|
EXT. SMYTHE HOUSE - NIGHT (ESTABLISHING) It is dark and windy. Thunder rumbles softly in the distance. Creepy music plays. SUBTITLE - YE OLDE SMYTHE HOUSE, ONE WEEK AGO THIS TUESDAY INT. SMYTHE HOUSE UPSTAIRS ROOM - NIGHT We slowly pan across dusty and creepy artifacts upon a dresser - yellowed photographs, a smiling doll. CROSS-DISSOLVE TO: INT. SMYTHE HOUSE DOWNSTAIRS ROOM - NIGHT We pan down the staircase, thunder and music still at it. CROSS-DISSOLVE TO: An end table. We pan across a magazine open to an advertisement for a dating service. Then we see an open CD case labeled "Creepy Atmospherics," and then across a CD player. A hand comes into frame, and hits stop on the CD player. The sound effects cease, and we are plunged into silence. A woman lounges across the couch, staring up at the ceiling, evidently bored out of her skull. Suddenly, she sits up, tensely, looking around, breathing hard. ANNE'S P.O.V. - THE DARKENED ROOM looks ominous, empty, and silent. Anne breathes hard, and then slowly gets up, looking around her as if she's seen a ghost. She walks nervously across the room and into - INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT Here, Anne runs her fingers along the refrigerator door, onto which she has placed a flyer with a magnet. The flyer is bright yellow, and before she rips it off, we are given a moment to read it: "Jack Hunter - Ghost Termination and There is a picture of Jack Hunter himself, handsome, smiling broadly, thumbs up. VERY broadly. CUT TO: INT. JACK'S CAR - NIGHT CLOSE ON: FLYER in the back seat, the same flyer from the fridge. There is a large stack of them. They are illuminated only in passing as lights from outside the car window shine on it. There is loud, grating rock music of some kind playing. We pan across his CD collection, which is open to a CD labeled "Depressing Heavy Metal Songs for the Terminally Unhappy." Jack Hunter is driving. He is wearing sunglasses, even though it is night, and trying to look as cool as possible for nobody in particular. JACK He reaches down and hits a button the radio, and the music changes to a historic Ace of Base song. He sings along happily and loudly for a few moments, drumming the steering wheel and getting into it, when suddenly he notices something and brakes hard, squealing. A tense moment, as he recollects himself, turns the music off, and looks tentatively over the dashboard, then outside his side window. He rolls it down, and yells out to someone unseen: JACK He tries to catch his breath and wipes his brow, and sheepishly removes his sunglasses. But before he can turn the ignition, his cell phone rings. The tune is the opening theme to Ghostbusters, naturally. He picks it up. JACK He writes the address on his hand. JACK He hangs up, and we hear a RIFLE SHOT in the background. He starts the car and starts backing out. JACK EXT. SMYTHE HOUSE - NIGHT (ESTABLISHING) It is dark and windy. Thunder rumbles softly in the distance. Creepy music plays. SUBTITLE - YE OLDE SMYTHE HOUSE, THAT SAME NIGHT Jack's car pulls into frame and parks. Jacks get out of the car, muttering. He carries a large duffel bag of equipment. JACK He goes up to the front door and rings the doorbell, still muttering to himself, putting on his sunglasses for some reason. JACK The door suddenly opens and Jack instantly changes demeanor to I'm-too-cool-for-you. JACK ANNE JACK'S P.O.V. - A SUNGLASSES-INDUCED BLUR He removes the sunglasses to see beautiful, young Anne in the doorway. JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK Jack enters through the door, and we follow them to: INT. SMYTHE HOUSE DOWNSTAIRS ROOM - NIGHT Jack studies the room as he enters. He sniffs, fingers the dust on the wall. Anne blathers about, pushing the dating service magazines off the table in a basket. ANNE JACK ANNE She offers him an impressively ornate tray of cheese cubes. JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK They sit down and Jack takes out a clipboard and begins to take notes. He takes out a large stopwatch and presses a button on it. The numbers begin to tick. ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK CLOSE ON: CLIPBOARD with "Complete Ditz" written across the entire page in big, red letters. ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE While she babbles, Jack stealthily eats a cheese cube. JACK ANNE JACK ANNE Jack pulls two featherdusters out of his bag. JACK INT. UPSTAIRS ROOM - NIGHT Jack and Anne dust the furniture in the upstairs room - great clouds of it. ANNE JACK ANNE JACK Anne sighs exasperatedly and continues to dust. ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE They dust in silence for a while, when Jack suddenly speaks up. JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK Anne pouts and begins to dust. She dusts over yellowed pictures of her and her father, smiling. Creepy but sad music begins to play. She stops for a moment and admires them, when she hears a strange electronic sound behind her. She turns to see Jack with a strange device in his hand (a guitar tuner for all I care). ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK When, of course, BOOM! The lights go off and hideous laughter reverberates through the house. Anne and Jack look around tensely. JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE Below, we hear a CRASH and more hideous laughter. JACK They take off... INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT ANGLE ON - THE DOOR, UP FROM THE FLOOR The kitchen is an extreme mess. We see empty bottles of cleaners all around, the refrigerator door swinging open. Jack and Anne rush in, and stare agape at the carnage. ANNE JACK He rushes off. Anne carefully approaches the mess. We still do not see the floor. ANNE Jack rushes back in, frantic. JACK ANNE And we all look to see that a message has been scrawled in red across the kitchen floor: "No Cheese For You!" ANNE JACK Jack leans down and puts his finger cautiously into the red of the message. He sniffs it. ANNE JACK ANNE JACK He licks his finger. ANNE JACK ANNE Jack stands up, all business. JACK ANNE JACK They head out to... INT. DOWNSTAIRS ROOM - NIGHT Jack and Anne go to open the door but find it locked tight. JACK Anne tries a window. ANNE JACK ANNE She leaves. Jack studies the door for a moment, stroking his chin pensively, and then turns away. As soon as he does, the door creaks open behind him. He turns around, and the door slams shut. He looks quizzically at it for a moment, before turning around again and watching the same thing happen again. JACK He turns around again, smiling, and the door opens again of its own volition. Humming innocently, he slowly backs towards the door. As soon as he reaches it, he turns around and makes a break for it, but the door is too fast for him, and slams shut on his fingers. He screams. JACK PRE-LAP TO: INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT Anne hears the scream, and looks back, frightened. ANNE JACK(o/c) ANNE She steels herself and grabs the doorknob to the kitchen exit. She twists it. Locked. She frantically struggles with it. No dice. After a good while she sinks to the floor, still gripping the doorknob, completely exasperated and frightened out of her wits. Just then, she feels something dripping on her head. She touches with her hand, and sees that it is red. She looks up. ANNE'S P.O.V. - UP THE KITCHEN DOOR We see the words scrawled viciously "No Escape For You!" Anne's eyes widen and she scrambles to her feet. INT. DOWNSTAIRS ROOM - NIGHT Anne runs into the room frantic. ANNE She stops and realizes... Jack's not there! ANNE She looks around. Everything is silent and empty. ANNE She goes to the window and looks out across the front lawn to the car. It's still there. She tries the door one more time almost absently, and it is still locked. She looks up the stairs into the cavernous darkness, and slowly begins to ascend them. INT. UPSTAIRS HALL - NIGHT Anne walks slowly along the dark, creepy hallway. She takes her time, looking around her nervously, when she turns, and ducks into the bathroom. INT. BATHROOM - NIGHT The bathroom is completely dark. We hear the noises she makes as she enters the room, and fumbles with the light switch, which does not work. Then, we hear a match strike, and we see Anne light a candle in the bathroom mirror. She holds it up and inhales from it deeply... it's scented, you see. As she inhales, she begins some kind of yoga breathing exercise, when, naturally, the candle is blown out by nothing, and the room plunged into darkness. ANNE She strikes another match and lights the candle again, and again, it is blown out. ANNE She strikes it again, and this time holds her hands all around the candle to prevent it from being blown out. ANGLE ON - THE SHOWER HEAD turning of its own volition to face Anne. ANGLE ON - THE COLD WATER KNOB twisting of its own volition... Anne shrieks as the she blasted with cold water (also putting the candle out). INT. UPSTAIRS HALLWAY - NIGHT Anne bursts into the hallway, dripping wet, frantic. ANNE She runs down the hallway and into an - INT. UPSTAIRS BEDROOM - NIGHT Still wet, she closes the door behind her and looks around. The room appears to be empty, although it is too dark to see everything clearly. ANNE