- Stage magician Lance Gessler lives in a mansion known as Metropolis that has a deadly history. When another victim succumbs to an ominous presence in the attic room, it's up to Jonathan to unravel the mystery.
- WARNING!!!Second Part contains SPOILERS!!!!
The set-up is told through a grainy, black and white reel film: During a balmy summer in the 1930/40s, renowned psychic and medium Jacques Futrelle holds a dinner party at his 'haunted' mansion, Metropolis. As well as his own wife and child, guests include the who's who in modern politics and media, including geneticist and scientist Eli Mencken. Futrelle tells the tale of a mysterious room, the highest room in the house, where an insane Edwardian relative confined himself. The 'Nightmare Room' is said to be haunted. Mencken, naturally, takes this on the chin and stays sceptical. Futrelle suggests he stay the night in the room, if he really doesn't believe in ghosts. Egged on by other guests, Mencken gives in, all in good humour. The windows are all locked, there are no trapdoors, just a bed, a small bathroom, and the main door. Four guests lock four padlocks on the outside, so he cannot leave without all fours co-operation. At dawn, they unlock the door...and Mencken has vanished! Leaving nothing but a sticky ectoplasmic substance n the bed... The mystery being he has never reappeared.
Modern day: Jonathan Creek is annoyed to discover there is a younger, female version of himself currently making waves as a lateral thinking investigator. She is Joey Ross (an excellent Sheridan Smith). Meanwhile, Adam performs one of his usual (and slightly ropey) sets to a live TV audience, which includes a live scrolling message board for viewers to text in to. Unfortunately, the texts are from tech-savvy viewers who proceed to explain how each trick is done and lampoon the ageing magician, while Jonathan watches in horror on his home tv. It seems the modern world has overtaken Jonathan, Klauss, and what they stand for. Joey's best friend Mina, a party-loving glamour girl, invites her to what sounds like a wild party, only for the girls to break down on a muddy country road in the middle of nowhere, where Joey gets soaked trying to fix the car, as well as putting her back out trying to take off a tyre. Luckily, they are rescued by a kindly caretaker, who takes them to the house he tends to...Metropolis. The house is now owned by Futrelles daughter, Constance, her conjuror son Lance Gessler and his beautiful assistant/girlfriend Elodie. They all agree the girls must stay the night as they are drenched, and can phone for their car to be picked up in the morning. That night, the Caretaker and Constance spin the tale of Futrelle and Mencken, and Mina and Joey are very taken with the macabre story. Meanwhile, Jonathan runs into an old flame, who was told by Carla Barrego (Jonathan's former partner, one one-time girlfriend before an unfortunate case of hiccups at a dinner party prompted her to dump him and marry a televisions producer) that he had died of an awful wasting disease. She is delighted he is alive after all, and the pair start dating. Joey and Mina are shown guest bedrooms to stay the night, Joey's, although Mina decides to take a chance and stay the night in the haunted room. The caretaker jokingly locks her in, although she takes extra measures and blocks the door off from the inside by jamming a chair under the handle. The next day Joey realises her friend is missing and everyone rushes to make sure Mina is ok...they find the room empty, piles of clothing on the floor, as well as a pair of ripped tights....Mina has vanished!
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Jonathan arrives to try and deduce what has happened-only to find Joey has already picked apart every last possible explanation, and they are both left at a dead end as to what happened to Mina. They check the bed, the windows...Joey mentions the room is directly above hers, so there can't be any sort of trapdoor. Jonathan notices that the bed is covered with insects, and as he presses on the mattress, dead flies appear to fall from the drapes above the bed. Still, no sign of any exit. There is also a distinctive oil painting hanging on the wall, depicting a grotesque, leering character titled The Grinning Man. Constance seems proud of the painting, telling them it is an early Bosch, yet seems troubled by its presence...as they are searching the bathroom, a bird hits a window, startling Joey. Constance confesses to Jonathan that six other people also vanished, as visitors who heard of Mencken came and went, trying their luck with the haunted room. None of those that vanished have ever been seen again. Meanwhile, as light relief, Adam Klauss is trying to invest in 3-D Pornography via some dubious studio deals...and dates with a larger-than-life actress, Kandi Mountain. Lance Gessler gives Joey and Jonathan some of his grandfathers old belongings-from which Joey quickly deduces Menckens disappearance was planned early in advance, and suggests perhaps Mencken wanted to 'disappear' and Futrelle helped him, only there were still problems with the trick. Jonathan finds an English newspaper among the documents, reporting on its front page one of Hitler's many successful rallies in Germany - on top, in Futrelles writing, it says 'Felix Dies!' in an upper corner. All three are at a loss as to who Felix could be, and what relevance this has.
