HWI 496

Hollywood What If Chapter 496

When the management of Universal Pictures understood Stella's promotion plan, they agreed to it. Even Ronald was surprised by the woman's meticulous planning.

With that, the promotion happened and December was an active event for Universal Pictures and anyone related to Shadows Beneath. The cast also showed up for many interviews.

The cast was paid to say that the mental hospital they went to was scary. They signed contracts to make sure that they won't tell the truth. The same also happened to the crew members.

A video also circulated about the acts of the supernatural that happened in the filming set. The camera fell, which caused many people to run away.

Another story was about the stunt double who had an accident. He said that he felt like someone pushed him... His medical expenses were covered by the production studio. Furthermore, Kazir promised him that he would be given a role in the CCU, perhaps a side character.

Some believed that these were just promotion tricks that Grey Pictures and Universal Pictures concocted. But it didn't matter, many people loved to hear supernatural stuff that couldn't be explained by science.

Why do you think some people believe that the Earth is flat?b

Why do you think people believe that Santa Claus is real? Santa Claus was real, but he surely had no reindeers that can fly to the sky and help him deliver gifts to every kid in the world.

Why do you think people believe in aliens? To be fair, the existence of aliens might be real.

People choose to believe, this was enough for Shadows Beneath to make a ruckus. As long as people were interested, they would watch the movie.

December was the last month and Hollywood had a blast by releasing big movies such as Apocalypto, Blood Diamond, The Holiday, Charlotte's Web, Dreamgirls, Eragon, The Pursuit Of Happiness, Rocky Balboa, The Good Shepherd, and Night At The Museum.

Out of all of these movies, Night At The Museum sold the most movie tickets, grossing $735 million.

Speaking of Eragon, this was the movie that 20th Century Fox used to try and follow the success of Harry Potter and Lord Of The Rings. Eragon was based on a novel and fans believed that it would be the next Harry Potter. Unfortunately, the movie didn't perform well. It lost against Blood Diamond, the movie that was released in the same week.

Walt Disney also had a franchise that was based on the novel with the title of Narnia... The franchise had a great start but quickly disappeared after three movies.

Only a few novels had successful movie adaptations such as Lord Of The Rings/Hobbit, Harry Potter, Twilight, Hunger Games, Dune, and perhaps the Maze Runner.

While this was happening, Universal Pictures and Grey Pictures promoted Shadows Beneath actively.

Universal Pictures knew that they would lose money if they didn't release the movie as soon as possible. So when January arrived, they announced that Shadows Beneath would be released at midnight on January 5.

Universal Pictures felt like they would lose money in this endeavor... They already spent more than $10 million to promote the movie here in the United States alone.

To sum it all up, Universal Pictures already spent more than $110 million. They also understand that this was just the beginning. They just hoped that they could break even.

On the other hand, Universal Pictures also understood the reason why they made this decision. Their stocks increased when they released that they acquired Kazir's movie. General Electric and Comcast were having negotiations regarding the future of Universal Pictures. General Electric wanted to sell Universal Pictures at a price that would make them money, hence the decision to buy Shadows Beneath.

The cast and the director of Shadows Beneath showed up on the red carpet. Most of the time, the red carpet only happened to movies that had a high budget instead of a horror movie that had a budget of $17 million.

Megan Fox, Chris Hemsworth, Gal Gadot, and Henry Cavill were obviously having the time of their lives while the cameras were pointed at them. Everyone knew that they would become instant celebrities if they starred in Kazir's movie, but the experience was still amazing. Now they understood how hard their agents fought just to secure the audition chances for them.

The four looked close, like friends, when the cameras were on them... The crew knew that none of them were close at all, especially the two actresses.

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"Shadows Beneath"

A group of urban explorers, led by Ethan, a charismatic yet skeptical leader, heads out to their latest adventure: an abandoned mental hospital on the outskirts of a forgotten town. The group consists of Ethan’s girlfriend Sara, skeptical researcher Mason, thrill-seeker Carly, and cameraman Kyle who loves using vintage cameras. The hospital, called St. Dymphna's Asylum, had a notorious reputation for brutal experiments on its patients during the 1950s. Rumors of hauntings and paranormal sightings are rampant, making it a prime location for their next web episode.

Act 1: The Setup

The group arrives at St. Dymphna’s on a cold, foggy evening, the towering asylum looming against the darkening sky. The hospital has been abandoned for decades, with its windows shattered, overgrown vines crawling up the sides, and eerie silence lingering around the property. As they venture inside, they find old patient files, grim medical equipment, and graffiti from previous trespassers. Despite the unnerving atmosphere, they laugh it off, excited about the footage they’re capturing.

However, from the beginning, subtle oddities occur: Sara’s camera malfunctions intermittently, picking up static-filled audio of distorted voices; Carly hears faint whispers in the hallways; and Ethan, ever the skeptic, feels uncharacteristically anxious.

The group splits up to cover more ground. Kyle sets up cameras in various rooms, hoping to catch any paranormal activity. Sara begins experiencing strange flashbacks of events that she couldn’t possibly know about: visions of doctors in blood-stained lab coats and patients screaming in agony.

