{{A Horrifying Shoot}} chapter 1

A director accidentally came across an old movie that was made ten years ago. It was a horror film that, for some unknown reason, had never been released to the public. The outstanding performance of the female lead in the movie was truly unforgettable. The director was deeply impressed by her acting skills and decided to cast her in his next film.

It took the director quite some effort to find her. To his surprise, the woman was still as beautiful as she was ten years ago. It seemed that time had left no traces on her face. She agreed to the director’s request.

The plot of the movie was about a woman who was cursed and could no longer smile. Anyone who saw her smile would meet a tragic end. The director was confident that he could turn it into a classic horror film.

The first scene was a crying scene where the female lead learned that she had been cursed. The woman showed no expression when the director explained the scene to her, and the director was worried that she didn’t understand his meaning. But as soon as he shouted “Action!”, the woman immediately got into the character. She cried so heart – wrenchingly that she couldn’t stop. As soon as the director shouted “Cut!”, she stopped crying right away, got up from the ground, and calmly tidied up the clothes that she had messed up just now.

Normally, it takes actors some time to get into and out of a character, but this woman was like a machine. It was as if when the button was pressed, her crying stopped abruptly due to a lack of “energy”.

The director vaguely felt that there was something strange about this woman.

The shooting went smoothly. The woman’s excellent acting skills hardly gave the director any trouble. However, the director increasingly felt that this woman was unusual. She always kept to herself. There was never a sight of her agent, and no relatives or friends came to visit her on the set. She never talked to other members of the crew. After finishing her scenes, she would just sit quietly in the corner.

On that day, the scene was about the female lead who had just gone through a great disaster. She was exhausted and covered in wounds. The shooting time had arrived, but the female lead hadn’t shown up yet. Just as the director anxiously took out his phone, he noticed that everyone’s eyes were fixed on behind him. He turned around and saw the woman limping towards him. Her long hair was wet and stuck together. Her clothes were dirty, tattered, and covered in blood. She hunched her back, with one arm hanging limply on her chest like a broken branch, and the other hand tightly holding a blood – stained axe. She walked towards them with a pale face and empty eyes, as if she had just gone through a fierce fight.

The director’s eyes lit up and he shouted, “Start shooting!”

The director was holding his breath, watching the woman’s amazing performance. Suddenly, a hand landed on his shoulder. He turned around and saw the makeup artist standing in front of him, out of breath. The director smiled, about to praise the makeup artist for his excellent work, but the makeup artist spoke first in a panicked voice, “Sorry, director. I’m late.”

The director’s smile froze on his face. But later, he didn’t ask the woman about it. He now kept his distance from this quiet woman. He comforted himself by thinking that maybe she had done the makeup herself. After all, she was a dedicated actress.

One day, the plot required a nude scene of the female lead. After getting the woman’s consent, the director chose a small cabin as the shooting location. Besides the woman, the director only kept a photographer and a lighting technician.

The woman took off all her clothes. Under the soft and dim light, her figure was perfectly proportioned, and her skin glowed with a healthy sheen. The director was young, and he could feel his blood rushing.

Suddenly, the lights went out, and it was pitch – black. The lighting technician whispered, “There seems to be a problem with the circuit.” The photographer quickly went to help.

At this time, the director seemed to hear the woman let out a scream. He felt it was his responsibility to ease the possible panic of the actress. So he groped his way to the bed and comforted her, “It’s just a small problem. It’ll be fixed soon. Don’t be afraid…”

In the darkness, a slippery arm snaked around the director’s neck, and a finger gently traced circles around his ear.

The director was stunned. His heart was beating so fast that he couldn’t control it. He swallowed hard. Although he had heard about some things in the industry, he had never experienced them himself. This woman might be old, but you could never guess her age…

“All right!” the lighting technician shouted with relief.

The moment the lights came on, the arm immediately left the director’s shoulder. The director saw the woman’s expressionless face as usual. At the same time, he also saw the woman stuffing something under the pillow when the lights came on.

The shooting was over. After the woman left, the director walked to the bed and lifted the pillow. He gasped in horror. On the white bedsheet, there lay a sharp fruit knife.

The director couldn’t figure out what this woman was up to. Did she have some kind of mental problem because she had been abandoned by other directors? He comforted himself that tomorrow would be the last scene of the film. No matter how strange and scary the woman was, he wouldn’t have to deal with her anymore.

The last scene to be shot was also the final scene of the movie: the female lead’s curse was lifted, and she showed a brilliant smile to the man she loved. Through the monitor, the director looked at the face that was so expressive during the performance but so dull and pale off – camera, and shouted, “Action!”

The woman smiled, a smile of relief, a smile of survival, a smile of complete relaxation. Her smile was sincere, warm, and flawless. This smile made the woman look even younger and more beautiful.

Suddenly, the director remembered what made him feel that this woman was strange. He had never seen this woman smile before!

The director felt a chill run down his spine and weakly shouted, “Cut!”

The subsequent shooting was not smooth. All the staff could feel that the male actor who played opposite the woman was absent – minded and in a daze. When the last take was barely passed, everyone laughed and mocked the male actor for being so infatuated with the woman’s smile. The director didn’t join in the teasing. He quietly watched the woman.

The woman didn’t say goodbye to anyone and walked straight out of the studio.

Early the next morning, the director received a call saying that the male actor was dead. He had fallen down the stairs and was pierced through the heart by the steel bars piled in the corridor.

People in the crew sighed about the unpredictability of life, but some also said, “This is just too much of a coincidence…”

The director knew what they meant by “too much of a coincidence”, but he didn’t want to believe such nonsense. Now he just wanted to finish editing the film and then take a good long vacation.

Late at night, the director was the only one left in the editing room, still busy. Suddenly, the phone rang. The director answered it impatiently, “Hello, hello? Speak up!”

On the other end of the phone came a long – drawn – out laugh: “Heheh… ”

It was the woman! Although the director had talked to her only a few times, having heard her lines every day, he could easily recognize her voice. In the laughter, the director remembered the woman covered in blood, the shining fruit knife under the pillow, the male actor’s strange death, and the magnified smile of the woman on the monitor… He tried to stay calm and coughed, “Um, what’s up?”