CHAPTER NINE The Writer's Vision ust in case you were wondering, my OCR sucks. It would have taken longer to muddle through its translation, correcting its egregious errors, than to simply retype everything. Here we go. DRAMATIS PERSONAE (Latin for Meet Your Cannon Fodder) MARC will become our hero. HOLLY is Marc's girlfriend. She is several months pregnant with Marc's child. They are still undecided as to what to do about this. JAY is Marc's older brother. JULIE is Jay's girlfriend. ROBERT is a friend, and JEANNE is Robert's girlfriend. JAY and MARC have finally finished the prototype for a new gadget, and are preparing to sell a cabin retreat they inherited to raise the money for manufacture and marketing . They've decided to have one last weekend there. There is, of course, a storm outside. HOLLY has gone to take a shower. JULIE has gone to get into the proverbial something more comfortable. And JEANNE has decided to postpone winning any more of the men's money at poker and go to the bathroom. The men engage in lame banter until they hear JEANNE scream. INT HALL OUTSIDE BATHROOM The men run down the hall. Jeanne stumbles out, almost running into Robert. JEANNE It's Holly! She... she's.... MARC Oh, God. She miscarried? JEANNE What? No! She's... MARC Oh, God. Marc brushes past her, into the bathroom. JEANNE No, Marc, don't go in there... BATHROOM Marc looks around. The shower is still running. The curtain has been drawn aside. Marc slowly approaches the shower. Holly lays inside, dead eyes staring into space. Her entrails lie snaking out into the tub, the last pink remnants of blood sluicing into the drain. Marc stares at her body, uncomprehending. He drops to his knees. Slowly, his hand reaches out to her. Another hand comes into the frame, grabbing his. It is Jay's. JAY Come on. Come on, let's get out of here. MARC It's gone. JAY Come on. MARC It's gone, the baby's gone. JAY Come on. MARC WHERE'S THE GODDAMN BABY? JAY Get him - get him out of here. Come on. ROBERT Let's go, Marc. MARC But where... JEANNE You can't help her now, come on. MARC But... JAY Go. Jeanne and Robert Lead Marc out. Jay turns off the shower. He stares at the body a moment, then realizes he's in the room alone. JAY Sh*t. He leaves, hurriedly. LIVING ROOM JAY runs in through the hall door. ROBERT Close that door! Close it! Jay slams the hall door shut. JAY How is he? ROBERT Shock. I think. JAY I don't blame him. Jesus. ROBERT Look. We gotta stay cool about this. JAY Right, right. Jesus, what could have happened? JEANNE I think that's pretty obvious. ROBERT It is. Holly's been murdered. JAY But who...? ROBERT There's only one person we haven't seen, the last few minutes. JAY Julie...? ROBERT Right. JAY Julie! Jay makes to open the hall door. Robert stops him. JAY What are you doing? ROBERT Jay, think! JAY Julie's in there! ROBERT That's right - and she could have been the one who did it! JAY Oh, come on! ROBERT She's the only one we didn't see! She's the only logical suspect! JAY You're talking like something out of a f*cking cop show! JEANNE (shouting over them) This isn't getting us anywhere! The men stop in mid-struggle. JEANNE Look, we've gotta find Julie. Even if she didn't do it, we've gotta find her so we can get out of here. ROBERT She's right. We need some kind of weapons. Something to defend ourselves. JAY Kitchen. They file into the kitchen. Jay stops in the doorway, looking back at Marc, still sitting on the couch, staring into space. JAY Um... Marc? MARC Hm? JAY Come on, come with us. We gotta stay together, okay? MARC Hm? Okay..... okay. Marc gets up and shuffles into the kitchen. KITCHEN Jeanne holds up a couple of steak knives. JEANNE This is it. ROBERT Oh, God, are you sure? JAY What do you want? We hadn't used this place in years... ROBERT What'd we use to cut the pizza? JEANNE Marc's jackknife, remember? Marc has fixated on the freezer, one of those huge, coffin-shaped jobs. The type a body can be stuffed into. He slowly walks to it. MUSIC BUILDS. Marc reaches out a hand.... ROBERT They'll have to do. Now.... Marc? Marc is about to open the freezer.... ROBERT Marc, what are you doing? The music is deafening. In a rush, Marc opens the freezer. Fog drifts up. He looks down upon frozen pizza and TV dinners. JEANNE Marc? Are you okay? MARC (Softly; almost deadpan) Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay. JAY You sure? MARC I guess. ROBERT Then let's go. LIVING ROOM They enter from the kitchen. Robert crosses to the fireplace and grabs the poker. JAY There's an axe outside. For the firewood. ROBERT Forget it. We stick together. They gather at the hall door. ROBERT Now, she's somewhere in this part of the house. JEANNE Unless she's outside. ROBERT In this storm? JAY Come on, let's do it. HALL The door slowly opens; the four advance cautiously. ROBERT Now remember: no matter what, we stick together. Marc and Holly's room first. BEDROOM The four burst in. Quick search: under the bed, in closet. In contrast to the other three's bustle, Marc drifts to the bed, where Holly's battered plush rabbit sits. He picks up the rabbit. ROBERT Okay, nothing here. Mine and Jeanne's, next. They start to leave, stopping at the door. Marc is still staring at the rabbit. JAY (gently) Marc. We gotta go. Marc drops the rabbit and follows them. HALL Marc stands in the doorway of the second bedroom, standing guard as the others, unseen, search. ROBERT Okay. Bathroom next. JEANNE Oh, God, do we have to? ROBERT Yes. We do this in order, nobody gets behind us. JEANNE God..... MARC I'll go. JAY Marc, you.... MARC I'll go. There is a pause. Jay hands Marc his steak knife. BATHROOM Marc walks in - the others are in the doorway. Marc opens a small closet, a cabinet. Nothing. He glances toward the shower, but goes no further. HALL Marc come out of the bathroom. Everyone looks toward the last room, at the end of the hall. ROBERT Okay. So she's got to be in there. They slowly advance on the door. Robert takes the handle....they burst in... BEDROOM 3 Continuing from last scene: they burst in and stop, thunderstruck. CAMERA PULLS BACK to reveal Julie, hung by her feet from a lighting fixture. Her throat has been cut. Blood runs down her face, but there is none anywhere else. JEANNE Oh God. ROBERT We're getting out of here. MARC Where's the blood? ROBERT Let's get to a car. Get the cops. MARC This room should be swimming in blood... where the hell is it? ROBERT GO! MOVE! HALLWAY They come back into the hall. It's much darker than it was before. ROBERT Why's it so dark? It wasn't this dark before. JEANNE Oh, no..... MARC Is the power off? ROBERT No, look, the lights are still on in the living room. JEANNE Oh no....no no no.... ROBERT Let's go, let's go, let's go. Stay together. Be real careful. They advance slowly down the hall, bunching as close together as humanly possible. They are halfway down the hall when Jay lets out a yell as his feet are pulled out from under him. Marc whirls around. Jay is being pulled, feet first, back down the hall, into the darkness. MARC JAAAAAAAAAAY! Marc jumps toward him, falls short, scrambles the distance and grabs Jay's hand. They are both dragged a couple of feet, then stop as Robert grabs Marc's feet. Robert braces his foot in a doorway; Jeanne wraps her arms around Robert's chest, pulling also. A tug of war ensues. The darkness spreads down Jay's body like liquid, as he begins to scream. There is a sudden release of tension, causing Robert and Jeanne to fall backward, Marc scooting back on the floor. JAY'S SCREAM RECEDES, as if over a distance. Mystified, Marc holds up his hand. Jay's hand, raggedly chopped off at the wrist, is still locked on his. Jeanne stifles a scream. Whimpering, Marc tries to wrench the severed hand off his, squeezing the last few drops of blood out of the stump. It finally comes off and Marc hurls it, down the hall, into the darkness. There is a pause - then slitted, glowing red eyes appear in the darkness. A LOW GROWLING is heard. The remaining three