Somewhere in a small town exists the Howard family. They were nothing out of the ordinary. You had the father Mike, your average business man who worked his 9-5 to support his wife and two kids. His wife Karen, a well endowed stay at home mom. With all the time on her hands as her kids got older she has become more and more bored with her daily life. Then there are the two kids of the family. Max, the 19 year old son who was just getting ready to enter college. A strong boy with a very refined look. No would could forget Sam though, the 18 year old daughter of the family. She was the one to hit her rebellious stage and take it all the way to now. Of all the family she hated the small town living and her family the most. Sporting the classic look of a punk rebellious teenager, she had more than her fair share of admirers at school. However, even Sam made time for her family, once a week. Every week the Howards would get together for their weekly movie night. This would be the one time the whole family would be together despite any problems they had. These weekly movie nights were about to take a very strange turn though.
As night set in on the day of the Howard family movie night everyone began to make their way to the living room and settle into the couch in the same spots they always did. From left to right, Karen with her husband next to her, then Max and his sister. Before they could get started though the door rang, something that happened very rarely in this small town. The man of the house, Mike, got up to answer the door and see who it was and what they could possibly want. He opened the door and was met with a man standing there in what looked to be a stage performers outfit, something that took him as quite a shock. Not as big of a shock as he got when he looked up and was met face to face with this strange man's phone. Normally this would have been just a rude gesture but before Mike could even say anything he noticed the spinning spirals on the device. Quickly the world seemed to fade away as the man smirked. Mike's eyes now glazed over and his mouth gently hanging open as he was sucked into the spirals. The strange man leaned in and whispered into Mike's ears.
"Change of plans. You're going to be watching this tonight. got it?"
As he said this he handed Mike a disc and Mike nodded gently as he knew what to do. The strange man left as Mike closed the door. As soon as the door shut the world snapped back into place and he returned to the living room with everyone else.
"What was that all about honey?" asked Karen.
"Nothing, just a door to door salesman trying to get me to buy something. I told him we didn't want anything."
"So what are we watching tonight?" Sam interrupted.
Mike held up the disc "Some B movie I got out of the discount bin. I thought it would be fun to see just how bad it is."
"Leave it to dad to not even try and get a good movie" joked Max.
"Alright let's get this started" said Karen.
Mike walked up and put the disc in the player and settled into his spot on the couch next to his wife. The movie quickly spun up. The first thing that caught everyone off guard was that there was no menu. The movie just started playing, but everyone just chopped it up to being a result of being in the bargain bin.
The movie opened with an empty stage and a full crowd sitting in front of it. Lights soon lit up the stage showing a large screen on the back wall but nothing else. Then a man stepped out of stage left to massive applause from the audience. Meanwhile the whole Howard family was confused as to what this movie was about. Once in the center of the stage the man could be clearly seen. He was wearing a stage outfit as one would expect someone in front of this kind of audience to. Something tingled in the back of Mike's mind as he thought he had seen this man somewhere before, but that quickly went away. The strange man began to speak.
"Welcome everyone to Mesmer's amazing hypnotic show!" as he said those words the screen behind him came to life with a bright white flash that got everyone's attention. Soon after the screen swirled into a spinning ring of spirals. The audience was instantly drawn into it. As they all watched ,the strange man began to say something but the Howard's were barely listening as they also were far more interested in the screen behind him. Each of them was leaning closer and closer on the edge of their seats. As the man spoke the movie slowly shifted from showing him in front of the spirals to just being a recording of the large screen. At this point the whole family had their eyes beginning to slowly glaze over as their mouths hung open. Then words began to fill the screen.
"Obey."
"Listen."
"Submit."
Each word spun around with the spiral. Slowly Sam began to mouth the words followed shortly by the rest of the Howards. Before they knew it everyone was lightly chanting the words on screen. Suddenly the screen flashed white again and the movie ended. By this point though the whole families eyes were completely glazed over as they mindlessly chanted those three words. None of them even recognizing the movie had stopped. The door to the house creaked open.
In stepped Mesmer. He walked into the living room to the sound of the Howards mindless chanting.
"Well aren't you all a lovely sight. A very nice catch indeed!" he chuckled as he groped both Karen and Sam. Neither of which had any reaction. All they knew now was the spiral and that they should obey, listen, and submit.
