CORALINEMOVIE.ORIGINAL

   Ever since the movie Coraline had come out, it was one of my favorite movies. But something I watched changed my mind.

   It all started a few months back. The store blockbuster in my town was closing down, and they were selling all their DVD's, VHS tapes, and video games for decent prices, so I decided to stop by. I walked in and went toward the DVD's. I watch a lot of movies, so most of them I had already seen. There was one though that caught my eye. It was a DVD that had no cover art. Just a case with white paper in the slot where the cover art should be. There was a title written on the front of it in capital letters with a red permanent marker. The title was, CORALINEMOVIE.ORIGINAL. I was puzzled by the title, but it was pretty obvious that it was a copy of the movie Coraline. I mean, what else could it be? I thought that maybe it had some extras or behind the scenes footage in it. When I got to the checkout counter, I asked the guy at the register if he knew if it had any extras in it. He told me that he had never seen the DVD before, so he couldn't tell me anything about it. I purchased the movie anyways. If I could re-live this moment, I'd give it to the police, or just destroy it.

   When I got home, I decided to see what was on the disk. It was one of those blank DVD-R disks. Again, it said in red capital letters CORALINEMOVIE.ORIGINAL. So I popped in into my computer and sure enough, the name said CORALINEMOVIE.ORIGINAL. I opened it up and pressed play.

   The first thing I noticed that was odd was how long the movie lasted. It lasted for 150 minutes, while I recall the original version lasted only for about 100 minutes. (Again, I watch a lot of movies.) Though I was curious to why the video was 50 minutes longer. Nonetheless, I was interested in watching. The quality of of the film was one like you'd find on a old VHS tape, slight static on top and on the bottom of the screen, but nothing that wasn't visible. Usually, in the beginning of the movie, you see a doll of Coraline being made, but the intro was different. There was no music playing in the background, and no background music played for the entire movie. It was of the pink palace. But it looked more decrepit and abandoned. Windows were boarded up the pink on the house was faded, and the creepiest part was that none of the neighbors from the "normal" version of Coraline seemed not to be living in the house. The sky looked much more darker now. It wasn't nighttime, it was just darker. This lasted for the first 10 minutes of the film. I was pretty confused at the time. I thought maybe the video got stuck, but I saw that it was still playing, so I waited. After those minutes, it showed Coraline walking out of her house like it does in the "normal"  version where she goes to find the well. But there were some strange characteristics about her that made me uncomfortable.

   The first thing I noticed was that Coraline's eyes just seemed to pop out. 3-D like. Another characteristic I noticed was that she looked like she had mixed emotions of being depressed, sad, frustrated, and outright freaked out. She appeared to have been crying for some unknown reason for a while. She then went off her way to the well. She didn't go the usual route though. She went through a forest. The forest was pitch black, but there were a few trees that you could make out. She stopped in front of the forest. She looked unsure if she should go in or not. She just stood their, looking straight at the forest for about 3 minutes, until she finally started to walk in.

   For the first couple of minutes, the only sound was that of Coraline walking. After a few minutes she started to walk faster. Then, she started to jog, until she went full on running. She started screaming as she ran. Not the normal way she would scream in the movie, but a more violent and sobbing scream. She finally made her way to the well. The well too had some odd aspects. It was not buried anymore. It was made of brick. It too was 3-D looking. It did not look like it belonged in a movie like Coraline. Coraline then looked down the well. She stared down for about 6-7 minutes. This creeped the shit out of me. At this point, I knew something was not right about this disk.

   She then ran back home and realized that she had gotten poison oak from the branch that she used as a dowsing rod. The weird part though is that in this version of Coraline, there was no dowsing rod. She did not use one. She did not have the bumps on her hands. Her hands were bleeding watery looking blood. When she walked inside, her mom's computer was on the kitchen table, but her mom was no where to be seen. Coraline's mom then came out of no where and slapped Coraline in the back of the head causing her to collapse to the ground. Her mom appeared to be extremely angry and strangely wide awake. Like she hadn't slept in days. Coraline said to her mom "Mom, I'm already hurt..." She was tearing up. Coraline's mom started to kick her with extreme force. This occurred for a while. She just kept hurting her until Coraline begged her to stop and she started bleeding even more. After a period of time, her mom stopped, went to her computer, and started to type as if  nothing had happened. Coraline then struggled her way to the bathroom to clean herself off. When she had stopped weeping and felt a little better, she went to her room, and slept.

   When she awoke the next day, she felt much more relaxed and happier. She went into the room with the door that leads into the other world and found the small door. But it wasn't locked. It was wide open. Instead of the other side being brick or the other world, it was a mirror. Coraline then looked at herself through the mirror. She saw herself with buttons as eyes. Instead of her getting scared or freaking out, she started laughing. The laughing continued and continued, until she lifted her arm up and put it through the mirror. The mirror was a portal to the other world. She then had a look on her face that made her look like that she knew that the mirror shouldn't be there. Despite all this, she crawled in.

