Uli Edel

A professor, Mike Lawford frantically searches for his son Charlie, who was abducted during a Halloween carnival. As nearly a year goes by, the parents are still looking for their son and starting to hear and see their son reaching out to them from the other world-Mike sees his son on a passing bus, but upon chasing the bus down and gaining access, his son is not there. He disembarks and notices spray painted on a building, "pay the ghost," the phrase his son uttered before vanishing. He enters the building and finds homeless people living there. Unearthly screams of a woman are heard, and a blind homeless man calls for the others to mask their fires, explaining to Mike that the screams are heard every year before Halloween. Mike asks about the phrase, and is taken to a wall with more of the same phrases written on it. Engrossed by the wall and the homeless man, he does not notice the wall behind him shift into another world, and a demonic figure briefly appears behind him, then vanishes. The homeless man explains nothing, but quickly tells Mike to leave. His wife Kristen later sees their son's scooter move on its own, and calls him. Later that night while pouring wine, the power in their home goes out. Mike looks out the window to see three children appear and burned at the stake, then turns and sees his apartment crowded with figures of children, standing lifeless and pale. They call a psychic to investigate. Standing in their son's room, she senses nothing, but then abruptly walks to the window, looks at the approaching storm, and says, "It's here... it has all the children." The psychic is then thrown against the wall and strangled before collapsing, burn scars all over her hands. A later autopsy shows her internal organs were burned to ash. Later, Mike walks upstairs to his wife's room, and she addresses him with their son's voice, pleading for help and saying "She's coming, Dad. I'm scared." He walks closer, and sees his wife cutting herself. Cleaning the wound, they find a symbol, which leads them to a Celtic Halloween celebration. A participant explains that the children are burning dolls to pay the ghost, so they will not be taken. Their friend Hannah who was helping them by doing research calls Mike and says: In early New York, on Halloween night of 1679, because of her Celtic worship, a young widow living on the first New York settlement was burned alive with her three children by an angry mob of settlers suspecting her to be a witch. She takes revenge every year on Halloween, when the border between the spiritual world and the physical world dissolves for a short time. Since then, every Halloween the ghost of this woman takes three living children from their parents and puts them in an alternate world. The borders solidify until next Halloween, and the children taken are able to reach out and be rescued. But if the children cannot escape this alternate world within the first year, they are stuck in this world forever. After Mike and Kristen are injured in the taxi by a flock of black vultures, Hannah is thrown out of a window and killed while trying to leave the institute. Mike returns to the same building and finds the blind homeless man again, he gives him his watch in exchange for helping him find his son Charlie. He shows Mike the hazy road and tells him that he has until Halloween ends at midnight, otherwise he will be trapped there forever. Mike arrives at the widow's cabin and goes down to the basement where he finds the souls of many children who were locked up over the centuries at Halloween time. Mike finally finds Charlie along with two other children that were also taken within the last year. While the four of them are escaping, the ghost widow appears as she has learned that they were attempting to escape. She tries to stop Mike from taking the three children away by trying to kill him. All of the other children's souls arrive to help him, and they are able to kill the ghost widow by surrounding her, unknowingly freeing themselves into the afterlife. Mike and the children manage to get out just as the portal closes. At dawn, Mike and his son Charlie finally make it home. While reuniting with Kristen it is revealed that Charlie has no recollection of the time that he spent missing. Outside, a black vulture is seen flying away. In a scene mid-credits, three black vultures appear surrounding Hannah's corpse and she awakens, possessed.

The film begins on a nude beach in Germany in the late 1960s, where we are introduced to Ulrike Meinhoff, a respected journalist, and her family. Meinhoff and her husband are then guests at a party, where Meinhoff reads off a periodical that she wrote about the injustice of the Iranian Government. With the Shah of Persia arriving into Berlin, there is a rally in the streets, where half the people are protesting the injustice and the other half are praising. As the protesting goes on, the Iranian people end up going into the crowd and fighting the innocent German protesters with the help of the German Police; leaving many injured and a man killed. The next scene is of Meinhoff at a television studio arguing why she favors the protesters side instead of the Governments side, and watching the live recording on her television is Gudrun Ensslin, another activist. She explains to her parents how American Imperialism is completely corrupt while Meinhoff walks in on her husband having sex with another woman. Next, we are introduced to Andreas Baader, the ringleader of these revolutionaries who decide to name themselves The Red Army Faction (RAF). Their first major rebellious occurrence takes place in a department store, where they decide to set home made bombs and light it on fire. On a television broadcast we are informed of the many student protests at universities across America and of protests in West Germany, being led by Rudi Dutschke. The film then cuts to a famous rally where Dutschke announced his views on the protest and wars occurring around the world, trying to spark everyone to join their resistance. Rudi Dutschke is then almost assassinated by a man who is accused to be from the Springer Group, which is tied to the German Government. In effect, many activists go to the Springer Group headquarters and riot. As we see there are many demonstrating protesters rioting around the world, Baader and Ensslin are in court confessing about the department store fires. As her parents discuss how they are surprised by