ParaNorman Page #16

JUDGE HOPKINS:

Do you have anything to say for

yourself?

AGGIE:

I was only playing!

JUDGE HOPKINS:

Aye, with fire! You were speaking

with the dead!

The crowd GASPS and MURMURS fearfully.

JUDGE HOPKINS (CONT'D)

I’ll not risk damnation on these

good people.

The town Sheriff grabs Aggie by the shoulder.

ParaNorman 73.

126 CONTINUED:
(2) 126

JUDGE HOPKINS (CONT'D)

You are to be taken to the place

of execution where you will be

hanged by the neck until you be

dead...

Norman shouts out but no one can hear or see him.

NORMAN:

Wait! No! You can’t do this!

The grim-faced Sheriff moves toward Norman and Aggie. She

backs away, tears flowing down her face.

AGGIE:

I didn’t do anything wrong!

A terrible panic comes over her face.

AGGIE (CONT'D)

Stop! Leave me alone or I’ll make

you sorry! I’ll make all of you

sorry!

Norman feels unsteady on his feet, the room seeming to

spin around him. The faces of the townsfolk, pale and

skull-like, swirl around and around, blurring together.

In the center of it all, glowing like a bonfire, Aggie

SCREAMS.

The world turns black and Norman collapses in a faint.

127 INT. TOWN HALL ARCHIVES - CONTINUOUS 127

NORMAN’S P.O.V. - the high timbers of the hall roof swim

into focus, and then faces peering down at him. Skeletal,

rotting faces. The dead Puritans are standing around him

in a half-circle. He sits up terrified, and looks around,

shuffling back across the floorboards on his bottom. The

dead villagers stand where they are, staring intently.

Norman sits a moment, heart pounding, WHISPERING SHAKILY.

NORMAN:

How could you?! She was just a

little kid! She was no different

than me!

The Dead Judge takes a step forward.

NORMAN (CONT’D)

Keep away from me!

The Dead Judge stops, then opens his horrible mouth and

speaks in a guttural voice.

ParaNorman 74.

127 CONTINUED:
127

DEAD JUDGE:

You... must... stop... the...

curse.

A beat. Norman is stunned.

NORMAN:

What? You don’t want to kill me?

The Judge shakes his head and points down at the book

beside Norman’s feet.

DEAD JUDGE:

You can speak to the dead. To us.

To her. We need you to read from

the book to send us all back to

the grave.

NORMAN:

But it didn’t work! It’s a fairy

tale! Just a bedtime... story...

He narrows his eyes at the Judge.

NORMAN (CONT’D)

That’s it, isn’t it? A bedtime

story to keep a little girl asleep

for another year. And now you need

my help because I’m the only one

who can read it to her!

He bends down to pick it up. His eyes flash angrily at

the zombies and he hurls the burnt book at the Judge. It

hits him in the chest and falls to his feet with a THUD.

NORMAN (CONT’D)

Here’s your book! Try reading it

yourself!

The zombies stare down at the blackened lump of charred

paper, and several of them GASP. The Dead Judge’s eyes

are filled with fear and desperation.

NORMAN (CONT’D)

Why did you do it?

DEAD JUDGE:

We were scared.

NORMAN:

Of what?

DEAD JUDGE:

Of her.

(gestures behind)

I believed we were doing what was

right. I was wrong. Now this is

our punishment.

(MORE)

ParaNorman 75.

127 CONTINUED:
(2) 127

DEAD JUDGE (CONT'D)

We thought we knew our way in life

but in death we are lost.

Norman knows they’re telling the truth.

DEAD JUDGE (CONT’D)

Please help us.

Norman looks at the book of fairy tales, lying at his

feet. Its pages are curled and blackened, embers still

glowing around the hole blown right through it.

NORMAN:

Every year someone reads the story

at her grave. Before me it was Mr

Prenderghast, and before him there

were others, but the curse doesn’t

ever go away. Nothing gets better.

It’s not enough.

Norman looks at it a moment, thinking. He knows what he

has to do.

DEAD JUDGE:

What will you do?

NORMAN:

Something nobody ever did before.

I’ve gotta go talk to her.

128 INT. TOWN HALL - CONTINUOUS 128

Smeared with soot and COUGHING, the kids are trapped in

the lobby. They cower together as burning wood CREAKS and

CRACKS all around them. The air is grey and caustic and

filled with flakes of charcoal and burning ash.

A burning timber GROANS as it splits from the ceiling and

tumbles toward the children. They SCREAM and scatter as

it hits the floorboards in a shower of glowing sparks.

Mitch shouts out from beside a heavy wooden counter top.

MITCH:

Guys! Guys! Under here! Under

here!

The kids scramble beneath the shelter of the counter as

more glowing embers rain down around them.

Courtney grabs Mitch by the bicep and whispers weakly.

COURTNEY:

Mitch, if we die tonight, this

might be the last chance I get to

tell you how I feel.

ParaNorman 76.

128 CONTINUED:
128

MITCH:

Uh, well, no. Unless we get

brought back as zombies, and then

technically you’ll have longer.

Courtney opens her mouth to continue, but her love train

is thoroughly derailed by the nearby CRASH of breaking

wood, and the archive door beside them CLATTERS to the

ground.

The cowering kids all watch in silent horror as several

dark figures limp and shamble out of the smoke and make

their way past them across the room. It’s the zombies,

and they’re being led by Norman.

COURTNEY:

Norman?

NORMAN:

Come on! This way!

COURTNEY:

You’ve gotta be kidding me...

Norman, his mouth shielded by his sleeve, heads

purposefully toward the front doors.

131 EXT. TOWN HALL - MOMENTS LATER 131

A loud THUD from within the Town Hall causes the gathered

crowd outside to GASP, and those closest to the doors to

take a few steps back.

The crowd GASPS again as the charred front door of the

Town Hall is wrenched off its hinges by a huge piece of

timber and CRASHES down the steps in a shower of flaming

splinters.

A ripple of shock runs through the crowd as a number of

skeletal figures emerge, SPLUTTERING and WHEEZING through

the smoke, shielding their faces from the heat.

The gathered crowd are even more aghast when they realize

a child is being guided out of the flames by the zombies.

Unseen by the crowd, Courtney and the other kids crawl to

the splintered opening of the front door, blinking and

COUGHING for air.

Hooper pulls out her gun and marches toward the zombies.

SHERIFF HOOPER:

You stay right where you are! You

may be dead already, but I will

still shoot you!

ParaNorman 77.

131 CONTINUED:
131

The zombies stop on the steps, burning building behind

them and the hostile townsfolk in front of them. Norman

pushes through and stands firmly in the way of Hooper’s

gun, arms spread defensively.

NORMAN:

Wait!

Courtney and the other kids GASP as they watch from

within the doorway.

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