THE WHITE LIGHT ABOVE - script and full screenplay - Same style as: Twin Peaks × 1978 Halloween × Fire in the Sky
🎬 TITLE: THE WHITE LIGHT ABOVE
GENRE:
Psychological Horror / Mystery / Lynchian Folk Horror
SETTING:
Late 1970s, Mid-Lapland — endless pine forests, frost-bitten towns, and dim neon cafés glowing through the polar night.
STORY OUTLINE:
ACT I – The Cold Silence
A remote Lapland town named Kittajärvi is shaken by a string of bizarre murders. Victims — mostly young nursery women — are found ritualistically posed in the snow, eyes wide open, hands folded over their chests, and strange circular burn marks around them, as if from heat or light.
Local police suspect witchcraft. The small-town gossip grows wild — whispers of satanic cults and UFO lights in the tundra.
Enter Dr. Arvid Holm, a soft-spoken psychiatrist from Helsinki who arrives to assist the investigation. He’s researching psychological trauma linked to UFO abduction experiences. When he sees the burnt circular markings and strange geometric symbols carved near the victims, he recognizes them — they match the sketches of a former patient: Eero Valkeas, a schizophrenic man institutionalized five years ago for claiming “the light beings are inside him.”
ACT II – The Sound of the Sky
Holm visits the derelict asylum where Eero once stayed. Inside, he finds Eero’s room filled with drawings: spirals, strange sigils, maps of constellations — all identical to the murder symbols.
Meanwhile, another killing occurs. A woman’s body is found on a frozen lake, perfectly preserved, as if staged for some alien ritual. The police chief blames “a Satanic sect from Rovaniemi.” Holm isn’t convinced.
Holm begins having dreams — metallic humming, flickers of light, distorted faces whispering through static. The townsfolk turn hostile; they think Holm brought evil with him.
Holm tracks Eero to a shack deep in the forest. Eero is alive, calm, and resigned. “They came back,” he says. “They made me their witness.”
ACT III – The White Light Above
Eero insists he hasn’t killed anyone. Holm, torn between science and dread, doesn’t believe him — until they both see it: a silent, pulsating light descending over the woods.
When the police storm the shack, they find Eero covered in blood — but no weapon, no footprints, no UFO. He’s arrested, declared the killer. Holm tries to defend him but loses credibility.
In the final scene, Eero is taken back to the asylum. He stares out the barred window at the night sky — a faint white light pulses in the distance.
Holm returns home, listening to a tape of his sessions with Eero. On the tape, beneath their voices, there’s a low hum. As the tape speeds up, the hum turns into words:
“HE DID NOT KILL. WE DID.”
Cut to white.
OPENING SCENE (Sample Script)
FADE IN:
EXT. LAPLAND FOREST – NIGHT
The snow falls heavy. The wind moves through the pines like a whispering choir. In the distance, faint red lights pulse in the sky — too slow to be aircraft.
A young woman in a nurse’s uniform runs through the snow, barefoot, panting. Her breath fogs in the frozen air.
A metallic HUM grows.
She turns — the forest behind her flickers with faint, circular glows. She drops to her knees, eyes fixed upward.
A white beam cuts through the treeline. Her scream echoes into nothing.
SMASH CUT TO:
INT. POLICE STATION – MORNING
A radio hisses with static. A POLICE OFFICER pours coffee, staring blankly. On the radio, a news voice drones:
RADIO: “...the fourth killing this winter. Locals report strange lights... police have refused to comment…”
The officer looks to the window — beyond it, the endless white void of snow.
DR. ARVID HOLM (V.O.)
“Sometimes... the mind breaks because it’s seen something it shouldn’t.”
CUT TO:
INT. ASYLUM ARCHIVE ROOM – NIGHT
Holm opens an old file. The name reads:
VALKEAS, EERO. SUBJECT 47B.
Inside: drawings of concentric circles, eyes, and a stick figure under a descending light. A note reads:
"He says the sky has hands."
Holm closes the file — the lights flicker once.
Then twice.
Then stay dim.
🎬 THE WHITE LIGHT ABOVE
Written by [Kalifornia Jani - Jani Apukka]
Genre: Psychological Horror / Mystery
Tone: Twin Peaks × 1978 Halloween × Fire in the Sky
Setting: 1970s Mid-Lapland
ACT I
FADE IN:
EXT. LAPLAND FOREST – NIGHT
Snow falls in absolute silence. The black pines loom like teeth. A soft, low HUM builds from somewhere unseen.
Through the drifting snow, a young woman runs — barefoot, wearing a blood-stained nurse’s uniform. She glances back — something unseen follows. Her breath comes out in trembling gasps.