her actions, Meinhoff eavesdrops and takes heavy interest in what they say about Ensslin. While Ensslin is in jail, Meinhoff decides to visit her and finds out that she is dedicated to fighting back against the German State. The next scene introduces Peter Boock, an activist that was almost beat to death for fighting back to police in jail, and we see that the RAF now has a main house for everyone to stay in. With the new Chancellor of Germany claiming that the rebellion will diminish soon, a man that runs the terrorist unit disagrees, stating that he believes it is only going to get worse. Baader and Ensslin leave Germany and go to Italy in 1970, where they meet their lawyer to talk about some things. He exclaims that they come back to Berlin illegally, saying that a new revolutionary group has formed and they have access to weapons, guns, money, etc. To make sure that the lawyer is not all talk, Baader demands that he empties a womans purse; which he does. Baader and Ensslin head to Berlin, where they go to Meinhoffs house to crash, saying that they have come back to Germany to change the political situation or die trying. As Baader speeds down the freeway in a stolen car, he gets pulled over and taken to prison, for the German Government wants him. In effect, Ensslin demands that they get him out right away, for he cannot wait ten months in prison. With Meinhoff setting up a fake interview with Baader at a Social Institute, Ensslin and the others plan on raiding the place with guns so Baader can escape; it is a success. This is a turning point in the film because Meinhoff decided to jump out the window with the revolutionists instead of just sitting in the room pretending not to know what happened. The escape is publicized heavily on German television, calling Baader, Ensslin, and Meinhoff terrorists and they head off to Jordan to get some military training. In Jordan, Baader has several falling outs, especially with Meinhoffs significant other, who becomes a traitor to the group and decides he wants to go back to Germany. After the training, they head back to West Berlin where they rob several banks, using their skills they received in Jordan. Being named Germany Most Wanted, the Baader- Meinhoff group is announced to by sympathized with by an estimated 7 million people in Germany, which makes it so hard for them to be brought to justice. The terrorist unit exclaims that they can mathematically find the terrorist group by using Government official reports because it will inevitably lead to where the group is living. The next scene is a changing point, two members of the group are killed in a shoot out with police after trying to flee from a police block on the road. In effect, the Baader-Meinhoff group claims that to be war and goes ahead and sets off bombs at police headquarters, U.S. Embassy, and other government buildings. The German Government decides to have all government officials are under federal control for one day in West Germany so they can track down the remaining members of the RAF. The next scene consists of Baader and two other RAF members finally being arrested, just before retrieving more bombs from a garage to do some more damage on the country. After Baader is arrested, Ensslin also gets arrested when she is shopping for some new clothes, and Meinhoff gets arrested when police raid their hide out. In prison, all the major members of the RAF are separated and put into isolation. On television, everyone watches the tragedies that happened at the Munich Olympic Games with the Israeli team and it stuns Germany, claiming that this violent state is not over yet. The film cuts to 7 months later, where Meinhoff talks about how life in prison is the absolute worst; so the whole group decides to go on a hunger strike, demanding that they get better treatment just because they are political revolutionists. Next, Holger Meins, who is dying in jail, does not get any help from a doctor to try to save his life, he exclaims that they are allowing him to die, which he does. With the RAF member trial approaching, new revolutionary members storm the German Embassy in Stockholm to try to prove a point, that this war is not over. However, with the operation being such a failure, Baader is very upset and when the trial begins he declares that he is incapable of standing trial, for he cannot cooperate with the government. With the continuous argument being about isolation, they finally allow Meinhoff to be in Ensslins cell, but it goes sour when Meinhoff realizes Ensslin is changing everything she is writing because she calls it depressing. While the remaining members meet on the rooftop of the prison, they exclaim that they must escape the prison or they will be killed by the government. The film then goes to February 1976, and things are really looking bad for the three inmates, especially Meinhoff, who has grown a separation between the rest of the group. She demands that in solitary confinement, the only way to show one has changed is betrayal, which the others agree she has done to the RAF. In effect, Meinhoff is found dead in her cell, which it is claimed she committed suicide. With the RAF trial getting lots of hype in the media, Germany decides to transfer another main RAF member to the same prison as Ensslin and Baader, and fortunately for her, she gets to walk within 7 months of being there; she immediately goes back to the underground. The plan is to get Baader and Ensslin out of prison, or else they will end up dead like the others. Immediately, numerous people are killed for the blaming of the members being murdered in prison. They send out a secret code to the current RAF members that they have little time left, for they believe they will be killed shortly. In effect, they plan a huge massacre in order to kidnap an important government official so they have a hostage. The police decide to take away all communication from the prisoners and gets rid of all their electricity, so they do not know whats going on. The two members of the RAF go down to Iraq and get a plane hijacking together, saying they must let them out of prison. We are then informed that with times changing, terrorism has become profitable for many countries and that someone from the outside is going to come kill them. The next morning, all of the RAF members in the prison are found dead. The film ends with the new generation RAF members taking the kidnapped man into the forest and killing him.

