Natalie Yacobson - Devil’s Cinema. Crypt of the Seven Angels

The instinct of self-preservation actively warned that they would now attack him. Someone walked through the rows. Daniel clearly heard footsteps and the grinding of metal on the floor, but turning around, he could not make out in the darkness even just a vague silhouette of the controller. But one of the angelic figures suddenly turned its head right at him. More precisely, he did not see how it turned its head, but before all the angels looked at the screen, and not in the direction of the chairs. And now, suddenly, one of the marble faces stared straight at him. The angel was sitting right in his row, only a dozen chairs away. Has he really sat here before? When Daniel took his place, the whole row was definitely empty. The feeling was that the next moment the marble fingers would touch the arm of his chair and squeeze his hand until he fainted.

Everything could be attributed to the 3D effect, but the film has not even started yet, and Daniel himself has no glasses. Or are there special ways to impress the viewer in this privileged area?

From somewhere behind there was the mechanical rustle of a spinning reel. A golden scarab was crawling across the screen. How did he get there? No, it’s not real. Daniel looked more closely. In fact, the show has already begun. The screen lit up, as if some gates had opened from within. No commercials before the movie starts. Amazing! The credits went straight away. He had never seen a gold title before. And the letters are strange. He couldn’t read them. Or double in his eyes? The scarab crawled between credits in every frame.

Someone touched Daniel on the shoulder. He did not turn, fearing to see that one of the statues was already standing right behind him. Better not to spoil your nerves once again. All the same, the doors of the hall are now closed, there is nowhere to run. Until the session is over, it is worth enjoying the film. However, instead of enjoyment, many questions arose. At the beginning something like “Lady of the Pharaohs” flashed in the credits. Strange, but still understandable. Probably, it was about some kind of goddess. But the next line, highlighted in especially large print “And his name is Dennitsa” evoked frightening associations. Dennitsa is one of the names of the devil, it seems, the one under which he gained fame in paradise. The name of the most beautiful angel! Bible! Daniel remembered some of it. But how are the biblical devil and Ancient Egypt connected? In those days, no one had ever heard of the Bible. Therefore, no one knew about the devil either.

Daniel was confused. The feeling of being inside the screen was strong and without the 3D effect. Rapidly flashing footage of ancient palaces mixed with some kind of horror, as if sucked consciousness into a funnel. What if this feeling does not go away, but remains with him forever. Consciousness swept through the ancient Egyptian halls and pyramids, past bloody wars, witchcraft and the rituals of burying mummies, as if in search of something. Luxury mixed with horror, which only intensified the all-encompassing nightmare effect. It seems that this is not horror, and not a historical drama, and not an action movie, or a biblical story, but all together. And it all has a kind of crushing realism.

The film was about a golden creature that has conquered rulers since the beginning of time. It crept across the screen. Its claws were palpably close. Palaces, temples, pyramids remained behind it in the frame as a background. The time of action was in fact not only the Ancient Egypt, but all eternity, from the war in the heavens to the present day. But the main action, apart from numerous digressions to the twenty-fifth frame, was concentrated precisely on Egypt during the reign of Akhenaten. His commander Taor, who returned with a great victory, at the moment of honoring the hero noticed a beautiful winged creature whispering advice to the pharaoh, and fell in love with her. This creature was the biblical devil who ruled the local kings like puppets. This creature, contrary to biblical descriptions, had a girlish face and body. The creature was called Alais, and this name contained some kind of magical wording. Alais was cruel to the point of horror and sacrificed people to resurrect the army of demons from the desert sands. Taor was noble and inclined to self-sacrifice so much that he could be called a true Christian, although no one knew about Christianity at that time. And such a generous guy, ready to beg Pharaoh for forgiveness even for those who intended to kill him, fell in love with a creature performing bloody rituals. Love for Alais so overshadowed his brain that he was ready to give up all his own beliefs. But Alais, as it turned out, is not capable of loving anyone at all. The rejected young man, not finding a place for himself, wandered through the deserts and met the Archangel Michael himself, who put a dagger with two dragons on the hilt in his hand, capable of killing Alais.

What a special effect! It was even painful to look at Mikhail, so he shone, and the dragons on the dagger moved and hissed as if alive. And here is the only goodbye kiss in the tomb. Taor sacrificed himself only so that a monster would come to replace the angel. Everything fused from gold plates, clawed, multi-armed, like Kali, vaguely resembling a precious scarab.

The frames flashed like a top. Pyramids, mummification rites, a fallen army rising from the sands, deserts, rivers, palaces. And everywhere it is. Dazzling! Overshadowing the mind! Spooky! And beautiful.

It was already crawling across the stark darkness of the screen. It reached out with golden claws to Daniel’s throat. It breathed heat and fire into his face. It was near. Already in the hall. Between his row of seats and the previous one. He was willing to swear it. He even had a chance to feel the touch of hot metal claws on his neck, to look into bleeding sand-colored eyes, sparkling from under a pile of thin gold plates twisted with bizarre symbols.

Is this a creature from hell or from Egypt? In any case, it is here and now he will die, as all the pharaohs who did not obey him died.

And suddenly the light came on. There was no golden monster around. And the film did not come out of his head. For some reason, the story of Taor and Alais felt like a cutting pain in his mind. Daniel was never sentimental, but now he involuntarily wondered: why did all the greatness of history end in tragedy? Why these two, as if created for each other, could not stay together.

Of course, he did not voice the question out loud, but someone’s ringing voice boldly and mockingly answered him from the other end of the hall:

“Because she was the devil!”

No one around. Even the figures of marble angels disappeared somewhere. One and all. Daniel looked around in vain for the speaker. Could someone bend over and hide behind the empty chairs? Is it worth walking through the rows and checking? The hall was quite large.

Daniel frowned, not knowing where to go now. I didn’t want to leave at all. There was an unbearably strong desire to see the same film again. The story stirred up the blood, and the shots with alternation of luxury and horror did not go out of his head, almost driving him crazy. Daniel suddenly realized what exactly flashed in the frames, incredibly frightening. Rise of the angels and their overthrow. Fight winged, clawed and flaming creatures. Their transformation into monsters. Fall into the desert, burnt symbols in the sand. With the army of the devil, everything is clear, but there are many questions about Alais herself. If he is allowed to watch the film again, he will be able to understand everything, but who to turn to in order to ask for a repeat of the session and whether his request will be fulfilled.

Daniel sat motionless for ten minutes, waiting for someone else to talk to him, or at least that the exit doors would finally open, but neither one nor the other happened.