A Monster Calls Page #11

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He takes off his coat, but ends up fighting with the sleeve.

He stands, getting frustrated, eventually throwing the coat

to the floor. He stands there, breathing, on the verge of

letting all his bottled up anger go.

Almost absentmindedly, he kicks his rucksack (set against the

settee). It spills open, dumping his sketchpad, which opens

at a drawing of the swallowing hole and the face looking

back. Enraged, he tears the picture out and rips it in two,

throwing the pieces into the sitting room.

He’s still angry, and it’s growing, not abating. It feels

strangely good. He flexes his fists, anger still fizzing.

Suddenly, BONG! BONG! The precious CLOCK starts striking the

9 o’clock hour.

Conor approaches it. It chimes away, the pendulum swinging.

Still edgy, Conor grabs it mid-swing. The bongs continue, but

the clock makes a groaning sound.

Holding the pendulum in place, Conor starts pushing the dials

of the clock around. They resist at first, but he pushes them

harder and faster, until they’re spinning around the face.

The BONGs groan alarmingly as he passes each hour, but he

keeps going, faster and faster, until-

SNAP! The second hand breaks in two in his grip.

Oh, no. Conor comes to his senses, realises what he’s done.

The clock is broken, really broken, frozen in place.

He’s doomed, and so horrified he doesn’t register that the

now non-moving hands have stopped at 12.07.

MonSTER (o.S.)

As destruction goes, this is

remarkably pitiful.

Conor turns and sees that somehow, impossibly, the Monster is

in his Grandma’s sitting room. It fills up all available

space, folding its massive form into every corner, its head

bumping the ceiling.

Conor looks back at the clock, frantic now.

MoNSTER (CONT’D)

Now, I have come to tell you the

second tale.

Conor makes an exasperated sound. He’s got bigger things to

worry about.

129.

ConOR

Is it as bad as the last one?

MONSTER:

It ends in proper destruction, if

that’s what you mean.

This has Conor’s attention, somewhat, but he shakes his head.

ConOR

No, I can’t, I-

MonSTER

It’s about a man who thought only

of himself. A man who wasn’t

generous like he should have been.

The Monster leans forward.

MonSTER (CONT’D)

A man who gets punished very badly

indeed.

ConOR

(intrigued, skeptical)

Stories aren’t real, though. They

don’t help anything.

MonSTER

Stories are wild creatures, Conor

O’Malley. When you let them loose,

who knows what havoc they might

wreak?

Another beat, until:

ConOR

I’m listening.

MoNSTER

Good.

The Monster’s branches surround Conor again, leaves covering

his eyes and we’re

130.

78 ExT. Second Tale landscape - daY - continuous 78

...flying over far more colourful landscape than before, but

this time it’s GREEN and VERDANT and more realistic, like an

oil painting.

MonSTER (v.O.)

One hundred and fifty years ago the

world was becoming industrialized.

The green ends as we plunge through the trees into “industry”

on the valley floor: black factories belching smoke and

fumes, scraggly silhouettes of crows and trodden-down

workers, fish jumping in polluted rivers.

Monster (v.O.)

But there was still green, if you

knew where to look.

We come out the other side to a surprisingly quiet GREEN

HILLSIDE. We turn and see that Conor and the Monster are now

standing in the landscape, their figures realistic, not

stylised, as the Monster draws Conor’s attention to:

ANGLE ON:
The APOTHECARY, walking up the hillside. A more

realistic figure than the first tale, but still stylized.

Monster (V.O.)

His name is not important. The

villagers only ever called him The

Apothecary.

Conor (V.O.)

The what?

MONSTER (V.O.)

The Apothecary.

CONOR (V.O.)

The what?

MonSTER (v.O.)

An old-fashioned named for

pharmacist or chemist.

CONOR (v.O.)

Oh. Why didn’t you just say?

The Apothecary digs up roots and picks leaves and herbs.

MONSTER (v.O.)

The Apothecary dealt in the old

ways of medicine. Herbs and roots.

Concoctions brewed from berries and

leaves.

131.

CONOR (v.O.)

Dad’s new wife does that. She owns

a shop that sells crystals.

MONSTER (V.O.)

It is not remotely the same.

The Apothecary reaches the edge of a wood and sees it

drastically cut back for the industry below.

MonSTER (v.O.)

The Apothecary had dedicated his

life to healing. But the world was

changing. He grew resentful and

unforgiving.

132.

79 ExT. second tale village - day - conTINUOUS 79

The Apothecary peddles his wares to various villagers. We get

a sense of bad-tempers and bitterness.

MONSTER (v.O.)

People in the valley stopped

seeking him out, preferring modern

medicine. Which only made him more

bitter.

The Apothecary, doors slamming against him, slouches off

alone. We pull back across the valley to...

133.

80 EXT. second tale HILLTOP fringe - DAY - conTINUOUS 80

...the same hilltop as behind Conor’s house, but this time

there is a parsonage beside the yew tree, and the beginnings

of a church being built. Conor and the Monster stand off to

one side, in the landscape again.

MonSTER

In the Apothecary’s village, there

also lived a parson-

ConOR

This is the hill where you live.

(on the 2nd yew tree)

That’s you.

MONSTER:

Yes. On the parsonage grounds there

also grew a yew tree.

Two small figures run out playfully from the parsonage,

chasing each other, running up a path away from us towards

the yew tree in the graveyard.

MONSTER (CONT’D)

The parson had two daughters, who

were the light of his life.

CONOR:

I’ll bet he had room for them in

his house...

We move forward and CLOSE ON:

134.

81 ExT. secOND TALE HILLTOP - DAY - conTINUOUS 81

The Apothecary, watching the yew tree intently.

Monster (V.O.)

Now, the Apothecary wanted the

parson’s yew tree very badly.

Conor (v.O.)

He did? Why?

Monster (v.O.)

(surprised)

The yew tree is the most important

of all the healing trees. Its

berries, its bark, they burn and

twist with life. It can cure almost

any ailment, if mixed by the right

apothecary, of course.

ConOR (v.O.)

(thinking)

Really?

The Apothecary looks enviously at the tree.

MonSTEr (V.O.)

In order to use the tree, though,

the Apothecary would have to cut it

down, and this the Parson would not

allow.

The PARSON comes out warningly; the Apothecary leaves.

MONSTER (V.O.)

The Parson was not an unkind man.

He wanted the best for his

congregation, wanted to take them

out of the dark ages of

superstition and witchery.

We zoom in on the Parson figure and he’s suddenly...

135.

82 InT. second tale pulpit - daY - conTINUOUS 82

...preaching to his congregation.

MonSTER (V.O.)

He preached against the

Apothecary’s use of the old ways,

and the Apothecary’s foul temper

and greed made certain those

sermons fell on eager ears.

We pull out from the pulpit, through a celebratory

congregation, out of the CHURCH to...

136.

83

ExT. second tale countryside - day - continuous 83

...The Apothecary slinking away. We keep pulling back to:

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