The Twelvefold

The Twelvefold
Directed by	Antonio H. Blake
Written by	Miguelito Gouveia Rosalia Barboza
Produced by	Antonio H. Blake
Starring
Cinematography	Guiomar Albuquerque
Edited by	Prudenzia Vellucci
Music by	Noa Gusmão
Release dates	September 11, 2023 (2023-09-11) (Vitosium)
Running time	110 minutes
Country	Vitosium
Language	English

The Twelvefold is a 2023 Vitosian horror film directed and written by Antonio H. Blake. It received 6 nominations at the 97th Tofino Film Festival.

Cast

Arturo Morrison as Emil Halvorsen
Brendon Mariano as Inspector Nathan Aquilino
Miguel Madrid as Head Inspector Gio Briglia
Heitor Tavares as Landon Alghieri
Ivan Giaderi as Emmett Rexwood
Jontey Calpin as Rhys Etheridge
Leiona do Rela as Ivetta Rowley
Letícia Castro as Ilaria Paoletta
Lindsey Barron as Pamela Santoli
Neiva Lo Cicero as Ghita Armata
Valentino Carucci-Blake as Clement Di Antonio

Liv Gesner as Voice of Time's Embrace

Plot

Day 1

Emil Halvorsen (Arturo Morrison) wakes up and heads off to his job at a graphic design office. While there, he is berated by his boss, Fred Alban (Cosimo Galea), and is later mocked by his office rival, Morgan Ambrose (Eric Gabilisco). When he gets back to his work station, he sees a client of his, Landon Alighiero (Heitor Tavares), who hired him to help him make a logo for his software company. Emil expects Landon to be very critical of his work due to how he’s been treated so far today but Landon is very appreciative and loves it.

During his break, Emil heads to a cafe across the street where he is served by a waitress named Ivetta Rowley (Leiona do Rela). He overhears an argument between Pamela Santoli (Lindsey Barron) and Emmett Rexwood (Ivan Giaderi) and decides to not be a part of it. Emmett is overheard telling Pamela "not to tell Victoria". Emil heads back to work.

That evening, Emil is walking home to his apartment when he notices a gem necklace on the ground. Figuring that selling it would make his life a bit more worth it, he pockets it and heads into his apartment. He notices a tag when he pulls out the necklace, saying the name of the gem is “Time’s Embrace.” Emil chuckles and says that the necklace probably isn’t worth anything anyway. A knock on the door gets Emil’s attention. He opens the door to reveal his neighbour, Rhys Etheridge (Jontey Calpin), who says that he got a weird gem in his mail today and asked if he received one as well. Emil, sarcastically, says that Rhys having gems in his possession shouldn’t be anything new and closes the door on his neighbour, calling him arrogant.

Day 2

The next day, Emil walks into the office and sneakily pockets a five on one of his co-workers’ (Luca Gabilisco) desks and gets himself a can of pop from the vending machine. A voice (Liv Gesner) in his head tells him to use the gem. Emil doesn’t know what that means. The voice gets louder and tells him to kill with it. Emil excuses himself to the bathroom. A co-worker, Isaac Wilkins (Michael Biaggi-Perry), comes into the bathroom and asks Emil if he’s okay. Emil, irritated over the voice as well as being bothered, tells Isaac to go away. At that point, Isaac begins to age rapidly before falling over dead. Emil exits the stall. Emil chuckles a bit and then reaches for Isaac’s wallet. The voice then tells him to use the gem again. At that point, Morgan enters the washroom and notices the scene. A moment passes before Morgan begins to rapidly age himself and fall over dead, alerting a couple other co-workers (Joella Colo and Nicole Dias-Barros). That night, Emil enters his apartment all giddy and holding back laughter. He talks to himself, saying that he began to notice a pattern. He steals and then the voice tells him to kill. So, stealing must be what is activating this gem, maybe. He says how amazing of a dream this is.

Cursed Gem: Time’s Embrace
Gem Holder: Emil Halvorsen
Effect: Accelerates the victim's aging.

Condition: Take a selfish path as opposed to a selfless one.