   The house, other mother, and other father, all looked like they should look like in the normal version of Coraline. Coraline walked into the kitchen, found her other mother, and chatted with her as she usually would. Coraline then went upstairs to her other father and he started singing and playing the piano as he would typically do. Everything was the same, other fathers voice, the tune of the piano, everything. There was one thing that was different though, the lyrics of the song. I remember the lyrics as clear as day. They went like this:

   "Nobody cares about Coraline!"

   "She's a freak, she's a bitch, I wish she would just die!"

   "She should just burn in hell I hope she commits suicide I hope that Coraline will die!"

   "When she comes around I'll be waiting I will murder her when she's sleeping I want to kill Coraline!"

   When the song ended, Coraline just stood there with a blank expression on her face. She stayed like this for what seemed like forever. She then turned around and walked out of the room.

   Coraline then went over to Mr. Bobinsky's house to enjoy a show, but what she saw wasn't a show. She walked in and saw other Wybie already there. This Wybie however, actually spoke. He only said two words though. All he said was "I'm sorry." and then the show began.

   The lights turned on and Mr. Bobinsky was just standing there with a creepy looking smile stretching across his face. That wasn't the weird part though. The weird part was the circus mice surrounding him. They were all dead. They were all shredded, with their organs and limbs teared apart. There was blood surrounding them also. But this time around, it was cartoonish looking blood. The camera was focused on this scene for several minutes. The lights turned off, and Coraline had the same blank expression on her face. Her and Wybie went to see Miss Spink's and Miss Forcible's show.

   When they walked in, all the dogs that usually attend the show were dead. Shredded, like the mice. They ignored the bodies and took their seats up front. The curtains opened and Mrs. Spink and Mrs. Forcible appeared in their younger forms. They had that creepy smile like the one Mr. Bobinsky had. They both jumped onto their ropes and started to do some unrealistic looking tricks. They were then about to do a trick were it involved them jumping over a giant sharp blade and grabbing onto the opposite persons rope. As they jumped, they both just missed the opposites rope and fell down to the blade. They both got sliced in half with this time, the same realistic looking blood and organs. It sent chills down my spine and goosebumps on my arms. Once again, Coraline had the same blank facial expression. She started to run. She ran all the way to the dark forest and to the realistic looking well. She started to cry. She collapsed onto the ground. She became unconscious. The screen then became filled with static. Then something unexpected happened.

   The next piece of footage was in real life. There was an unknown figure recording with an old camera. It was one of those older cameras that read the date on the bottom. The date read October 17, 2005, four years before Coraline was released. In it, there was the well. The well was real. It was surrounded by a forest. The figure put the camera on a tripod facing the it. The figure wore a black hoodie with the hood covering his face, baggy jeans, and work boots. There was a body in front of the well. The body was that of a girl. She looked to have been 14 or 15 years old. But the creepiest part, was that she actually looked like Coraline. Her hair, the raincoat, the boots, everything. But that was impossible, this was a few years before Coraline was realesed. Her torso was torn open. There was blood everywhere. I had to withdraw from puking. It was sick, but I wanted to figure out who this man was, and what was going on. The figure then took the body, and took it to where the camera was. He pointed the face to the camera. He had two black buttons in his hands and a sewing needle with string. I knew what was going to happen next, he started to take one of the buttons, and sew it over one of her eyes. The part that I wasn't expecting was... that the girl was still alive. Even after her body was slashed open, she was alive. She started to scream for help. She kept struggling but it was no use. She started to beg for the sick bastard to stop, but he kept on sewing. Her begging sounded like when Coraline was being tortured by her mother, or when she was running in the woods. She started to ooze blood from her eyes. Dear god I wanted it all to stop. I think she passed out of shock. The figure then took the body and took it to the well. He tossed it down. The rest of the footage was only of the well. When the video ended, I was filled with disbelief. I didn't sleep for days. I couldn't eat. I couldn't do anything. All I did was think about what I had seen.  I did not want this DVD. I didn't want to destroy it because it might be evidence for an unsolved murder. So I handed it into the hands of the police. I begged them to try to solve the mystery of the tape, and if they had any information on it, to bring it to me. During that time, 2 police men had committed suicide, and 1 had gone missing. They never found him. They never found out who the hooded man was. I guess the police had nothing to do with the disk, so they gave it back to me. I have absolutely no idea why, but I took it back. It's like their was just something about it that made me take it. I didn't want to look at it anymore, so I put it in a random cardboard box in my basement and haven't looked at it since. I will never forget what is on the disk, the suicides, the disappearance, and especially the hooded man.