1998
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An Alien Voices Production: Halloween Trilogy   
The Mark of the Beast (by Rudyard Kipling)
The Canterville Ghost (by Oscar Wilde)
The Cask of Amontillado (by Edgar Allan Poe)

Adapted for television by Cecilia Fanon and John de Lancie
Music by Peter Erscine
Performance dir.: Jack Fletcher
Director: Michael Simon
              
Actors :
Francis Bay
Susan Bay
Jeff Combs
Marnie Mosiman
Leonard Nimoy
Dwight Schultz
Jean Simmons
Kurlwood Smith 

"... we are going to enter an audio world of Halloween, horror, more terrifying than anything you'll ever see. It's a great Halloween story, it is great to sit around a fireplace and scare - each – other kind of stories. With the help of classic stories and your imagination John de Lancie and I along with our acting troop “Alien Voices” have acted out before your eyes live acting theatre like it has never been done before. This is our most ambitious project to date. We are about to begin three stories about ghosts, ghouls and goblins which will transport you into the dark recesses of terror..."

The Mark of the Beast (by Rudyard Kipling)

During a banquet two friends (the story teller [John de Lancie] and Stickling) remember their latest adventure. A calf has been prepared for dinner and its eyes bring back all the horrible memories of what hey have been through. The eyes resemble those of the monkey god. Both friends remember New Year's eve 7 years ago in India they spent together with another friend, Fleet.

Drunk, after the celebration they passed a section of town crowded with untouchables offering gifts to a monkey statue made of stone. With his pistol Fleet kills a monkey and extinguishes a cigarette on the monkey god's forehead. Suddenly the monkey god's eyes began to gleam. In this moment a leper jumped down from a tree and bites Fleet in his neck. His nose starts bleeding and he suffers tremendous pain. The two friends bring him across the river to a doctor (Leonard Nimoy).

To calm Fleet down the doctor punches him and Fleet blacks out. "It is quicker than morphene" he explains. "Was he in a fight?" as the friends tell him what has happened, the doctor says: "No nose, no lips, but a full set of sharp teeth... Gentlemen, this is no leper-bite, this, this is no leper-bite, this is… the Mark of the Beast."
While the doctor is still tending to his patient, he awakes and says he's hungry. As the doctor's cat passes by, Fleet bites the cat's throat unzips the belly of the cat with his index finger and devours the harmless creature and then sits down in a chair. As Wice, the doctor, binds him to the chair, all hear howling sounds from outside the house. "Macht schnell! Qiuck, quick! Close the doors, close the windows!" the doctor commands.
"Listen! Listen, they are coming! Every beast within a hundred miles. He's possessed. He's one of them now and they want him." At first the friends do not want to leave their friend to his fate, but they have to unbind him to save them. Fleet cries loudly and leaves the house. Coming out of their hiding place the friends only find his clothes in the next morning.
... All this the two friends remember during their banquet as one of them is asked to tell about his adventures in India. He declines. Silently both friends raise their glasses and wonder whether they have got a mark of the beast themselves. Wice has vanished a year ago without a trace and both feel the beast all around them.

The Canterville Ghost (by Oscar Wilde)

As a grandmother Virginia remembers a part of her life as she moved to Canterville castle and tells the story to her grandchildren. Her parents have bought the castle "for a song" as father said because there was a ghost. This statement caused laughter by her, her brother, Washington, and her parents.

When they arrive, Mrs. Omni, the house keeper (the ONLY housekeeper, she emphasizes) greets them. As they discover a blood stain on the floor, Watson cleans it up with Pinkerton's agitating detergent. Outside a thunder is heard and Mrs. Omni faints... A raise is given to her as she awakes and she advises the family to put a chair under the doorknob to secure it.

At night they hear a howling sound. As it repeats, Hyron, the father, asks Washington to use the peashooter – quite successfully. The sound stops. The father also uses oil to stop the squeaking sound of moving doors. "Ooooooooooh" – the sound is heard along the corridors. "Wait, wait," the father says. "Don't you think you are overdoing the mourning a bit?" The ghost is awed and stunned.

At breakfast the family talks about the ghost and Virginia learns that Sir Simon, the ghost, is very handsome. The next night she hides in a closet because she is believed to be too young to encounter the ghost. As the ghost begins to spook at midnight, Washington makes fun of him: This costume is just stupid! No one is afraid of a knight in armor any more!" (Sir Simon is looking down at his outfit and wonders), and Watson begins a pillow fight with him.

"Your days are numbered!", Sir Simon threatens him. "No, on the contrary!", Hyron contradicts him: "Your days are numbered. Take your tin cans and get out!"
"They were so mean to him", Virginia remembers. She had followed him underneath the roof of the castle and found him near a window, sobbing and sobbing. He was the most handsome man she has ever seen.
"Hooooch!", Sir Simon looks up. "Oh, sorry, I did not want to frighten you", Virginia says. "But father says you have an unconvincing grown."
"Your whole family wants to frighten me", Sir Simon says. Both begin to talk and Sir Simon admits to Virginia that he has killed his own wife. Now he fears he has to go on for ever. "I want to die," Sir Simon admits now. And he could if a true, honest person forgave him. Virginia found it easy to forgive him. Passing through a tunnel both face the angle of death. She witnesses that he is forgiven and she was allowed to return because he spoke for her. They kiss good bye. Virginia tells her family about Sir Simon's fate and her father knows that she's not a child any more. Happily married Virginia always remembers the once lonely ghost.

The Cask of Amontillado (by Edgar Allan Poe)

"Revenge! Revenge!", Montresor swears himself. Well aware of the actions by which Fortunato, the great wine merchant, has caused his whole family to die, including his son.
Fortunadt has caused the poverty of the family by cheating them. Promising him bottles of the precious Amontillado, Montresour makes him follow to his home. On their way Fortunato admits that Montresor's grandfather and father have been always very kind to him, but he had cheated on them causing their ruin.
Tempted to kill him right away Montresor restrains until they have reached the cellars where Montresor's family is buried. The merchant indulges all darkness and the wet air in order to get to the precious bottles. All the way he shows his disrespect of Montresor's family and even praises himself about how easily he has cheated them.

Montresor succeeds in tricking Fortunato into a trap. He arrests his hands into slings and fixes him to the wall down in a remote part of the cellar. Slowly Fortunato realizes: Montresor begins to build a wall to close up this section of the cellar – leaving him inside for good. Montresor makes him scream and plead – only to enjoy the torture of the man. Just before having finished to close the gap Montresor hears the final breath of the man who was responsible for the fate of his family.

He got his revenge.

The Mark of the Beast (by Rudyard Kipling)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKouPRQ6Yp4
The Canterville Ghost (by Oscar Wilde)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW1_QrW-5PU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8HDjnfN7hQ
The Cask of Amontillado (by Edgar Allan Poe)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CE5OX_XRwo