don't understand at all." "But you are different." "I perceive that." "You see and you can understand." "Can I tell you a secret Mr. Marsh ?" "People say that magicians never reveal their tricks." "But I'm going to reveal mine to you." "What do you mean?" "My studio." "We can go there at once if you like." "I'm fed up with staying here." "Moreover, I have already seen everything to see here." "Yes of course." "I have my car outside." "Come." "No." "We don't need a car." "The studio is near" "though the alleys of this city are full of crazy visions" "that can only be appreciated by us!" "According to the distance on a map it's not very far from the highway." "But in spiritual terms there is an abyss of centuries." "I'd never been in this area, it's so different from the rest of the city." "Please." "Come in." "Don't judge it by its appearance." "I only rented this house because in the basement there is a brick well a chasm that leads" "to the past" "This way." "And this?" "It's my camera." "I use it to capture the backgrounds." "Sol can paint the details from the photographs." "Before moving here, I had to carry all the equipment around the city with me." "Interesting." "I think... that a real artist of the supernatural" "can catch real images and scenes from the spectral universe where he himself lives." "Mr. Marsh." "Don't be shocked." "I wasn't wrong." "You are the right person." "Come." "With this canvas, have I exaggerated?" "To be a visionary is a damnation for many but not for me" "I get the strength to go on." "And courage and the conscience to paint what is real." "Pickman!" "Pickman... what..." "what the hell is happening?" "Hold on!" "Slowly... quite!" "But that's a pistol..." "Pickman!" "Hurry UP" "Maybe it's the rats" "Don't move." "Stay here." "But Pickman!" "Pickman what are you doing... please open the door!" "Only the devil knows what they eat." "We got out of the house and through the maze of alleys by a different way." "He left me at the corner near the art club." "Pickman promised me he would show me terrible things that night." "God, how he has done it." "Why did he leaved you there alone?" "He was nervous." "He said he had an appointment and was late." "As soon as I saw him disappear behind the corner I went back to that horrible place." "I took the painting and ran straight home." "We must tell the police" "That man is a deviant people have disappeared, and may be they are dead." "Don't be in a hurry Russell." "I'm thirsty, pour me same whisky." "It's not only for his paintings that he deserves to be banished from all the art clubs of the city." "It's for what I found in the pocket of my coat the next morning." "It was an old crumpled photo attached to one of the paintings." "I must of picked it up and, without realizing, put it in my pocket." "See" "It was there." "Everyone wondered where he got his inspiration for his work." "(It was an old crumpled photo attached to one of the paintings.)" "(Everyone wondered where he got his inspiration for his work.)" "(It was his camera)"