Hellbound Village (Tết Ở Làng Địa Ngục) - First Season

ALL STORYLINES AND IMAGES IN THIS WORK ARE FICTITIOUS.

ANY SIMILARITIES ARE COINCIDENTAL.

Do you know who I am?

ADAPTED FROM THE PERIOD HORROR NOVEL BY THAO TRANG

IN THE LAST EPISODE

Their souls are captured,

I worry that

the kids will never wake up.

The reason the children lost their souls...

someone is in need of a lot of life force.

You're saying, someone followed us here?

Or they are already here.

Crossing the forest to get here is impossible,

unless you know the way well.

- Father! - Oh, Ti!

I am here!

The hovering man forced us in here.

Father, please save us!

‪How dare you steal my food?

What do we do now, sir?

Stay steady and we'll find a way.

If it's true

that the puppet has taken the kids

then there's only one way.

What?

Wherever the souls of the kids are,

we must prepare our altar there to call them all home.

Then maybe...

The cypress forest.

What was that?

The cypress forest.

Yes.

That's right.

The cypress itself is a tree with much death force.

The kids must have had their souls taken there.

Then we must hurry.

Dear sir...

We're all counting on you.

If the kids can't be called home,

won't it be the same as our village

meeting its end, sir?

Have Mrs. Thap gather up the women,

we now have an offering tray full of fruit, of incense.

Right at noon, life force will be most plentiful.

We'll set up an altar right by the cypress forest.

Yes.

What has happened to you, child?

My child!

How is Tutor Lam, ma'am?

Please wake up.

Still hasn't come to.

This morning when I brought the joss papers out,

he was still in one place.

- May... - Oh, husband! Oh, child!

My child!

Oh, May!

- May! - Help me!

Are you home?

May!

Oh, May!

Please help me!

My death's unjust.

Save me, please, May!

Someone threw me into the creek when I was still alive.

The carp then ate me to death.

Oh, May! Save me!

May!

Help me, May!

May!

May!

What's wrong?

Dear everyone,

we are gathered here today

for a ritual to retrieve the kids' souls.

During the ceremony,

there will be unusual events,

but please remain calm.

Namo Amitabha Buddha!

I pray to heaven and Earth, to the omnipresent awakened.

I pray to the deities guarding this land.

I ask for your permission,

on behalf of the villagers,

to call the children's souls home.

I ask you all to bear witness.

Damn all of you!

O, soul

That is afar

Be home at once

Wander no more

O, ghouls and goblins, all

Give us the souls we seek and search...

Within woods much to fear

As well the waters that can kill

We are all here for news

Offer chickens and rice to know

The gold, to hell escorts

The black, to four cardinal souls

The white, to call souls back

We've lit incense near unmarked graves

Huh? Where is the cripple?

Where has everyone gone?

People used to say,

"Fathers do ill, sons pay the bill."

The bandits who deprived the Truong clan of an heir.

Their descendants now, all the village's men,

are forced to see shadows that look like them.

Like them when they are old or young.

Tutor Lam saw himself.

And anyone who has, they have all died.

The innocent souls that fell have at last returned,

here to this village, in their scariest form.

Who's there?

It's us. Come here!

Who is "us"?

O, robber of the children's souls

Return them all with haste, I call

On barks, 'neath trees, in holes

For whom bells toll? To all, I call!

I call!

Return!

Return!

Return!

Return!

Demon!

Demon!

Demon!

Demon!

Demon!

Why did you do that?

Whatever did Tutor Lam do,

to deserve such a gruesome end?

Mommy!

Come here quickly!

- Mommy's here! - Up, they're up!

- I'm here! - They're awake.

Mommy's here!

- I'm here! - They're awake.

How blessed!

- Oh, child, awake! - Let's go home.

You get up now.

Home.

Let's go home, child.

Sir.

- Let's quickly return home. - Huh?

- We should go too. It's dark now. - Time to go home, all.

- Right. - There's the New Year's Eve ceremony too.

That's true.

I'm glad that Heaven is kind,

waking the kids up before New Year's Eve.

Tet this year will be good for the village.

- That's lovely, sir. - Yes.

This will be my first New Year at altitude.

Truly - delights at height.

You needn't worry, Tam,

there shall be more Tet occasions.

Yes.

- I offer my thanks. - No. It's nothing.

- It's nothing. Enough. - Thank you for saving them.

- All of my children. - It's okay.

- Go. You take them home. - Yes.

- Congratulations to you. - You all go home.

Go home, you all.

Hey?

Did anyone see the cripple anywhere?

He didn't show up at the ritual.

Could he be sick with something?

Heavens, he's only crippled, not at all weak.

But do you all smell something,

something that's like blood?

It is the smell of blood.

I think, it's coming from young Dai's house.

Dai's place?

NEW YEAR'S EVE

Good gods!

Go get the young men to help.

Do not alarm the whole village.

Let them finish with New Year's Eve.

Go now.

Duc.

I'm so scared.

The tutor...

Why is this, sir?

What did Tutor Lam do,

to deserve a death in pieces, huh, sir?

If this is karma,

then he paid the bill.

But why must it be so gruesome?

Why must it, sir?

Calm down, Thap.

Right now,

is no time to be weak.

All that has occurred is both constant and wicked.

I think that...

I'm so afraid

that this is not work of ghosts or demons,

but instead of a person who can plot and carry everything out.

But...

How did you meet the cripple?

Where did you see him?

I met him in Dau Village,