"Clinical Evaluation number 12." "Patient, Gabriel Martínez." "Date of interview:" "December 18th, 1999." "Whenever you want." "I don't know where to begin ..." "May I smoke?" "Of course." "Here ..." "– Thanks." "I see Anibal, my best friend, and Carla, my girlfriend." "I'm with them." "Everything's so confusing." "I can't understand ..." "Anibal disappeared during those days, he was lost for two months." "Remember what the press, and the TV, said?" "– I do." "Lies." "They were all lies." "How do you know that?" "Because I   was the first to arrive at the morgue." "Where were we?" "Where were we?" "In the morgue." "It was   terrible." "Do you feel ready for this?" "Yes." "Anibal was one of Chile's best investigative journalists." "– Like you?" "Better than me." "But this time he did everything secretly, he never told me anything." "Could I have helped him?" "Something or someone was cruel to his dead body." "He was missing for two months." "Where was he all that time?" "I couldn't find out anything for days." "Checking Anibal's notes I found the name of a painter." "Richard Upton Pickman" "Pickman's only friend was an eccentric old man, known to be a bit crazy." "Professor Bruno Mattotti." "Professor Mattotti ..." "I'm sorry to make you wait, but there was a bomb scare in the subway, and they kept us there." "I never use the subway." "Subways are so ..." "Oppressive?" "Not exactly." "Your Faculty's colleagues say you and Pickman ... aren't on speaking terms." "We never argued, Mr. Martínez." "I freely took the choice of not seeing him again." "Which was ..." "A year ago." "No one's heard from him since much longer than that." "You were his only link to the world." "Aren't you worried about what could have happened to him?" "You were   his friend." "I am." "He is like a son to me." "What was his real relation with Pickman?" "Why did he tell me only the obvious?" "I decided to do the same and hide my real reasons from him." "I told him my interest in Pickman was merely professional." "I wanted an exclusive interview." "Your magazine ..." "Euroniçs." "Are you willing to pay for the interview?" "You'll use him as a circus animal." "Of course they'll pay." "They'll sell more with this." "But you, Gabriel ... are you only interested in the money?" "I also need the money." "I lied again." "I didn't want to mention my friendship with Anibal, without knowing first where Pickman was." "Richard Upton Pickman ... was the most gifted young artist I have ever known." "In the beginning, he was accepted in the academic circles." "I met him right after he arrived from the States ... from a small town in New England." "His work impressed me." "So I introduced him in our circle." "His work became a kind of unconditional cult." "Some compared it with the black paintings of Goya," "Bacon, Arcimboldo, and other artists who distorted human shapes." "But one day, Pickman changed his career." "He suddenly moved to a realistic style, the image was as sharp as a photograph," "and at the same time, insane   disgusting." "His paintings caused such scandal ... he had to lock himself in an apartment in the old Santiago." "Surrounded by his gargoyles." "He went on painting there." "During that period ... the horror of his paintings became insufferable." "Pickman said that ... we Chileans ... were the most gothic people he knew ... full of monsters ... only balanced by an equal amount of wizards." "So he started considering Chilo Island." "He thought only there he'd have the strength to face ... the damnation of seeing." "Mattotti had mentioned Pickman's locking himself away in the old part of the city." "The Arturo Gordon Pym building had been abandoned for years." "And I had the feeling it had been Pickman's hiding place." "Quiet there!" "Come here!" "What is it?" "Come here!" "What's going on?" "Hello!" "Quiet!" "What do you want?" "Judicial action, I need to do some fact checking." "But I've paid all my installments." "Not from you, from Richard Pickman." "Ahhh, Pickman ..." "Too late." "That scoundrel left a long time ago." "Can I check out it for myself?" "Nobody else lives here?" "No." "At least that's what I think." "If you're a collector, I'm the Matador." "Now that you are in, tell me, what are you here for?" "I'm a journalist." "That's what you looked like." "I'm doing a story on Richard Pickman." "I already told you he left long ago." "You also mentioned he was a scoundrel." "Where are we going?" "– Are