Krampus in Space (2026) Movie Script
(beast roars)
(water sloshes)
(anxious music)
[Kess] It came from
the darkness to feed.
(chains rattling)
Some believed it to be a demon.
To others,
an otherworldly
agent of retribution,
of moral reckoning.
Though thought to be a legend,
(beast growls)
Its terror was real and in
the darkest winter nights,
it would strangle.
(beast roars)
(children screaming)
Every year, it would return
to claim more children.
Until one night.
(parent weeps)
Where's my boy?
[Kess] A stranger arrived.
A savior.
The battle was set.
The stranger had constructed
a prison around the beast.
An ancient puzzle unlike
anything seen before.
(chains rattling)
(stranger grunts)
Chains that bind
winter's beast,
by man's breath and
the stars East. (Groan)
Chains that bind
the winter's beast,
by man's breath and
the stars East. (Grunt)
Chains that bind
the winter's beast,
by man's breath
and the stars East.
Exile!
(beast roars)
Exile!
(beast snarls)
[Kess] It was a pattern
that cost him his life.
The final incantation.
Exile for the beast,
sent to the one place
humans could not venture,
the stars.
(ominous music)
(spaceship humming)
(alternative rock music)
(lights click)
Still no radio communication?
That's a negative.
Bio-signature scan?
Nearly within range.
Slow ahead, one quarter.
Slow ahead, one quarter.
We're within scanning range.
Scan for life signs.
That's a negative, Captain.
No life signs.
Engine's running hot.
Oxygen's breathable.
It seems like it just rolled
off the production line.
(controls beeping)
(spaceship humming)
Handshake with the
Victory's computer
and begin docking procedure.
- Yes, ma'am.
We're boarding?
(low mysterious music)
Colonial ship Victory,
this is the Arden's Wake.
Please respond, over.
(controls beeping)
(Kess chuckles)
Merry Christmas.
(buttons clicking)
[Voss] Hale?
Go ahead.
[Voss] We're about
to board the Victory.
I need you in the docking party.
Aye.
(Hale whistles)
[Hale] Couldn't hold, Doc?
No, not likely.
Being on this
crate is one thing,
restoring a dead ship, (hiss)
not my idea of a good time.
Yeah.
Oh, you know, a
couple of us are meeting
for a few Christmas
drinks later.
Did you fancy joining,
doctor's orders?
No offense, Doc, but I
don't drink on the job.
Neither do I.
(footsteps clacking)
Hey, why are we slowing down?
We're not boarding
that vessel, are we?
Look man, I'm just
paid to work here.
She asked you a question.
Yeah, we're boarding her.
Fancy coming along?
When I paid for passage aboard
this ship, I didn't expect
Listen, your dollars may
have gotten you passage
on this rust bucket but
I still have a job to do,
whether you like it or not.
- You're just gonna take that?
- Oh, shut up.
(Lara scoffs)
Docking clamps ready.
Thrusters at 10%.
Only?
(Kess chuckles)
Airlock ready.
Come on, come on.
(spaceship whirs)
(clamp buzzes)
Locking clamps engaged.
It's all yours, Captain.
[Voss] Good work,
Kess, good work.
Nice work.
(buttons clicking)
You see our guests?
Not very much since yesterday.
They ain't happy.
Well, if they wanna hitch
a ride, no questions asked,
they need to prepare
for a bit of a swim.
You know who he is, don't you?
Enlighten me.
The manifest says Chalmers
but his name ain't Chalmers.
It's something different.
But he was a founder
of the Eden colony.
Eden?
Jesus.
- Yeah.
Ruptured bio-dome,
2000 citizens, poof.
All down to cheap building work
which that piece of
shit signed off on.
That's him?
His face was plastered
all over the telecast.
It's him all right.
Got outta there before
the arrest warrant
could be executed.
Is there record of a reward?
Already checked, no such luck.
Unless you count a medal from
the Colonies as a reward.
I don't.
I swear, the rich,
they think they can just buy
themselves out of anything.
That's 'cause
they usually can.
Ready?
Yeah.
(switch clicks)
(spaceship humming)
(door clacks)
(controls beeping)
Keep it tight.
You getting anything?
Not a thing.
Okay.
(door clacks)
Don't sweat it.
I've flown around
with Voss 26 times.
Eight of those have
been exactly like this.
Not exactly like this.
Worse.
The ship, we had to
intercept the Aries.
Oh yeah.
crew members all dead.
The meteor hit, this
is where we found Hale.
He was the last survivor.
Just imagine all of
these dead bodies
floating around space
crushed by the gravity.
It was quite beautiful.
Okay.
(controls beeping)
(low anxious music)
No signs of life, nothing.
A ghost ship.
Seems that way.
[Hale] Voss, Ibarra,
you need to get down
here to the cargo hold.
Why?
Let's just say I
think I found something.
(low anxious chanting)
(low anxious music)
(Hale scoffs)
The place has been stripped.
No logs,
no cargo tags.
Pretty much picked clean.
You reckon it's
a scavenger, eh?
Not likely.
Scavengers usually blast a ship
to pieces once they raid it.
[Vale] So we are
the first here.
Is that?
Wood.
Holy shit.
Are you sure?
German oak.
100%.
I mean, this has gotta
be 700 years old.
Is it locked?
(tablet warbles)
Well, the manifest,
it lists food rations,
prefab modules, mining gear,
but no mention of this.
They must have wanted to
keep it on the down low.
Jesus.
A cousin of mine, he
used to do some work once,
some security work
for this rich dude
and he used to have this
old piece of driftwood,
no more than 10
centimeters in length.
He kept it in a glass case.
The value,
one million credits.
- Whoa.
Hard to believe Earth used
to be covered in this stuff.
A private dealer would
kill for a piece like this.
Or pay us enough to
get us out the service.
- And then some.
- Fuckin' A.
(Voss laughs)
But what about the Victory?
We leave her.
- Voss, are you saying-
- Change the log.
Officially, we were never here.
We encountered a
drifting derelict.
The structure was unstable
and we didn't dock.
And we bring this home quietly
and find a private dealer.
All right, fuck it.
But what about the others?
Ah, they'll go along
with it, they always do.
At the end of the day,
we've got a ghost ship.
Maybe the crew evacuated,
maybe space fever.
It doesn't matter, what
matters now is this box.
This box gets us all out
of the service for good.
'Tis the season, eh? (Laughs)
Whew.
(spaceship humming)
Well I'll be, is it real?
The scans confirmed.
- Jesus.
- Guys,
I haven't run the
numbers yet but
We sell it, black market
dealer, split the credits.
This will be enough to buy us
all out the service for good.
(ominous bell tolls)
Those aren't decorations.
The birch,
pine cones, the
bell, those symbols,
they're wards, they're
meant to bind something.
(bells jingling)
Or it's someone's Christmas
antique ornament set.
No, I'm serious, my
grandmother used to tell stories.
These items when
placed together,
they're meant to keep
something out or something in.
Superstition or not, the
value here isn't the sticks,
it's the wood,
real earth timber.
(low ominous chanting)
And one thing's agreed.
No one breathes a word of
this outside of the bridge.
Mm.
The passengers do
not hear about this.
Well, I guess
Santa came early.
(ominous warbling music)
(controls beeping)
(mysterious music)
(electricity crackles)
(bell tolls)
(metal thuds)
(beast growls)
(footsteps clacking)
(lights crackle)
Shit.
(chains rattling)
(tense rising music)
Who is that?
(chains rattling)
Honey, is that you?
Quit fucking around,
you're scaring me.
(chains rattling)
(ominous horn music)
(Lara screams)
(soft chiming music)
(chains rattling)
(ominous music)
[Whispering Voice]
He's fatigued at work.
Who's there?
[Whispering Voice] His
planes and rockets never flew.
(voices whispering)
Ma'am?
You shouldn't be here.
(lights crackle)
Ma'am, you shouldn't...
Wat the fuck is going on?
(Hale yelps)
Ma'am, stop.
Ma'am, stop.
Ma'am?
What's happened to you, ma'am?
(mysterious music)
What the fuck is going on here?
(controls beeping)
Cause of death
was exsanguination,
severe trauma to the throat.
No blade,
no tools.
Her nails.
You're saying she
did this to herself?
That's what the
evidence suggests,
unless one of you
knows different.
Look at her fingers.
Jesus, she's torn
up her own skin.
How does somebody
even begin to do that?