He then knocks on his neighbour’s door. Rhys opens it and notices that Emil is a bit off and asks if he’s okay. Emil says that he is perfectly fine. Rhys says that he’s noticed that Emil has been really down all week and says that if there is anything he can do. Emil tries to forcefully enter Rhys’ apartment but Rhys stares him down and says that Emil going from depressed to euphoric can’t be a coincidence. He tells Emil that he is willing to listen but he can’t enter his apartment. Emil tries to take something within reach but Rhys pushes him into the hallway and closes the door.

As Emil enters his apartment, he grabs a tissue and notices that he is crying uncontrollably. As he wipes his face, he notices blood. The camera pans to see that Emil is crying blood.

Day 3

Head Inspector Gio Briglia (Miguel Madrid) and Inspector Nathan Aquilino (Brendon Mariano) are in the graphic design office as officers put the last of the bodies in a body bag. Aquilino is incredibly shocked over this while Briglia says that only five people had days off and he’d like to talk to them as soon as possible. As they leave the office, Landon approaches them and asks what happened as he was here a couple days ago. Inspector Aquilino tells him that there was ... an accident. Head Inspector Briglia questions him on why he was there and Landon shows him the logo made yesterday by Emil Halvorsen.

As they let Landon go, he heads into the cafe and takes out a mysterious gem and looks at it. The waitress says that she received one recently but there was no return address. Landon says the same and then says that he saw somebody with a similar gem yesterday. At that point, a semi-truck outside the cafe bursts into flames, scaring everybody nearby. A car stops and a distressed man (Felix Furtado) rushes into the cafe, talking about a woman smiling madly at the truck. The woman, Pamela Santoli, enters the cafe. The man turns around and yells that she was the one smiling at the flames. Pamela says that he, clearly, didn't see her, right? The man nods and says that he didn't see anything. At that point, the man bursts into flames.

Head Inspector Briglia and Inspector Aquilino stop in front of the apartment complex Rhys and Emil reside in. Briglia asks Aquilino if he gave him a gift earlier. Aquilino is confused. Briglia says that he heard that Aquilino wanted to be his new investigation partner and, the next day, he receives a strange gem. Aquilino says that gifting Briglia anything would be weird considering the circumstances. Briglia agrees and then says that they should head in. As they do, Aquilino says that it would've been amazing to receive a gem like that.

Back in the cafe, one of the patrons, Ilaria Paoletta (Letícia Castro), stands up as another patron (Louie Sashia) is set on fire. Pamela then asks the entire room if they saw anything. At that point, Ilaria yells at everybody to stay silent. Pamela walks towards her and says that it is best if she keeps quiet. Ilaria asks if she asked the man what his gem could do. Pamela laughs and says how odd of a question that is. Ilaria says that the man was her neighbour and he carried a gem much like theirs. In fact, she was also his personal accountant. She takes a step towards Pamela and tells her that her gem activates whenever the victim tells a lie. That is why she has been asking people if they saw anything while intimidating them. Pamela's smile fades and she begins choking as water pours out of her mouth. Pamela then falls over dead. Ilaria says that she was expecting to burst into flames but she doesn't think the woman knew she was lying. She is actually the mayor's aide.

Cursed Gem: Emberstone
Gem Holder: Pamela Santoli
Effect: The victim bursts into flames.

Condition: Cause the victim to lie to the user directly.

She says that she overheard two of them talk about gems so she'll assume that nobody else has them. She'll be honest to the two and tell them her gem's ability since she has no reason to use it against them. Her gem's condition is only towards other gem holders and is activated when she figures out a gem's condition and says it to the holder themselves.

Cursed Gem: Whispershade
Gem Holder: Ilaria Paoletta
Effect: Water molecules in the victim multiply rapidly causing the victim to drown.

Condition: State the condition of another gem to that gem's holder.

She says that a woman, a gem holder, killed the mayor last night. She figured out that the gems did something and pointed it out, unknowingly killing the woman. Her name was Ellie Sawyer, the owner of this cafe, which is why she was here to begin with.

