Unleash the Nation

Upon inspection of the red curtains currently shrouding the screen, I figured that the theatre might actually date back to the 1950s as advertised. If the advertisement was horseshit (which I previously suspected it was) then at least it could be said that the staff had some regard for recreating the antiquity of the era. Without hesitation I took a seat in the third row from the screen, I always enjoy sitting up close, even though my friends constantly harangue me about it whenever we go to the theatre. I was shuffling about when the screen flashed to indicate the beginning of the film. I was extremely excited, I was about to watch one of my favorite oldies on the big screen; 1964’s The Masque of the Red Death. I sat tight through commercials for local businesses such as car rentals and fast food joints. Admittedly nothing really struck me that much, I was only travelling through the small town on a cross country road trip, but I did take note of a couple restaurants for a bite to eat later. 
I was suddenly confused to see the logo of an unfamiliar company fly across the surface of the screen. The logo itself fueled the confusion, any words or notable symbols were absent. It consisted only of a slightly phallic cone symbol with lines drawn through it, with each line being met by two circles, one on either ending of the cone’s vertical sides. I pulled out my wallet and examined the ticket I had just purchased, discovering to my extreme annoyance that The Masque of the Red Death was actually showing in Theatre Two, and I had idiotically walked into Theatre One. I muttered a couple curses under my breath and sat tight, deciding that it was not worth the embarrassment of walking in front of the confections stand just to watch an incomplete run of The Masque. 
Whatever film they were showing in Theatre 1 was something else entirely. It opened with the title, vividly displaying Unleash the Nation across the screen, but oddly enough the title was not followed by the credits, which is commonplace for older movies. The film must have been older than the theatre itself. It was extremely grainy in quality and appeared to have sparkish blurs dancing sporadically across the screen. After the title I witnessed the start of what I supposed was the “plot”. An older looking man was travelling alone in the woods at night. The film repeatedly played the same footage of him walking with an obviously distorted and terribly recorded atmospheric audio track, which compelled me to groan rather loudly. I don’t mind B-Movies, they can be enjoyable in their own right, but this was just damn sloppy. Suddenly, the man stopped along with the music, and the camera shifted angles to focus on his face, which seemed to be forming an expression of inquisitive disgust. 
“At least I can identify with the main character,” I joked to myself. When the camera shifted again however, I quickly felt a cold shiver run down my spine, and an eerie onset of slight nausea in my stomach. Peeking out from behind the trees in the woods was another man’s face, however the chin drooped down slightly lower than natural, it seemed, and his eyes were much longer than a normal man’s eyes. He wore a very relaxed and natural expression, almost smiling, making his distorted features seem much more abnormal in comparison. The face remained on the screen for about 10 seconds, making me shift uncomfortably in my leather seat, until an extremely shrill screeching noise blasted from the speakers surrounding the theatre, making me jump and audibly shriek in reaction. Then, like a silent film, a still reading “Unleash the Nation” leapt on and off the screen, and was replaced by the same bizarre logo from before. As the lights in the theatre turned back on, I shot out of my seat, very nearly terrified by the strange film. It had only been about 4 minutes long in total, but its unorthodox and unfinished footage frightened me more than any real horror movie I had seen in my lifetime. With that damagingly loud screech still ringing in my ears, I grabbed my coat and made way for the exit. 
While leaving I noticed another moviegoer sitting candidly in one of the back rows. I quickly shot him a smile, trying to leave the theatre as quickly as possible, and he smiled back while giving me the up and down glance, I suppose trying to gather any details about me. It was only when I had almost reached my car in the parking lot outside that I stopped short to catch my breath, realizing the details that I had refused to register. I thought back to the other audience member’s eyes when they met mine. They appeared slightly longer than normal, and very familiar. I swallowed when I finally came to the realization, his facial features were identical to the man in the film! I began to get flustered, quick to blow it off and angry that I was letting this low quality film mess with my mind. However on the way to my motel I kept thinking about the effects you would need to distort a face like that in film and how they were definitely not available in whatever time period Unleash the Nation was filmed in. 
