Hey what's up guys
Today I'll show you a Mystery-Horror film: "Population 436"
Spoilers ahead, watch out and take care
One day, a pregnant woman is seen experiencing labor pains
During that time, a man is also seen being chased by the police,
and he seems to have read something horrible in his red letter
The police pull over, and try to reason with him
Then his car crashes near the town sign
Weirdly enough, his car crash is perfectly timed with the mother's childbirth
After the birth, we see the doctor stop the clock, as he adjusts the number to 4:36 pm
We also see the town sign's population count remains at 436;
however, it does not change as the car driver dies, because a newborn child just balances it out
After the car accident, his family mourns the man's death
His daughter takes her father's death seriously, and she is freaking out
She states that something was wrong with her father's death
She seems to know a secret about the town
However, before she could reveal it, the priest and the townspeople stop her outburst
Soon after the funeral, we see a man named Steve, heading over to Rockwell Falls
He is on a mission from the census bureau,
to investigate why the Rockwell Falls population remains the same at 436
He arrives at a gas station, and spots a couple of farmers
He asks them for directions; and the farmers just ignore him
Fortunately, Steve manages to find his way over to Rockwell Falls
Just then, he spots a woman riding a horse
She falls as the horse rears, and catches Steve's full attention
He gets distracted and does not notice the tire pothole near the town sign
This leads to his car tire going flat
He gets out of the car to check on the woman
She tells him that she is fine, and tells him to just mind his flat tire
She also tells him that he should just backtrack to the previous town for a tow truck,
instead of proceeding to Rockwell Falls
He doesn't understand why she wants him to go back;
nor did he know that she is giving him a warning
After a while, Steve sees a sheriff's car come from Rockwell Falls
He waves at the car to ask for assistance
As he meets the sheriff's deputy, he asks if he could help him get a tow truck into Rockwell Falls
At first, the deputy tries to avoid the question, and tries to make Steve feel unwelcome
However, after hearing he is from the census bureau, he informs the head sheriff of the situation
The head sheriff acknowledges this report, and prepares for Steve's visit with the mayor
Then The deputy brings Steve into town, while his car waits for the tow truck
When Steve arrives in town, he is met with many suspicious gazes
This makes him think that he is unwelcome here
As they arrive at the mayor's house,
he meets with the rest of the sheriff's department and the mayor
Shortly after, He informs the mayor of the purpose of his visit
The mayor gladly accepts his visit, and arranges his stay
Steve asks if he could meet with the census department of this town,
to get a full report on the population changes in the town
After that, the mayor orders one sheriff to take him to the census department tomorrow
Suddenly, a child arrives, and informs the mayor that one of the townspeople has become ill
The mayor seems anxious at the news,
so he requests Steve if he could allow a slight detour to his trip
Steve agrees; and they head to the place of the sick woman
As They arrive at a barn, it seems that the barn owner shows signs of resentment toward Steve;
and Steve is confused
Shortly after, the doctor says that the woman is dying
The doctor also states that this is no coincidence;
and it happened the moment Steve entered the town
This indicates that the town has a belief in a curse, that maintains their population at 436
After they visit the sick woman, the mayor bids farewell to Steve, as Steve goes to his lodgings
He also tells Steve to mind his manners regarding the town traditions
As he arrives at his lodgings, he meets a beautiful cowgirl, nicknamed BeautyCow,
who is the daughter of the landlady
Meanwhile, in a town conference, people are seen putting their paper in a box
Before they can reveal the purpose of the box, the mayor discusses Steve's visit here in town
He tells the townspeople to make him feel at home,
while they find a means to keep him here permanently
This indicates that Steve will become a resident of their town, whether he likes it or not
After their discussion, the box is revealed to have a list of names,
to be picked as the next town festival's host
an old lady is chosen to be the festival host, and she gets handed a red-letter,
similar to the same received by the man who died in a car crash
After that, the townspeople begin their ominous prayer
Back at Steve's lodging, we see him spending the night with the lodging's residents
He talks about his career with the census bureau;
the other residents think that he is smart, and ask if he is single
He replies that he is recently single, because he lost his family;
so the other residents felt bad for him
Out of nowhere, the landlady states that Steve will soon be with his family
This creeps Steve and his hormones out; but he dismisses it as goodwill
This also unsettles BeautyCow, and makes her stop the conversation
After their dinner, Steve begins his first night at Rockwell Falls
Suddenly, he gets eerie dreams of a cross in a car
He goes to the kitchen to find food, to ease his shock from the dreams
There, he meets with BeautyCow; and they begin flirting
After their late-night talks, Steve heads back to prepare for his tour in the town
The following day, he walks around town, and sees the rustic beauty of it
He sees that the townspeople seem prosperous, and he takes note of this for his report
After a while, he rests at a café managed by the landlady
He notices that the people are rejoicing with the woman,
who is selected as the town festival's host
BeautyCow explains that it is a sacred festival that selects a host of honor
After that, he changes the topic, and tells her about the life outside of their town
The townspeople overhear this; and the landlady calls BeautyCow to avoid Steve
It seems that the townspeople don't like talking about outside of their town,
so Steve stops talking about it
As he finishes his meal, he heads over to the census department of the town
There he meets with the female staff responsible for the census
Shortly after, Steve begins his survey on the census,
regarding why the population didn't have any changes on the list
However, the staff, who is pregnant right at the time, strangely replies that this is normal;
and everything tends to stay the same for all those years
The staff's reply unsettles Steve; so he decides to dig deeper into the mystery of population 436
After snooping around, he realizes that the population count didn't even change for over a century
This concerns him, so he starts asking the pregnant staff about the others,
that he noticed who went missing on the census list
However, the staff replies that he should ask the mayor about that
The following moment, Steve heads to the festival venue, and asks the mayor about the missing people
Unfortunately, the mayor insists that if he wants to find the people on the list,