Jonah, what were you
doing on the bridge?
We were rigged for auto-running.
I don't know, I just
found myself there.
You found yourself?
I don't even remember walking.
One minute, I'm in my rack.
The next minute,
I'm at the bridge.
Stay available
for questioning.
She didn't do this to herself.
(Hale sighs)
I know, she's dead.
I'm sorry for your loss.
Save the sympathy, Captain.
I know how this works.
You altered the log, changed
the part on the Victory
and now you're either
going to kill me
to cover it up or
something else happened.
Since I'm still
breathing, (lips pop)
My silence will cost you.
Did you even care about her?
[Chalmers] Please.
She started hating me the
minute she said "I do."
Well, I guess a
colony founder's
bank balance keeps
them attractive.
I see you've
connected the dots.
Laying down cash to
stay away, new identities
and you must be
running on empty.
And now the cards
are on the table.
You've seen my hand,
care to show me yours?
We found something,
a wooden box
and that's all you need to know.
Wood? (Laughs)
Actual Earth wood?
No wonder you buried the truth.
(tablet beeps)
(bell tolls)
- What you doing down here?
I'm just running a scan.
I'm trying to see what we're
really dealing with here.
It's our ticket out of here.
Nothing more
complicated than that.
The irony.
Thanks to centuries of
smog and strip mining,
wood's worth more than gold.
This dead tree,
it's not just cargo.
It's our ticket
out of this life.
Out of grunt work.
Maybe I'll get lucky,
pick up some cushy job
piloting private
yachts for the rich.
Sitting poolside on Mars,
sipping
synth rum.
Don't work too hard, Lieutenant.
(mysterious chiming music)
(anxious electronic music)
(mysterious chiming music)
(bars rattle)
[Krampus] You have awakened.
(tense chiming music)
(chains rattling)
(Krampus growls)
(Krampus squelches)
(Kess pants)
(ominous bass tone)
- Darik.
Darik.
Why did you leave me?
- Mum?
[Mum] You were
such a good boy.
What happened?
What made you leave?
I had to.
I had no choice.
- You left me to die alone.
- No.
- Yes.
So many Christmases alone.
- This isn't, you're not-
- Real?
You'd like that, wouldn't you?
What the hell?
(Mum weeps)
[Mum] Darik, please come home.
You're breaking my heart.
- I'm coming.
Mum?
(Mum weeps)
Mum?
(light clicks)
(Krampus snarls)
(chains rattling)
(tense music)
(Krampus growls)
(voices whispering)
No.
No, this isn't real.
[Mum] Don't take
my boy. (Weeps)
Where's my boy? (Weeps)
Please don't leave, Mum.
(chains rattling)
Stop it.
Stop it.
(tense electronic music)
(chains rattling)
(alarm blares)
No, no, no, no.
Stop, stop.
Stop.
(tense music)
(air hisses)
(eye squelches)
(tense spidery music)
"Selfish."
Jesus Christ.
Do we think Chalmers
could have done this?
I think it might
have something
to do with the box, the wards.
I mean, this can't just
be a coincidence, right?
The box, the wards, what
are you even talking about?
Stop, the pair of ya.
Chalmers didn't do this.
Then who?
Hey, we've only
just found him.
Dr. Renn will check him
and then we can figure
out what's going on.
In the meantime, this
ship runs on protocol,
discipline, and
that does not change
because one of us is dead.
Renn, sort this out.
(door whirs)
Well?
Internal organs frozen
solid, cells crystallized.
He must have started the
depressurization mechanism.
Why the hell would he do that?
And the wood?
Like Chalmer's wife,
Muir had his own blood
and skin tissue under
his fingernails.
What are you thinking?
I honestly don't know.
You think we could have
picked something up from the
Victory, a virus perhaps?
Doubtful, I ran blood tests
as a matter of procedure
once everyone came back.
There was nothing
out of the ordinary.
Could you run some more
bloodwork just to be sure?
I could, see if there's
anything I could have overlooked.
Keep it between us, I don't
want there to be a panic.
What if it happens again?
Then we'll make damn
sure we're ready for it.
(mysterious music)
(chains rattling)
(Vale pants)
(Vale sighs)
Get a grip on
yourself, Vale. (Exhales)
(lights crackling)
(ominous music)
(Renn yawns)
(Renn gasps)
(Renn sniffles)
(ominous music)
Oh no.
No, no, no.
No, no.
No.
[Krampus] All she
wanted was your time.
All she wanted was your love.
- Shut up!
[Krampus] But you
were married to the job.
(tense rising music)
This isn't real.
You're not real.
What do you want from us?
- What I have always wanted.
The cruel, the wicked, the
liars, the greedy, the selfish,
to remind your kind that
judgment is a winter's tale,
cold, bleak, and bitter.
(Renn yelps)
(Renn pants)
(soft music)
(Renn sighs)
(chains rattling)
(tense tones)
(controls beeping)
(soft music)
(Kess sighs)
- Sorry, sorry.
I couldn't sleep.
Me neither.
What are you working on?
The wards.
There's still some information
left in the archives.
Mostly old fables.
So they were used
to trap demons.
The bell, birch,
the pine cones,
those symbols when
placed together,
they work as a sort of binding.
The
wise men couldn't kill them.
So they exiled them, sent them
as far away as they could.
Exiled the demons?
It's mythology, Lieutenant,
folklore, hocus pocus.
What's further away from
Earth than space itself?
Have you been having dreams?
We're all under stress.
I've had them too,
disturbing ones.
Dreams are just
chemical noise.
Nothing more.
Yeah,
maybe.
(controls beeping)
- Run this through the system.
- Okay.
You should get
some rest, Captain.
Later.
(controls beeping)
(ominous music)
(chiming creepy lullaby music)
[Krampus] Rest now, Captain.
Let the winter take
you in a cold embrace.
(Voss thuds)
(chains rattle)
(Voss mumbles)
- Captain?
Captain, are you okay?
(Voss screaming)
[Krampus] Let me
whisper your name
into the old high darkness.
No!
No, I won't!
(chains rattling)
Vale, help me!
What's up with her?
(tense music)
(Voss screams)
(Voss pants)
- Captain,
breathe, it's okay, it's okay.
Doc, get up here.
I'm okay, I'm okay. (Pants)
[Kess] Where were you?
At church.
An old church. (Pants)
Was he there?
It had horns, chains.
There were chains
hanging off it.
It had me, it was gonna,
(pants) it was going to,
and you pulled me out.
- I know.
It's okay, you're okay.
I can still smell the incense.
I can smell the damp, the stone.
It felt real.
No, it was real.
It's when we sleep,
that's when he comes.
Then we don't sleep,
not if we want to live.
(Voss pants)
I've been on ships
my whole damn life.
I've seen men burned, vented,
even spaced but
nothing like this.
[Kess] It's the chains,
just like the old fables said.
Christ's sake!
Are you really turning
this into a ghost story?
We need to focus on
gathering evidence,
not cling to superstition
and fairy tales.
Captain, please, please,
you have to listen to me.
I'm not denying what happened.
But we cannot allow hysteria
to get the better of us.
Doctor?
Perhaps it's some
kind of affliction.
A sleep disorder.
I mean, I've heard
of crews experiencing
walking night terrors due to
the side effects of cryosleep.
- No, it's not that.
- Sorry.
Are you the doctor here?
- Kess,
remember, protocol.
(Chalmers chuckles)
Protocol?
Don't insult me, Captain.
I know what you've done.
You falsified the log, you
didn't report the Victory.
You found that box
and you hid it.
- Careful.
- Careful?
I'm the only civilian
on this ship.
That means leverage.
My wife's dead.
Your crewman's dead
and I'm not exactly feeling
very safe right now.
What the hell are you saying?
I'm saying my silence
comes at a cost.
Whatever profit you're
chasing for that wood,
I want my share, I
want compensation.
So we're talking
about people dying
and you're thinking
about profit.
You think I don't see it?
This ship is cursed and
you've dragged me into it.
Captain, we can't
entertain extortion.
We need to focus right now.
We'll focus on
containment, on survival.
That's all that matters.
Whatever that takes.
And if this thing comes back,
attacks another one of us?
Then we adapt, that's
what a crew does.
No more speculation,
no more stories.
We keep moving and
no one breathes
a word of this
outside of the bridge.
(mysterious music)
(lights crackling)
Who's there?
I'm not sleeping.
I can't sleep.
This is Ibarra.
[Voss] Go ahead.
Just checking in.
[Voss] You okay?
Never better.
(tense off-kilter music)
Do it Vale, shoot him.
(lights crackling)
No, no, no.
Come on out!
Whoever's messing with
me, just come out.
(lights crackling)
It's all in the head,
it's all in the head.
[Commander] Shoot him,
shoot him, shoot him.
What the hell?
[Commander] What the
hell are you waiting for?
I can't.
You can't make me.
[Commander] That's an order.
Do it.
He's responsible for the
killing of the entire platoon.
You're lying.
Aren't we taking him in?
(tense crackling music)
[Commander] There's no
escaping what you did.
(chains rattling)
It's not right.
[Commander] You
have no choice.
(gunshot booms)
(controls beeping)
(Voss gasps)
Christ almighty.
Murder?
[Voss] Get him to the morgue.
He must have fallen
asleep, like a trance.
You drift off and suddenly
you're somewhere else.
You're saying they
dream themselves to death?
Not dreamed.
Pulled, used.
I felt it myself.
Like chains dragging at me.
Like someone waiting.
I spoke to him,
Ibarra,
only moments before it happened.
He was awake.
He was talking to me.
So how the hell did
it still get to him?
Because sleep
isn't the only door.
Deprive the brain
of rest long enough,
it makes its own reality.
Hallucinations,
waking dreams, micro-sleeps.
Rhythms you can't
even feel happening.
So that means that,
that means it can still reach us
even when our eyes are open.
We can't even fight
it by staying awake.
Then we don't
ask how it gets in.
We ask how to kill him.
Doctor?
Yeah.
I'll try to generate
a suppression drug.
Something to keep
the synapses firing.
Keep the brain from
dropping into a dream state,
waking or otherwise.
What if it doesn't work?
Do it.
Whatever it takes.
Suppression isn't cure.
Stimulants alone are not enough.
Prolonged use
collapses the cortex.
I need to regulate
the firing sequence.
Keep them cycling, keep them
awake inside the sleep, yes.
How do I do that?
(eerie rasping breaths)
No, no, no.
She's gone.
I signed the report,
I signed the report.
(bell tolls)
(ominous music)
[Corpse] Elias.
You promised me.
You promised you'd save me.
You promised to help me.
(Renn yelps)
Captain, I've been
going through the logs,
the folklore accounts,
the myths brought over
from the old colonies.
Fairy tales is
all you're chasing.
Captain, just have
a look at this please.
So "Krampus, a legend that
haunted Europe for centuries",
the dark opposite of Christmas.
A thing that punished
children, liars, cheats.
Always cruel, always leaving
"one survivor to
spread the story."
So we stop
celebrating Christmas.
Hardly anybody does
anymore anyway.
Yeah, but it's not
belief that makes it real.
It makes itself real.
So I had this bit translated,
it's from an account
from a small village
in Germany from
the 16th century.
So, "The village
was under attack"
every Christmas from a creature,
the Krampus and it attacked
"every year until a stranger
arrived one night."
[Voss] Go on.
"The stranger
told the villagers
that he had come from the
heavens to hunt this creature
and he intended on sending
it back to where it came
and before he died,
he managed to send it
back into the night
sky where the villagers
"believed it remained,
exiled forever."
So what are you saying, Kess?
This is the picture that
came with the account.
That is what we've been seeing.
Okay, Captain, go with
me here, go with me here.
Let's say an alien came to
Earth thousands of years ago.
A creature that fed
on humans' guilt.
What would the people
of that time period
call this creature?
They'd call it a devil,
they'd call it a demon, right?
So you're saying Krampus
wasn't a story, it was an alien?
I'm saying that this
is a mythologized account
of something that
really happened
and this stranger from the sky,
they said he was
exiling the creature
but really he was sending
the creature back home.
You expect me to swallow
this, an alien on my ship?
Well whatever it is,
it transcends our logic.
It transcends our
science, our logs
and therefore if
we wanna fight it,
we have to fight it
the way they would've,
with rituals,
with wards.
That's what we have to do
if we want to defeat this.
Oh God, you actually
believe this stuff, don't you?
I don't just
believe it, I know it.
(chiming lullaby music)
(Chalmers chuckles)
Worth more than a fortune.
Enough to buy
10 lives.
And they thought they
could cut me out.
(chains rattling)
Think again.
(mysterious music)
Power.
Real power. (Laughs)
It's mine.
It's all mine.
(bell tolls)
Eden.
My home on Eden.
It's exactly as I
remember, I'm back.
(creepy jingles)
(glasses clack)
Wait.
It's not...
(ominous music)
(Kess coughs)
(Renn coughs)
(crew chokes)
[Krampus] Greed.
(chains rattling)
No, no, no! (Screams)
[Krampus] Get paid.
Oh God.
Oh, Jesus Christ.
Tissue damage consistent with
tearing.
Human teeth
and nails.
He did this to himself.
Get him off the crate.
(chains rattling)
Captain, look, the
chains, they're moving.
Captain, it's the box.
I'm telling you, it's him,
it's coming from the box.
Then we stop it,
one way or another.
(mysterious music)
(spaceship humming)
We dump the box, we vent
it and be done with it.
But we can't just throw
the box out into space.
I mean these wards,
they work as a system.
Remove one piece and you create
a negative chain reaction.
And we're talking
folklore again.
We need variables
we can control.
Containment, quarantine,
sleep rotations.
We do all of it.
Armed watches, no
one sleeps alone.
We secure the hold and power
down non-essential systems.
Right.
Jonah?
I've been losing time, a
couple of hours here and there.
I'm waking up somewhere
I didn't even start.
- How long?
- Since the Victory.
Since we touched that
coffin in the box.
It's using us when
we're at our weakest.
Then we don't
give it an opening.
We stick together, no
solo trips, no heroics.
Captain, if this
is a pathogen,
neurological, it won't
make any difference.
It's not a pathogen.
It doesn't matter what it is.
It calls, we answer.
Hale, sit.
Kess, lock the cargo
comms to my console.
Renn, prepare stimulants
and sedatives.
We keep our heads
above water until dawn.
Figurative dawn.
I mean, if we're
awake, then it can't
We keep watch, no one blinks.
(spaceship humming)
[Renn] Captain?
[Voss] Renn?
It's ready.
It's crude,
improvised.
But it should work.
The stimulant keeps
the synapses firing,
blocks the brain
from entering REM.
No dreams, no whatever this is.
Or it cooks our brains.
You'd rather wait until
it drags us off one by one?
[Kess] I'll take it.
[Voss] Absolutely not.
Renn's the doctor,
you're the Captain.
No offense, Hale, but you
can't even handle your liquor.
So it has to be me.
If it works, we've
got our solution.
If it doesn't, we'll
try something else.
Fine, do it.
(anxious music)
(injection hisses)
That feels like drinking
five coffees at once. (Pants)
[Hale] Are you sure
she's won't stroke out?
[Renn] I'll
monitor her vitals.
We'll know in a few minutes.
I hear it.
But it's not pulling.
- Are you sure?
I can feel it.
It's here
but it's not, it's
not quite here.
It's like it's in
the other room.
Then it's working. (Laughs)
Make more, enough
for everyone.
(creepy chiming music)
(buttons clicking)
What are you doing, Lieutenant?
Lieutenant?
Kess.
Help me!
Bridge!
Now!
(injection hisses)
(creepy chiming music)
(bells jingling)
What?
You tried to kill me.
I (stutters) didn't
know it was you.
I couldn't even see your face.
You looked like a monster.
Could you see him?
Yeah.
Yeah.
He still got to her.
I thought you said that
it would suppress the REM
and stop the hallucinations?
It should have but
this, whatever this is,
it's not just dreams, it's
using the subconscious.
The brain can be kept
awake by the drug
but it can't stop
what's already in there.
It's not just killing us,
it's turning us
against each other.
Well, that's just
great, isn't it?
So now we're its
weapons, perfect.
- Hale.
- No, do you know what?
I'm done with this.
You lot, you think you can just
science this thing to death?
We can't even fucking see it.
Yeah, guys, like
I said, the only way
we're gonna defeat this
is with wards and rituals.
Yeah, let's just
pray this thing away,
'cause that worked so
well for Muir and Ibarra.
- Hale.
- No, do you know what?
You sit here and let
this thing pick you off.
'Cause I am done, I'm finished.
Find a way to kill it.
