Diabolical Tales: Part II

Diabolical Tales: Part II - Vengeance of the Men From Within The Earth is a 2007 short sci-fi/comedy film and the second entry in the Diabolical Tales series.

Diabolical Tales: Part II had it's first public screening at ShockerFest 2007 in Riverside, California.

It follows Diabolical Tales: Part I (2005) and is followed by Diabolical Tales: Part III (2007).

Synopsis
Picking up in December 1954, two years following the events of Diabolical Tales: Part I, a group of evil hench-women led by the partially deaf arch-villain Zerg are sent up from their underground civilization to re-capture the Sapphire of Agartha, a mystical relic that was stolen from the Underworld and handed over to heroes Agent Cooper and Operative-132.

Agent Nicholson and the Sapphire
The film opens in the American Southwest, December 1954. An FBI Agent named Nicholson who managed to sneak into the underground world of Agartha is chased through the desert and eventually forced to confront his pursuer, a man from within the earth named Zellor. Just when certain death appears likely, Agent Nicholson turns the tables on him and pushes him off a perilous cliff. Then he deposits a strange box under a rock for recovery by Operative-132.

Zerg and Ziva
A second prologue finds the evil, partially-deaf villain Zerg and his hench-woman Ziva arriving in their near-surface evil lair. After glancing around the empty chamber - apparently empty in the two years since Zong first occupied it - they establish contact with their evil leader, Master Zun, via a hologram-based communications device. He reveals that the Sapphire of Agartha has been stolen by a surface-dweller spy and returned to the surface. They are ordered to locate and kill Operative-132 and recover the Sapphire of Agartha - the strange, mystical object that was stolen by Agent Nicholson. After Master Zun signs off, Ziva sums up Master Zun's orders for the partially-deaf Zerg. He in turn orders Ziva to find Operative-132.

Agent Cooper and the MacGuffin
At FBI Headquarters, Agent Cooper is impatiently drinking a cup of coffee. He calls General Burton to see if he's heard any updates from Operative-132, who is now overdue. As he's hanging up the phone, O-132 enters the office, carrying a small white box.

Operative-132 reveals that the box contains an object known as the Sapphire of Agartha, stolen from the Underworld by Agent Nicholson. Nicholson infiltrated Agartha through a cave entrance in "one of the coldest regions of Alaska", according to Operative-132. After a year down there, they suspected him to be dead, but days earlier they received an emergency signal from him. Operative-132 went out to the "extraction point" in the mountains of the American Southwest to find the white box containing the stolen Sapphire of Agartha.

After refusing to let Agent Cooper see the Sapphire on security grounds, O-132 declares that they've got to deliver the Sapphire to Dr. Edward Teller at an NSA lab in upstate New York as soon as possible because many agents of the Men from within the Earth will be "hot on our trail for this thing".

But they determine that they should first get a bite to eat.

The Descent of Kate Cooper
Agent Cooper and Operative-132 return to Agent Cooper's apartment, where his wife Kate Cooper is again secretly boozing. She downs an entire Collins glass full of XXX-brand Vodka in seconds before they enter, and then staggers a bit when they greet her. She presents them their suppers: pre-made "TV-dinners" that were warmed up in an oven, which astonishes Operative-132 as being a futuristic development.

Drunkenly, Kate asks Agent Cooper what happened to him today at work, to which Agent Cooper responds with his standard "I can't tell you anything that I do. I'm sworn to secrecy. It's a measure of national defense". Kate responds angrily, challenging him to tell her anything. Growing impatient, Agent Cooper tells her to join them for dinner or to shut up, and Kate angrily storms out of the room.

O-132 and Agent Cooper eat in an uncomfortable silence for a moment, and then Agent Cooper apologizes for Kate's behavior, saying "she's not been herself lately". O-132 instantly responds "She's drunk as a Scot." Agent Cooper goes into defensive denial, but O-132 persists: "Looks like she's been drinking all day. And she smells like it too". He then tries to diffuse the growing tension between them by admitting that he also had similar problems with his ex-wife, "who ran off with some other guy while I was investigating that UFO crash of '48."

