Original subtitles

There is a legend about this valley.

Atale carried across the winds of time,

a legend strange and sinister, the legend of the chooper.

A long time ago, a pioneering family named walton

settled these lands and built this house.

One evening, ed walton heard somebody sneaking around

outside and tired his rifle into darkness.

He heard a scream, and then nothing but silence and the wind.

Walton investigated the darkness and found a body,

that of a little boy, the son of an Indian chief.

When the chief learned of his son's death, he vowed revenge.

The medicine man placed a curse on the walton family,

calling upon the dark powers of their god of vengeance,

the chooper.

Within two days, neighbors found the hideously slain bodies

of the entire walton family.

But since that time, so long ago,

others had been murdered in the old house.

For the legend says

whoever stays within the cursed walls of the house

shall find only monstrous death awaiting them.

Death at the hands of the chooper.

When my uncle Jim came into this property,

he built a new ranch house,

but because he was always interested in history,

he never had the old house torn down.

Today, I can only wish that he had.

J“ you better look out world I

j“ there's a menace on the loose I

j“ women better run and hide j'

j“ men prepare to defend yourself I

j“ from a terror from the other side I

j“ well, here I am I

j“ baby I'm the chooper man j'

j“ I'm known throughout the world I

j“ I'm feared both far and wide I

j“ I got me the powers of darkness I

j“ 'cause I sit on the devil's side I

j“ well here I am j'

j“ baby I'm the chooper man j'

j“ well you can run to thejungle j'

j“ run where you want I

j“ it doesn't mean a thing to me I

j“ I'm gonna find ya j“

j“ I'm gonna get you I

j“ just you wait and see I

j“ 'cause here I am j“

j“ baby I'm the chooper man j'

J“ 'cause here I am j“

j“ baby I'm the chooper man j'

Daniel!

Daniel!

- We wanna play.

Hi Daniel.

- Hi Daniel.

- Hi kids, what's up?

- Can we play here today?

- Well, you know you can play

anywhere you want to around here.

- Except that old house.

How come you never let us play in that old house, Daniel?

- I told you kids before, stay away from that old house.

Bad things happen in there.

Y'all stay away, you hear?

- What kind of bad things?

- People get hurt, get hurt real bad.

So y'all stay away from there

or I can't let you play around here anymore, promise?

- We promise.

- Okay.

- Come on, Barbra lets go play.

- I think we should play musical chairs.

- We can't, you need three people.

- Well we can just hum, and sit down.

- It won't work.

- How about, sit down on the chair,

and...

We could go round,

and go over and sit in the chair.

- How do you play that game?

- Well you just go around the chair and sit down.

And then the first one to sit down wins.

- I sat done, I won.

- No, you have to go around and hum.

I won.

- That's not right, Margie.

I think this is where Daniel washes his clothes in.

- I doubt it.

- I told you kids to stay away from this house!

And that was your mother on the phone

and she wants you home now!

Come on!

Keep going!

If you wanna play around here anymore,

stay away from this house!

- I think Daniel's mad.

- That's it.

That's where we're gonna stay the night.

- I don't know.

Me neither.

I heard it's supposed to be haunted.

- There's a legend behind it.

- What kind of ghost would haunt a place like this?

It's a dump.

I don't know.

- It's an old Indian ghost, it's gonna come out a night

and it's gonna get ya.

- It kills people?

- Eats 'em alive.

- And you want us to stay here tonight?

- Sure.

- And get ate up, and killed?

- Hey, wait man, it's a challenge.

Man, it comes out to get us and we get it.

Come on.

- No.

- Not me.

- But you drove all the way up here to see it.

You wanna stay here tonight you said.

No, not me.

You guys are nothing but chicken.

- We just got more sense, that's all.

- Here's your sleeping bag, honey.

Have a lot of fun.

See you later, man.

- Fuck you!

- Hey, what are you doing here?

This is private property, now get out!

- Hey, man, I'm gonna spend the night here.

- That's what you think.

- That's right, mister.

I heard about your ghost and how it kills people,

well I ain't a chicken, not like my friends.

I dare it to come get me.

- Well maybe they're smart,

now maybe you just better get out of here fast.

- No way, baby.

Look, I got money, okay?

- I can't take your money, I'm a foreman here

and this is private property.

I got a responsibility to the Craig's.

- Old man Craig's been dead for over an year.

How much?

I can't take that money

besides Mr. Craig niece is coming out here

to take over tomorrow.

- That's tomorrow, baby.

What about tonight?

You're dead set on staying aren't you?

- That's right.

- Even if that thing does get you.

- That's right.