She trips, falling face-first into the snow.
The hum grows louder — metallic, pulsing — like the air itself is vibrating.
She looks up. A faint, circular glow descends through the trees.
Her pupils widen — the sound drowns everything out.
Then: WHITE LIGHT.
EXT. VILLAGE OF KITTAJÄRVI – MORNING
The sun never truly rises here — only a dim orange glow. Smoke drifts from the chimneys of wooden houses.
A police car crunches through the snow. On its side: Kittajärvi Poliisiasema.
INT. POLICE STATION – MORNING
A small, wood-paneled room. Coffee percolates. A wall map dotted with red pins. A tired POLICE CHIEF (50s, heavy coat, Lutheran stoicism) stares at photos of the murdered women.
Each found in different places — always the same: circular burns, eyes open, arms folded.
CHIEF
(to himself)
God help us.
A YOUNGER OFFICER enters with a report.
YOUNG OFFICER
Another one. Found near Jokilampi. Same... pattern.
CHIEF
(pattern?)
Burns?
The officer nods.
The Chief exhales, glances toward the window — endless white snow and forest. He mutters a prayer in Finnish.
EXT. TRAIN ARRIVING – EVENING
A rickety train pushes through snow. Onboard sits DR. ARVID HOLM (40s), bespectacled, polite but haunted. He stares out the window, tapping a small tape recorder with his finger.
ARVID (V.O.)
In every mind there are corners where reason freezes…
and something older wakes up.
He rewinds the recorder — faint static, and a whispering voice:
“They come from the light.”
INT. POLICE STATION – EVENING
Holm enters, brushing snow from his coat. The Chief eyes him skeptically.
CHIEF
The doctor from Helsinki?
HOLM
Psychiatric consultant. I was invited by the provincial office. I’ve studied ritual homicide and UFO-related delusions.
CHIEF
(uneasy chuckle)
So you think we’ve got little green men killing nurses?
HOLM
(smiles faintly)
I think... symbols tell stories.
And someone here is telling one in blood.
The Chief studies him — not amused.
INT. MORGUE – NIGHT
Fluorescent buzz. A body on the slab — the nurse from the opening. Skin pale as snow. Around her wrists: small, circular burns.
Holm leans close, whispering to his tape recorder.
HOLM (into recorder)
Circular lesions… appear cauterized.
No trace of gasoline or accelerant.
Pupils dilated — post-mortem? Or response to intense light?
He looks up — notices a mark carved on the woman’s palm: a perfect spiral.
HOLM (quietly)
Eero Valkeas.
INT. HOLM’S HOTEL ROOM – LATER
A small, cold room. Holm pins photographs and drawings to the wall. We glimpse Eero’s old sketches: circles, spirals, constellations. The same pattern from the murders.
He plays a tape labeled “Session 47B – Valkeas”.
EERO (on tape)
They open the sky, doctor.
They show me the way home.
The ones made of light.
Holm presses stop. Silence. Then a faint hum begins — not from the tape. From the air itself.
He stands still. The light bulb flickers.
Cut to BLACK.
EXT. FOREST ROAD – DAY
A police car stops. The Chief steps out, crunching snow. Holm follows him.
In the clearing: another body. A woman nailed upright to a pine trunk, head tilted toward the sky, face serene. Around her: ash circles in the snow.
CHIEF
(quietly)
Tell me this is human.
Holm kneels, touches the ash.
HOLM
Burned soil. No accelerant…
See these patterns? Triangular grouping.
Electromagnetic residue, maybe.
CHIEF
You sound like a priest of electricity, doctor.
HOLM
(pauses)
Sometimes faith and current are the same thing.
INT. CAFÉ – NIGHT
Locals gossip in Finnish. Old radio plays soft folk music. Holm sits alone, flipping through the Kittajärvi Gazette — headline:
“SATANIC RITUAL SUSPECTED IN NURSE MURDERS.”
A WOMAN (30s, pale, anxious) sits across from him. Her name is LIISA, a nursery teacher.
LIISA
They say it’s witches. That the old Sami magic is back.
My friend Maarit said she saw lights.
Above the woods — moving like they were alive.
HOLM
Did you see them?
LIISA
(looks down)
Once. When I was a child.
They make no sound. But they hear you.
Holm nods slightly. A flicker of recognition — or memory.
EXT. LIISA’S CABIN – NIGHT
Later. Wind howls. Snow glows faintly blue under the moon.
Liisa walks home, clutching her coat. She stops — the hum begins again.
She looks up — faint lights flicker above the trees.
Her breath trembles. She steps forward — then freezes.
Behind her, a shadow moves.