Agent Cooper, still annoyed, determines they should get going to New York.

Attack of a Small Woman
As Operative-132 and Agent Cooper drive along a forested road, they are ambushed by Ziva. After Agent Cooper fires off a few shots at her, they determine to split up - with O-132 taking the car and the Sapphire to the NSA lab in upstate New York. Agent Cooper remains behind to deal with Ziva. As he begins hunting her down, he finds she's crossed a field and silently waits for him.

Agent Cooper charges down an embankment and into a clearing in the forest where Ziva awaits. Upon finally arriving, she raises her electro-incinerator and aims at him. The two get into a stand-off, with Agent Cooper repeatedly demanding that she lower her weapon. Finally, he fires off a warning shot that grazes Ziva's shoulder. She angrily challenges him on the decision to fire, as she's a woman. Then she raises her weapon again.

Their stand off-continues until Ziva suddenly lunges at him, knocking him backwards and then kicking him to the ground. After taking several more hits, Agent Cooper knocks her back and climbs to his feet, only to find Ziva has disappeared. He searches around for her before heading to the road at the sound of an approaching car. Meanwhile, we see that Ziva is watching on from a hiding spot in a tree.

Agent Cooper flags down the car, pulls the Motorist out and declares that he's gotta take his car before peeling out at high speed.

Sinister and Devious Reinforcements
Back in the evil lair, Zerg is sitting silently when Ziva arrives, huffing and puffing about her encounter with Agent Cooper. Zerg praises her for her update while petting her like a dog, when suddenly another door opens and two new women enter the evil lair. They introduce themselves as Zella and Zera, who have been sent up by Master Zun to assist Zerg in his effort to destroy Operative-132 and recover the Sapphire of Agartha.

They also reveal a third woman - Zeena - has accompanied them, who was intended to be Zerg's "prize" for a successful recovery of the Sapphire. She attacks and smothers Zerg with kisses and hugs, which prompts Zerg to demand to all the others to leave them while laughing mischievously.

A Strange Tip
Back at FBI Headquarters, Agent Cooper receives a call from his wife Kate, who is wanting to know when he'll be home. When Operative-132 enters the office, Agent Cooper hangs up with her and asks what happened. O-132 replies that he ended up with a flat tire and "hid the Sapphire in a safe place in the meantime".

Agent Cooper's one-time supervisor FBI Assistant Director Smith enters the office and launches into a rambling and sometimes incoherent story about a strange group of evil women from within the Earth that are randomly attacking citizens in the streets and causing mayhem. Agent Cooper is instantly on his feet, ready for action, when a confused Operative-132 questions Assistant Director Smith about the source of his information, insisting that Smith shouldn't know about this. When Smith claims "it's common knowledge now, O-132", he relents and the two G-Men leave while a slightly sinister Assistant Director Smith watches on.

The Chase / The Fight / The Alley
Agent Cooper and Operative-132 drive around the city, looking for any kind of sinister activity like Assistant Director Smith had indicated but finding none. O-132 reveals that he has his suspicions about Assistant Director Smith. They pull over and climb out of their car, and walk to a ridge overlooking the downtown area. While they look around, Operative-132 admits to Agent Cooper that he hasn't told him the whole story yet about Project AGARTHA and his theories regarding the Men from within the Earth.

O-132 believes that the Agarthans are the survivors of the legendary continent of Atlantis, and the Sapphire of Agartha is a part of that legacy. When Agent Cooper asks why O-132 is sharing this information at this particular time, O-132 responds "Because I've got a bad feeling about this".

Just then, Zera emerges from the shadows ahead of them. Both G-Men pull their guns and order her to surrender, which she ignores with a smile as she tears off down a flight of stairs leading down to the next street. Agent Cooper and Operative-132 tear off in pursuit, and proceed to chase her throughout the downtown area. Zella also appears to be tracking the progress of the chase, following along from a distance.

After allowing the G-Men to pursue her for a while, Zera turns around and fires her electro-incinerator on them, then dropping her weapon and leaping into an impressive display of acrobatics before disarming and knocking both Agent Cooper and Operative-132 unconscious by hand in one swoop.

As they slowly rise to their feet, Zera leads them into chasing her on again now further into the downtown area. At one point, a winded Agent Cooper and Operative-132 pause, commenting on how they've been running...a long time. They then continue on after their prey.

As they make their way through the downtown area, Ziva joins the pursuit, emerging from a phone booth. Zera leads them into an alley where she and Zella both stand with their armed electro-incinerators raised, waiting for them. Ziva appears behind them. They have fallen into a trap.

At the end of the alley, a man wearing all black starts stalking towards them, laughing an evil laugh while calling them "stupid surface-dwellers!" This is Zerg.

Zerg is joined by Zeena, and the whole Agarthan party faces off against the two G-Men, where all have their weapons at the ready. Zerg and Operative-132 trade insults, with Zerg demanding to know where the Sapphire of Agartha is, and with O-132 refusing to admit anything. Then O-132 warns Agent Cooper to get ready, as "they won't get me without a fight!" With that, O-132 spins around, fires upon and kills Ziva, who was covering their rear exit.

The Death of Operative-132
Almost instantly, both Zella and Zera raise their electro-incinerators and fire upon Operative-132 in response, despite Zerg's shouting not to kill him. He is hit square in the chest by both blasts, knocking him to the ground in a shower of sparks and electricity.

Agent Cooper drops to his knees and holds the mortally wounded Operative-132 as he whispers out his final bits of information: the location of the Sapphire of Agartha. Then, Operative-132 dies, disintegrating into a ball of dust. Angered, Agent Cooper leaps to his feet to attack Zerg and his minions but is stunned into unconsciousness by Zera.

Agent Cooper Captured
Some time later, Agent Cooper awakens. He is being bound to the wall via some sort of energy-binders, and is facing off against Zerg, Zella, and Zera, who are watching him intently. Zerg then taunts Agent Cooper, informing him that they've given him an anti-urination pill and want to know the location of the Sapphire of Agartha.

Valiantly, Agent Cooper refuses to tell them, so Zerg proceeds to lift a pitcher of water and an empty glass. Reminding him of the anti-urination pill and threatening him ominously with the objects, Zerg demands to know where the Sapphire is. When Agent Cooper again refuses, Zerg slowly starts to pour the water into the glass and back into the pitcher again, slowly torturing Agent Cooper.

After undergoing many pours of torture, Zella determines that this method is producing no results and turns to suggest another method to Zerg: erase Agent Cooper's short-term memory of the evil lair, place a tracking device on him, and set him free only to follow him to the location of the Sapphire. Despite the sadistic protestations of Zeena to continue with the torture, Zerg finally relents and agrees to Zella's alternate plan. Even Agent Cooper takes notice, pledging to spare Zella when he kills the rest of her team.

Zella then outfits Agent Cooper with a strange device that fits over his head like a helmet, which effectively wipes out his memory and knocks him unconscious.

The Final Battle
Some time later, Agent Cooper awakens again, this time in a patch of woods on the surface. Finding his gun nearby, he climbs to his feet looking around, confused and uncertain. As he walks off, we learn that he's got a small clip attached to the bottom of his trenchcoat: a tracking device.

Zella, armed with the tracking device's receiver, leads Zerg, Zera and Zeena through the woods in a slow pursuit. After spreading out throughout the forest, Zella finds the small tracking clip abandoned on the ground. She calls to the others. As they cluster together, a gunshot rings out: one of Agent Cooper's bullets strikes Zera right between the eyes, dropping her dead.

Zella and Zerg scatter about as Agent Cooper moves closer, hunting them down. Agent Cooper's gun jams up so he proceeds on unarmed, attacking Zerg with his fists. This proves ineffective, as Zerg grabs Agent Cooper's head and lifts him off the ground, angrily demanding to know where the Sapphire of Agartha is or he'll crush Cooper's head.