Head Inspector Briglia and Inspector Aquilino notice Emil's apartment door open. They enter and notice Emil dead in a pool of blood with a gem in his pocket. Briglia pockets the gem and says that the gems can't be a coincidence. Aquilino asks to hold onto it but Briglia says that he'd rather have nobody hold onto it and puts it into a plastic bag before putting it back into his pocket.

In a park close by, Emmett Rexwood is with Victoria Cadwell (Joni Via). Emmett asks Victoria if she is really breaking up with him. Victoria says that she knows about his mistress, Pamela. She can't continue the relationship. Emmett gets really angry. At that point, a giant hand comes out from the clouds and flings Victoria up into the air. She crashes onto the ground dead. As Emmett leaves the park and heads into a convenience store, Head Inspector Briglia asks if he is Emmett Rexwood. He says that Emmett works for Westley Designs and was taking the day off. He asks if he noticed anything unusual about anybody from the office but Emmett says he didn't. After Briglia leaves, Emmett tells the store clerk (Lisandras Berry) not to say anything about who he was with earlier. The clerk promises not to say anything.

Landon is in his apartment. He hears a voice (Tony Q. Ingram) telling him to kill. The voice tells him that it would be easy. Landon throws the gem across the room. He gets a phone call from a panicked Ivetta saying that she doesn't feel safe at her apartment. Later, Ivetta and Landon are in Landon's apartment as he tells her that a voice was telling him to kill using the gem. Ivetta says the same.

Clement Di Antonio (Valentino Carucci-Blake) notices a body, the store clerk, on the ground in a pile of blood. A man, Rhys, notices him and comes up from behind him asking if he is opkay. Clement says that he is fine and he's used to seeing sights like this as he is a veteran. Rhys insists that Clement must be feeling a certain way and says that he is here to help him. When Clement refuses, Rhys says that he noticed Clement holding a gem earlier. Clement begins to walk off and call the police and reports the body. Rhys is gone by the time Clement is done with the phone call. Rhys is with a woman named Ghita Armata (Neiva Lo Cicero). Rhys tells her that he failed to get the gem off him. Ghita tells him that it's alright. Her goal is to get the gems without having to kill anybody for it and if the man doesn't want to give it up, she can only hope that he doesn't use it. Rhys asks Ghita why she wouldn't kill for any of the gems. Ghita asks Rhys if he was willing to kill the man for a gem. Rhys admits that he was. Ghita says that their contract is considered null and void at this point. Rhys asks her if she's okay. Ghita says that she is fine and doesn't need any consoling and looks at him with disdain and says that his intention was clear. She asks him if he has any loyalty to anybody. Rhys says that, with this power, he'll be honest and says that he only has loyalty to himself. He says that, while Ghita says that she is a pacifist, he wants to be careful just incase her condition is the victim lying. Ghita says that her condition does not involve another's death so he doesn't have to worry about that. At that moment, Rhys sings about using his gem to kill Emil from his apartment complex and he completely intended to kill her and the veteran. Rhys is then shocked over suddenly singing and then notices his voice being very hoarse.

Cursed Gem: Obsidian Tear
Gem Holder: Rhys Etheridge
Effect: The victim cries tears of blood until there is no more.

Condition: The user comforts someone who is genuinely suffering.

Head Inspector Briglia and Inspector Aquilino question Clement about what he saw. Clement asks the inspectors if they are aware of the mysterious gems plaguing the town. They say that they are. Clement hands Briglia his gem and says that he was willing to listen to it and use it for self defense but he feels like what happened to the store clerk was a result of somebody's gem so he'd rather not have it anymore. He says that the gem tells you what it can do and encourages you to use it. He is trying to stay calm but he is slowly starting to feel as though he is going insane and he can't go through that feeling again. He warns them that the gem makes the emotional attachments of a victim suffocating and causes them to become destructive.

Cursed Gem: Echochain
Gem Holder: Clement Di Antonio
Effect: The victim's emotional attachments amplify and cause them to act destructive.

Condition: The victim denies responsibility for their actions.