She moves cautiously away from the door, looking around to see if maybe Jack is in there somewhere. CLOSE ON - HER NECK as a piece of rope wraps itself around it, and pulls Anne out of frame as she struggles. INT. CLOSET - NIGHT Jack is in the closet now, huddled down, rocking back and forth, evidently scared out of his mind. He has a super soaker in his hands, cradling it and looking up as if expecting something to come in at him. He hears a scuffle overhead, loud thumping. And then, extremely creepy disembodied laughter. JACK INT. DOWNSTAIRS ROOM - NIGHT Jack opens the closet door cautiously and peeks out. The room is dark and empty (naturally). JACK He moves towards the stairs, but then notices the front door and stops. He approaches it, reaches out and tries the doorknob one last time, and the door opens. He stares out at the car in the road, sitting there waiting for him to escape. He starts to move out, but then looks back up the staircase, and realizes that HE DOES NOT WANT TO LEAVE. So he turns and runs up the stairs... INT. HALLWAY - NIGHT Jack runs past. INT. UPSTAIRS ROOM - NIGHT ANGLE ON - Jack entering the room, through the hanging, swinging feet of Anne. A creepy voice whispers - "Close your eyes and make a wish." On a poster beside the door, the words "No girl for you!" are inscribed in dripping red. Jack stops, staggered, mouth open, and turns and leaves the room. We stay on the swinging feet for a little while longer as we hear Jack clomp down the hallway outside. INT. DOWNSTAIRS ROOM - NIGHT Jack runs down the stairs towards the front door, which closes of its own volition and locks before he can reach it. He grabs the doorknob and shakes it furiously, but then sinks down, despairing. He suddenly stands up and starts addressing the ghost: JACK From the distance, we hear a loud thump. Jack notices this. JACK Another thump. This registers with Jack, and he comes up with an idea. JACK THUMP. JACK THUMP THUMP. JACK THUMP THUMP. JACK THUMP. JACK THUMP THUMP. JACK THUMP. JACK A dramatic pause before a loud, crashing THUMP. The room shakes and books fall over, junk like that. Jack staggers, and then, seems to notice something in the mirror on the wall. JACK'S P.O.V. - his image in the mirror smiles back at him, wickedly and evilly. But Jack is not smiling. JACK The mirror only keeps smiling. JACK The mirror suddenly speaks, whispering in the voice of a freaky five-year old child. MIRROR JACK JACK MIRROR JACK JACK MIRROR JACK Jack, creeped out, suddenly whips out his super soaker and blasts the mirror with Clorox. JACK The smiling Jack doesn't appear phased. But for a SPLIT SECOND we see the face of Mirror Jack transformed into something suitably hideous and bloody, I'm thinking like a dangling eyeball or something with blood smeared all over the mirror. Jack gasps and backs away from the mirror, but when he looks at it again, it is just his reflection looking normal. JACK He looks around at the room, and then at the door, which opens up for him one last time. A hand suddenly reaches out and taps him on the shoulder. Jack whirls around to see Anne behind him. He jumps, hugs her. JACK ANNE JACK ANNE Jack looks at the door, and it closes again. ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE She suddenly kisses him. JACK ANNE She kisses him again, and while they kiss, the room starts to shake again. A violent wind picks up. Magazines blow around, lamps start to flash on and off, random things set on fire. Jack wraps his arms around her to protect her. After a short moment, everything dies down a bit, and they look around them. ANNE Jack sees himself in the mirror with that same freaky smile. JACK EXT. SMYTHE HOUSE - NIGHT We hear violent noises inside the house, wind, thunder, and then, it all stops, and the lights flicker on, and the door opens. INT. DOWNSTAIRS ROOM - NIGHT Jack looks up from Anne again. The ghost seems to be gone. ANNE Jack looks at the mirror again. It is normal. JACK They kiss again. EXT. SMYTHE HOUSE - NIGHT Jack steps out of the house with his bag and everything collected. Anne watches him from the door. ANNE JACK ANNE JACK ANNE JACK Anne smiles. Jack smiles back, and hands her a sheet of paper. ANNE JACK ANNE JACK He takes it back from her, and turns and begins to walk back to the car. JACK ANNE Jack stops for a moment, smiles, and then puts his sunglasses on as he walks off. Then, he runs into a tree. END OF MOVIE |
This screenplay was written by Chris Guin while a sophomore at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas to be used for the class project of an interactive media major that ultimately never happened.