he should do it after the grand town feast
Since he couldn't find any solid answers, he snoops around the town, hoping to find any leads
However, Steve doesn't find an answer, and decides to end the day
Just then, a man is seen looking at him from afar, as he and the deputy go out for drinks
While they drink, the man with his dying wife, suddenly enters the bar with a gun in hand
The deputy tries to calm him down
However, the man resents Steve, because he is the reason why his wife is gonna die
He thinks Steve has come to replace her
Just then, the deputy manages to calm him down, and make him leave while getting his gun
Steve asks about the angry man;
and the deputy replies that the man is just not thinking straight, because his wife is dying
The deputy assures him that his wife will be fine after the grand feast,
as the festival host will save her this time
However, this confuses Steve more, and makes him question the strange occurrence in town
That same night, we see a young girl having an eerie dream similar to Steve
she sees visions of a doll in a car
It mentions a fever that is considered unholy in the town;
and they don't know the reason why the fever is unholy
The following day, Steve continues traveling around town,
and sees many weird things about the townspeople
He sees the children acting robotic like the marionette,
and the townspeople strangely overjoyed all the time
His investigation is interrupted, when the deputy takes him by surprise
The deputy reminds him of his visit to the doctors, to check the census on death rates
When he arrives at the clinic, he sees the patients seemingly become robotic,
as if their brains were tampered with
This strange occurrence makes him interrogate the doctor
However, he asks about the death census instead
The doctor replies that the death rate is pretty normal,
and it's only a coincidence that it kept the same population at 436
This makes Steve further doubt the town and its people
But he hides his doubt to sneakily learn the truth of this population mystery
The doctor notices his curiosity about the treated patient, so he explains it to Steve
The doctor explains that it is the cause of a disease called fever,
which causes them to have visions that make them want to run away from their town
Therefore, that is why the doctor tampers their brain,
to make sure they avoid hurting themselves while running outside of the town
After their conversation, Steve hears a girl screaming from the clinic
She is the daughter of the man, who died in a car accident,
and she is being treated for schizophrenia
After Steve's short meeting with the girl, he continues his research about the town
He learns that the town's population has remained at exactly 436 for a long time
People who try to leave Rockwell Falls, seem to meet with tragedies,
or just vanish from town, which the town believes is God's work
Steve thinks the final piece of the mystery is answered in the grand feast
So He waits for the grand feast to commence
Just then, we see the old lady, who has been chosen as the festival's host,
appear before the people with a rope around her neck
But she seems pretty happy for that moment, and appreciates that great opportunity given to her
However, she soon dies willingly in the feast, while everybody applauds for her sacrifice
This shocks Steve as he now realizes that this is the exact sacrificial ritual,
that kept the town's population at 436,
and that the town is fanatical at putting divine importance on the same population number
So Steve tries to escape the maniac people, and inform the neighboring town's authorities
But he soon gets sedated by the doctor
Afterward, he wakes up, only to find him surrounded by the group,
who explains to him that they want him to stay in the town to keep the population number at 436
Because of Steve's arrival, the old lady is chosen as the extra to be sacrificed;
while the man's dying wife shown previously, is spared
It's revealed that around a hundred years ago, when the town's population had 436,
a stranger migrated to this prosperous town, but along with him were all his evil acts
It's believed that Gods were unhappy to see that,
and so burned the stranger and his evils in a big fire,
which however, destroyed the prosperous town
After that, people rebuilt the town and managed to control the population by purging extra ones with a selecting system,
hoping to revive the town's prosperity
Knowing the whole truth, Steve desperately begs to leave,
but they just tell him no strangers could leave the town alive once stepping in
later, they even fake a resignation letter sent to Steve's workplace,
claiming that he will not go back and will spend his rest of life with his lover in the town
Fortunately, before Steve is turned into the next marionette,
He manages to escape and tries to bring BeautyCow and the little girl from the clinic,
as they both expressed desires to leave town
Just then, he meets a townsman, who was stalking him from afar
He was sympathetic as he was in the same situation as Steve before, but couldn't dare to escape
Instead, the townsman helps plan Steve's escape, by setting a fire in town as a diversion
During this diversion, Steve rescues the little girl in the clinic;
and right after, he quickly heads to BeautyCow
However, when he arrives to bring BeautyCow,
he sees her in the same condition as the robotic patients
The landlady must have informed the doctor about BeautyCow's desire to leave town,
which leads her to be so treated
Upon closer inspection, her skull was opened and tampered with,
and it made her unable to move properly
Being forced to leave her, Steve and the girl escape, using the tow truck that brought Steve's car
Before they could escape the town's border,
the captain and the deputy chase and manage to surround them
The captain suggests that they'd better kill Steve,
because the town will soon welcome a newborn child from the pregnant staff
However, since the deputy values his friendship with Steve,
he lets him pass while killing the captain instead
As Steve and the little girl escape the town's border, the sky turns dark, and thunder booms
The two realize that the cross and doll in the tow truck were the same in their dreams
And in that dream, a bright light appears
Suddenly, the bright light in the dream is revealed to be a truck;
and they crash into it, immediately killing both of them
After a while, Steve's colleague comes to check his situation
As he nears Rockwell Falls, he gets caught in the same pothole Steve's car went in,
resulting in the colleague's car tire being flat
Shortly after, a sheriff arrives, and helps him with his car
The sheriff offers to tow it into the town,
and he invites the colleague to the town's celebration of the newborn twins
The colleague accepts his invitation; and the sheriff eagerly brings him into town,
to be one of the new residents
Ironically, even after the recent death of the captain, Steve and the little girl,
but with the newborn twins and Steve's colleague,
the mysterious town is sure to get back the same population of 436 again
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