ParaNorman Page #17

SANDRA BABCOCK:

Oh my gosh!

Far above, the clouds THUNDER like demonic laughter.

Perry steps forward, face red.

PERRY BABCOCK:

Son! Step away from the zombies!

NORMAN:

No! I won’t!

Sandra comes up behind her husband and holds his arm.

SANDRA BABCOCK:

Perry, calm down! You’re going to

have a heart attack and then what

are you going to do?

PERRY BABCOCK:

I’ll come back and haunt Norman!

Maybe then he’ll start listening

to me!

NORMAN:

No! You don’t understand what’s

happening here! I spoke to them

and it’s not what you think!

Courtney edges forward out of the doorway, shocked but

transfixed.

NORMAN (CONT’D)

The curse isn’t about the zombies

hurting you! It’s about you

hurting them! I figured it out,

and I know a way to stop this!

MRS HENSCHER:

He’s in league with them!

A few members of the crowd try to push past Perry toward

the steps.

DEPUTY DWAYNE:

Let’s hang him!

ParaNorman 78.

131 CONTINUED:
(2) 131

GUCCI LADY:

No! We can’t hang him, stupid!

It’s the 21st Century!

DEPUTY DWAYNE:

Then let’s burn him!

Sandra turns despairingly to the crowd behind her.

SANDRA BABCOCK:

Can you stop being a mob for just

one minute?!

NORMAN:

Listen to me!

CRYSTAL:

Get them before they eat us!

Punctuating every shout, the roiling clouds continue to

RUMBLE their horrible laughter.

COURTNEY:

Leave him alone!

Courtney suddenly emerges, standing right in front of

Norman. Following her lead in true “I’m Spartacus!”

fashion, Neil, Mitch and Alvin step forward too, creating

a barrier all around him, all joining hands in

solidarity.

CLOSE ON Courtney’s face as she hisses sidelong to Alvin.

COURTNEY (CONT'D)

Hand, Alvin! My hand!

A ripple of confusion seems to run through the crowd.

COURTNEY (CONT’D)

Everybody, listen up! You all need

to stop trying to kill my brother!

You’re adults! Stop it! I know

that this seems crazy, believe me

I’m with you on that, but I think

he does actually know what he’s

talking about!

NEIL:

All night he’s been trying to save

you from the witch’s curse!

MITCH:

Yeah, and all you want to do is

burn and murder stuff, burn and

murder stuff! Just burning and

murdering!

ParaNorman 79.

131 CONTINUED:
(3) 131

ALVIN:

Shame on every single one of you!

How dare you all!

Amongst the crowd, doubt is beginning to show. Even the

rumbling clouds have gone quiet.

CRYSTAL:

So they’re not going to hurt us?

NORMAN:

No, does it look like any of them

are trying to hurt you? They’re

just people. At least they used to

be. Just stupid people who should

have known better.

Norman looks at the line of Puritans. They look quite sad

and pathetic really. Hardly monstrous at all.

NORMAN (CONT’D)

They did something unforgivable

because they were scared, and they

were cursed for it. Now it’s

happening all over again. Don’t

you get it? They were just like

you. But now it has to stop. For

good.

Across the crowd, weapons are being lowered and faces are

starting to look a little guilty.

There is silence as the modern townsfolk stare at the

line of three hundred year-old townsfolk. Throughout the

crowd various weapons CLATTER as they hit the ground.

A small girl tiptoes up the steps and silently offers one

of the zombies his arm back.

The quiet is shattered by a deafening SCREAM. It blows

out of the storm clouds and whips through the plaza on a

hellish wind. The street lamps around the square shatter

in bursts of sparks, raining down on the amassed people.

The sky above is blood red, clouds twisting and

contorting into a vast unnatural vortex.

The Town Hall erupts in a fireball, tongues of white fire

ROARING out of the embers as the ground shakes and the

crowd scatters in terror.

Neil turns to Norman as they duck for cover behind a

parked car, and SHOUTS over the noise of the wind.

NEIL:

Jeez, what is her problem?

Norman takes in the chaos around them...

ParaNorman 80.

131 CONTINUED:
(4) 131

-An arc of white lightning hits the base of the witch’s

statue with a CRACK. With a terrible GROAN, the statue is

lifted up into the air by the supernatural wind. It

CRASHES down at the foot of the Town Hall steps,

shattering into a hundred pieces of rubble.

-Windows blow out of tacky tourist stores, their cheap

front displays ripped apart by the wind.

-A bolt of lightning tears through the huge billboard in

the plaza, ripping apart the idealized image of the

town’s history in a spiral of splintered wood.

Norman struggles over to where a group of townsfolk and

zombies cower from the destruction. Sandra runs over to

her son and hugs him.

SANDRA BABCOCK:

Oh, Norman!

NEIL:

So what do we do now?

NORMAN:

I... I really don’t know...

COURTNEY:

Yes you do, Norman! You’ve got to

get to that witch’s grave!

NORMAN:

But...

COURTNEY:

But nothing! You listen to me,

buster, we didn’t turn away when

Daleridge High was slaughtering

our volleyball team, did we?

NORMAN:

I thought we did.

COURTNEY:

No we didn’t. I’ve cheered the

uncheerable, Norman, and I’m not

letting you give up now!

Norman turns to Perry, his eyes all business.

NORMAN:

Dad, could I borrow the car?

PERRY BABCOCK:

Excuse me?

ParaNorman 81.

131 CONTINUED:
(5) 131

Norman looks squarely at his dad, and the Dead Judge

beside him. They exchange uneasy glances.

CUT TO:

132 INT. STATION WAGON - CONTINUOUS 132

The Dead Judge sits rigidly between Norman and Courtney

in the back of Perry’s station wagon, Perry and Sandra in

the front.

Perry drives in silent discomfort following the Judge’s

instructions through town, glancing in his rear-view

mirror at the passengers in the back seat.

Sandra takes a small perfume spritzer from her purse as

surreptitiously as she can and sprays the air around her.

135 EXT. SUBURBAN STREETS - CONTINUOUS 135

The car turns a corner into the path of an overturned

truck, caught by the spectral wind. It cartwheels down

the middle of the street, tearing up the asphalt.

I/E. STATION WAGON - CONTINUOUS

Perry swerves out of its path of destruction.

Inside, Sandra cranes her neck around to watch the truck

CRASH down the road behind them. She faces front again.

SANDRA BABCOCK:

Boy, the traffic tonight!

COURTNEY:

Norman! He’s on my side of the

seat!

NORMAN:

She wants you to move over.

The Judge MUMBLES.

COURTNEY:

I heard that! Mom! Tell the zombie

to stop saying stuff about me!

NORMAN:

Can you quit using the “z” word?

PERRY BABCOCK:

So help me I will stop this car

right now if all three of you

don’t quit it this instant!

ParaNorman 82.

CONTINUED:

After a moment, the Judge lets out a sepulchral MOAN.

NORMAN:

He says “take a left here”.

Perry gives a distasteful look, but turns the steering

wheel. He peers out through the raging storm, windscreen

wiper batting ineffectively at the onslaught of debris.

PERRY BABCOCK:

We’ve already been this way. We’re

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes