ParaNorman Page #11

COURTNEY:

Oh, I understand! I understand

that this is all getting

completely out of...

The van’s sunroof is suddenly ripped open, and the Dead

Judge’s arm reaches down into the vehicle, clawing inches

above Courtney’s head.

COURTNEY (CONT’D)

...HAND!

The Dead Judge leans further into the van, MOANING

horribly. He seems to have his sights set on Norman, and

reaches one arm down toward Norman and the book peeking

out of his shoulder bag.

Norman shrinks back as the zombie GROANS horribly.

ParaNorman 50.

71 CONTINUED:
71

Alvin disappears behind the back seat with a WHIMPER, but

Neil valiantly leaps into the fray, wrestling the clawing

fingers away from his friend.

NEIL:

Whaddawedo? Whaddawedo? Mitch?!

MITCH:

I don’t know! I don’t know!

NEIL:

You’re the oldest!

MITCH:

Not mentally!

Mitch hears a SIREN wail out behind him, and looks in his

mirror to see the flashing light of Hooper’s bike.

MITCH (CONT’D)

Oh great. The cops.

Hooper pulls level with the passenger seat window, waving

angrily.

SHERIFF HOOPER:

Pull over the vehicle!

The Dead Judge leans further into the van, Neil hanging

off him like a pendulum.

COURTNEY:

Norman! How do we stop them?!

Norman looks again at the book in his hands.

NORMAN:

I’m supposed to read from the book

at the witch’s grave!

NEIL:

We’ve got to go back to the

graveyard?

NORMAN:

She wasn’t buried with the others.

I don’t know where else to look...

COURTNEY:

Well you better think of something

quick!

Norman wracks his brain.

NEIL:

I have an idea!

ParaNorman 51.

75 INT. SALMA’S BEDROOM - NIGHT 75

Salma sits at her computer in an immaculately tidybedroom. Even her collection of dolls are flawlesslygroomed and sit on a shelf looking like they’re waiting

to be called in for an interview.

Salma talks into her cell phone with an expression ofwithering disdain.

SALMA:

So Norman, let me get thisstraight; you guys all go on thisbig supernatural adventure andyou’re calling me in the middle of

the night because you need someoneto help you do your homework?

INTERCUT KIDS IN THE VAN/SALMA

Norman talks into his cell phone, occasionally ducking asNeil’s flailing limbs are shaken from side to side by the

GROWLING upside down zombie hanging above their heads.

NORMAN:

Uh... yeah.

76 EXT. WOODED ROAD - CONTINUOUS 76

Hooper steers her bike closer and swings her backsideinto the side of the van in an attempt to ram it off theroad.

The van lurches, flipping the Judge up and over the frontof the vehicle, planting his face with a SQUELCH againstthe windscreen.

77 INT. MITCH’S VAN - CONTINUOUS 77

Neil drops back down onto his seat. The Dead Judge’s arm,

torn off at the shoulder, is still clutched in his hands.

He stares down at it, wide-eyed, as it wriggles like ananimal in his grasp.

The Dead Judge slides slowly down the windscreen of thevan with a dull SQUEAK.

COURTNEY:

Mitch, do something!

Mitch flicks on the windscreen wipers, which wipe thezombie’s rotten flesh from side to side across the glass.

Mitch and Courtney’s eyes follow the Judge’s movements

from side to side.

ParaNorman 52.

77 CONTINUED:
77

Behind them, Neil SQUEALS as the dismembered arm crawls

all over him, fingers scuttling like a spider’s legs.

The arm frees itself from Neil and turns on Norman,

leaping at him like a viper.

Norman holds the book up as a shield, and manages to swat

the zombie arm away, flipping it across the front seat,

where it lands on the back of Mitch’s neck.

Mitch SCREAMS as the rotten hand clamps down onto the top

of his head, and madly tries to shake it off. It hangs

onto him grimly, bony fingers hooked around his nostrils.

With Mitch no longer steering, the van swerves crazily

across the road, shaking the Dead Judge off the

windscreen. He disappears under the front of the vehicle,

his one remaining arm clinging onto the underside.