Gessler holds a birthday party for himself, inviting his closest friends as well as the investigating duo, and during this party Jonathan see's Elodie and the caretaker sneaking away to the small chapel on the mansions grounds. He grabs Joey to investigate, and under the chapel they find the Futrelle Family Crypt. Futrelle and his wife were killed in a car accident six months after Mencken's disappearance, and are buried here. There is nothing new to find, however, although Jonathan notes that Futrelle's epitaph is in Latin, as is every other piece of writing in his crypt. Jonathan thinks a trapdoor may be involved, but on inspecting the house from outside sees clearly that it is above Joey's room. Also, a bird they heard colliding with the window in the rooms small bathroom is lying in the guttering. It seems Mina really has vanished into thin air after all.. They attend one of Gesslers sell-out performances, during which Elodie perfectly executes a trick she had been struggling with earlier on. In the audience, Joey takes a video call with her distant, and vaguely obnoxious American boyfriend, suggesting their relationship simply isnt working, and she becomes a little annoyed, although Jonathans girlfriend tries to reassure her. While trying to get out of her seat, she aggravates her bad back and suggests a bath to soothe it. After the performance, a worried Gessler accosts the Caretaker and asks him if he has seen Elodie as he can't seem to find her. They find her dressing room empty, except for a threatening letter suggesting she has been kidnapped, and demanding ransom from Gessler. Whilst making the ransom drop the next day, Constance tells Jonathan that she was present the morning that Mencken went missing. Before her frightened mother took her out of the room, she witnessed some strange behaviour from her father she has not been able to explain-she saw him carefully pick up what looked like a small white stone and slide it into his pocket, without anyone seeing. Jonathan voices his observation that she seems haunted by something. Constance explains she is coming to terms with the fact her father was probably responsible for Menckens disappearance, and that of the people after, and they were in fact deaths with nothing paranormal about them whatsoever. Jonathan has also decoded Futrelles use of latin...Felix Dies in fact means Happy Day, suggesting Futrelle was a Nazi sympathiser. Menckens work would have been in direct conflict with Hitlers campaign, and Futrelle decided to eliminate him. There was no Edwardian ancestor, the whole story was probably concocted to get Mencken to comply with Futrelle's plan, although there is still no clue as to what happened to him and the other guests. The ransom is picked up, but they are unable to clearly see the kidnapper as he/she makes off with the money. Elodie is not returned, however, and the group grow anxious. Later that evening, in bed, Jonathans girlfriend makes a casual mention of all the 'young talent' around these days and hits a raw nerve with an already insecure Jonathan, who feels Joey is out to replace him with her trendy style and web-blogs. Joey, meanwhile, has stowed away in Gessler's prop trailer after the show packs up for the night, and ends up in a giant storage warehouse owned by Gessler. As she is looking around, she see's Elodie, bound and gagged and hanging from a hook from the ceiling-before she rush to her aid, Gessler walks up to the restrained woman...and slits her throat. Horrified, Joey hides in a packing case, afraid Gessler will kill her too. She sends a panicked text to Jonathan, who immediately grabs his girlfriend and rushes to her aid. They find her in time, before she smothers, and also find the body of Elodie, wrapped in plastic and hidden behind boxes. She is dead. Later, when they arrive back at the warehouse with the police in tow, Jonathan and Joey are stunned to find there is no body at all..just a rubber prop double of Elodi used in performances, wrapped in the same plastic bag. Nevertheless, as there are three witnesses (one of whom is a qualified nurse, and checked for a pulse) the police arrest Gessler on suspicion of murder and take him away for questioning, much to the sadness of Constance. Jonathan spots the caretaker, and-as they go to question him-he tells Joey how he believes he and Elodie snuck away to the chapel not to visit the crypt, but to be secretly married. This probably infuriated Gessler, and provided a motive for murder. The caretaker confirms this, also that Gessler is a machiavellian genius. It was Mina's disappearance that sparked Elodie's resolve to leave Gessler and Metropolis and marry him. He truly believed she had been kidnapped, and is kicking himself that he underestimated Gessler. Jonathan is suddenly distracted by the angle the caretakers ladder makes against the exterior wall-he also notices there is a dead bird in his wheelbarrow. The caretaker says there have been about three of them altogether that week, as though they have some sort of deathwish and deliberately fly into the windows. Joey throws down the gauntlet and suggests they stay the night in the haunted room as none of this has explained what happened to Mina. Constance agrees to this, but still maintains her son's innocence. They do not lock the door, and again Jonathan points out the dead insects, although he notices that pressure on the mattress seems to open an air vent above the bed, releasing the dead bugs. It is not big enough to hide a body, however. They both discuss the eerie oil painting, and Constance's strange attitude to it, despite the fact she rescued it from a fire as a young girl. Jonathan believes it is important. He studies the eaves of the room, but can't think of an explanation. Both fall asleep, and when Joey wakes she sees Jonathan has vanished. She panics and starts to hyperventilate-at which point he exits the bathroom, flushing the loo. False alarm. Joey suddenly has an idea-perhaps Gessler wasn't killing Elodie. Perhaps he found her hanging, choking on a gag and unable to breathe and was trying to open her airway, but it was too late and she suffocated to death? And perhaps he never admitted it as he is protecting the person responsible. When they get up in the morning, Joey's back locks up leaving her in excruciating pain, and she refuses to attempt the stairs. Jonathan goes off to find the caretaker and get some painkillers for her. Again, he stares at the rooftop room, trying to figure out its mystery. He explains to the caretaker that perhaps the bird he saw there wasnt the one that hit the window after all, maybe it was coincidence. It could have been there for days. He does not believe the room at the top of the house is the same room he and Joey are staying in. He suggests the pitched ceiling could be false, built in to give the appearance of a rooftop room. It may in fact be a room lower down, meaning there could actually be hidden basements and cellars. As he suggests Joey has taken a bath to ease the pain of her back, he realises how the trick works...as Joey lowers herself into the water. As she relaxes in the hot water, the bathtub jolts-the ceramic inner of the bath separates from the wooden box support and tips, flinging her into a hidden tank of water....where seven decayed corpses greet her, including her friend Mina. As the bathtub begins to retract back into position, Jonathan and the caretaker manage to stop its closing and grab Joey before she sinks, dragging her to safety.