During this struggle, Agent Cooper manages to grab Zerg's electro-incinerator from inside his trenchcoat, and at the last instant he arms it, pointing it right at Zerg's belly. Zerg drops him and Agent Cooper exclaims "Don't move, man in black! Your'e under arrest for murder and the attempted takeover of the United States of America!"

Then Zella re-enters the scene, arming her own electro-incinerator and pointing it at Agent Cooper. Faced with a stand-off, Agent Cooper wavers between Zerg and Zella. When Zerg finally physically lunges at Agent Cooper, he fires the electro-incinerator at Zerg, vaporizing him. Turning back, Agent Cooper finds Zella has disappeared.

Agent Cooper then faces Zeena, who angrily stalks Agent Cooper. As he attempts to fire the electro-incinerator at Zeena, it sparks and shorts out, causing him to slap it against his fist a few times before it finally works, vaporizing Zeena. Scanning the area, Agent Cooper then mutters to himself "at least now we've got a body to autopsy," heading over to Zera's corpse.

As he picks up her feet, Zera suddenly recoils back to life, reaching for Agent Cooper. He again activates the electro-incinerator, vaporizing Zera and the last remaining body left to autopsy. Upon realizing this, Agent Cooper says "Damn."

Zella and Master Zun
Zella returns to the evil lair. She contacts Master Zun via a hologram-based communications device and reports Operative-132 is dead, but another surface-dweller, the FBI Agent Cooper, prevented them from recovering the Sapphire of Agartha and murdered Zerg and all the others in her team. Angry but determined, Master Zun orders Zella to wait for reinforcements and deems revenge against this "Agent Cooper".

Requiem for a G-Man
On the front porch to his apartment, a mournful Agent Cooper is holding the remaining ashes of Operative-132 in a small dish. Speaking to the ashes, Agent Cooper reveals that doesn't feel up to the responsibility of running Project AGARTHA on his own and that he is still suffering from short-term memory loss: he doesn't know where the Sapphire of Agartha is hidden. And he only has a vague memory of a kind, beautiful woman in black and pain.

Agent Cooper then releases the ashes into the air, which almost seem to dissolve into the outline of what Operative-132 once looked like. Then Agent Cooper stands alone, fearful for the future.

Little does Agent Cooper know that his wife Kate is listening on, who mutters to herself, "woman in black?"

Cast

 * Brian Bedell as Agent Cooper
 * Mike Larose as Operative-132
 * Sparky Schneider as Zerg
 * Kris Williams as Zella
 * Rachel Knutton as Kate Cooper
 * Don Gerron as Master Zun / Agent Nicholson
 * Ted Cunningham as FBI Assistant Director Smith
 * Michelle Whitaker as Ziva
 * Lara Schneider as Zeena
 * Melissa Pare as Zera
 * Jared Alcorn as Zellor

Behind The Scenes
The first three of the six Diabolical Tales movies were shot simultaneously in Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts in 2001-02.

The crew was:
 * Brandon Kane - Writer, Director, Producer, Editor, Photographer
 * Don Gerron - Producer, Visual Effects Artist, Animator
 * Troy Sterling Nies - Original Score
 * James T. Rieder - Sound Design & Mixing
 * Erika L. McCauley - Makeup
 * Brian Bedell - Stunts Coordinator
 * Brian Bedell, Melissa Pare, S. Matthew Aod, Rachel Knutton - Sound Recordists

Development
The script for Diabolical Tales: Part II was written in late 2000. It was originally intended to be the second part to a prequel trilogy to another series called The Man From Within The Earth trilogy, which Kane and Gerron had created in 1995-96 in Bloomington, Illinois. Only after production wrapped on "the prequels" in February 2002 was it determined to reboot the series starting with Diabolical Tales: Part I, Part II and Part III. There would be no connecting with the 1990s trilogy, and instead those three sequels - Part IV, Part V, and Part VI -  were completely rewritten to adhere to the continuity established Parts I-III. These sequels remain un-produced.

