Lesson 10

[Hiram Taylor]

Hiram Taylor
LESSON 10 – LEVEL ONE – HORROR EMOTIONS

What I learned from this lesson is that even though the following scene is not good, it doesn’t matter, it fits the requirements and has the potential to be a great scene. I am just going forward with the knowledge that what is important is learning the lessons and not getting hung up on details and rewriting at this point.

APPREHENSION / ANXIETY:

EXT. COURTYARD – NIGHT

MATHIAS forces Silas to go down the well and retrieve the body of the first dead monk with the help of RICHARD.
Silas is horrified and scared. They have to drag him across the courtyards, his feet dragging across the pavement as he struggles.

SILAS
(SCREAMING)
No!. I hate wells. I can’t. It’s dark down there!

MATHIAS
Quiet! Rember your vows.

SILAS
Fuck my vows I’m not going down there. You can’t make me.

MATHIAS
You’re the only one of us skinny and small enough to do it besides you are young and strong.

SILAS
Nooooo! I hate wells.

MATHIAS
Hold on to the bucked, and put this rope around your neck. When you get down into the water tie this rope around Brother Smith and we’ll pull his body out.

SILAS
What do I do while you are pulling him out?

MATHIAS
Treed water. And then we’ll throw the rope down and pull you out. Easy. You can do this.

SILAS
No no no no no… I can’t do this… I can’t

Silas cries and shakes with fear as he grabs the bucket and they lift him up, tie the rope around him, and slowly lower him down the dark well.

IN THE WELL

Silas is sobbing, scared to death.

AT THE TOP OF THE WELL

MATHIAS

Calm down.

The rope breaks and the bucket and Silas fall down the well into the water with a splash. Silas screams.

MATHIAS shines a flashlight down on Silas’s face in the water.

Silas
The rope broke.

MATHIAS

Do you see Brother

Silas

He turns his head as Mathias shines the light on the bloated face of the dead monk. Silas screams in shock.

MATHIAS

Put the rope around him and we’ll pull him up.

He does and they do.

Silas floats in the darkness.

SUDDENLY HE HEARS A VOICE

Voice
Daddy… Is that you Daddy?

SILAS

Noooo! (screams)

THE VOICE

How many hours old was she when you threw her in the well?

SILAS
How do you know about that? Who are you?

BABY CRYING

Your baby! To hide your guilt. Murderer!

THE BABY CRIES LOUDER AND LOUDER.

SILAS goes berserk, STOP TREADING WATER, and puts his hands on his ears. He starts to sink. Panic swims back up, grabbing at the brick wall, splashing in a panic until the water begins to suck him down. He fights until he drowns.

AT THE TOP

Mathias and Richard untie the dead monk and throw the rope back down. Mathias shines the light down on the water. There is no Silas.

[Aaron Clow]

Aaron’s Level 1 Horror Emotion Scene

What I learned doing this assignment was… I think I likely need to shorten this very early scene and punch it up, but it’s written now and hopefully sets a little bit of mystery and dread in motion. It’s a good way to write a scene I think, but I am probably toning it down too much. Anyway, still trying to move forward.

INT – ASSISTANT’S SHED – DAY

Dry, weathered HANDS collect climbing rope and carabiners off a shelf and place them into a daypack.

The hands belong to the DEVELOPER’S ASSISTANT, in his small shed, a single bare LIGHT BULB barely illuminating, and picks up a GPS device. He gives it a quick look, gently tosses it aside. That’s not it.

Found them – maps. He unfolds them half way, looks at them for a moment – exactly what he needed. In the pack they go with a few other things – a headlamp, flashlight, whistle.

Behind him, a dark FIGURE fills in the light in the doorway. The assistant notices the difference is different, whips around –

ASSISTANT
Wha?

FIGURE
Hey.

Recognition –

ASSISTANT
Oh. It’s you. Thanks for coming.
I’m just getting some shit together.
Let’s go inside.

FIGURE
Sure.

The assistant takes one last look around, grabs the daypack, CLICKS off the light, closes the door, a padlock CLINKS.

INT – ASSISTANT’S HOUSE – DAY

The figure is MILES SINCLAIR, the local environmentalist. Mid-60’s, sun-aged craggy face and full pure white beard. He sits at the table, unprompted, like an old friend would. The assistant is making coffee. Miles speaks in a heavy New England accent.

MILES
So. Why so jumpy?

ASSISTANT
We’re going in.

He’s serious.

MILES
You can’t. Not after what happened. I still don't know.

ASSISTANT
Not my call.

MILES
What do you mean “not your call?”

ASSISTANT
Just what I said. Not my call.
(pause)
Don’t worry, he doesn’t even know you’re here.

MILES
I figured that already.

ASSISTANT
I need to know what is it?

A pause, how many beans to spill here?

MILES
Don’t know.

ASSISTANT
You have to know something?

MILES
Well, let’s start with what you know.

ASSISTANT
Assume nothing.

MILES
Fine. I started looking into the park a few months ago. It’s an energy zone. You’ve heard of Nazca lines?

ASSISTANT
Yeah?

MILES
The boundary of the park isn’t the fence.

ASSISTANT
(defensively)
We’ve been trying to fix it. After that boar got out last month and killed Mrs. Goodmeyer’s Pomeranian, the town wanted a lot more information about who was maintaining it.

MILES
It’s not the fence, it’s what came before the fence.

ASSISTANT
I’m not following.