A figure in a long, dark coat. A distorted breath.
A FLASH OF LIGHT — the sound of metal scraping bone — and then silence.
Her scarf falls into the snow.
INT. HOTEL ROOM – NIGHT
Holm jolts awake — as if from the same dream.
The hum echoes faintly through the walls.
He looks to the window. In the distance: faint orbs of light drifting over the frozen forest.
He whispers to the recorder:
HOLM (into recorder)
They are here again.
FADE OUT.
END OF ACT I.
ACT II
FADE IN:
EXT. FROZEN ROAD – DAWN
A light snowfall. Holm drives a battered Volvo through a corridor of trees.
On the passenger seat: old psychiatric files, a flask of coffee, a tape recorder.
He hums faintly along to a warped cassette of Sibelius — distorted by static.
He glances at the rearview mirror — for a moment, there’s someone sitting in the backseat.
He turns.
No one.
The hum grows. The car radio flickers with white noise — then a whisper:
RADIO (distorted): “...he remembers the light... he remembers...”
Holm slams the radio off.
EXT. ABANDONED ASYLUM – DAY
An enormous, decaying structure surrounded by skeletal birch trees.
Sign half-buried in snow: KARHUJÄRVI MENTAL INSTITUTE. CLOSED 1974.
Holm steps out of the car, breath visible, scarf wrapped tight.
The building hums faintly — the same tone from his dreams.
INT. ASYLUM HALLWAY – CONTINUOUS
Long corridor, peeling paint, snow blown through broken windows.
Holm’s footsteps echo.
He shines a flashlight across doors labeled:
WING B, ISOLATION, OBSERVATION ROOM.
He stops at one door: 47B – VALKEAS, EERO.
He exhales, opens it.
INT. EERO’S ROOM – CONTINUOUS
The walls are covered with charcoal drawings: spirals, circles, constellations, humanoid silhouettes.
Everywhere — eyes.
A rusted bedframe, a shattered mirror.
Holm sets down his recorder.
HOLM (into recorder)
Subject’s artwork shows recurring geometry. Possible psychotic symbolization… or communication attempt.
He kneels — finds a notebook frozen to the floor.
Opens it.
Scrawled handwriting: “THEY ENTERED THROUGH LIGHT. THEY LEFT THROUGH ME.”
A page filled with coordinates.
At the bottom: “KITTILÄ LAKE – THE GATE.”
A loud metallic clang echoes through the building.
Holm freezes.
FLASH CUT:
A bright light floods the hallway — faint silhouettes moving inside it — human, but not quite.
Then darkness again.
Only wind.
Holm shakes, breathes.
EXT. LOCAL DINER – NIGHT
Warm neon glow against the snow. Holm sits in a booth, pale, exhausted.
The waitress pours him coffee.
At the counter, a few locals whisper about “the light killer.”
A hunter swears he saw “a woman walking naked in the woods with fire around her.”
The Chief enters, grim.
CHIEF
You’ve been digging around that asylum again, doctor?
HOLM
(quietly)
You didn’t tell me Eero Valkeas was released.
The Chief pauses.
CHIEF
He wasn’t.
He disappeared two years ago. Vanished before transfer.
Body never found.
HOLM
(leans in)
He’s alive.
And I think he’s trying to stop whatever’s happening.
The Chief scoffs, tosses a photo envelope on the table.
Inside: the new victim — Liisa.
Her eyes burned out, but peaceful.
Circular burns on her hands — forming a triangle.
CHIEF
Looks like your friend left his signature again.
Holm stares, devastated.
INT. HOLM’S HOTEL ROOM – LATER
Holm studies the photos, trembling.
He overlays Eero’s old drawings — they match the pattern of the murders on a map.
HOLM (to himself)
It’s not random. It’s a signal.
A constellation...
He draws connecting lines — forming the shape of Orion.
Suddenly — KNOCKING on the door.
Slow. Rhythmic.
HOLM
Who’s there?
No answer.
He opens the door.
No one.
A folded note lies on the floor.
He opens it: “THEY ARE COMING BACK.”
EXT. FOREST EDGE – NIGHT
Holm drives through the snow, following the map’s coordinates.
A half-moon glows through clouds.
He reaches a clearing — the frozen KITTILÄ LAKE.
Shapes in the distance: a small shack, and a figure standing by the ice.
Holm steps out slowly.
HOLM
Eero?
The figure turns. It’s EERO VALKEAS (mid-30s), beard frozen, eyes bright with strange calm.
EERO
They told me you’d come, doctor.
Holm freezes.
HOLM
You’re supposed to be dead.
EERO
I was. For a while.