you backing out?" "I'm not." "Say, why do you want to unearth something that happened so long ago?" "Why is it some people can't live in peace?" "!" "You tell me." "– I barely knew him." "But you know what he did here." "He painted." "– Where?" "In the basement." "Why?" "– I don't know." "You never went there?" "Not me." "There was an old man who brought him stuff." "Bruno Mattotti." "Could be." "I never knew his name." "Did anybody else come here?" "I don't know." "This place gives me the creeps." "I never dared to come here at night." "Weird things happened." "Some pets from the apartments were torn to pieces." "Noises became insufferable." "Now you hear them only every now and then." "Are you alright?" "– Yes." "What's that smell?" "Must be some dead cat." "Gabriel, you want a coffee?" "Gabriel?" "I left Carla out of the investigation, she had suffered enough from Anibal's death," "I didn't want to torment her with my doubts." "Soon she would begin to suspect." "I see you're determined to go on." "You must be aware it's your responsibility." "I must have warned you this is a trip with no return." "Please, can we get to the point, professor?" "Impetuous as usual." "That's something in you that has made me doubt." "I'm not quite sure you're the one." "Don't treat me like an apprentice!" "You are in some ways." "I want your word." "I want to make sure you'll keep the secret." "Only you, Richard and I." "Do I make myself clear?" "I promise." "Pickman has finished a new painting." "He wants you to bring it to Santiago." "Where is he?" "Still in Chilo." "I'll tell you how to get there." "That's what you wanted, isn't it?" "Is that what you promised Anibal Neira?" "I don't get what you mean." "Are you sure you don't?" "– Listen to my advice, Gabriel." "Make your interview and get out of there." "Why?" "Isn't Pickman supposed to be only a painter?" "Yes, Gabriel, the best in the world." "And his paintings freeze one's blood." "He's seen things no one else is willing to see." "And he always wanted to share them with me." "But I'm not like him." "I haven't been able to paint for years." "I'm rotting inside." "I won't live to see next year." "I'm sorry." "I didn't know you were ill." "We all walk towards death." "I'm walking faster than you, that's all." "Professor, are you afraid of Pickman?" "I'm not." "I'm afraid of what he paints." "– What does he show in his paintings?" "– Monsters ..." "So real they look alive." "Breathing, as if they would come out of the painting." "A perverted mix of humans and amphibia." "Some are portrayed right in the moment they attack people, committing horrible crimes." "Crimes?" "Yes." "That's why no one wants to exhibit them, at least in this country." "And that's why no one listens to my defending him." "Can't even justify his art value." "And how are those crimes?" "Don't ask for so much detail." "In spite of his fear, Mattotti strived to help me." "On one hand he pushed me to go, on the other he told me to run away immediately." "on the other he told me to run away immediately." "What did he hide?" "Who did he protect?" "His attitude reminded me that of the old man in Gordon Pym." "It was as if both of them feared something." "As if they felt watched all the time." "Even when they were with me." "I had to go on alone." "That night something terrible emerged, a rage, an evil presence." "How was it?" "I remember ... its smell." "Can you remember its appearance?" "I don't ..." "I don't remember well how it looked, but I know what it did." "I know what happened to the old man in the Gordon Pym building." "They didn't have to touch Mattotti." "He was too scared." "He died without defending himself." "Mattotti tried to warn me in his own way." "But it was too late for me." "Too late." "I was getting inside Pickman's mind." "Probably the same way Anibal did before me." "That's why he never told us anything." "He wanted to protect us." "But what was Pickman's real role in all this?" "– Are you still recording?" "– Forget about the recorder." "There's something I don't understand." "What?" "You know the police checked the building in Gordon Pym and Professor Mattotti's house." "– I do." "And the only evidence they found was from you." "What do you mean?" "The only fingerprints they found are yours." "That has a simple answer, I was with them, I told you." "Let's go on." "So Pickman was far gone." "Very far." "Are we condemned to be like them or to die?" "Isn't there