Whatever it takes.
(controls beeping)
[Voss] Purpose, Hale?
Just securing the coolant
manifolds and then I'll be back.
(metal thuds)
Voss, what's that?
It's all in your head,
man, it's all in your head.
[Computer] This is the
Aries, warning, warning.
Hull breach damage, deadly
hull strike detected.
Critical damage.
- What? It can't be.
It can't be.
I fixed it, I know I fixed it.
[Computer] Warning,
warning, hull breach damage.
Deadly hull strike
detected, damage critical.
No, no, I fixed it,
it can't be happening.
[Computer] Plan
authorized, plan authorized.
Evacuate now, standby for check.
It can't be.
(alarm blares)
(chains rattling)
I'm sorry!
- You failed your job.
- No, no.
I'm not laughing, I'm not.
(alarm blaring)
No, no, no.
I didn't mean for
this to happen.
I'd been drinking.
I thought I sealed
the breach properly.
I thought I sealed the breach.
- You betrayed her.
Because of you, the entire
crew of the Aries has perished.
500 souls lost all because
of you and your drinks.
I didn't mean to betray
her, it was a mistake.
I made a mistake.
- And yet you survived.
500 souls lost, all because
of your damn drinks.
No, no, please.
I don't wanna go there, please.
(chains rattling)
(ominous chanting)
Please, I don't wanna go there.
Please, I don't
wanna go there, no.
Please.
(chains rattling)
(ominous chanting)
(Hale chokes)
(steady tempo drumbeat)
(mysterious music)
(tense tones)
- Hale!
- Don't touch him.
(eerie whispering)
One by one,
taking us.
[Kess] Just like the Victory.
You said the legends spoke of
the demon punishing the wicked.
Yeah.
I mean, this demon
in the 16th century
would think nothing of
punishing little children.
So imagine us
adults with our lies
and our (chuckle)
wickedness and our sins.
I can't believe
we're being targeted
by a fucking
Christmas ghost story.
Renn.
We should've left the
damn thing on the Victory.
I know.
I thought it would
change our lives.
I'm sorry.
So,
it gains its strength
from our weaknesses,
our mistakes.
I think my mistake
was that.
I touched it.
I let my curiosity
override caution.
I touched it and I didn't
realize what the
consequences would be.
I underestimated it.
I thought I could control it,
I thought I could contain it.
I didn't warn anyone.
I thought I could understand it,
find a solution but I failed.
We all did what we
thought we had to.
That doesn't
mean we were right.
They died on my watch
because I believed logic
and rationality
could outrun a demon.
I let people die.
I let people die 'cause I was
too confident, too stubborn.
Did I release this
thing on us all?
It doesn't matter
if we survived.
It doesn't matter what we did
to try and save
ourselves or others.
Guilt
follows you.
If we're all guilty,
then that means everything
that we've ever done,
we are responsible for
everything that we've ever done.
We're also responsible for
everything we didn't do.
It's all on us.
But if we survived
this long, then
Maybe we can survive
what's coming next.
No, maybe surviving
isn't the point anymore.
What is the point?
We face it.
We face it together
or die trying.
The question is how?
Well, we've tried
weapons, tried science,
we try it your way.
What have you got in mind?
Okay.
(buttons clicking)
So the box is a beacon.
The wards are bells, pine cones,
the birch and the symbols,
all these items
anchor each other.
Okay.
This stranger,
he captured this creature
that he couldn't kill
and he exiled it
where he believed
that men would never go.
- Go on.
Space.
The coldest winter,
the darkest night.
The box wasn't
hiding the creature,
it was holding it
against the tides.
And when we moved the anchor,
we interfered, we
loosened the chain.
Even if I entertain
this for a second,
how do you rebind a myth?
By completing the loop.
So wards reunited,
an incantation and,
all the records mention this,
it has to end in
a final sacrifice.
Sacrifice?
What sacrifice?
It wants the wicked.
The greedy, the lawyers.
It wants judgment.
Then we don't
feed it, we cage it.
Get me a route to the
airlock that avoids
every camera and
corridor we've bled in.
Renn, dose us to keep us awake
and also to drop us fast in
case we need the other thing.
So we suck it
out of the airlock?
Well, it still physically
manifests itself at times
to drag us into its netherworld.
That will be the moment.
But then one of
us would have to
- Me.
- What?
This is my ship, it's my crew.
It's not taking
anyone else, not now.
Okay, you're gonna Pied Piper
this thing outta the ship?
Now who's talking myths?
I adjusted the dosage of
the injection I gave to Kess.
It won't suppress sleep.
Instead, it would rather
help control what we see.
Yeah, or it's
gonna get us faster.
We go together.
(mysterious music)
Chalmers' pulse
spiked on the DM
when he came near the box.
Good, let it watch
us lock its cage.
Let it remember who's in charge.
I'll read as much as possible.
I've had the ship's AI
translate what it can.
But if I falter, don't
stop, keep going.
Don't stop.
We're dealing with
something intelligent,
something patient.
That's why the incantation
has to be perfect.
One mistake and it could be us.
Then we don't make
mistakes, we don't hesitate.
I've calibrated the
synaptic stabilizer.
It might help keep it from
pulling on our minds
during the ritual.
Right, it says
the wards they made
to exile and to bind
but not to destroy.
Exile, fine.
Better than letting it rip
through the ship again.
Right, I'll start.
Bound in birch by
bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch
by bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch
by bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
(chains rattling)
[Crew] Bound in birch
by bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch by
bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch by
bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch
by bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch
by bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch
by bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
[Crew] Bound in birch
by bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch by
bell made tame,
winter's hand return your name.
(alternative rock music)
(chains rattling)
(tense drumbeat)
(mysterious music)
(chains rattling)
(corpse chitters)
(tense ensemble rock music)
(chain thwacks)
Bound in birch
by bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch by
bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch by
bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch
by bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch by
bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch by
bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch by
bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
[Crew] Bound in birch
by bell made tame,
winters hand returns your name.
- Bound in birch.
- By bell made tame.
Winter's hand
returns your name.
Bound in birch by
bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch
by bell mad tame,
winter's hand returns your name!
(alarm blares)
Kess.
Okay, the three of us joined,
we can fight this together.
Let's go.
Let's finish this
once and for all.
Form the loop now.
Chains that hold
the winter's beast,
by man's breath and stars East.
Exile, exile, be at peace.
[Renn] Commencing
depressurization protocol on on my mark.
[Krampus] Well then do it.
Hold.
Hold.
Bell (Krampus roars)
No!
No.
(Krampus growls)
(tense music)
- Renn!
- Renn!
- Renn!
- Renn!
You wanted the wicked?
(alarm blares)
I was gone.
- Renn.
- We do this together.
Exile, exile.
That's what this is?
(air hisses)
(alarm blares)
[Voss And Kess] Renn!
(airlock rumbles)
(alarm blares)
(spaceship humming)
Do you think it's gone?
I think it's further
away than it was.
All the wards are broken.
Then we tell a story
to stop people from touching
what they shouldn't.
Okay.
I'll write it down
properly, not as a myth.
Write it as both.
(up tempo mysterious music)
Ship's log, 25-12-2177,
Arden's Wake.
We intercepted the
colony ship Victory.
She was
empty.
Cause of abandonment unknown.
We collected no
salvage of value.
We suffered fatalities
during the boarding.
Hale, Ibarra, Muir, Chalmers,
Dr. Elias Renn,
all killed in the line of duty.
This record honors
their service.
Take us home.
(spooky mysterious music)
- Okay.
(spaceship humming)
(spooky mysterious chanting)
The snow is deep,
the moon is bright
Children hide in
fear and fright
The boots are
crunching in the light
Krampus comes tonight
He smells of smoke,
of beast and hide
His eyes like holes
in demon shine
He'll take your sweets
and drink your lies
Krampus comes tonight
(bell tolls)
Hey, ho, rattle those chains
Hide your sins,
confess your pain
Sing with smiles,
his frame does bite
Krampus comes tonight
(mysterious rock music)
He sniffs the
naughty state of mind
And all the way,
the wicked shine
When lovers whisper
soft and whine
He comes to take my child
Hey, ho, run for your life
He besots the
air with strife
Sing that glassed holy light
Krampus comes tonight
Tonight
(mysterious violin music)
(up tempo drumbeat)
(mysterious violin, rock music)
(beast roars)
(water sloshes)
(water sloshes)
(anxious music)
[Kess] It came from
the darkness to feed.
(chains rattling)
Some believed it to be a demon.
To others,
an otherworldly
agent of retribution,
of moral reckoning.
Though thought to be a legend,
(beast growls)
Its terror was real and in
the darkest winter nights,
it would strangle.
(beast roars)
(children screaming)
Every year, it would return
to claim more children.
Until one night.
(parent weeps)
Where's my boy?
[Kess] A stranger arrived.
A savior.
The battle was set.
The stranger had constructed
a prison around the beast.
An ancient puzzle unlike
anything seen before.
(chains rattling)
(stranger grunts)
Chains that bind
winter's beast,
by man's breath and
the stars East. (Groan)
Chains that bind
the winter's beast,
by man's breath and
the stars East. (Grunt)
Chains that bind
the winter's beast,
by man's breath
and the stars East.
Exile!
(beast roars)
Exile!
(beast snarls)
[Kess] It was a pattern
that cost him his life.
The final incantation.
Exile for the beast,
sent to the one place
humans could not venture,
the stars.
(ominous music)
(spaceship humming)
(alternative rock music)
(lights click)
Still no radio communication?
That's a negative.
Bio-signature scan?
Nearly within range.
Slow ahead, one quarter.
Slow ahead, one quarter.
We're within scanning range.
Scan for life signs.
That's a negative, Captain.
No life signs.
Engine's running hot.
Oxygen's breathable.
It seems like it just rolled
off the production line.
(controls beeping)
(spaceship humming)
Handshake with the
Victory's computer
and begin docking procedure.
- Yes, ma'am.
We're boarding?
(low mysterious music)
Colonial ship Victory,
this is the Arden's Wake.
Please respond, over.
(controls beeping)
(Kess chuckles)
Merry Christmas.
(buttons clicking)
[Voss] Hale?
Go ahead.
[Voss] We're about
to board the Victory.
I need you in the docking party.
Aye.
(Hale whistles)
[Hale] Couldn't hold, Doc?
No, not likely.
Being on this
crate is one thing,
restoring a dead ship, (hiss)
not my idea of a good time.
Yeah.
Oh, you know, a
couple of us are meeting
for a few Christmas
drinks later.
Did you fancy joining,
doctor's orders?
No offense, Doc, but I
don't drink on the job.
Neither do I.
(footsteps clacking)
Hey, why are we slowing down?
We're not boarding
that vessel, are we?
Look man, I'm just
paid to work here.
She asked you a question.
Yeah, we're boarding her.
Fancy coming along?
When I paid for passage aboard
this ship, I didn't expect
Listen, your dollars may
have gotten you passage
on this rust bucket but
I still have a job to do,
whether you like it or not.
- You're just gonna take that?
- Oh, shut up.
(Lara scoffs)
Docking clamps ready.
Thrusters at 10%.
Only?
(Kess chuckles)
Airlock ready.
Come on, come on.
(spaceship whirs)
(clamp buzzes)
Locking clamps engaged.
It's all yours, Captain.
[Voss] Good work,
Kess, good work.
Nice work.
(buttons clicking)
You see our guests?
Not very much since yesterday.
They ain't happy.
Well, if they wanna hitch
a ride, no questions asked,
they need to prepare
for a bit of a swim.
You know who he is, don't you?
Enlighten me.
The manifest says Chalmers
but his name ain't Chalmers.
It's something different.
But he was a founder
of the Eden colony.
Eden?
Jesus.
- Yeah.
Ruptured bio-dome,
2000 citizens, poof.
All down to cheap building work
which that piece of
shit signed off on.
That's him?
His face was plastered
all over the telecast.
It's him all right.
Got outta there before
the arrest warrant
could be executed.
Is there record of a reward?
Already checked, no such luck.
Unless you count a medal from
the Colonies as a reward.
I don't.
I swear, the rich,
they think they can just buy
themselves out of anything.
That's 'cause
they usually can.
Ready?
Yeah.
(switch clicks)
(spaceship humming)
(door clacks)
(controls beeping)
Keep it tight.
You getting anything?
Not a thing.
Okay.
(door clacks)
Don't sweat it.
I've flown around
with Voss 26 times.
Eight of those have
been exactly like this.
Not exactly like this.
Worse.
The ship, we had to
intercept the Aries.
Oh yeah.
crew members all dead.
The meteor hit, this
is where we found Hale.
He was the last survivor.
Just imagine all of
these dead bodies
floating around space
crushed by the gravity.
It was quite beautiful.
Okay.
(controls beeping)
(low anxious music)
No signs of life, nothing.
A ghost ship.
Seems that way.
[Hale] Voss, Ibarra,
you need to get down
here to the cargo hold.
Why?
Let's just say I
think I found something.
(low anxious chanting)
(low anxious music)
(Hale scoffs)
The place has been stripped.
No logs,
no cargo tags.
Pretty much picked clean.
You reckon it's
a scavenger, eh?
Not likely.
Scavengers usually blast a ship
to pieces once they raid it.
[Vale] So we are
the first here.
Is that?
Wood.
Holy shit.
Are you sure?
German oak.
100%.
I mean, this has gotta
be 700 years old.
Is it locked?
(tablet warbles)
Well, the manifest,
it lists food rations,
prefab modules, mining gear,
but no mention of this.
They must have wanted to
keep it on the down low.
Jesus.
A cousin of mine, he
used to do some work once,
some security work
for this rich dude
and he used to have this
old piece of driftwood,
no more than 10
centimeters in length.
He kept it in a glass case.
The value,
one million credits.
- Whoa.
Hard to believe Earth used
to be covered in this stuff.
A private dealer would
kill for a piece like this.
Or pay us enough to
get us out the service.
- And then some.
- Fuckin' A.
(Voss laughs)
But what about the Victory?
We leave her.
- Voss, are you saying-
- Change the log.
Officially, we were never here.
We encountered a
drifting derelict.
The structure was unstable
and we didn't dock.
And we bring this home quietly
and find a private dealer.
All right, fuck it.
But what about the others?
Ah, they'll go along
with it, they always do.
At the end of the day,
we've got a ghost ship.
Maybe the crew evacuated,
maybe space fever.
It doesn't matter, what
matters now is this box.
This box gets us all out
of the service for good.
'Tis the season, eh? (Laughs)
Whew.
(spaceship humming)
Well I'll be, is it real?
The scans confirmed.
- Jesus.
- Guys,
I haven't run the
numbers yet but
We sell it, black market
dealer, split the credits.
This will be enough to buy us
all out the service for good.
(ominous bell tolls)
Those aren't decorations.
The birch,
pine cones, the
bell, those symbols,
they're wards, they're
meant to bind something.
(bells jingling)
Or it's someone's Christmas
antique ornament set.
No, I'm serious, my
grandmother used to tell stories.
These items when
placed together,
they're meant to keep
something out or something in.
Superstition or not, the
value here isn't the sticks,
it's the wood,
real earth timber.
(low ominous chanting)
And one thing's agreed.
No one breathes a word of
this outside of the bridge.
Mm.
The passengers do
not hear about this.
Well, I guess
Santa came early.
(ominous warbling music)
(controls beeping)
(mysterious music)
(electricity crackles)
(bell tolls)
(metal thuds)
(beast growls)
(footsteps clacking)
(lights crackle)
Shit.
(chains rattling)
(tense rising music)
Who is that?
(chains rattling)
Honey, is that you?
Quit fucking around,
you're scaring me.
(chains rattling)
(ominous horn music)
(Lara screams)
(soft chiming music)
(chains rattling)
(ominous music)
[Whispering Voice]
He's fatigued at work.
Who's there?
[Whispering Voice] His
planes and rockets never flew.
(voices whispering)
Ma'am?
You shouldn't be here.
(lights crackle)
Ma'am, you shouldn't...
Wat the fuck is going on?
(Hale yelps)
Ma'am, stop.
Ma'am, stop.
Ma'am?
What's happened to you, ma'am?
(mysterious music)
What the fuck is going on here?
(controls beeping)
Cause of death
was exsanguination,
severe trauma to the throat.
No blade,
no tools.
Her nails.
You're saying she
did this to herself?
That's what the
evidence suggests,
unless one of you
knows different.
Look at her fingers.
Jesus, she's torn
up her own skin.
How does somebody
even begin to do that?
Jonah, what were you
doing on the bridge?
We were rigged for auto-running.