Then the light came back.
Holm approaches slowly.
HOLM
Eero, there are murders. People think—
EERO
(softly, interrupting)
They’re not dead. Not really.
They’re... changed.
The light takes what it needs.
HOLM
You’re saying they did this?
EERO
They show us... the other side of the mirror.
You looked too, didn’t you?
That’s why they found you again.
Holm stares, trembling.
FLASHBACK – INT. HOSPITAL ROOM – YEARS EARLIER
Holm, younger, recording Eero’s session.
Eero’s face bathed in fluorescent light.
EERO (younger)
You don’t believe me now. But when you see the light, it will remember you.
The tape clicks.
The same hum fills the air.
Holm looks up — sees a faint white glow flickering outside the window.
BACK TO PRESENT – EXT. KITTILÄ LAKE – NIGHT
Holm looks to the sky.
Above the trees — faint, circular lights rotating in silence.
The snow begins to rise off the ground, floating upward.
Eero smiles sadly.
EERO
They’re here. They never left.
Holm shields his eyes — the light grows unbearable.
CUT TO WHITE.
INT. POLICE STATION – MORNING
Holm wakes up in a chair. His face bruised, dried blood on his shirt.
The Chief stands over him.
CHIEF
They found you at the lake. Alone.
And Eero Valkeas…?
Holm looks at him — blank.
HOLM
Gone.
The Chief slaps down new photographs — a massacre at the shack.
Blood everywhere. A body burnt beyond recognition.
CHIEF
You sure about that?
Holm looks closer — the body’s head melted into the snow.
A faint circular burn mark above it.
He can’t speak.
INT. HOLM’S HOTEL ROOM – NIGHT
He replays the tape from the night before.
Distorted sound. Then — beneath his voice — a whisper.
VOICE (distorted): “HE DID NOT KILL. WE DID.”
Holm freezes. Rewinds. Plays again.
Same words.
He looks out the window.
Over the forest, faint lights flicker again — silently rotating, like watching eyes.
FADE OUT.
ACT III
FADE IN:
INT. HOLM’S HOTEL ROOM – NIGHT
Darkness.
Holm sits motionless at the desk, listening to the tape on repeat.
VOICE (distorted): “HE DID NOT KILL. WE DID.”
He writes the words in his notebook over and over.
The hum in the background deepens — vibrating the glass.
He looks at his reflection in the window. For a brief moment — the reflection smiles back independently of him.
The room lights flicker, dim to a pulse — in rhythm with the hum.
EXT. POLICE STATION – NIGHT
Wind howls. The Chief smokes outside, staring at the aurora faintly rippling over the horizon.
Holm exits the building, coat tight, eyes haunted.
CHIEF
You’re not looking well, doctor.
HOLM
I’m not sleeping.
CHIEF
You said the body at the lake wasn’t Eero.
You’re still holding to that?
HOLM
What if the real killer was never human?
What if we’re chasing a shadow cast from above?
The Chief exhales smoke, stares into Holm’s eyes.
CHIEF
You sound like one of them now.
Holm smiles faintly — almost childlike.
EXT. OLD SAMI CHURCH – NIGHT
A wooden chapel half-buried in snow. Holm enters carrying a flashlight and his recorder.
Inside: candle remnants, dust, and a mural on the wall — a circle of light figures descending from the sky onto humans.
He kneels before it.
HOLM (into recorder)
Local myths refer to sky visitors who chose souls during the long winter.
They called them “The Pale Shepherds.”
Always returning… for what was theirs.
Wind rattles the boards.
From behind him — faint whispering.
He turns the flashlight — revealing Eero standing in the doorway, face pale, eyes hollow.
HOLM
Eero... I saw your body.
EERO
That was not me.
It was what they left behind.
He steps closer, almost glowing in the candlelight.
EERO (cont’d)
You feel them too now, don’t you?
In your dreams.
In the hum.
Holm can’t speak.
EERO
They’re not gods, doctor.
And not demons.
Just engineers of light.
Eero raises his hand — palm branded with the spiral.
EERO (softly)
They write in our blood.
FLASH SEQUENCE:
-
White lights descending on frozen forest.
-
A woman levitating over the lake.
-
Metal instruments hovering above her body.
-
Eero screaming in a flood of brightness.
-
Holm’s own face reflected in alien eyes.
BACK TO SCENE – INT. CHURCH
Holm collapses, clutching his head.
Eero kneels beside him.
EERO
You have to let them see through you.
That’s how they end it.
HOLM
End... what?
EERO
The experiment.
A loud metallic WAIL shakes the church.
The windows explode inward — snow rushes in.
