Playback (II) (2012)

Johnny Pacar: Julian Miller

Photos 

Quotes 

• Julian Miller : He was adopted? It says Harlan's real parents died when he was four, born in New York, bounced around foster homes until the Diehl family adopted him.

  Riley : Well yeah, a lot of poor families do it for subsidy money.

  Julian Miller : His real name is Harlan Prince, descendant of the mysterious Louis Le Prince.

  Riley : Mysterious who?

  Julian Miller : Louis Le Prince.

  Riley : Never heard of him.

  Julian Miller : Well that's why he's mysterious.

• Anne Miller : So tell me about your project.

  Julian Miller : Well I'm supposed to pick some forgotten theme from the fabric of our society, so I'm doing a movie.

  Anne Miller : A movie huh? About what?

  Julian Miller : Well I'm glad you asked, cuz I want to see if you'd do an interview. It's on Harlan Diehl. You know, everyone's gonna do something really lame like, bridges or whatever, and it's an interesting story, you yourself told me it changed the community, that's the theme of the project, plus it's freaking cool.

  Anne Miller : It's not cool, Julian, it was a tragedy, and I didn't say it changed the community, I said it changed people's lives.

  Julian Miller : Sorry, I just thought it'd be something you could help me with, like a lot of parents do, you remember when it happened, right?

  Anne Miller : Of *course* I remember.

• Julian Miller : Do you think you could put in a good word for me down at the station?

  Quinn : The station?

  Julian Miller : Yeah.

  Quinn : [laughs]  You don't want to work there.

  Julian Miller : Yeah I do, I want to move up, I'm tired of watching movies, I want to make 'em.

  Quinn : Do you know what I actually do there?

  Julian Miller : Not really.

  Quinn : I don't *make* anything. I fucking archive footage from like 20 years ago. I sit there all day and look at *nothing*.

• Julian Miller : [touring the Diehl farm house]  Oh wow, there's the bathroom, that's where he killed his mom.

• Julian Miller : How'd you even know where I was?

  Anne Miller : I tracked your cellphone.

  Julian Miller : Wait, you what? How'd you even know how to do that?

  [Anne rolls her eyes] 

• Julian Miller : That is the mysterious Louis Le Prince, Harlan's great, great, great, great grandfather, according to many historians, the father of motion pictures.

  Riley : I thought that was Thomas Edison.

  Julian Miller : So did I, actually.

  Riley : Are you sure he's related to Harlan?

  Julian Miller : That's what it says. Check this out, it's a still from Round Hay Garden, according to this it was the first movie ever made, by anybody, ever. How cool is that?

• Julian Miller : Are they cool, the Le Prince films?

  Wylie : Not as cool as the legend.

  Julian Miller : So what is the legend?

  Wylie : The legend is something that only people in the know would know, that Louis Le Prince was the devil.

  Julian Miller : [laughs]  The devil, come on.

  Wylie : Think about it, Louis, Lucifer, Le Prince of Darkness.

  Julian Miller : Really? Come on, the guy's the devil because he's got a weird name?

  Wylie : A name tells a lot about a man, think about it: Louis Cypher - Angel Heart, John Milton - The Devil's Advocate, Van Horne - Witches of Eastwick.

  Julian Miller : That's completely different, those are movies, they're fiction.

  Wylie : What do you think legends *are*?

• Julian Miller : Hey Wylie, have you ever heard of a guy named Louis Le Prince?

  Wylie : Oh yeah, of course.

  Julian Miller : Ever see any of his films?

  Wylie : Well he only made three, but I wouldn't really call them films, they was only like two seconds long. We got a copy around here somewhere.

• Julian Miller : So that's it.

  Wylie : Yep, I told you they were short.

  Julian Miller : And all those people died right after making the movie?

  Wylie : Yep, it's what made the legend so freaking legendary. You know Le Prince's great great great great grandson lived right here in Marshal.