I don't know, I just
found myself there.
You found yourself?
I don't even remember walking.
One minute, I'm in my rack.
The next minute,
I'm at the bridge.
Stay available
for questioning.
She didn't do this to herself.
(Hale sighs)
I know, she's dead.
I'm sorry for your loss.
Save the sympathy, Captain.
I know how this works.
You altered the log, changed
the part on the Victory
and now you're either
going to kill me
to cover it up or
something else happened.
Since I'm still
breathing, (lips pop)
My silence will cost you.
Did you even care about her?
[Chalmers] Please.
She started hating me the
minute she said "I do."
Well, I guess a
colony founder's
bank balance keeps
them attractive.
I see you've
connected the dots.
Laying down cash to
stay away, new identities
and you must be
running on empty.
And now the cards
are on the table.
You've seen my hand,
care to show me yours?
We found something,
a wooden box
and that's all you need to know.
Wood? (Laughs)
Actual Earth wood?
No wonder you buried the truth.
(tablet beeps)
(bell tolls)
- What you doing down here?
I'm just running a scan.
I'm trying to see what we're
really dealing with here.
It's our ticket out of here.
Nothing more
complicated than that.
The irony.
Thanks to centuries of
smog and strip mining,
wood's worth more than gold.
This dead tree,
it's not just cargo.
It's our ticket
out of this life.
Out of grunt work.
Maybe I'll get lucky,
pick up some cushy job
piloting private
yachts for the rich.
Sitting poolside on Mars,
sipping
synth rum.
Don't work too hard, Lieutenant.
(mysterious chiming music)
(anxious electronic music)
(mysterious chiming music)
(bars rattle)
[Krampus] You have awakened.
(tense chiming music)
(chains rattling)
(Krampus growls)
(Krampus squelches)
(Kess pants)
(ominous bass tone)
- Darik.
Darik.
Why did you leave me?
- Mum?
[Mum] You were
such a good boy.
What happened?
What made you leave?
I had to.
I had no choice.
- You left me to die alone.
- No.
- Yes.
So many Christmases alone.
- This isn't, you're not-
- Real?
You'd like that, wouldn't you?
What the hell?
(Mum weeps)
[Mum] Darik, please come home.
You're breaking my heart.
- I'm coming.
Mum?
(Mum weeps)
Mum?
(light clicks)
(Krampus snarls)
(chains rattling)
(tense music)
(Krampus growls)
(voices whispering)
No.
No, this isn't real.
[Mum] Don't take
my boy. (Weeps)
Where's my boy? (Weeps)
Please don't leave, Mum.
(chains rattling)
Stop it.
Stop it.
(tense electronic music)
(chains rattling)
(alarm blares)
No, no, no, no.
Stop, stop.
Stop.
(tense music)
(air hisses)
(eye squelches)
(tense spidery music)
"Selfish."
Jesus Christ.
Do we think Chalmers
could have done this?
I think it might
have something
to do with the box, the wards.
I mean, this can't just
be a coincidence, right?
The box, the wards, what
are you even talking about?
Stop, the pair of ya.
Chalmers didn't do this.
Then who?
Hey, we've only
just found him.
Dr. Renn will check him
and then we can figure
out what's going on.
In the meantime, this
ship runs on protocol,
discipline, and
that does not change
because one of us is dead.
Renn, sort this out.
(door whirs)
Well?
Internal organs frozen
solid, cells crystallized.
He must have started the
depressurization mechanism.
Why the hell would he do that?
And the wood?
Like Chalmer's wife,
Muir had his own blood
and skin tissue under
his fingernails.
What are you thinking?
I honestly don't know.
You think we could have
picked something up from the
Victory, a virus perhaps?
Doubtful, I ran blood tests
as a matter of procedure
once everyone came back.
There was nothing
out of the ordinary.
Could you run some more
bloodwork just to be sure?
I could, see if there's
anything I could have overlooked.
Keep it between us, I don't
want there to be a panic.
What if it happens again?
Then we'll make damn
sure we're ready for it.
(mysterious music)
(chains rattling)
(Vale pants)
(Vale sighs)
Get a grip on
yourself, Vale. (Exhales)
(lights crackling)
(ominous music)
(Renn yawns)
(Renn gasps)
(Renn sniffles)
(ominous music)
Oh no.
No, no, no.
No, no.
No.
[Krampus] All she
wanted was your time.
All she wanted was your love.
- Shut up!
[Krampus] But you
were married to the job.
(tense rising music)
This isn't real.
You're not real.
What do you want from us?
- What I have always wanted.
The cruel, the wicked, the
liars, the greedy, the selfish,
to remind your kind that
judgment is a winter's tale,
cold, bleak, and bitter.
(Renn yelps)
(Renn pants)
(soft music)
(Renn sighs)
(chains rattling)
(tense tones)
(controls beeping)
(soft music)
(Kess sighs)
- Sorry, sorry.
I couldn't sleep.
Me neither.
What are you working on?
The wards.
There's still some information
left in the archives.
Mostly old fables.
So they were used
to trap demons.
The bell, birch,
the pine cones,
those symbols when
placed together,
they work as a sort of binding.
The
wise men couldn't kill them.
So they exiled them, sent them
as far away as they could.
Exiled the demons?
It's mythology, Lieutenant,
folklore, hocus pocus.
What's further away from
Earth than space itself?
Have you been having dreams?
We're all under stress.
I've had them too,
disturbing ones.
Dreams are just
chemical noise.
Nothing more.
Yeah,
maybe.
(controls beeping)
- Run this through the system.
- Okay.
You should get
some rest, Captain.
Later.
(controls beeping)
(ominous music)
(chiming creepy lullaby music)
[Krampus] Rest now, Captain.
Let the winter take
you in a cold embrace.
(Voss thuds)
(chains rattle)
(Voss mumbles)
- Captain?
Captain, are you okay?
(Voss screaming)
[Krampus] Let me
whisper your name
into the old high darkness.
No!
No, I won't!
(chains rattling)
Vale, help me!
What's up with her?
(tense music)
(Voss screams)
(Voss pants)
- Captain,
breathe, it's okay, it's okay.
Doc, get up here.
I'm okay, I'm okay. (Pants)
[Kess] Where were you?
At church.
An old church. (Pants)
Was he there?
It had horns, chains.
There were chains
hanging off it.
It had me, it was gonna,
(pants) it was going to,
and you pulled me out.
- I know.
It's okay, you're okay.
I can still smell the incense.
I can smell the damp, the stone.
It felt real.
No, it was real.
It's when we sleep,
that's when he comes.
Then we don't sleep,
not if we want to live.
(Voss pants)
I've been on ships
my whole damn life.
I've seen men burned, vented,
even spaced but
nothing like this.
[Kess] It's the chains,
just like the old fables said.
Christ's sake!
Are you really turning
this into a ghost story?
We need to focus on
gathering evidence,
not cling to superstition
and fairy tales.
Captain, please, please,
you have to listen to me.
I'm not denying what happened.
But we cannot allow hysteria
to get the better of us.
Doctor?
Perhaps it's some
kind of affliction.
A sleep disorder.
I mean, I've heard
of crews experiencing
walking night terrors due to
the side effects of cryosleep.
- No, it's not that.
- Sorry.
Are you the doctor here?
- Kess,
remember, protocol.
(Chalmers chuckles)
Protocol?
Don't insult me, Captain.
I know what you've done.
You falsified the log, you
didn't report the Victory.
You found that box
and you hid it.
- Careful.
- Careful?
I'm the only civilian
on this ship.
That means leverage.
My wife's dead.
Your crewman's dead
and I'm not exactly feeling
very safe right now.
What the hell are you saying?
I'm saying my silence
comes at a cost.
Whatever profit you're
chasing for that wood,
I want my share, I
want compensation.
So we're talking
about people dying
and you're thinking
about profit.
You think I don't see it?
This ship is cursed and
you've dragged me into it.
Captain, we can't
entertain extortion.
We need to focus right now.
We'll focus on
containment, on survival.
That's all that matters.
Whatever that takes.
And if this thing comes back,
attacks another one of us?
Then we adapt, that's
what a crew does.
No more speculation,
no more stories.
We keep moving and
no one breathes
a word of this
outside of the bridge.
(mysterious music)
(lights crackling)
Who's there?
I'm not sleeping.
I can't sleep.
This is Ibarra.
[Voss] Go ahead.
Just checking in.