Pre-Production
The original three Man From Within the Earth movies had been shot with no budget with only 5-7 shooting sessions each. The Diabolical Tales trilogy would have actors cast instead of friends filling the roles, and while there was still no budget to pay the cast and crew, there was enough to feed them during production. Including the purchase of a small amount of costumes and props, the total budget for the entire Diabolical Tales trilogy was $1200: for an estimated 30-day shooting schedule spread out from October 22, 2001 until January 2002. Each movie cost roughly $400 each to produce.

Starting in August 2001, casting notices went up on various New England-based websites and location scouting began. The first auditions were held on September 8, 2001 at AS220 in Providence, Rhode Island. During this session Mike Larose, S. Matthew Aod, Rachel Knutton, Ted Cunningham, Tom Weaver, Steve Lopresti, Kris Williams and Juliette Rose auditioned and were ultimately cast. Later casting meetings were held throughout September and into early October, from which Sparky Schneider, Lara Schneider, and Brian Bedell auditioned. Two other actors auditioned and won key roles: Agent Cooper and Zerrath, the villain of Diabolical Tales: Part III. Mr. Bedell was initially cast as a henchman for Part II as well as a number of other supporting roles, but was re-cast as Agent Cooper after a failed initial shooting session with the original actor on October 22, 2001.

Production
On October 28, 2001, Diabolical Tales: Part II started production one week before Part I, as the final battle scenes shot in Lincoln Woods State Park, Rhode Island. Bedell shot his first scenes as Agent Cooper, along with with Sparky Schneider as Zerg, Kris Williams as Zella, and Lara Schneider as Zeena. Melissa Pare was cast as Zera at Mr. Bedell's suggestion.

Production continued, at nights and on the weekends, throughout November and December 2001. The chase sequence was filmed in downtown Providence, Rhode Island over three different shooting sessions, culminating in the alley sequences which were also shot in three shooting sessions at 20 Walnut Street, Providence.

The Agent Cooper vs. Ziva scene was also shot at Lincoln Woods State Park in Lincoln, Rhode Island on December 2, 2001.

The final scenes shot for the sequel included all the evil lair scenes, which were completed on January 22, 2002 in Walpole, Massachusetts. As Diabolical Tales: Part II started production before Part I, it also wrapped production days earlier than Part I as well.

In March 2005, several years after principle photography had wrapped on the movie, a new prologue scene was shot at South Mountain in Phoenix, Arizona. Featuring Don Gerron as FBI Agent Nicholson and Jared Alcorn as a man from within the earth named Zellor, this scene replaced an earlier scene shot in September 2001 that was deemed insufficient.

Post-Production
Because the first three Diabolical Tales movies were filmed simultaneously, Part II had to wait in queue behind the first movie to be fully-completed before full post-production could commence on it.

In January 2006, Don Gerron began work on the visual effects and animation on Diabolical Tales: Part II. This was quite a challenge in that Part II had 110 visual f/x shots to complete: more than four times as many f/x shots as Diabolical Tales: Part I had. The biggest increase came in the form of a feature of the Men from within the Earth's electro-incinerators that wasn't seen in Diabolical Tales: Part IDiabolical Tales: Part I the power-up mode. This required inserting visual effects over extended takes and tracking the movements of the prop-pagers used during production.

A key visual effects sequence was the death of Operative-132, which included creating a 3-D skeleton for Operative-132 that was seen during his slow disintegration.

Additionally, there was a variety of other new effects shots to achieve, including the "Cooper cuff" energy-binders seen during Agent Cooper's captivity scenes in the evil lair, as well as the "Memory-Erasing" effects shots.

Upon completion of the visual effects and animation, the project was turned over to composer Troy Sterling Nies and sound designer James T. Rieder for an expansion on the themes and elements they developed for Diabolical Tales: Part I.

In August of 2007, Diabolical Tales: Part II was completed. Two months later, work concluded on the third and final installment in the series, Diabolical Tales: Part III.