  Julian Miller : Yeah, it's kinda why I'm interested, I'm doing a report on him for school.

  Wylie : Wait a minute, you're doing a report on Harlan Diehl for school?

  Julian Miller : Yeah.

  Wylie : That's fucking weird. Hey, whatever, I hope I was helpful.

  Julian Miller : Yeah, definitely, now I know the reason he killed his entire family... he was possessed.

• Julian Miller : Top horror movie of all time.

  Nate : The Ring. When she came out of the TV, I lost it.

  Brianna Baker : Scream.

  Riley : Freaky Friday.

  Julian Miller , Nate : Freaky Friday?

  Julian Miller : That's not a horror movie.

  Riley : Yes it is, she turns into her mother, that's horrible and terrifying all at the same time.

  Brianna Baker : It *was* scary.

  Nate : Your mom's cool, what would be terrifying about that?

• Wylie : Oh by the way, all the people in that movie, they died.

  Julian Miller : So? It was over 100 years ago, of course they died.

  Wylie : No, they all died right *after* they made the movie.

• Riley : [follows a tinkling sound up to the second story of the Diehl murder house]  This is a baby's room.

  Julian Miller : The reports never said anything about a baby.

• Julian Miller : [recreating the Diehl family murders]  Brianna ends up with her head in the toilet.

  Brianna Baker : Screw you, Scorsese, I'm not sticking my head in a fucking toilet.

• Wylie : Hey man, you ever hear the superstition that photographs steal part of your soul?

  Julian Miller : Yeah, kinda.

  Wylie : Okay, well some people still believe that, then Louis Le Prince comes along and shoots a movie, the exact replica of a living, breathing person, not a frozen moment like a photograph, something that moved, something made of light, like a ghost. The legend evolved that Louis Le Prince found a way to steal not just a part of your soul, but the entire thing.

  Julian Miller : So how does that relate to anyth...

  Wylie : I'm getting to that. Louis Le Prince had a son, his name was Adolphe, that's his real name by the way, pert for the story but anyway, Adolph was in his first movie, Round Hay Garden, the legend is Louis ghost that movie so he could steal his soul and replace it with his own; a dark twisted evil one. That soul, the demonic one, to be passed down through the bloodline, possessing one child from each generation, father to son, getting stronger each time.

• Anne Miller : [catches Julian and Riley at the Diehl farmhouse]  You can't be out here.

  Julian Miller : Why not?

  Anne Miller : Because it's trespassing.

  Julian Miller : Come on, Mom, it's not like we're stealing anything, we're doing research.

  Anne Miller : I don't care, Julian, you don't get to rewrite the law when it doesn't suit you.

• Julian Miller : I'm pretty sure my mom told me the farm house got signed off to one of the Diehl brothers after the murders.

  Riley : If the house in that picture's the same one from the Diehl farm, I'm telling you it's the same house.

  Julian Miller : She said that they leveled it to sell the land.

  Riley : [pulls up]  There it is.

  Julian Miller : Yeah, you're right, it's the same house... why would my mom lie about it?

• Chris Safford : You ask anybody why those murders happened, nobody knows, nobody knows,

  [laughs] 

  Chris Safford : no motive, that's what the police said. Harlan Diehl may have been mentally unstable but something triggered those murders, something or somebody, that somebody is that baby.

  Julian Miller : How so?

  Chris Safford : Well as far as I was able to find out, the parents wanted to put the baby up for adoption, Harlan didn't like that. Course you can't blame the parents, you find out your son's boinking your daughter and got her pregnant, you'd probably do the same thing.

  Julian Miller : I'm sorry, I'm sorry, what?

  Chris Safford : Harlan Diehl raped his sister, his adopted sister, she got pregnant, parents didn't want anybody to know about it, they put the baby up for adoption, so Harlan killed them.

  Julian Miller : What happened to the baby?

  Chris Safford : That's where the story stopped for me. I tried, someone at the adoption agency said one of the responding officers took custody of the baby.