Tony Thompson [Jonathon Lipnicki] is lonely and friendless. His parents, Bob and Dottie, have just moved him from San Diego, California to Scotland, and the two McAshton boys, Nigel [Iain De Caestecker] and Flint [Scott Fletcher], are making fun of him at his new school because of his obsession with vampires. Unfortunately, Nigel and Flint are the grandsons of Lord McAshton, Bob's boss. One night, a bat flies into Tony's room. The bat is Rudolph Sackville-Bagg [Rollo Weeks], vampire, and he's in a bad way. He can't fly, and the vampire hunter Rookery [Jim Carter] is looking for him. Rudolph desperately needs blood and asks Tony to lead him to a cow. While Tony waits for Rudolph to finish his dinner, Rookery attempts to run Tony over with his vampire-hunting mobile, but Rudolph saves him just in time. Tony and Rudolph are now tit-for-tat, each having saved the other. They decide to become friends. Rudolph sleeps the next day in Tony's toybox but is gone when Tony gets home from school. Rudolph shows up again that night, asking about a picture Tony drew of an amulet he saw in a dream, the amulet of Attamon, made by the Great Magician from a piece of the comet of Attamon. Tony offers to help Rudolph find it because it could mean the end of a curse that causes Rudolph and his family to remain vampires. Unfortunately, Rookery is also seeking the amulet because, used in another way, it can send all the vampires straight to hell. Suddenly, Rudolph's family shows up...father Frederick, mother Freda, sister Anna, and brother Gregory. Frederick is not happy that his son has befriended a human. Just then, Rookery shows up and starts firing stakes at the vampire family. Tony cuts the hose between Rookery's stakegun and his pneumatic air supply. The vampires and Tony take refuge in an underground crypt, and Tony has a vision in which he sees a woman covering the body of the Great Magician with a blanket bearing a crest flanked by two stags and a banner reading "Sola animo at manuforti." Later that night, Tony and Rudolph pay a visit to the McAshton boys. Tony presents himself as the Lord of the Underworld and Rudolph as "the fiendish friend of Tony Thompson," and orders the boys to treat Tony with respect or else they will be bat-bait. The next day at school, the McAshton boys trip all over themselves to be nice to Tony. It appears that Tony's problems with the McAshton boys are over. However, his problems with the McAshtons are just beginning. That afternoon at tea, Tony's dad shows him a picture of the McAshton crest. Lo and behold, it is the one from Tony's vision. Later that evening, Tony goes to the crypt to tell Rudolph of his discovery, only to find Rookery there. Rookery lowers a bright light into the crypt, but Tony throws a rock at it and breaks the bulb. Unfortunately, Rudolph's father takes the full brunt of the light and is severely weakened. After fortifying their dad on some cowblood, the vampire family moves into Tony's cellar in order to hide from Rookery. During the night, as Tony tries to sleep, Anna [Anna Popplewell] comes into his room. She gives him a good luck charm (a dead mouse) from the old country and tells him to whistle if he should ever need her help. It's Saturday morning, and Tony goes to work with his dad, hoping to learn more about the McAshton crest and the whereabouts of the amulet. Unfortunately, Rookery is also there, and Lord McAshton is telling him about the family history. It seems that the woman in Tony's vision, the one in which he sees her covering the body of the Great Magician with a blanket that bears the McAshton crest, was actually Lord McAshton's ancestor, Elizabeth, and the Great Magician was the vampire Von Sackville-Bagg. Even more important is the fact that Elizabeth is wearing the amulet of Attamon in a family portrait and was probably buried with it. Rookery asks where she is buried, so Lord McAshton takes him to the family crypt. They open her coffin, but it is empty. Most likely, she was buried elsewhere, but where? Tony, who has been watching from a balcony, suddenly falls off...right into the coffin. Rookery, who has also been after Tony, closes the lid. Tony can't get out, but he remembers his good luck mouse and whistles for Anna. Although it is daylight, Rudolph and Anna cover themselves with a blanket and helmets and go to Tony. A mouse leads the three of them to a secret passage in which they find the real coffin of Elizabeth McAshton and Von Sackville-Bagg, but the amulet isn't there. Suddenly, Tony has another vision of Elizabeth burying the stone under the floorboards of her room...which is now Tony's room. Rudolph and Tony go to Tony's bedroom and start prying up the floorboards, but Rookery is wise to them. When Tony refuses to hand over the stone, Rookery takes Tony, stone and all, for a ride in his vampiremobile. As they drive along, they are attacked by a herd of flying vampire cows (the cows on which Rudolph and his family have been feeding) who cover Rookery's windshield with cowpies. Meanwhile, Frederick and Freda realize that tonight is the night that the Attamon comet will cross the moon, and all the vampires must be called to unite on the cliffs. Frederick is still too weak to fly, so they introduce themselves to Tony's parents and invite them to view the comet, too, using their car to drive out there. The entire vampire clan is gathered on the cliff, but where is the amulet? At the last minute, Rudolph and Tony fly in. Tony gives the amulet to Frederick who says the magic words. A red light descends from the comet, a red fog creeps over the vampires, and they all disappear. Epilogue: It is some weeks later. Tony and his parents are at the market in town when a new family moves in. It is the Sackville-Baggs, but they are human now. At first they don't recognize Tony, but a little whistle from Tony brings back their memories. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.]