Act 2: The Descent

As night falls, the temperature in the hospital drops, and the atmosphere becomes increasingly oppressive. The group begins to experience more overt paranormal phenomena. Mason sees fleeting figures out of the corner of his eye and discovers a room that wasn’t on the asylum’s blueprints. Inside are photographs of former patients, each with their faces scratched out.

Tensions rise as Carly, who thrives on the thrill of these adventures, becomes increasingly agitated, claiming that she saw someone watching them from the shadows. The others try to calm her down, assuming it’s just her mind playing tricks on her. But then, Kyle’s camera, which was left in the main hallway, captures a clear image of a figure standing in the darkness—a patient, wearing a tattered hospital gown, staring blankly at the camera before vanishing.

The group begins to unravel. Ethan, still trying to maintain control, insists they stay to finish their exploration. But the others are no longer sure. When they attempt to leave, they discover that the hospital’s doors, which were unlocked earlier, are now sealed shut. The windows won’t break, and their cell phones lose all signal.

It’s as though the hospital itself won’t let them go.

Act 3: Unraveling Reality

As the night progresses, the group becomes separated, and each member experiences their own nightmare. Sara stumbles upon a room filled with old medical journals. She learns about Dr. Isaacs, the head psychiatrist at the asylum, who performed horrific experiments on the patients, believing he could cure their mental illnesses by "purging" their souls. The patients he experimented on were locked in isolation, subjected to brutal treatments, and eventually died from their mistreatment. Their spirits were said to be trapped in the hospital, wandering aimlessly, seeking revenge.

Mason uncovers a journal written by one of the patients who described a ritual conducted by Dr. Isaacs. The journal speaks of the doctor "binding souls" to the hospital’s walls, trapping them for eternity. The patient believed that anyone who enters the asylum becomes part of the "cycle," reliving the torment of the past.

Meanwhile, Carly is lured into the basement by the sound of a child crying. She finds a small room with a bed and restraints, as though it were used for patients. In a sudden flash, she is thrown into a vision: she sees herself strapped to the bed, doctors and nurses standing over her, conducting the same cruel experiments that killed the patients decades ago. When she wakes, she’s back in the present but now truly believes the spirits are trying to consume them.

Act 4: The Twist

As the group frantically searches for a way out, Kyle disappears. They find his camera, still recording, but no sign of him. In a panic, they review the footage and see Kyle wandering the halls alone before a dark figure grabs him and pulls him into the shadows. His screams echo through the halls but lead nowhere.

Sara, Ethan, and Mason eventually reunite, desperate to escape. In the climax, they reach a locked door that Sara believes holds the key to their freedom. As they break it open, the final truth is revealed: inside the room are old photos and records—of themselves.

They come to the horrifying realization that they were never alive to begin with. They are the spirits of former patients who died in the asylum, doomed to relive their "exploration" of the hospital in a time loop. Their memories of being urban explorers, of having lives outside the hospital, were fabricated by the asylum itself—a cruel joke played on them by the spirits who want them to suffer as they had. The "Kyle" they remember is nothing more than a remnant of the group’s collective memory, erased from existence as he has reached his final torment.

Sara suddenly recalls flashes of her own death: strapped to a hospital bed, subjected to Dr. Isaacs' torturous treatments. She realizes that the hospital forces its victims to forget their true selves, feeding off their confusion and fear.

Act 5: Eternal Torment

In the final moments, Ethan tries to rationalize what’s happening, but the memories come flooding back for all of them. They see visions of their past lives as patients of St. Dymphna's, each having been a victim of the very experiments they were investigating. The hospital itself is alive, and the spirits of the tortured patients are trapped in a never-ending cycle of suffering, dragging new souls into the fold.

Sara, Mason, and Ethan realize they are part of this cycle, doomed to repeat the exploration and their deaths over and over again. The final shot shows Sara staring into the mirror, watching her reflection fade into that of her tortured, emaciated form—her true self. As the screen fades to black, the sound of a new group of explorers entering the hospital echoes, beginning the cycle once again.

Final Scene: A new group of urban explorers arrives, unaware of the cycle, as the camera pans over Ethan, Sara, and Mason standing silently in the dark, their faces hollow, watching the newcomers—themselves—the next victims—begin the journey they’ve already lived countless times before.

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Anyway, the premiere happened without trouble.

Because the movie was directed by Kazir Grey, the first 24 hours of Shadows Beneath grossed $18 million.

Then the second day(January 6), it made another $23 million.

Then Sunday, which was the third day of the movie, it made another $14 million.

The first weekend grossed $58 million.

When Universal Pictures saw this result, they sighed in relief. Based on the performance of the movie, they had a high chance of making a profit.

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[Author's Note: Shadows Beneath is written by ChatGpt. I'm going to be honest, ChatGpt can cook some interesting scripts, I might not be surprised if Hollywood uses AI to make scripts for them. Anyway, I edited it a little bit but I'm not sure if I left some plot holes. I admit that I can't cook a script like this.]

[This chapter is over 2000 words. 1100 words of Shadows Beneath and 900 words written by me... I apologize if I use ChatGpt, but this is probably not the last time I'll use it as this AI actually helped me better in searching things on internet compared to Google.]