- Go ahead and stay.

But if the chooper comes to get you,

well, you just deserve it.

But I warned you, the chooper will get you.

And I know it.

- Yeah, well, we'll see, okay?

Sure, ghost.

Choopers.

If nobody's gonna stay here with me I'll stay here myself.

Daniel?

Daniel, are you trying to scare me?

Daniel?

Who's there?

- No! I warned you!

I told you the chooper would get you,

but you wouldn't listen.

No!

I sure am glad the chooper couldn't use this money,

'cause I sure can.

And don't look like you're gonna be able to use it either.

But I warned you.

I told you that chooper'd get you.

This is exactly what you deserve.

- My name is Carolyn Brandt.

Over a year ago, my uncle Jim passed away

and left his ranch and all the Craig property to me.

I wrote a letter to my foreman, Daniel,

and told him I'd be arriving to take possession.

He was to come and pick me up.

I waited for over an hour for him

and had just about given up, when finally, he showed.

He explained there had been some unexpected business

to take care of and that he was sorry he was late.

It was strange retuning to this part of the country

after so many years.

Everything seems so much smaller to me, small and empty.

Actually, I hadn't been to the ranch

since I was a young girl.

And hadn't seriously thought about ever returning.

Even after learning I was heir to the ranch

and all its property,

but after suffering two unhappy marriages

and recently some very bad experiences

as an actress in the film business,

making horror pictures,

I decided to come back,

maybe a vacation away from it all would do me some good.

- Daniel.

Daniel.

Hey, Daniel!

Daniel!

Danny boy!

Hey, Daniel!

Daniel?

- Hey Tim, what's doin'?

- Who's that?

- Oh, that's old Tim foster.

He's been around a long time.

He's got a place up near the mountains here.

Hey Tim, fixin' to go to the rodeo tomorrow?

- You're old man Craig's niece, aren't you?

- Yeah this is Carol, Tim foster.

- I wanna buy your ranch.

- I just got here.

I don't intend to sell it.

It's been in the family for a long time.

- You got a lot of good property out here. I can use it.

I wanna buy your ranch.

- Didn't you hear her?

She said she didn't wanna sell it.

- That's right, Tim, I'm sorry.

- I wanna fix up the place.

- What for, may I ask?

- You may not ask.

- I wanna fix up this place.

Fix up the ranch house.

Tear down that old water tower,

it's about to fall down on somebody anyway.

Get rid of that old house.

- That's a historical monument.

It's been there for over 150 years.

- You know, the only history that place has got

is about 150 years history of death in it,

you know that.

- The chooper legend?

The one my uncle mentioned a few times?

I don't know very much about it.

- You don't know that people have been dying in that place

for 150 years from then to today?

You don't know that?

They're still getting knocked off in there?

- Yeah, the chooper got 'em.

- I wanna buy this ranch.

It'd do good in this area.

We're gonna be a lot better off once we get rid of that house.

- Hey Tim, where are you getting the money

for your high price notions,

from your big friends up in Las Vegas?

What are you going to do?

Tear down a historical monument,

put in some rock and roll joint with a guitar picker?

Ms. Carol, if I were you,

I wouldn't sell this place to him for any price.

- I wanna buy your ranch.

- I don't intend to sell.

Thank you for stopping by.

- Well, this isn't your final decision, right?

I mean you can't have made up your mind, so soon, right?

Right?

I mean you just came back from, you know,

wherever you're coming from.

Want to get a little lay of land here, right?

We'll talk about it, okay?

- If you wanna stop by some time, stop by.

- Tough luck old buddy.

Hey Tim, when you come,

I'll make you some Texas size biscuits, you like so much.

- Right, I love it.

Okay, we'll do that, later.

Okay?

- This here is the guestroom, Ms. Carol.

I reckon you gonna be staying in here.

John's back over here.

And this is the room

where your uncle used to write his horror movies.

- Oh, wow.

You know, my uncle Jim wrote some of the best horror movies

I ever acted in.

- Yeah, I saw a couple of them.

They're pretty good.

Especially "the thrill killers" where those crazy men

got after you in that old haunted house

and started butchering you all to death.

That's where your uncle got the story out there,

at that old house out there.

And "incredibly strange creatures",

when you were that exotic dancer,

cash flag comes in and starts butchering you

and splattering blood all over the place.

Those were some great ones.

- Well, now I know where he got his ideas from.

I don't know, living around this house,

this ranch, spook anybody.

Well, thank you, Danny.

- If you need anything else I'll be back in my room.

- Hey, where are you going?

- I'ma take the trash down here a ways, be back in a minute.

- Hi, where's Daniel?

- He'll be back in a little while.

Who are you?

- I'm Margie, she's Barbra.

Danny lets us play here.

- Can we play here?

- Today?

- Sure, go ahead.

- Can we play in the old house?

- Why not?

- Daniel says bad things happen in it.

- Go ahead, it's just an old house.

- It's creepy in here.

- Do you think the chooper will get us?

- No.

Well, do you think we should go in?

- Yeah.

- Well, remember the story that Daniel told me,

he said the chooper ate a little girl and a little boy

and he would kind of find more kids

and he found two kids in the creepy house.

And he ate them all up and he said, if we go in here,

the chooper would eat us all up

so we better be careful in there.

- You're silly, come on, let's go.

- It's so filthy in here.

Hey, let's go in that room.

I think this is where the chooper sleeps.

Chooper!

Chooper!

- I told you kids, don't play in here!

Next time the chooper will get you!

-After I unpacked my things, I showered.

Then Daniel took me for a walk around the ranch.

Daniel told me the reason Tim foster wanted the ranch

so badly was that he felt it belonged to him.

You see back over a hundred years ago,

this property was split up.

About half of it was owned by my great-grandfather Silas,

the other half belong to Tim's great-grandfather Jedediah.

One night, they both got into a poker game

and put up the ranches as stakes.

Well, my grandfather won.

But Jedediah claimed Silas cheated him.

So that called for a showdown.

The next day, there they were

out in the streets of town having a standoff.

At noontime, they faced each other.

And a moment later Jedediah was dead.

My great-grandfather Silas always had been a better shot,

particularly at close distances.

The shootout was fair enough,

but ever since Daniel can remember,

he said, Tim foster had a grudge.

Tim believed the deck of cards

had been stacked against Jedediah.

And that all this property rightfully belong to the fosters,

not the craigs.

Daniel said there had been bad blood

between the craigs and the fosters for a long time.

Later, Daniel and I went into town to pick up some things.

And I ran into Margie and Barbra potts.

We talked for a few minutes and as we did,

I couldn't have a feeling of sadness coming over me.

They could have been my own children,

except that I didn't have any.

All I had to show for myself

was a couple of tragic marriages,

a career slump, and a ranch.

We went to fill up the truck and Tim foster parked in.

He wanted to know if I'd thought anymore

about selling the ranch.

Of course I told him I still had no intention of selling,

but he kept bugging me about it anyway.

Tim seemed like an alright person.

And I have to admit I was strangely attracted to him

in a masochistic sort of way,

but I just wish he would stop harping about that ranch.

Finally, I told him, I'd see him again.

And he said, "okay, think about the ranch, Carol."

And then he iefi, thank goodness.

I couldn't sleep that night.

I tossed and turned and even tried reading a book,

but all to no avail.

I felt strange.

I didn't feel like myself at all.

I felt as if somehow the old house

and the grounds was beckoning to me,

whispering to me across the darkling hours of the evening,

luring me towards it, luring me into the unknown.

- Ms. Carol, what are you doing here?

Never can tell when the old chooper might be around.

Come on, I think you better go to bed.

- This was the day the rodeo hit our area.

There would be traveling pros,

local pros and local amateurs, all appearing in it.

It was to last a week,

moving to different areas in the county

so that everyone would get a chance to join the festivities.

In the meantime, I called up Mrs. Potts

and asked her if she would show me around

and then we could take the kids in a little shopping spree

before we went to the rodeo.

- Hi!

Daniel, I'm going to town to do some shopping

with Mrs. Potts and the kids.

- Hi.

- Hey, wait a minute.

Hey!

- Hi.

I'm looking for my wife.

- Your wife?

The only woman around here is Ms. Carol

and she just went into town.

- My wife Connie came here the other night

with a couple of friends of hers to stay at the old house.

- Ain't nobody here.

- I know she's here.

A couple of friends told me so.

Look, there's nobody here and I'm busy, now git.

- I've got to find her.

I know she's here.

We got in a fight.

I'm gonna go look at the old house anyways.

- You stay away from that old house.

- I wanna go look at the old house anyways.

- Stay out of it, you hear me?

Stay out of there!

The chooper'll get you!

- I got to find her, man.

- There ain't but bad business out there

till you stay away from there.

- I've gotta find her.

- Stay away, you hear me?

Stay away!

The chooper'll get you!

- Connie?

Connie?

It's me, Charlie.

Connie?

Connie...

- Oh, my god!

I warned you.

I told you the chooper would get you!

Look what...

Oh, my god.