Videos & DVD Release
This is the original full-length cut of Diabolical Tales: Part II.

Diabolical Tales: Part II was also released via a two-disc DVD set made especially for cast and crew as well as film festival screeners. These two-disc sets are now out of print, but contained the following special features:

Disc One: The Movie / Special Features Disc Two: Bonus Features
 * 1.85:1 Widescreen presentation
 * 5.1 Dolby Surround and 2.0 Stereo sound options
 * Audio Commentary by Diabolical Tales creators Don Gerron and Brandon Kane
 * Audio Commentary by Diabolical Tales composer Troy Sterling Nies.
 * Diabolical Tales Trailers Gallery
 * 12 Diabolical Tales: Part II Web-Movies
 * Hunt For The MacGuffin: The Making of Diabolical Tales Part II 35-minute documentary
 * Stunts, Schlock-Style: The Fights of Diabolical Tales 12-minute featurette
 * ...And The Plot Thickens: Diabolical Tales Part III featurette
 * Cosmic Control Productions Trailers Gallery
 * Cast & Crew Filmographies

Music
The original score was written, performed and recorded by Troy Sterling Nies.

Released in October 2007, the Diabolical Tales: Part II Original Motion Picture Score is available for purchase via Mr. Nies' Bandcamp page. Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

The track listing is:
 * 1) Prologue: Agent Nicholson and the Sapphire
 * 2) Zerg and Ziva
 * 3) Diabolical Tales Main Titles
 * 4) The MacGuffin
 * 5) The Descent of Kate Cooper
 * 6) Attack of a Small Woman
 * 7) Sinister and Devious Reinforcements
 * 8) A Strange Tip
 * 9) The Chase / The Fight / The Alley / The Death of O-132
 * 10) Agent Cooper Captured!
 * 11) The Final Battle
 * 12) Zella and Master Zun
 * 13) Requiem for Operative-132
 * 14) End Credits

Film Festival Screenings
In May of 2007, the works-in-progress, rough-mix version of Diabolical Tales: Part II was submitted to ShockerFest 2007 in Riverside California, where Part I  had played in October 2006. It was accepted, and so Diabolical Tales: Part II had it's first public screening on October 7, 2007, one year and one day later than Diabolical Tales: Part I 's first public screening at the same venue. At the festival's conclusion, it was awarded with the Creative Cow Award.

Diabolical Tales: Part II later played the 2nd Annual It Came From Lake Michigan Film Festival held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in October 2007, where it played as part of a double-feature with Diabolical Tales: Part III, which happened to be that film's first public screening.

Distribution
In 2009, the first three Diabolical Tales movies were acquired for worldwide distribution through Toronto, Canada-based Ouat! Media for a four-year term, which expired in 2013.

During the period of the trilogy's distribution, there was a forty-minute version of Diabolical Tales: Part II which was made that excluded several scenes from the original cut in order to make the film television-friendly.

As of May 2013 the rights to Diabolical Tales: Part II have reverted back to Cosmic Control Productions.

Trivia
The device that Zella carries to follow the tracking device pinned on Agent Cooper is the same prop used as the Geiger counter in Diabolical Tales: Part I.

Media
Diabolical Tales: Part II Trailer

Appearances

 * Agent Cooper
 * Operative-132
 * Zerg
 * Zella (first appearance)
 * Kate Cooper
 * Master Zun
 * FBI Assistant Director Smith
 * Ziva
 * Zera
 * Zeena
 * Agent Nicholson
 * Zellor
 * General Burton (mentioned only)
 * Sapphire of Agartha (first appearance)
 * FBI Headquarters
 * Agent Cooper's Apartment
 * Evil Lair
 * The Forest
 * Washington DC
 * Arizona, USA
 * Agartha (mentioned only)
 * Atlantis (mentioned only)
 * Project AGARTHA
 * FBI
 * NSA
 * Electro-incinerator
 * Memory-Erasing Device
 * Tracking Device
 * Energy Binders
 * Holograms