[Voss] You okay?
Never better.
(tense off-kilter music)
Do it Vale, shoot him.
(lights crackling)
No, no, no.
Come on out!
Whoever's messing with
me, just come out.
(lights crackling)
It's all in the head,
it's all in the head.
[Commander] Shoot him,
shoot him, shoot him.
What the hell?
[Commander] What the
hell are you waiting for?
I can't.
You can't make me.
[Commander] That's an order.
Do it.
He's responsible for the
killing of the entire platoon.
You're lying.
Aren't we taking him in?
(tense crackling music)
[Commander] There's no
escaping what you did.
(chains rattling)
It's not right.
[Commander] You
have no choice.
(gunshot booms)
(controls beeping)
(Voss gasps)
Christ almighty.
Murder?
[Voss] Get him to the morgue.
He must have fallen
asleep, like a trance.
You drift off and suddenly
you're somewhere else.
You're saying they
dream themselves to death?
Not dreamed.
Pulled, used.
I felt it myself.
Like chains dragging at me.
Like someone waiting.
I spoke to him,
Ibarra,
only moments before it happened.
He was awake.
He was talking to me.
So how the hell did
it still get to him?
Because sleep
isn't the only door.
Deprive the brain
of rest long enough,
it makes its own reality.
Hallucinations,
waking dreams, micro-sleeps.
Rhythms you can't
even feel happening.
So that means that,
that means it can still reach us
even when our eyes are open.
We can't even fight
it by staying awake.
Then we don't
ask how it gets in.
We ask how to kill him.
Doctor?
Yeah.
I'll try to generate
a suppression drug.
Something to keep
the synapses firing.
Keep the brain from
dropping into a dream state,
waking or otherwise.
What if it doesn't work?
Do it.
Whatever it takes.
Suppression isn't cure.
Stimulants alone are not enough.
Prolonged use
collapses the cortex.
I need to regulate
the firing sequence.
Keep them cycling, keep them
awake inside the sleep, yes.
How do I do that?
(eerie rasping breaths)
No, no, no.
She's gone.
I signed the report,
I signed the report.
(bell tolls)
(ominous music)
[Corpse] Elias.
You promised me.
You promised you'd save me.
You promised to help me.
(Renn yelps)
Captain, I've been
going through the logs,
the folklore accounts,
the myths brought over
from the old colonies.
Fairy tales is
all you're chasing.
Captain, just have
a look at this please.
So "Krampus, a legend that
haunted Europe for centuries",
the dark opposite of Christmas.
A thing that punished
children, liars, cheats.
Always cruel, always leaving
"one survivor to
spread the story."
So we stop
celebrating Christmas.
Hardly anybody does
anymore anyway.
Yeah, but it's not
belief that makes it real.
It makes itself real.
So I had this bit translated,
it's from an account
from a small village
in Germany from
the 16th century.
So, "The village
was under attack"
every Christmas from a creature,
the Krampus and it attacked
"every year until a stranger
arrived one night."
[Voss] Go on.
"The stranger
told the villagers
that he had come from the
heavens to hunt this creature
and he intended on sending
it back to where it came
and before he died,
he managed to send it
back into the night
sky where the villagers
"believed it remained,
exiled forever."
So what are you saying, Kess?
This is the picture that
came with the account.
That is what we've been seeing.
Okay, Captain, go with
me here, go with me here.
Let's say an alien came to
Earth thousands of years ago.
A creature that fed
on humans' guilt.
What would the people
of that time period
call this creature?
They'd call it a devil,
they'd call it a demon, right?
So you're saying Krampus
wasn't a story, it was an alien?
I'm saying that this
is a mythologized account
of something that
really happened
and this stranger from the sky,
they said he was
exiling the creature
but really he was sending
the creature back home.
You expect me to swallow
this, an alien on my ship?
Well whatever it is,
it transcends our logic.
It transcends our
science, our logs
and therefore if
we wanna fight it,
we have to fight it
the way they would've,
with rituals,
with wards.
That's what we have to do
if we want to defeat this.
Oh God, you actually
believe this stuff, don't you?
I don't just
believe it, I know it.
(chiming lullaby music)
(Chalmers chuckles)
Worth more than a fortune.
Enough to buy
10 lives.
And they thought they
could cut me out.
(chains rattling)
Think again.
(mysterious music)
Power.
Real power. (Laughs)
It's mine.
It's all mine.
(bell tolls)
Eden.
My home on Eden.
It's exactly as I
remember, I'm back.
(creepy jingles)
(glasses clack)
Wait.
It's not...
(ominous music)
(Kess coughs)
(Renn coughs)
(crew chokes)
[Krampus] Greed.
(chains rattling)
No, no, no! (Screams)
[Krampus] Get paid.
Oh God.
Oh, Jesus Christ.
Tissue damage consistent with
tearing.
Human teeth
and nails.
He did this to himself.
Get him off the crate.
(chains rattling)
Captain, look, the
chains, they're moving.
Captain, it's the box.
I'm telling you, it's him,
it's coming from the box.
Then we stop it,
one way or another.
(mysterious music)
(spaceship humming)
We dump the box, we vent
it and be done with it.
But we can't just throw
the box out into space.
I mean these wards,
they work as a system.
Remove one piece and you create
a negative chain reaction.
And we're talking
folklore again.
We need variables
we can control.
Containment, quarantine,
sleep rotations.
We do all of it.
Armed watches, no
one sleeps alone.
We secure the hold and power
down non-essential systems.
Right.
Jonah?
I've been losing time, a
couple of hours here and there.
I'm waking up somewhere
I didn't even start.
- How long?
- Since the Victory.
Since we touched that
coffin in the box.
It's using us when
we're at our weakest.
Then we don't
give it an opening.
We stick together, no
solo trips, no heroics.
Captain, if this
is a pathogen,
neurological, it won't
make any difference.
It's not a pathogen.
It doesn't matter what it is.
It calls, we answer.
Hale, sit.
Kess, lock the cargo
comms to my console.
Renn, prepare stimulants
and sedatives.
We keep our heads
above water until dawn.
Figurative dawn.
I mean, if we're
awake, then it can't
We keep watch, no one blinks.
(spaceship humming)
[Renn] Captain?
[Voss] Renn?
It's ready.
It's crude,
improvised.
But it should work.
The stimulant keeps
the synapses firing,
blocks the brain
from entering REM.
No dreams, no whatever this is.
Or it cooks our brains.
You'd rather wait until
it drags us off one by one?
[Kess] I'll take it.
[Voss] Absolutely not.
Renn's the doctor,
you're the Captain.
No offense, Hale, but you
can't even handle your liquor.
So it has to be me.
If it works, we've
got our solution.
If it doesn't, we'll
try something else.
Fine, do it.
(anxious music)
(injection hisses)
That feels like drinking
five coffees at once. (Pants)
[Hale] Are you sure
she's won't stroke out?
[Renn] I'll
monitor her vitals.
We'll know in a few minutes.
I hear it.
But it's not pulling.
- Are you sure?
I can feel it.
It's here
but it's not, it's
not quite here.
It's like it's in
the other room.
Then it's working. (Laughs)
Make more, enough
for everyone.
(creepy chiming music)
(buttons clicking)
What are you doing, Lieutenant?
Lieutenant?
Kess.
Help me!
Bridge!
Now!
(injection hisses)
(creepy chiming music)
(bells jingling)
What?
You tried to kill me.
I (stutters) didn't
know it was you.
I couldn't even see your face.
You looked like a monster.
Could you see him?
Yeah.
Yeah.
He still got to her.
I thought you said that
it would suppress the REM
and stop the hallucinations?
It should have but
this, whatever this is,
it's not just dreams, it's
using the subconscious.
The brain can be kept
awake by the drug
but it can't stop
what's already in there.
It's not just killing us,
it's turning us
against each other.
Well, that's just
great, isn't it?
So now we're its
weapons, perfect.
- Hale.
- No, do you know what?
I'm done with this.
You lot, you think you can just
science this thing to death?
We can't even fucking see it.
Yeah, guys, like
I said, the only way
we're gonna defeat this
is with wards and rituals.
Yeah, let's just
pray this thing away,
'cause that worked so
well for Muir and Ibarra.
- Hale.
- No, do you know what?
You sit here and let
this thing pick you off.
'Cause I am done, I'm finished.
Find a way to kill it.
Whatever it takes.
(controls beeping)
[Voss] Purpose, Hale?