I told you that chooper would get you

and sure enough he did.

You saw the one where I danced?

- Yeah, that was real good.

- Yeah, and Carol was all dressed in gold

and the monster had a knife in his hand

and he was pointing it at Carol.

And he tried...

- And then what happened?

- And he spilled blood all over the place.

- Oh, yes, I had blood all over that gold suit

it took me so long to get that off.

- Yeah.

- Ms. Carol?

'Bout time to go to the rodeo

so I think we better start getting ready.

-Alright. Kids, are you coming?

- Okay.

- Okay!

- Quick, come on.

- Thank you Ms. Carol.

- We arrived at the rodeo and guess who was there?

Tim never missed a chance to try and talk me into selling.

It seemed more an obsession than a business deal

he was trying to propose.

Anyway, I told him that I wished he would try to forget

about the ranch and he seemed uptight.

I wondered what really was ticking in his head

behind those weird sunglasses.

The opening procession of riders

was a beautiful sight to watch.

You could see how each rider took pride in his horsemanship.

The American flag never looked more American.

It seemed to be one of the few places

where young and old alike

could get together and share something.

The feeling of the old west was definitely here.

That feeling of a challenge where man has to tame the beast.

Even if it is a 10-year-old boy taming a wild pony.

I don't know when I've enjoyed myself more.

Barbra and Margie told me

that their dad was going to buy them a pony.

Barbra said she wanted to be a cowboy.

Margie being a little older,

said she would like to be a trick rider,

join a circus someday.

Now came the real cowboys,

the kind of wild riders

that had the determination to win against all odds.

"A free puppy" the girl said.

So I took it and gave it to Margie and Barbra.

The rodeo continued at a fantastic pace.

It seems that the animals were testing the cowboys,

oh, if only I had a camera.

You can tell by watching Daniel

that this was probably the first bit of excitement

he'd had in months.

Being cooped up on the ranch all the time.

My uncle was very fortunate in having someone so loyal.

The rodeo was such a success

that I promised to take Margie and Barbra to see it again.

The next day I got a call from Margie and Barbra

telling me to come over to their ranch

and spend the day with them.

It seems their father just bought them a pony.

I thought I'd walk over

rather than wait for Daniel to return from town.

- Uh, Ms. Brandt?

- Yes.

- Yeah, I'm the local constable.

I was just on my way up to see you.

- Well, is there something wrong?

- Well, I'm checking most of the ranches around

I'm looking for a couple of kids,

Connie and Charlie Forsythe.

Local kids, they've turned up missing,

and now nobody can find them.

- Well, they're not at my ranch, sheriff.

The only ones there are Daniel and myself.

In fact Daniel says that, except for the potts kids,

nobody ever comes over there.

- Yeah... uh huh...

Well... I tell ya,

if it's all the same with you, Ms. Brandt,

I'd like to check out that old house.

A lot of strange stories connected with that old place.

Like clear back when I was a kid,

hell, even before that, when my dad was a kid,

he used to tell me all kinds of stories about that place.

- Well, go right ahead.

I'm sure you won't find anything.

I'll be at the potts house if you need me.

- Alrighty.

Thank you.

- Seems strange to have John law checking on my ranch.

Two missing kids.

Son of a gun, there was a boy at the ranch yesterday

when I left to go shopping.

But then the constable did say two kids.

I'll check with him later.

- Anybody here?

Charlie?

Connie?

Are you kids in here?

- Arg!

- Peanuts, that's what they named the pony.

She was just about the prettiest thing you ever saw.

If ever you wanted to see two happy kids, this was it.

Sugarplum, their adopted puppy seemed to like

her new friend.

Margie took to riding her immediately.

The kids really knew how to enjoy life

out here in the desert.

No smog, just fresh air.

Mr. Potts came out to say hello.

He said his daughters really dug me and I dug them.

He told me that I was welcome anytime, just to drop by.

Anyway, we walked the pony right into the evening.

The kids were really grooving.

In fact, we bumped into some more local kids

and they joined right in on the fun.

- They're never gonna knock you down.

They'll never knock you down.

- That's okay, chooper, you keep knocking 'em off,

and I'll keep clearing 'em.

They're not gonna tear this old house down.

They gotta find the bodies first.

And they'll never find the bodies where I put 'em.

So you just kill all you want

and I'll keep burying 'em.

But they'll never knock this old house down.

It's been here forever and ever.

There'll always be this old house.

And I'll protect the secret of it.

- As the days wore on,

and I became more accustomed to life at the ranch

I couldn't help feeling

there was something troubling Daniel,

but then again,

maybe it was only the same thing

that was bothering me, Tim foster.

