Which way wicked comes no one knows when a vain woman is subsumed by an alternate dimension.

SYNOPSIS:

On a dark, deserted road rumor becomes reality when Alina Glass’s car is struck by lightning. Searching for the future tellers to steal their arts is an obsession as old as time.

In front of a tiny cottage she leaves her disabled vehicle for the safety of shelter. She’s met by an old woman who seems to know her. Undaunted, she accepts the hospitality and is introduced to a macabre world of deceit and artifice.

In the midst of clutter stands an old fashioned television, curiously out of place even in the shadowy presence of the living room. Alina notices. She single-mindedly presses the old woman to find a legendary people who can satisfy her. The old woman manipulates the conversation for her own devices. Have you met my son?

Alina loses her patience at the moment the television crackles on. Konrad claims to be a prophet who can give her everything she wants. The price? Her soul. More aptly, her energy. He lives off the lifeforce of others. The statue garden behind him is the testament, gathered by his mother over a lifetime. Before she can refuse, Konrad gives her the means to great wealth. She accepts. As a trial.

Two week later, she returns rich, successful, powerful. Everything she wants. Her soul, though, is too high a price. She refuses to sign the contract and mother ambushes her with the eternal staff, sending her into Konrad’s web. Still holding the unsigned paper, she’s encased alive in plaster and joins his conquests. Stealing an unsigned soul, though, is strictly forbidden and it costs mother her life. His supply line severed, what is Konrad to do?

After years, the low, constant, pulsating energy the staff, the realm and mother’s pendant emit attracts a physicist from the local university. Spencer Graham pushes his way into the rancid, decrepit cottage to the world Alina left. He’s drawn by the single blue dot on the television screen and the eruption on his Thermal detector. Accidentally breaking a lamp he kneels to the floor where he is repelled by the skinless skeleton of mother in a shawl next to a glowing staff. The detector explodes again. Now, he’s certain.

He calls his assistant Morgan Holt. In their excitement she stumbles on the corpse too, uncovering a pendant around its neck. It galvanizes to the staff in Spencer’s hand exploding a burst of white light that decapitates him. Horrified, Morgan flees as the house collapses on itself.

From fitful sleep a phone call awakens her. It’s Spencer. He’s in the house and he needs her help. Confused, she races there only to see events repeat themselves. Again. And, again. Until she preempts them by going directly to the cottage before the fourth frenetic call. Frantic, she stops him from perpetuating the cycle.

Out of sheer desperation they use the staff to turn “on” the television. Konrad is emaciated, almost delirious. Or, is he? Bewitching Morgan, he tricks her into his dimension, drains her of her energy and nearly entombs her but for the unlikely intervention of Spencer. He uses the staff to beat Konrad back and steal Morgan to the actual realm. Konrad is furious.

The die is cast. Spencer and Morgan must free the victims inside the statues and put an end to Konrad’s evil.

Realizing the staff and pendant each possess power, Spencer paralyzes Konrad through the portal of the television. Morgan enters his realm to free as many prisoners as possible. It works, for a time. Until Konrad’s superior strength rips the pendant from Graham and nearly costs Morgan her life.

Alina, newly freed, convinces them to save the others. With time slipping away she leads three of her companions back to the “garden” under cover of diversion. Konrad discovers them and kills them, including a repentant Alina.

Morgan challenges Konrad to a death match for control of both the staff and pendant. If Morgan wins, the remaining prisoners go free. They sign in blood and join the fight.

A fierce battle later and Konrad’s grip on his domain slips. His waning powers leave a tear in his realm opening a dangerous void. With his last breath he sweeps Morgan into it and both disappear into oblivion. Spencer is stunned and runs from the house as it collapses on itself leaving the newly freed prisoners as Morgan’s legacy.

Impossibly, a small television sits where the house no longer does. It crackles on and Morgan fills the screen. Holding the staff and pendant escape is imminent. Or is it?