scramble backwards out of the hall, into the living room. LIVING ROOM Marc, the last one in, slams the hall door shut. Something large smashes into the door, nearly knocking him off his feet. Desperately, Marc digs in, trying to hold the door against the battering. Meantime, Robert and Jeanne have grabbed the sofa and are rushing it toward the hall door. At the last moment, Marc dives over the sofa, and it smashes against the door. The three then hold the couch against the door. Incredibly, the door opens an inch, then two, as the GROWLING increases in volume and violence. Fog seeps in through the crack in the door. Suddenly, the door slams shut and the GROWLING STOPS. The three stay in place for a moment, looking at each other. Then they begin to back slowly away. MARC Where is it? Where did it go? ROBERT Back. Unnoticed by either of them, Jeanne is backing up to a window... MARC Back? Back where? ROBERT Bedrooms, maybe outside, I don't know. We have to...JEANNE! GET AWAY FROM.... The window explodes behind Jeanne and something long and greenish-black wraps itself Jeanne's waist, hauling her out. Her hands shoot out to the sides of the window, stopping her. Robert and Marc freeze a moment, then run toward her. Jeanne's hands, cut by glass, give way, and with a wail of despair, she is pulled into the night. Her SCREAM is suddenly cut short, replaced by SICK, WET RIPPING NOISES. MARC Oh no.... He hears a door open. He whirls around, and sees Robert running out the front door. MARC Robert? NO! EXT CABIN NIGHT Marc runs out. The rain is beginning to die out, but there is still plenty of thunder and lightning. MARC Robert!!! Don't leave me alone! There's no answer. Marc runs around the house. At the back of the cabin is the archetypal chopping block, complete with stack of firewood and axe. Marc grabs the axe, and almost feels better for a moment. He turns to run toward the cars, but trips over something. He rises, and comes face-to-face with Robert. Lightning flashes. It's not Robert. It's Robert's head, left on a stump for him to find. Lightning flashes again, revealing what Marc tripped over. It's Robert's still-twitching body. Marc sucks in his breath to scream, but stops as lightning flashes again. His eyes become too wild, and he reaches for the head. MARC Good thing I found you, Robert. I'll get us out of here. He picks up the head, cradling it in his arms like a baby. MARC Yeah, don't worry. I'll get us out. He runs into the woods with the head. WOODS Marc runs through the rain, through the trees. He stops, leaning against a tree, breathing heavily. MARC Out. Get us... out. Out. Lightning flashes, and Marc suddenly realizes what he's carrying. He screams, drops the head, and runs into the night, still screaming. Marc's POV as he runs, brushing past branches. One of the branches isn't a branch: it's an arm. A hand grabs Marc's throat, stopping him. Marc is slammed against a tree, choking. The hand slowly lifts him up, off the ground as his feet kick futilely. The head of his assailant can be dimly seen, in the dark of the woods. Pinpoints of red appear where the eyes should be. Marc desperately grabs for the thing's head, sinking his thumbs deep into both eyes, ruining them. The thing drops him, howling in pain. Gasping for air, Marc scrambles up and runs and runs. HIGHWAY Marc bursts out of the woods and onto a road; it takes him a second to realize he's on pavement. MARC The highway. It's the highway! I made it! He shouts into the woods. MARC F*CK YOU! I made it! I'm safe! He is suddenly awash in bright light; a car is bearing down on him. It brakes and skids.... MARC NOOOOOOOOOO! IMPACT. Marc flies through the air, hits the pavement and rolls twice, facing the camera. MARC Not fair. 'S'not...fair... The scene blurs and fades to black. ow, join us in two weeks and we'll examine what actually made it onto film, why, and how the dual harpies of Time and Budget Constraints can turn your dreams into wet cardboard.   NEXT: What You Actually Saw.