Tim kept coming around,

but unfortunately not the way I might've preferred it.

All he ever seemed to have on his mind

when he came to see me, was the ranch.

And if anything,

he seemed only to be getting more adamant about it

all the time.

The ranch, the ranch, the ranch.

I want your ranch, Carol.

That's all I heard from him.

It's all we ever talked about, time and time again.

If it weren't for Margie and Barbra being around,

I don't know what I'd have done.

They helped lessen the pressure I was under.

Tim foster was right though,

when he said I owned a lot of good property.

For one thing, it was the biggest spread around.

Daniel said I had over 10,000 acres

that were situated directly over an underground lake.

Drill down a couple hundred feet,

and there was enough water to irrigate,

not only all of my own property,

but about half the rest of the state as well.

Beside that it was artesian water

filtered through limestone.

So I not only owned very good property

and excellent artesian water,

but Daniel said I also had the water rights

to the whole area.

And out here, that means just about everything.

My uncle did very well writing horror films.

- Let me shovel a while, Barbra.

- Okay, here you go, Margie.

And do it like I promised.

- Look Carol, there's nothing but wind and desert out there.

You own 10,000 miles of wind and desert.

Who in their right mind wants all,

nothing but 10,000 miles of wind in desert?

Desert girl, I thought you got out...

- Desert my foot.

Daniel told me about the lake that's under here.

And the water rights that I own to it.

- He did?

- Yes he did.

- Well, wait a minute, we can forget about that for a second.

There must be 10,000 other reasons

that you don't want this ranch.

Look at that corral.

Look at the corral!

Ain't a horse in the corral.

And even if you did put horses in that corral,

they'd just die out there.

You know that.

It's too hot.

You can't put horses out there.

- I'm not gonna sell the ranch!

- Look, that water tower,

you're gonna walk under it someday

and it's just gonna fall down on you.

Hit you on the head, splatter you all over.

You're gonna die.

You want that to happen?

Sell me the ranch.

I want the ranch, Carol.

- Is that a threat about the water tower?

- It's no threat, I just wanna buy the ranch.

Come on, I'm serious.

- Forget it.

- Look, I wanna...

- Get off me!

Oh come on and stop it.

Come on, break it up.

Daniel, come on, stop it!

Stop it!

Come on, Daniel.

- Margie, we don't want sand on your feet

so move a little bit.

- Daniel, come on, stop it.

Stop!

Stop it!

- Shovel, in.

-All right, I said stop it!

Stop it.

Stop it!

Come on, now.

- Get off me, buddy!

Get off me!

- Daniel, stop.

That's enough.

When I say stop it, I mean stop it.

Now git.

Just get out of here.

Go on, get outta here, damn it, get out!

- Where's my hat?

Carol.

Carol!

- Just get ofi the ranch.

- You're gonna sell.

You're gonna sell it.

- Get out, I don't wanna see you again.

The next day in order to forget the terrible scene

with Tim foster,

I took the kids down to the county line

to see the rodeo again.

All I wanted to do was to forget Mr. Foster.

Somehow that man did seem to belong with everyone else

I'd come to meet.

J“ life is meant for you to live I

j“ but all you get is what you give j“

j“ within your mind you hold the key I

j“ to be whatever you dream I

j“ the road is long and hard and slow I

j“ they'll try to beat you down, I know I

j“ but don't give in j'

j“ 'cause if you believe you can be anything that you dare I

j“ all the good that ever was I

j' begun with a dream that a man has dreamed alone I

J“ a vision of a better day I

j“ a time when love becomes the way I

j“ when man are free I

j“ and war is a mystery and brotherhood finally is real I

j“ so dream your dream I

j“ and see it through I

j' there's nothing that you can't accomplish j'

j“ if you will believe you can do it I

j“ for anything's possible if you dare to dream j“

As we were leaving the rodeo,

Tim came by with a half-hearted attempt to apologize.

I just said the whole scene was too heavy

and I just wanted to pass.

- Arg!

- Daniel?

Daniel?

Daniel?

Daniel?

- Arg!

- Arg! - Daniel! Daniel!

- Arg!

- Daniel!

- Daniel, no!

-Ah!

- That's not the chooper, he's not 150-years—old,

that's Tim foster.

He's just trying to scare you ofi your ranch.

Don't let anybody ever tell you different.

Do don't ever go in that old house

or the chooper will get you.

- Tim is dead.

Daniel's dead.

I don't know what I'm going to do.

Oh well, I think I'll just worry about it tomorrow.

That's if tomorrow ever comes.