MILES
The park boundary pre-dates the fence by several centuries.

ASSISTANT
What was there before the fence?

MILES
I don’t know yet. I found some odd stones up the road a bit from the north pass gate and they led to the fence.

ASSISTANT
You think the boundary doesn’t exactly follow the fence?

MILES
It’s possible. The whole state is riddled with fault lines, but they’re not active. Not for millions of years.

ASSISTANT
Could the lines be shifting?

MILES
Again, possible. We’re nowhere near a plate boundary, but as things go, we’re not really that far away from this whole area being covered by glaciers. The earth could be, well, ‘rebounding,’ shifting the boundary lines.

The assistant is deep in thought.

MILES
Or, it could be a new plate boundary off the coast. We could be in that in-between stage.

ASSISTANT
On one side or the other of a million years?

MILES
Lucky us, right?

ASSISTANT
You still haven’t told me what we’re dealing with here.

MILES
Well, there can be tremendous energy released any time shifts like this happen. It’s not outside the realm of possibility that they can affect the mind. It could cause hallucinations?

ASSISTANT
You’ve been there. Have you been hallucinating?

MILES
No. But I saw the hunters that night. Something scared them, and it wasn’t a boar. Or a bear.

ASSISTANT
(bangs the table)
What the hell, Miles? You waited ten minutes to tell me this?

MILES
I didn’t think it was important.

ASSISTANT
You didn’t think it was important that I know you were in the preserve and that you saw someone get shot?

MILES
I didn’t see him get shot.

The assistant stares, perplexed at the delay – well?

MILES
I heard the shot and was nearby, so I went to see what was going on. I thought maybe they shot an animal.

ASSISTANT
There was no animal.

MILES
No. There weren't no animal.

ASSISTANT
So?

MILES
So, I saw the one hunter carrying the other over his shoulder. They were close to the gate, so I stayed out of sight.

ASSISTANT
Jesus, Miles. If (the developer) knew you were there, we’d both be in a world of shit.

MILES
I know. But I need to find out what’s going on. I think the blasting is possibly forcing a quicker change in the boundary.

ASSISTANT
What does that mean?

MILES
You might need to stop blasting.

ASSISTANT
(laughs)
Right.

MILES
No, I’m serious. Just until I figure out whether or not the boundary is moving. If the boundary moves, that means the energy moves with it.

ASSISTANT
He’s never going to agree to a halt in development.

MILES
You’ll just have to convince him.

ASSISTANT
Convince him? You haven’t convinced me!

MILES
I didn’t know I needed to make a case with you.

ASSISTANT
Yeah, well you do.

MILES
Give me another couple days and I will bring you something. Just another couple of days.

ASSISTANT
I can’t. As a matter of fact, I’m late. I gotta go.

The assistant grabs the empty cups of coffee, goes over to the sink, rinses them, leaves them in the sink. Miles, still seated, pleads:

MILES
West access gate.

ASSISTANT
West access gate what?

MILES
Use the west access gate. About two hundred feet north on the outside of the fence you will see the stones.

ASSISTANT
And what’s that going to do?

MILES
It’s the ancient boundary line. Maybe you’ll see something I didn’t. If I can recommend something, you should both leave before dark.

ASSISTANT
Why. Is that when the monsters come out?

MILES
Yes.

ASSISTANT
(can’t contain his surprise, involuntary)
Ha!

MILES
I have noticed an energy change at night. Maybe it’s something like when the sun charges the ionosphere, it pushes the energy fields down. At night, this energy rises and bounces.

What is this crazy yarn he’s spinning?

ASSISTANT
Right. (sigh.) OK, no nighttime. Thanks. Hey, lock up when you leave?

MILES
Sure. Be careful.

The assistant closes the front door behind him as he leaves.

[Selma Ahmed]

SELMA’S LEVEL 1 HORROR EMOTION SCENE
What I have learned. … It might not be a polished scene but
it wasn’t as difficult to write as expected as there were
already so many things in place. It was an unexpected
experience for me!!!
INT: GRANDMOTHER’S HOUSE – KITCHEN – DAY
Martha places a candle on a birthday cake which reads, “Happy
90th Birthday to a beloved mother and grandmother.” Jenny
races inside with the branch of blackthorn.
MARTHA
Jenny! Don’t run, you’re going to
make me have an accident.
Martha takes a sip from a half filled glass of red wine.
JENNY
(excited)
Oh! Are we giving her the cake now?
MARTHA
Get that out of the kitchen —
you’re making a mess!
JENNY
Angel’s going to talk to the
witches as part of Grandma’s
present and this will help her!
Waves it in the air, makes SPOOKY NOISES.
MARTHA
Help? Oh God, that’s bloody
nonsense. Get rid of it.
Jenny places berries from the branch onto the cake.
MARTHA (CONT’D)
JENNY!
— A hiss of a noise echoes, “JENNY”…
Jenny looks at Martha, who has not heard the sound,
surprised. She looks around, tries to figure out where it
came from.
2.
A gust of wind forces the back door open and the branch flies
out of the room, startles Jenny and Martha.
MARTHA (CONT’D)
What the hell was that?
Martha closes the door.
MARTHA (CONT’D)
Can’t you even close a door
properly?
JENNY
But I did…
Martha finishes off the wine, takes a deep breath, picks up
the cake.
MARTHA
Ok, we’d better take this in before
anything else happens.
Jenny looks out of the window, uncertain. Watches the branch
blown by the wind in the darkening sky.