Just securing the coolant
manifolds and then I'll be back.
(metal thuds)
Voss, what's that?
It's all in your head,
man, it's all in your head.
[Computer] This is the
Aries, warning, warning.
Hull breach damage, deadly
hull strike detected.
Critical damage.
- What? It can't be.
It can't be.
I fixed it, I know I fixed it.
[Computer] Warning,
warning, hull breach damage.
Deadly hull strike
detected, damage critical.
No, no, I fixed it,
it can't be happening.
[Computer] Plan
authorized, plan authorized.
Evacuate now, standby for check.
It can't be.
(alarm blares)
(chains rattling)
I'm sorry!
- You failed your job.
- No, no.
I'm not laughing, I'm not.
(alarm blaring)
No, no, no.
I didn't mean for
this to happen.
I'd been drinking.
I thought I sealed
the breach properly.
I thought I sealed the breach.
- You betrayed her.
Because of you, the entire
crew of the Aries has perished.
500 souls lost all because
of you and your drinks.
I didn't mean to betray
her, it was a mistake.
I made a mistake.
- And yet you survived.
500 souls lost, all because
of your damn drinks.
No, no, please.
I don't wanna go there, please.
(chains rattling)
(ominous chanting)
Please, I don't wanna go there.
Please, I don't
wanna go there, no.
Please.
(chains rattling)
(ominous chanting)
(Hale chokes)
(steady tempo drumbeat)
(mysterious music)
(tense tones)
- Hale!
- Don't touch him.
(eerie whispering)
One by one,
taking us.
[Kess] Just like the Victory.
You said the legends spoke of
the demon punishing the wicked.
Yeah.
I mean, this demon
in the 16th century
would think nothing of
punishing little children.
So imagine us
adults with our lies
and our (chuckle)
wickedness and our sins.
I can't believe
we're being targeted
by a fucking
Christmas ghost story.
Renn.
We should've left the
damn thing on the Victory.
I know.
I thought it would
change our lives.
I'm sorry.
So,
it gains its strength
from our weaknesses,
our mistakes.
I think my mistake
was that.
I touched it.
I let my curiosity
override caution.
I touched it and I didn't
realize what the
consequences would be.
I underestimated it.
I thought I could control it,
I thought I could contain it.
I didn't warn anyone.
I thought I could understand it,
find a solution but I failed.
We all did what we
thought we had to.
That doesn't
mean we were right.
They died on my watch
because I believed logic
and rationality
could outrun a demon.
I let people die.
I let people die 'cause I was
too confident, too stubborn.
Did I release this
thing on us all?
It doesn't matter
if we survived.
It doesn't matter what we did
to try and save
ourselves or others.
Guilt
follows you.
If we're all guilty,
then that means everything
that we've ever done,
we are responsible for
everything that we've ever done.
We're also responsible for
everything we didn't do.
It's all on us.
But if we survived
this long, then
Maybe we can survive
what's coming next.
No, maybe surviving
isn't the point anymore.
What is the point?
We face it.
We face it together
or die trying.
The question is how?
Well, we've tried
weapons, tried science,
we try it your way.
What have you got in mind?
Okay.
(buttons clicking)
So the box is a beacon.
The wards are bells, pine cones,
the birch and the symbols,
all these items
anchor each other.
Okay.
This stranger,
he captured this creature
that he couldn't kill
and he exiled it
where he believed
that men would never go.
- Go on.
Space.
The coldest winter,
the darkest night.
The box wasn't
hiding the creature,
it was holding it
against the tides.
And when we moved the anchor,
we interfered, we
loosened the chain.
Even if I entertain
this for a second,
how do you rebind a myth?
By completing the loop.
So wards reunited,
an incantation and,
all the records mention this,
it has to end in
a final sacrifice.
Sacrifice?
What sacrifice?
It wants the wicked.
The greedy, the lawyers.
It wants judgment.
Then we don't
feed it, we cage it.
Get me a route to the
airlock that avoids
every camera and
corridor we've bled in.
Renn, dose us to keep us awake
and also to drop us fast in
case we need the other thing.
So we suck it
out of the airlock?
Well, it still physically
manifests itself at times
to drag us into its netherworld.
That will be the moment.
But then one of
us would have to
- Me.
- What?
This is my ship, it's my crew.
It's not taking
anyone else, not now.
Okay, you're gonna Pied Piper
this thing outta the ship?
Now who's talking myths?
I adjusted the dosage of
the injection I gave to Kess.
It won't suppress sleep.
Instead, it would rather
help control what we see.
Yeah, or it's
gonna get us faster.
We go together.
(mysterious music)
Chalmers' pulse
spiked on the DM
when he came near the box.
Good, let it watch
us lock its cage.
Let it remember who's in charge.
I'll read as much as possible.
I've had the ship's AI
translate what it can.
But if I falter, don't
stop, keep going.
Don't stop.
We're dealing with
something intelligent,
something patient.
That's why the incantation
has to be perfect.
One mistake and it could be us.
Then we don't make
mistakes, we don't hesitate.
I've calibrated the
synaptic stabilizer.
It might help keep it from
pulling on our minds
during the ritual.
Right, it says
the wards they made
to exile and to bind
but not to destroy.
Exile, fine.
Better than letting it rip
through the ship again.
Right, I'll start.
Bound in birch by
bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch
by bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch
by bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
(chains rattling)
[Crew] Bound in birch
by bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch by
bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch by
bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch
by bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch
by bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch
by bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
[Crew] Bound in birch
by bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch by
bell made tame,
winter's hand return your name.
(alternative rock music)
(chains rattling)
(tense drumbeat)
(mysterious music)
(chains rattling)
(corpse chitters)
(tense ensemble rock music)
(chain thwacks)
Bound in birch
by bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch by
bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch by
bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch
by bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch by
bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch by
bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch by
bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
[Crew] Bound in birch
by bell made tame,
winters hand returns your name.
- Bound in birch.
- By bell made tame.
Winter's hand
returns your name.
Bound in birch by
bell made tame,
winter's hand returns your name.
Bound in birch
by bell mad tame,
winter's hand returns your name!
(alarm blares)
Kess.
Okay, the three of us joined,
we can fight this together.
Let's go.
Let's finish this
once and for all.
Form the loop now.
Chains that hold
the winter's beast,
by man's breath and stars East.
Exile, exile, be at peace.
[Renn] Commencing
depressurization protocol on on my mark.
[Krampus] Well then do it.
Hold.
Hold.
Bell (Krampus roars)
No!
No.
(Krampus growls)
(tense music)
- Renn!
- Renn!
- Renn!
- Renn!
You wanted the wicked?
(alarm blares)
I was gone.
- Renn.
- We do this together.
Exile, exile.
That's what this is?
(air hisses)
(alarm blares)
[Voss And Kess] Renn!
(airlock rumbles)
(alarm blares)
(spaceship humming)
Do you think it's gone?
I think it's further
away than it was.
All the wards are broken.
Then we tell a story
to stop people from touching
what they shouldn't.
Okay.
I'll write it down
properly, not as a myth.
Write it as both.
(up tempo mysterious music)
Ship's log, 25-12-2177,
Arden's Wake.
We intercepted the
colony ship Victory.
She was
empty.
Cause of abandonment unknown.
We collected no
salvage of value.
We suffered fatalities
during the boarding.
Hale, Ibarra, Muir, Chalmers,
Dr. Elias Renn,
all killed in the line of duty.
This record honors
their service.
Take us home.
(spooky mysterious music)
- Okay.
(spaceship humming)
(spooky mysterious chanting)
The snow is deep,
the moon is bright
Children hide in
fear and fright
The boots are
crunching in the light
Krampus comes tonight
He smells of smoke,
of beast and hide
His eyes like holes
in demon shine
He'll take your sweets
and drink your lies
Krampus comes tonight
(bell tolls)
Hey, ho, rattle those chains
Hide your sins,
confess your pain
Sing with smiles,
his frame does bite
Krampus comes tonight
(mysterious rock music)
He sniffs the
naughty state of mind
And all the way,
the wicked shine
When lovers whisper
soft and whine
He comes to take my child
Hey, ho, run for your life
He besots the
air with strife
Sing that glassed holy light
Krampus comes tonight
Tonight
(mysterious violin music)
(up tempo drumbeat)
(mysterious violin, rock music)
(beast roars)
(water sloshes)