A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES
[thunder rumbling]
[suspenseful music playing]
[engine starts]
THE OLD SCHOOL
[music intensifies]
[dog whimpering]
[birds chirping]
ASAK SCHOOL 1927
SCHOOL
[man] This is the first day of school. Imagine that.
You are so lucky.
You are the first kids to go here in almost 40 years.
This school has been closed since before your parents were born.
- Isn't that pretty cool? - [children] Yes!
[Øgland] Okay, so, let's meet your teachers.
Trine is... Well, you've been here a few years now.
And Sanna has come here all the way from Oslo to teach you to read and write.
♪ Never take, only give ♪
[class] ♪ Never take, only give ♪
♪ And everything will be nice ♪
[class] ♪ And everything will be nice ♪
You are so good. You know it already!
[bell rings]
That's it for today.
But you know what? I'm excited to see you tomorrow.
WELCOME TO 1ST GRADE
[Sanna] Goodbye, Milla. Goodbye.
[door closes]
[sighs]
[children chattering]
- [Trine] How was your first day? - It was great.
They are so cute. I love it here.
I sure miss that.
- What? - That "newly minted teacher" enthusiasm.
- It's a lovely feeling. - Well, I did work a year in Oslo.
But city kids are a lot to handle.
So, you wanted to come here to a quiet and friendly corner of the world?
Yes. Well, I needed a fresh start.
And those little guys in there... I love them already.
Okay. See you.
[man sniffs]
[Sanna] Do you work here? Hello?
- I do maintenance work. - Okay, but...
Good.
[door closes]
[door creaks]
[children crying faintly]
Hello?
[crying continues]
[suspenseful music playing]
[crying continues]
Hello?
[screams]
[sighs in relief]
Hello?
[children chattering outside]
[foreboding music playing]
BOARDING HOUSE
[mellow music playing over speakers]
- Sorry. I didn't mean to... - No need. I was done anyway.
Oh, dear. Yoga is so boring.
- You needed some towels? - Yes, mm-hm.
How was your first day at the old school?
It was amazing.
The other teachers are really friendly, and the kids are adorable...
Yes, but how was the old school?
What do you mean?
Just that it's been closed for 40-some years.
They've renovated, so... Did you go there?
No, I'm not from around here.
But ever since I moved here,
I get a feeling every time I pass that building that something...
Haven't you noticed?
What do you mean?
I don't know. I think something happened there.
- So, you really didn't feel anything? - No.
Well...
It was probably nothing, but as I was leaving, I heard some noises.
- Voices, from the basement. - I knew it.
But it was nothing. I must have misheard.
I just knew it.
Follow me. I'll carry these for you.
[eerie music playing]
Jesus Christ, Johnny. You've got to give that staring a rest.
- I apologize. - Who is that?
I help the city out by lodging people like Johnny.
It's... He... Don't worry.
He's a bit strange, but all he does is stare. [chuckles]
[children chattering]
[Trine] Hi.
- Trine? - Mm-hm?
- You know the maintenance guy? - What about him?
- Isn't he a bit old to be working? - What? He's my age.
No, not Cato. The other one. Really old.
- Oh, you mean Jäger. - Jäger?
Yes. The kids were terrified of him.
Most people were relieved when he retired.
[bell rings]
But I saw him yesterday. He said he worked maintenance.
And I just saw him outside.
How odd. I haven't seen him in years. I thought he was dead.
Great! Give me more words that start with A.
- [student 1] Airplane! - [student 2] Arrow!
- [student 3] Aquarium! - [student 4] Apple!
- [student 5] Avocado! - [bell rings]
There's the bell. That's it for today.
Remember your homework: five more things that start with A.
See you tomorrow.
[children chattering]
Bye-bye.
[door closes]
[lights buzzing]
[children crying faintly]
[scratching nearby]
[squeaking and tapping nearby]
[suspenseful music playing]
HELP US, SANNA
[breathing shakily]
[Sanna] Agda?
Agda?
[door closes]
[footsteps approaching]
[Sanna] Hello?
[footsteps approaching]
[footsteps continue]
[footsteps stop]
- [Sanna] Agda? Agda! Come here. - Hmm?
Oh, dear, what's the matter?
There was someone out there just now. An older man or...
That's just Johnny's dad. He stops by to check on his son.
Hey, it's nothing to worry about.
Okay.
- Mm. - Was there something else?
Right.
It's impossible. It's...
Everything is possible until proven otherwise.
Have you heard any stories about anyone dying at the old school?
No.
Well, this was before my time. A long time ago.
But I've heard...
sometimes, when people die,
their soul doesn't quite make it over to the other side.
It lingers in limbo, half alive, half dead.
At one point or another, someone died in that old building.
And they need help to get to the other side.
[eerie music playing]
Have you ever heard of any students dying here?
- Inside the old school? - No. Why do you ask?
I heard a rumor.
There was a story people told, not about kids dying but disappearing.
I think.
- Disappearing? When? - I don't know. Late 70s?
[tense music playing]
- So, you found it, huh? - [gasps]
Found what?
That's me. Principal Øgland as a fourth grader.
Um...
Wasn't there a story...
about some kids who just disappeared?
Yes.
Her. That's Unni.
Was she one of the missing kids?
Let's see... Here they all are.
There's Unni. And then Mari, and the two youngest, Sissel and Odd.
They lived with their mother just outside of town, place called the Drip.
And then one spring, in '78, I believe, they suddenly stopped coming to school.
After a while, someone went up to the Drip to see what was going on.
They found the mother dead.
And she had been dead for a long time. A year. Maybe longer.
The kids had apparently managed on their own.
- Those kids didn't have an easy life. - How so?
Well, you're from the city, so you may not know how these things work.
But most small communities like ours
have a family that doesn't fit in. And for us that was the Stølen family.
And old Mrs. Stølen, she... [chuckles]
She was about as ugly as they get.
So, the kids had to endure a lot of talk, a lot of gossip.
And us kids, we just repeated what we heard adults say.
Oh, well. Let's leave the past in the past.
[child 1] You have to help us.
[child 2] They hated us.
[child 3] The bad man.
He took us.
[child 4] Help us get out. Look at the picture.
[children chattering]
[door creaks open]
[flies buzzing]
What are you doing here?
I'm sorry, I...
I heard a story about the family who lived here, and...
- I just wanted to... - The Stølen family is gone.
The mother was crazy, and her offspring were the spawn of Satan.
You should keep away. Get out of here!
- I just... - Leave!
Hey.
You're absolutely sure it was Jäger you saw?
Yes.
He worked at the old school in the 70s.
He knows something. He knows what happened to those children.
- You saw them. You actually saw them? - Yes.
Why me?
They have chosen you...
because you are, I don't know...
like me, maybe. Open.
Hmm?
They never stood a chance. [sniffles]
Nobody wanted them, because they came from the wrong family.
He killed them. I can feel it.
- No... - God only knows
what he has done to his own son. Poor Johnny. He just sits there.
Agda, we can't accuse anyone of murder.
At least not without evidence. We...
We have to find out more.
"Look at the picture." That's what she said.
They're trying to tell me something.
- "Look at the picture." - Let me see.
"Look at the picture."
- [Sanna] What is it? - I don't know.
Let's see.
Oh, my God.
I've seen this before.
[Agda] I believe in these kinds of ancient incantations, actually.
I think this will help them pass to the other side.
Yes, look at this.
[in English] "With this light and these words,
I move the borders of death."
But what does it mean? Does it work?
[in Norwegian] I haven't tried it before. But if it works,
we're evoking mighty forces. We don't know who put the sheet in there...
It was the children! They did it.
They wanted me to find it. Those children need me.
[door opens, then closes]
[screams, then laughs]
I should have warned you.
[children crying faintly]
- Do you feel anything? - Here.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Agda in Latin] Amen. I say to you.
Amen. I say to you.
[melancholy music playing]
[inaudible dialogue]
[in Norwegian] Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
Oh, my...
[child] Sanna.
Thank you, Sanna.
- What happened to you? - They hated us.
- Who did? - [Unni] The whole town.
They called us tramps and the spawn of Satan.
He brought us here and killed us.
[door creaks, then closes]
[Sanna gasps]
The bad man.
- [Jäger] What the hell are you doing? - You killed the children.
Yes.
I did the whole town a favor.
Those tramps had no place on this earth.
Do you hear yourself?
Singling out a single family that way, based on rumors!
[Jäger] Rumors? It was a hell of a lot more than rumors!
They ruined Johnny.
They lured him into the woods and did things to him. Things that...
I don't know what they did, but Johnny was never himself again.
What have you been doing?
- [Sanna] We were just... - [Jäger] What have you done?
- What have you done? - [stammers]
Those weren't normal children. They were the spawn of Satan. Of Satan!
[Unni] Sanna?
[chilling music playing]
- [children growling] - [Agda and Sanna screaming]
[haunting music playing]
Subtitle translation by Noreen Lai