Sacrifice Page #2

Synopsis: Sacrifice is the story of consultant surgeon, Tora Hamilton, who moves with her husband, Duncan, to the remote Shetland Islands, 100 miles off the north-east coast of Scotland. Deep in the peat soil around her new home, Tora discovers the body of a young woman with rune marks carved into her skin and a gaping hole where her heart once beat. Ignoring warnings to leave well alone, Tora uncovers terrifying links to a legend that might never have been confined to the pages of the story-books.
 
IMDB:
5.3
Metacritic:
23
Rotten Tomatoes:
33%
NOT RATED
Year:
2016
91 min
225 Views


and that she died

of a massive hemorrhage

when her heart was cut out.

- Why take the heart?

- Maybe someone was

trying to harvest her organs.

- This was no harvest.

Pulmonary trunk and semi aorta

were both

quite badly hacked out.

Also, there's trauma

on the wrist

the upper arm and the ankle.

Probably from

some kind of restraints.

- So, she was probably still

alive when they did this to her?

- Jesus!

- Oh, these islands were rife

with this sort of thing

way back when the druids,

the Norsemen..

They all performed

ritual sacrifices.

- Do you think she's that old?

I mean, she looks so...

- preserved?

Well, she's a bog body.

Buried in peat.

After death..

...putrefactive bacteria

secretes digestive enzymes

which decompose the body, but..

...sphagnum moss in the peat

chemically reacts with the

enzymes and immobilizes them.

- If you have to guess?

- I found..

...these strawberry seeds

in her stomach.

Wild strawberries haven't grown

around these parts

in over 200 years.

- 200 years that..

...hardly seems possible.

- Google Tollund man.

Dug up some time in the '50s.

He was in such good condition

that the Danish thought

that he was some recent murder.

Turns out he was from

the 4th century BC.

- Ah!

- Hey. What are you doing?

- Oh, I..

All this wood's rotten

I've got to throw it all out.

- What happened?

- Builder in the village said

there was a-a flood

a couple of years ago, some

big storm and the whole area

was underwater for three days.

Seriously, I thought this place

would be a nice 12-month flip.

- Need a hand?

- You with a hammer?

No. Can you get me some pizza?

- Thought you were

off the slices.

- Yeah, well..

- Hey..

...when did you say

this happened?

- Uh... Early 2012.

- Are you sure?

- That's what he said. Why?

Tora!

- Already did a thorough

autopsy, Dr. Hamilton.

- What's going on?

- If the peat bog floods, its

preserving abilities become diluted.

Just take a look at the dates.

- So, if Jane Doe was in

the ground before the storm

her body would be in much poorer

condition than it is.

- The case is closed,

Dr. Hamilton.

- Okay, well, what if I'm right?

What if she was murdered

less than three years ago?

- You're not!

- Okay, so you're

going to turn your back

on a sacrificial murder?

- Now, you listen to me,

and you listen to me good.

Sacrificial, satanic,

ritualistic.

They're all words

I don't want to hear.

- If you want someone dead

you slit their throat or you put

a pillow over their head.

Maybe you blow their brains out

with a shotgun

but you do not do what was done

to that poor girl

and I don't care

what you call it.

- What are you doing

still standing there?

- Well, what do you

expect him to say?

He's just trying to keep a lid

on things.

Tora, you've got to let it go.

- There is one question

nobody's asking.

- What's that?

- What happened to the baby?

- Tora..

- So when did you find it?

- This morning.

But I'm pretty sure I haven't

worn those boots since that day.

- "Z.M. And J.H."

- Zoe McClaskey and Joss Hawick.

- Councilor Hawick?

You must be mistaken.

- Well, I checked

the island records.

You know how many women

whose names begin with z

have been married on this island

in the past 50 years?

- No.

- 3.

How many Z.M.s?

1. Plus there's a child

and his age fits.

- Okay, I'll look into it.

- That's all I ask.

- Hey.

How are you feeling?

- Oh!

I'm fine.

- That was a terrible thing,

you finding that body.

You're tense as hell.

- Yeah.

Duncan.

- Guthrie!

I was wondering

when you were going

to show your face around here.

- Get your hands off my wife.

- Just being friendly.

- What are you doing here?

- Lunch, remember?

- Right.

- So, you know you've got

nothing to worry about

with Ken, I mean..

- No, I know, I know, I just

saw his hands on you, and I..

Hmm..

Hang on.

Yeah, it's me.

- Are you writing

to the Trowey folk?

- Who?

- The grey fellows.

- Are you talking about these?

- Aye.

- What?

You know what these are?

- Trowey marks, sure.

- I'm sorry.

What? What's a Trowey?

- The trows...

- Jimmy!

Leave the good doctor alone,

will you?

- No, no, it's okay. Really.

Can you read these?

- Aye.

- Jimmy!

Away with you.

Sorry about that, doctor.

He'll not bother you again.

- The trows, eh?

Now, why on earth would you be

asking about these old stories?

- Oh, just curiosity.

- You want to be careful.

You know what happened

to the cat.

I'm just joshing.

Are you going to tell me

why this sudden fascination

with our local folklore?

- Well, have you ever seen..

...these?

- These are from the body

you found.

- How do you know that?

- Because Andy Mckie already

asked me to translate them.

What are you doing with them?

- Well, I just..

...can't get them

out of my head.

I wanna know what they mean.

- Well, therein lies the rub.

They're not from

the Norse runic alphabet.

So as far as I can tell,

they don't mean anything.

- I met a guy in a bar.

Um, Jim somebody.

He said he could translate them.

- Jimmy McNally?

- Yeah.

- Well, I shouldn't set

too much store by what he says.

You know we do have a police

force here, you know, Tora.

It may not be much of one,

but, um... It works for us.

- You're looking really good

and I'll be seeing you

in a month.

And you get some rest, okay?

Oh, sergeant Tulloch.

Come in.

- So, how bad is it?

- You're six weeks along.

- Sh*t!

Sorry.

Not the reaction

you usually get, I'm sure.

- Well, it's early days.

You still have options.

- No, I don't.

- I'm going to write you

a prescription

for some pre-natal vitamins.

- I was praying it was stress.

I should be so lucky, right?

Thanks.

- Sergeant.

Is there any news on the case?

- Oh, right, um,

I spoke to councilor Hawick.

He wasn't happy, obviously,

but I showed him the ring.

He denied that

it was his wife's.

Said hers was buried

with her at St. Magnus.

- So, she is dead.

Three years ago.

Some sort of horse riding

accident.

- So, the time of death fits.

If she had the boy

within two weeks of her death...

- she didn't.

Mr. Hawick adopted his son,

as a newborn

about 8 months after Zoe died.

- What about

the initials, though?

She's the only one

on the island that fits.

- Maybe that's the problem.

We get thousands of visitors

here every year.

They trample

all over this island.

Any one of them could be

the z.M. That lost the ring.

Probably there's nothing

to do with our Jane Doe.

- What? So, that's, that's it?

- We have no ID.

The case is closed.

Look, for what it's worth,

I looked through our database

for the last 3 years and

nobody matching Jane Doe's age

or height was reported missing.

- Well, what if she wasn't

reported missing?

- Then I don't know what

database to look through

for that.

Thanks.

- Oh, dear.

- Doctor..

...would you let me

get that for you?

- Oh, would you?

Thank you.

- Yeah?

No, I'm here.

Yeah, hang on.

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Peter A. Dowling

Peter Anthony Dowling is a British screenwriter and film director. He was born in Salford, England, in 1969 and started his career in children's animation in both the UK and Germany, working on cartoons such as The Raggy Dolls, Benjamin Bluemchen and Renada. After winning the Fulbright TEB Clarke Fellowship in Screenwriting 1996/7, judged by William Goldman and paid for by John Cleese, Dowling moved to the United States, briefly attending the University of Southern California, and then sold a spec screenplay to Arnold Kopelson (Platoon, Se7en) and 20th Century Fox. His first produced movie was Flightplan starring Jodie Foster which was commercially successful in the U.S. and grossed over $223,000,000 worldwide. Starting in 2007 he began to direct, and his first film was Stag Night. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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