After all the fuss, Jonathan explains the trick-how the attic room is lower down in the house, and beneath it is a rig of pulleys attached to the bath, calibrated to react to the weight of a body. He suggests the ectoplasm was actually just gunk, engineered to make sure Mencken used the bath in the morning. It's now full of dead flies, which probably prompted other visitors to bathe as well. As for the ripped tights, Mina probably ripped them trying to get a spider off her legs. Evidently, Futrelle died before he got a chance to dismantle the trap, and it has remained in the house, working perfectly up until now. Constance is grieved to hear of the truth, and realises the small stone she saw her father hide away was a piece of soap, propelled by the bathtub as Mencken was flung into the tank. This also explains how only some visitors vanished-mythology is, after all, selective. Those that didnt bathe had a lucky escape... However she is glad to announce Elodie is alive-the police received an amateur camera tape taken by Japanese tourists, clearly showing them bumping into Elodie. A man in the background has a newspaper showing the date and cover news. It matches the local paper. It seems that what happened in the warehouse never occurred, despite the fact Elodie still has not been seen, by her husband or anyone else. Jonathan examines that day's paper, and notices that although the cover story is about bees attacking a court hearing, the devastating news of a motorway being planned to pass through several villages has been relegated to second page. They make a visit to the editor, in time to spare her being battered to death by an enraged Gessler. She admits she pre-fabricated the cover-she released bee's into the courtroom so she knew what the next day's story would be, after having already typed it up and printed it out as a back and front cover, using it as a prop for three actors to use, as they filmed Elodie on her walk through the park the day she was killed. She never expected the motorway story to occur, and could not change it. Gessler was romancing her, and brought her round to the idea of having Elodie 'put away' and never expected he would kill her to tie up any loose ends. She collected the ransom money for Gessler, taking care not to be seen or recognised. The duo return to Metropolis, to Constance, who has learned the truth about her sons acts. She explains how she knew something bad would happen to her as she started off the sequence of terrible events, long ago. She explains how, when her parents died, she was sent to live with relatives in Oslebrukk, Germany. When she was a teen, a stray coal in one of the large house's parlours set fire to a rug and the house caught fire. She walked into the parlour to find it ablaze, and saw the priceless Bosch painting was in danger of going up in smoke. As she rushed to rescue it, she saw her elderly, wheelchair bound uncle wake up from a nap and panic as the flames rose around him. Constance made the decision to rescue the painting instead, and left her Uncle to be consumed by the flames. She regrets her choice, obviously, and knew that God would find a way to punish her for her selfishness and greed. She believes she turned her son into the cold killer he is through her actions. As she speaks, the caretaker brings out the Bosch painting, and throws it into the fire, upon her request, thereby ending her own personal curse.
Meanwhile, police investigating an abandoned car near Gessler's warehouse find that there is a hosepipe connecting the exhaust to the window. They wipe away the frost on the windscreen, to discover Gessler's body inside. He has committed suicide. Case Closed. Jonathan, Joey and Adam dine together, awaiting their respective partners. Adam proudly displays his contract with director Snuffy White. Jonathan points out the signature has, in fact, vanished, meaning Adam has paid a lot of money, with nothing guaranteed in return. Adam is furious he has been 'undone' by one of his own basic tricks. Joey gets a video message from her boyfriend, still in the US, and unfortunately he is not alone....Jonathans girlfriend has become smitten with him after spying on Joeys calls and has flown out to be with him as it is her 'destiny' as predicted by her horoscope in that month's Vogue. Both offer a shallow apology. All three, annoyed and deflated, change their table reservation to just 'three...for the nightmare room...'
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