any alternative?" "They're here, they are, I know." "They're close." "They're here, they are, I know." "They're close." "And Pickman must be with them." "So this is the place where you kill them?" "What makes you think that?" "I know well who you are, Pickman." "The only two people who could have testified against you have died." "Mattotti was my friend." "He was." "– He was ill, he had cancer." "He didn't die from cancer." "– I cried at his death." "And they found the old man in Gordon Pym all torn out." "How do you know that?" "– Because I ..." "You were there, weren't you?" "– Yes, I was there." "And they didn't do anything to you." "Isn't that strange?" "See it another way." "What if it was you who killed them?" "Haven't you thought about that possibility?" "What are you looking for here?" "The truth." "– The truth?" "I lost my best friend, and all hints lead me to you!" "I want to know why you were so cruel with Anibal's body in such a bestial way!" "Why do you expect me to know?" "You were with Anibal, it's written in his notes!" "Don't you realise you're putting us in danger?" "Are you threatening me?" "– I'm warning you." "Confess, I know everything!" "– What else do you know?" "I know about your ancestor who was burnt for sorcery!" "That was an act of intolerance." "He was an apprentice." "– Like you?" "I am nothing." "And what are you doing here?" "They let me watch." "Sometimes I take pictures and I paint." "Why here?" "– Because they still   believe   in magic." "There are superior powers that impede evil to express itself in all its splendour." "Forces that inhibit it." "Silence!" "Stay here!" "Open the door!" "Open the door!" "– Let's get out of here, Gabriel!" "Let go of me!" "– Don't be stupid!" "Hurry!" "Don't make a mistake, Gabriel." "Not now, please." "My only mistake was waiting too long." "They already know you're here." "You can't control them, can you?" "You haven't understood anything." "Is this how Anibal Neira died?" "You let him walk around your studio in Santiago." "He discovered something in your apartment." "And I believe that's why he was killed." "What were you doing there, Pickman?" "The same I do here." "Paint." "Why did you kill Anibal?" "I haven't killed anyone!" "Tell me, did you see others die like him?" "Truth is stronger than the desire for revenge, don't you think?" "Don't you remember the passage from your bathroom to the sewers?" "There are enough dead bodies there to put you in jail for life." "You and I   have a lot in common." "We are only witnesses of history." "We are not part fit." "We only   narrate it." "You are a dangerous crazy man, Pickman!" "Not mad ..." "Not mad ... nor dangerous." "Obsessed, just like you." "Damned killer!" "Look at yourself, Gabriel." "You're about to yield to your own monstrosity." "Look at yourself in the mirror." "I'm only an artist." "Now, please leave and let me paint." "Gabriel, don't!" "Gabriel, please ..." "Gabriel, what is it with you?" "I'm going back there!" "Are you crazy?" "– No!" "I must know the truth!" "Gabriel!" "Please!" "So you were saved." "– I was." "And you preferred to go back?" "– I did." "Why?" "You already damned me." "You condemned me to eternal remorse." "What else do you want?" "I want to see ..." "I need to see that evil so much." "Are you really willing to risk your life?" "I hope you know   what you're asking for." "In sixty more seconds   you'll   have the chance   to see." "Is that all?" "That's all." "Why did they let you live?" "I don't know." "Do you think it was the wizards who protected you?" "I don't think anything." "Alright, we're through." "May I leave?" "– Of course." "Do you need help?" "No, Carla will pick me up." "Confidential." "Name of the patient:" "Gabriel Martínez." "Profession:" "Journalist, foreign correspondent." "Age: 35 years old." "Diagnosis:" "Paranoia." "Claustrophobia symptoms and multiple psychosis." "Treatment recommended." "I'll make some coffee." "... is the judge in the case of the disappearance of Vasily Muñoz concierge of the Arturo Gordon Pym building ..." "Carla, come and watch!" "... as you remember the demolition was suspended, and the police carried out a thorough investigation in the building's sewer, after some workers found ... human bones." "On the other hand, relatives of journalist Anibal Neira who had asked for the reopening of his case, were distressed when the Court denied new proceedings." "Motherfuckers!" "(Pickman's Model)"