Day 4

A man, Jacob Maxwell (Sean Alcabu) approaches Emmett at the harbour and says that he couldn't find Victoria's sister and says that she doesn't appear to have a sister. Emmett says that Victoria has a half-sister and could easily get him arrested after what he did. Jacob says that he even contacted a private investigator named Frank Winch (Vittorio Crisafi) as well as spoke to a close friend of Victoria's. At that point, a giant hand comes down from the clouds and flings him up into the air. Winch and Ilaria Paoletta are nearby watching this happen. Ilaria tells him that it's better for him to tell Emmett that Victoria's half sister can't be found. Winch tells her that she is nuts. Ilaria says that she told him every gem holder that she knew of and then led him to Jacob Maxwell, who he, specifically, wanted revenge on. She says that Winch can close the case on Victoria's half-sister and then they can continue to work together to find the other gem holders. Winch refuses, causing Ilaria to shoot him. She then approaches Emmett and says that he made himself obvious when she was told of Victoria's death. So, she wanted to test something out. Jacob knew Victoria's half sister existed and lied about it. A part of her wanted to assume that, maybe, his condition is people lying but there is no way Victoria lied to him since he was the one cheating on her, which she found out about and told Victoria herself. So, she is going to assume that his condition is when other people break promises. Also, she's her cousin, not her half-sister. At that point, before Emmett can rush at her, he chokes on water, drowning, and falls over.

Cursed Gem: Heaven's Topaz
Gem Holder: Emmett Rexwood
Effect: The victim is subjected to the Hand of Fate.

Condition: The victim breaks a promise to the user.

Known Gem Holders:
Clement Di Antonio
Ellie Sawyer
Emil Halvorsen
Emmett Rexwood
Ghita Almata
Gio Briglia
Ilaria Paoletta
Ivetta Rowley
Landon Alghieri
Pamela Santoli
Rhys Etheridge

The Truck Driver(?)

In the apartment, Ivetta tells Landon that she knows the curses well and she knows of the myth but it was mainly a myth. With all this happening, she can't help but think it is true. She admits to being into the occult due to her parents and read upon The Twelvefold Curses. The legend talks about twelve gems, each with their own unique curse. The myth dates back to the 1200's. A man, Nexxohl, desired revenge against the world. His soul was cast into the twelve gems by his father figure, Papalocol. The legend states that when humanity really wishes for the end, the wrath of Nexxohl will awaken. She admits it sounds dumb but they can't deny what they've seen. Plus, she feels as though there is more to the process than just wishing.

The police arrive to find Emmett and Jacob's dead bodies. Head Inspector Briglia tells Inspector Aquilino that he was hoping to interrogate Rexwood again after finding the store clerk's body. Aquilino asks Briglia what his gem does. Briglia says that he knew for a moment but then never carried the gem again. It's safe in a vault in his home. Aquilino asks if what happened to the mayor could be connected to all this. Briglia says that it could but, now, he has a few more people to interrogate, especially after what happened at the cafe.

A man bangs his fist against Landon's apartment door demanding to see Ivetta. Ivetta opens the door to see Priamo Cimmino (Mauro Maciel) who tells her that the cops plan to question everybody at the cafe, including her and her new boyfriend, which she denies that they are an item. Priamo says that two inspectors are investigating the gems and could be involved and asks her if she was involved in the ritual. Ivetta denies being involved and Landon does the same, assuming the ritual is what caused the gems to appear. Ivetta introduces Priamo as a high school friend also involved in the occult. Somebody in the hallway (Max Motto) says that he knows about the ritual and tries to force Ivetta to give him her gem. The moment he hits Ivetta, his head explodes upwards and hits the ceiling. Ivetta tells them that they need to leave right now. The three of them go down the stairwell as the inspectors arrive. Priamo says that Ivetta's ability is amazing but Ivetta says that it wasn't hers. Landon admits that his condition is the victim hurting somebody innocent and unintentionally killed the guy. He is very shaken up about it but Ivetta tells him to grow up. As they leave the apartment, the credits roll as that was a cliff-hanger.