It was still only about 7 o’clock when I reached the motel. I smiled at the housekeeper and went into my room, number six, near the end of the motel stretch. I quickly locked the door and threw my keys on the table. I would not be going out to eat tonight, I decided, running the man’s face through my head with undertones of serious paranoia about the town and its people quickly developing alongside it. The housekeeper had had a rather droopy chin when I met her for the first time, didn’t she? And the man who owned the Civil War museum that I visited yesterday, hadn’t his eyes been longer than normal as well? My thoughts were abruptly stopped by a knock on my door, causing me to halt my panicked pacing instantly. I moved slowly over to the doorknob and placed my hand on it firmly while opening the peephole to see who my guest was. I froze instantly. Staring kindly into the door from the other side was my fellow audience member for Theatre One, the man who I had seen in the back row while leaving Unleash the Nation. 
“Hello?” I asked nervously, absolutely intending not to open the door. 
“Hi”, he responded with a gentle tone. “I saw you were in the theatre for the movie Unleash the Nation. I was wondering, well, if you’d be interested; we have kind of like a discussion club for movies in town and we are going to be talking about the movie tonight. I was just coming by to see if you wanted to join in? I don’t know if you just moved here I haven’t seen you around before” 
I became more uneasy with the mention of a town gathering, so I fired back, “Sorry, I am not interested, I am just travelling through here and will be leaving soon. Thank you for the invitation.” 
I cringed as I saw his face twist into an expression of severe insult. “Oh”, he said, in a much more serious tone. “That is strange. People who see that film usually come to the discussion club. Have a good night.” 
With that he sharply turned around and left. Now I knew my suspicions were confirmed. I had seen his whole face in detail, his chin extending down a far greater distance than usual, and his eyes crept horizontally past his cheeks. He appeared only slightly inhuman, but there was definitely something off about him. I began pacing quickly around again, until I finally decided: I would not be staying in the town any longer, I would be leaving tonight. I was not even going to bother returning the keys to the housekeeper, I figured she would find them in my motel, and I would pay the next morning and leave a credit card number. I shambled around the room, grabbing all of my belongings, quickly used the restroom, and then left for my car with haste. I jumped in, revved the ignition, and pressed hard on the gas. However my car only moved a couple of feet, then sputtered and stopped in the dirt. “Shit”, I thought to myself, as I hopped out of car, checking if my path was being obstructed by something in the parking lot. However when I made the roundabout to check my wheels, what I found was not any obstacles, but rather that my rear wheels had both been slashed and deflated. “Shit!” I thought again, this time in a more horrified and urgent manner. I looked around for the vandal, thinking that maybe I could extort the police for a ride out if I caught him. However what I spotted when I whipped my head around to inspect the motel nearly knocked all the breath straight out of my body, producing from me a short, fearful yelp. Staring straight out the windows of room numbers one through five, and even six, where I had just departed from, were identical men, all long vertical faces and wide horizontal eyes. What frightened me most about the image was the darkness of the rooms obscuring their bodies, making it seem as if their heads were morbidly floating around while watching me. I turned to run, only now to see that the exit to the motel had been guarded off by another group of six men, all watching me with their huge eyes, not even appearing to blink. I shifted my legs in a meager and weak stance, like a caged zoo animal, and closed my eyes, praying to God the nightmarish men would disappear. 
Then the sound began to pick up. First it was only a whisper, just like the wind, and then gradually it turned into song, until it finally evolved into a thunderous chant. I didn’t want to believe it, but over and over I was hearing the same phrase, the phrase that I now feared like the Devil himself. 
“Unleash the nation” 
“Please” I muttered to myself in a whimper. 
“Unleash the Nation!” 
I could now hear the cultish footsteps approaching the motel parking lot. There must have been at least 50 of them. I still wouldn’t dare open my eyes. 
“UNLEASH THE NATION!” 
My eyes abruptly shot open as cold pairs of hands grasped my arms and legs. I felt fate itself shoot down my entire body. Then, before I was gone, I could hear one final phrase chanted. However this one wasn’t coming from the cultish brood surrounding me or the motel’s parking lot. This one had emerged from the back of my own mind.
Category:Places
Category:Lovecraftian