Through the shattered doorway, a pulsating light floods the interior — blinding.
Holm screams, shielding his face — but Eero stands tall, arms raised.
EERO
They’re calling.
The light envelops them both — and suddenly everything is still.
EXT. FOREST – DAWN
Silence.
The snow untouched, except for two sets of footprints that end abruptly in the open.
Overhead — faint lights fade into the clouds.
INT. POLICE STATION – MORNING
The Chief sits at his desk, pale, exhausted. A phone rings.
CHIEF
(into phone)
Yes… Doctor Holm is gone too.
No, no body yet.
He hangs up, staring at the wall of photos — the victims, Holm, Eero.
The circular patterns drawn in red ink.
The hum starts faintly again.
He looks up, unsettled.
INT. ASYLUM – DAY
The old Karhujärvi asylum, silent under snow.
Inside Eero’s old cell, the walls are empty — the drawings gone.
The camera pans slowly to the ceiling — where new burn marks form on their own, shaping into a perfect spiral of light.
INT. AUDIO LAB – HELSINKI – DAY
Technicians study Holm’s recovered tape recorder.
They play back the final entry:
HOLM (on tape)
“...the experiment continues. The light speaks in patterns... not evil, not divine... just watching.”
A burst of static — then a deep, mechanical voice overlays his:
UNKNOWN VOICE:
“HE SAW TOO MUCH.”
The tape melts in the machine — smoke curling upward.
EXT. LAPLAND SKY – NIGHT
The camera tilts up from the silent village.
The northern lights shimmer in faint concentric circles, rotating slowly — deliberate, intelligent.
A whisper carries on the wind:
“HE DID NOT KILL. WE DID.”
Cut to WHITE.
FADE OUT.
TITLE CARD:
THE WHITE LIGHT ABOVE
THE CASE REMAINS UNSOLVED.
🎥 TONE NOTES (for production):
-
Color palette: desaturated blues, harsh whites, dim amber interiors.
-
Sound design: low industrial hums, reversed tape whispers, ambient silence between dialogue.
-
Camera style: slow zooms, static symmetrical shots, occasional handheld dream fragments.
-
Themes:
-
Alien contact as divine punishment.
-
The fragility of human reason under cosmic indifference.
-
“Innocence” as perception — the real horror is not murder, but misunderstanding.
-
END OF ACT II.
POST-CREDITS EPILOGUE
(in the same screenplay format)
FADE IN:
INT. RADIO BROADCAST STATION – NIGHT
A dim, wood-paneled room lit by a single desk lamp. A DJ — middle-aged, thick glasses, headphones on — speaks into the microphone.
Outside, the northern wind howls against the windows.
DJ (into mic)
Good evening, Kittajärvi. Midnight again under the northern lights.
If you’re still awake, you’re not alone.
Tonight we remember those we lost last winter — the nurses, the doctor, the man the papers called “The Light Killer.”
Some say it’s over.
Some say... the light’s still out there.
He chuckles nervously, cues up an old Finnish folk tune on vinyl.
A slow, warbling waltz fills the air.
He leans back, sipping coffee. The studio lights flicker.
DJ
Huh. Power lines again.
He reaches for the control board — but freezes.
The meters on the console move on their own, forming perfect circles.
A low HUM begins under the music — same tone as before.
The vinyl slows.
The voice on the record changes pitch, becoming distorted.
VINYL VOICE (distorted, layered)
“HE SAW TOO MUCH.”
“WE SEE THROUGH YOU NOW.”
The DJ stares, terrified.
The ON-AIR light turns blood-red.
He leans into the mic, voice trembling.
DJ (into mic)
Who... who’s on this frequency?
Silence.
Then — a faint breathing sound through the speakers.
EXT. RADIO STATION – SAME TIME
The small station sits alone in the snow.
The wind howls.
Above it — faint orbs of white light spiral slowly downward.
Through the frosted window, the DJ’s silhouette flickers — then goes still.
INT. STATION – CONTINUOUS
The broadcast mic lies on the floor, still transmitting static.
In the corner of the room, a figure stands — indistinct, motionless, glowing faintly.
The tape recorder on the table clicks on by itself.
HOLM’S VOICE (faint, calm):
“The light remembers everyone who listens.”
The hum swells — overwhelming.
The frame shakes as the white light consumes the room.
CUT TO WHITE.
Silence.
Then, faintly —
RADIO (crackling): “...Good evening, Kittajärvi. Midnight again under the northern lights…”
FADE OUT.
TITLE CARD (final):
THE WHITE LIGHT ABOVE
The Signal Never Ends.
The Village of Kittajärvi
The Northern Lights Revelation
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