INTERCUT KIDS IN THE VAN/SALMA

Norman shouts pleadingly into the phone as he and Neil

are flung violently from side to side across the back

seat.

NORMAN:

Salma! We need to find out where

the witch is buried! I went to the

old graveyard but her grave wasn’t

there!

SALMA:

Well, duh. People found guilty of

witchcraft weren’t considered

people anymore. Norman, your witch

was buried someplace else... in an

unmarked grave!

(reproachfully)

If you cared to pay attention some

of the time, you would know that

we covered this in fifth grade

history class.

NORMAN:

Salma! Please! Hurry! Y’know, I

would Google this myself if there

wasn’t a 300 year old dead guy

trying to rip my face off!

With a SIGH, Salma types at her computer.

SALMA:

Okay. It says here she was tried

in the old Town Hall on Main

Street. There may be a record of

her execution and burial in their

archives.

ParaNorman 53.

77 CONTINUED:
(2) 77

Norman listens intently then shouts over to Mitch, still

struggling with the zombie hand gripping his face.

NORMAN:

Quick! She said go to the Town

Hall!

79 EXT. WOODED ROAD - CONTINUOUS 79

Mitch hangs a sharp right and accelerates off the road

and into thick undergrowth, sending up showers of twigs

and thorns.

Close on his heels, Hooper swerves her bike around in

pursuit.

80 EXT. SUBURBAN STREETS - NIGHT 80

The six zombies inexorably continue their march, breaking

cover from outlying woodland into the suburban streets of

the town proper.

At the bottom of a long driveway, spotlit by a street

lamp, Mrs Henscher is taking out the trash in her

bathrobe.

She looks up from her garbage as the zombies approach.

Her face is caked in a terrifying green avocado face

mask. Barely a few feet in front of her, a similarly

green face stares back, only this one has been dead for

three hundred years.

Henscher SCREAMS, bolting down the street like a runaway

locomotive.

81 EXT. WOODS, MITCH’S VAN - CONTINUOUS 81

The van ploughs through bracken and bushes at breakneck

speed.

A little way behind, Hooper careens precariously in the

van’s wake.

82 INT. MITCH’S VAN - CONTINUOUS 82

Mitch finally manages to pry the Dead Judge’s arm off his

head. He throws it, thrashing around violently, over his

shoulder.

Alvin lifts his face tentatively over the edge of the

back seat to see what’s going on. The zombie arm plants

him in the eye, sending both sprawling against the floor.

Alvin SQUEALS as the arm snakes around his neck into a

bizarre approximation of a wrestling hold.

ParaNorman 54.

83 EXT. WOODS - CONTINUOUS 83

Mitch swerves his van down the hill toward the more

affluent suburbs of the town. Hooper’s police bike

bounces along behind them, red light flashing and SIRENwailing.

84 INT. STATION WAGON, NEARBY ROAD - CONTINUOUS 84

Perry and Sandra Babcock are driving home from theirevening out. Neither look especially happy.

SANDRA BABCOCK:

I really think it might help ifyou tried to see things from hispoint of view.

PERRY BABCOCK:

I don’t want to.

85 INT. STATION WAGON - CONTINUOUS 85

The Babcocks’ discussion continues as they drive.

SANDRA BABCOCK:

Perry, not believing in theAfterlife is like not believing inAstrology.

PERRY BABCOCK:

I have no idea what you’re talking

about. Seriously, where did youlearn that?

Calm down.

SANDRA BABCOCK:

Perry rolls his eyes and GROANS.

86 EXT. SUBURBAN STREET - CONTINUOUS 86

Mitch’s van explodes out of the thinning woods and back

on to the winding hill road. Hooper careens through thetrees behind it, but fails to make the turn and smashesthrough a fence across the other side of the road into asuburban back yard, splinters of fence showering down inher wake.

Scattering lawn ornaments, plastic garden toys and deckfurniture, Hooper rides directly up a kids’ slide,

shooting high up into the air like a rocket.

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