Silver Bullet Page #6

MARTY (delighted)

I got a straight to the queen!

UNCLE AL:

Bullshit luck!

NAN (outraged)

That's enough!

MARTY (as his mother wheels him away)

Aww, Mom-!

INT. THE STAIRWELL OF THE COSLAW HOME

MARTY is sitting in a stair chair that rises slowly to the

second floor. He looks dejected and glum.

SOUND of NAN hectoring her brother AL. I don't think we can

make out all of what's going on, but we've all known women

like NAN and I think we can fill in the blanks. "Christian

household... you come here drunk and expect... can't even

bother to call ahead..." Etc., etc.

A wheelchair stands on the second-floor landing. This one is

no Silver Bullet, only the more humble sort that moves by

arm power. When the stair chair clicks to a stop, MARTY

hoists himself from it into the wheelchair and rolls down

the hall toward the bathroom.

Below, NAN'S rant is still going on.

INT. THE DEN, WITH NAN AND UNCLE AL NIGHT

UNCLE AL is clearing up in a kind of drunken stupor- and I

mean he is really drunk. He's smoking one cigarette; another

is smoldering away in the heaping ashtray. He drops a pile

of baseball cards on the floor and bonks his head on the

table bending down to pick them up.

NAN:

I don't want you drinking around Marty.

That's too much. If you can't stop it,

you better stay away.

AL straightens up. There is a sort of command force in this

man, and here he is partly able to rise above his abysmal

drunkenness so we can see it.

UNCLE AL:

I come here because Marty needs a friend.

NAN:

Yes... you've always been that to him.

But if you can't leave your booze in

whatever dump you call home, you better

just stay away.

She leaves the room, almost crying. UNCLE AL looks after

her, and then his attention is drawn to the smoldering

ashtray. He pours beer over the mess, putting out the fire

but creating something that looks even worse. He begins

drunkenly picking up again.

UNCLE AL (to himself)

Another wonderful time at Sister Nan's

house! Heeyyy!

INT. THE UPSTAIRS COSLAW BATHROOM

MARTY, now in pj's, is brushing his teeth.

JANE comes in- she's wearing a nightie.

MARTY:

Mom was really mad at him this time,

wasn't she?

JANE:

What do you expect, when he comes in

smelling like a brewery and looking like

an unmade bed?

MARTY:

Stop it!

He lunges at her, but JANE steps back easily. MARTY

overbalances and falls out of the wheelchair. His toothbrush

clatters across the tile.

BOB COSLAW (sleepy voice)

Hey! That you, Marty?

JANE:

He's okay, Dad!

She looks around swiftly, then bends down.

INT. MARTY AND JANE, A MUCH CLOSER SHOT

One of MARTY'S cheeks is pressed against the floor. His eyes

are shut. He's weeping.

JANE (low)

Marty, are you all right?

MARTY:

Yes. Go away.

JANE:

Let me help you up.

NAN (voice)

Marty?

SOUND of her climbing the stairs.

JANE throws a quick look back over her shoulder and then

helps MARTY up in his chair. He helps by pulling on the sink

counter. JANE has time to give MARTY one quick look- "Please

don't tell on me," it says.

NAN comes in.

NAN:

Jane, have you been teasing your

brother again?

MARTY:

She wasn't, Mom- I dropped my toothbrush

and fell over when I tried to get it. Jane

helped pick me up.

He bats his eyes at her.

MARTY (syrupy voice)

Jane's wunnnderful.

JANE picks up his toothbrush.

JANE (hands it to him)

Here. Brush them good, Marty. Some of that

sh*t in your head might leak down into your

mouth and poison you.

NAN:

Jane Coslaw!

But JANE stalks off. MARTY is grinning. It was a good

put-down.

EXT. THE STURMFULLER HOUSE NIGHT

We can see the moon in the sky beyond the ruined greenhouse.

THE CAMERA MOVES SLOWLY TOWARD the greenhouse. We begin to

pick up SOUNDS:
RATTLING...RUSTLING...and low animal GRUNTS.

INT. TAMMY'S BEDROOM NIGHT

She's deeply asleep.

INT. THE LIVING ROOM NIGHT

"Big-time Wrestling" on the TV. SOUND of a refrigerator door

closing. MILT STURMFULLER comes into the living room from

the kitchen. He's wearing his long johns with the designer

pee stains and has a quart bottle of Rheingold the dry beer

in each hand. He sits down, looking at the TV.

MILT (drunk)

Give him the airplane! Wring his neck!

EXT. THE GREENHOUSE NIGHT

More noises. There is a beat of silence, and then something-

one of those earthen plant pots, I think- falls over and

SHATTERS.

INT. THE LIVING ROOM, WITH MILT

He looks up briefly- he's heard something- but the crowd on

the TV is loud and the match is reaching its climax.

MILT (all eyes again)

Give him the sleeper, you f***in bugwit!

EXT. THE GREENHOUSE, CLOSER

A LOW SNARL. Plants shake and shiver. Another crash, LOUDER.

INT. MILT, IN THE LIVING ROOM

Looks toward the window. He gets up, goes over, and looks

out.

EXT. THE GREENHOUSE, MEDIUM-LONG (MILT'S POV)

SOUND of another crash. Plants move.

INT. THE HALL, WITH MILT

He takes a shotgun from the wall, breaks it, and looks

inside.

MILT:

Let's see if you want to come back and

break my pots all to sh*t after I put

some rock salt in your asses!

INT. THE STURMFULLER GREENHOUSE NIGHT

The door at the end SCREECHES OPEN and MILT, still holding

the shotgun at port arms, comes cautiously in. This place is

really overgrown.

MILT advances slowly into the jungle of plants, and the

director will shoot it as he likes to build the suspense.

I'm sure that plants brush his face, and a bug or two- maybe

even a big plump spider- will land on him.

He hears a SCUTTERING SOUND and whirls.

MILT (shouts)

Who's there?

INT. GREENHOUSE FLOOR, MILT'S POV NIGHT

A mouse goes running across the warped boards (which have

pulled apart from each other, showing deep cracks between).

INT. MILT NIGHT

He relaxes and starts forward again. We keep expecting it to

happen, but it keeps not happening.

Then, as MILT is starting back toward the door, two big,

hairy arms come up through the floor- bursting through two

of those cracks and shoving the splintered boards upward-

and grab MILT'S legs at the knees.

SOUNDS:
BESTIAL ROARS.

MILT screams and triggers off the shotgun- unfortunately, it

is pointing straight up. Glass showers down on him. He is

pulled down into the shattered hole- now we can see him only

from the knees up.

INT. TAMMY STURMFULLER'S BEDROOM

She sits up in bed.

SOUNDS of ROARS and MILT SCREAMING from the greenhouse.

MRS. STURMFULLER, in a nightgown with her hair done up in

rollers, comes into Tammy's room.

MRS. STURMFULLER

Tammy, where's your father?

SOUND:
Another SCREAM from the greenhouse.

INT. THE GREENHOUSE, WITH MILT

He's now waist deep in the hole in the floor, surrounded by

broken, splintered boards.

SOUNDS:
RIPPING FLESH, CRUNCHING BONES. MILT SHRIEKS.

He is abruptly jerked downward again. He is being eaten from

the feet up. As he's jerked down, one of the leaning,

splintered boards rams into his chest. MILT collapses over

it like an old Roman collapsing on his sword.

A hairy arm reaches up and grabs his neck. MILT is jerked

all the way into the hole, board and all.

EXT. THE GREENHOUSE, FROM TAMMY'S BEDROOM WINDOW

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes