Welcome to Rainout Theater. Here's an excerpt from a horror screenplay, All Hallows, I wrote some time in the '90's. In part, it's a tribute to the movies and TV shows that entertained me. I imagined the godfather of punk, Iggy Pop, in the role of the Titterer. The rest of the script isn't at all bloody. It concentrates on the capture of the five nuts who perpetrated the mayhem. I thought of it as Revenge of the Townies.
Part One: Nightfall. The outer, fog-shrouded grounds of the Bates-Myers Institute, a sanitarium on the outskirts of Bela, a small town in America. An overweight nurse waddles past the security gate, which has been left open. Her name tag reads: "Voorhies." She approaches a small security booth, which appears empty. Its light is on. A Jack-o-lantern sits on the window sill.
On the second floor of the building, in a dark room, a shadowy figure peers through the blinds, tittering. He sings quietly to himself.
Titterer:
I don't want her,/ You can have her,/ She's too fat for me.
Outside, Nurse Voorhies gazes about.
Nurse:
0tis?
She waits for a response, harrumps.
Nurse :
Drunk again? You'll be a patient here soon yourself, you old fool. Stop hiding.
Come out. Wait'll I tell Doctor Brooks.
She closes the gate, which locks securely, and walks along the path to the sanitarium. Blood begins to trickle from the crack at the bottom of the door of the security booth. She does not notice it. At the front steps she encounters a trail of blood flowing from the bottom of the door to the path. Her breath catches in her throat. Nearby, a foot in a bloodied sock protrudes from the bottom of a bush. Concerned with the trail of blood, she fails to notice it. Someone has scrawled 666 in blood on the door. She opens the door tentatively and peers inside. Seeing nothing but the trail of blood, which winds out of sight, she enters, carefully avoiding the red river. No one is at the reception desk. In a recreation room nearby, a television is tuned to a talk show featuring dysfunctionals: "Killers and the Women Who Love Them." The room appears empty.
Nurse:
Lulu?
S i l e n c e .
Nurse:
J o e ?
S i l e n c e .
Nurse:
Doctor Brooks?
Silence.
Nurse:
Anybody?
A titter is heard. The nurse whirls, spots no one.
Nurse:
Who's that?
The titter is prolonged. A smug look comes to the Nurse's face.
Nurse:
Nothing a little shock therapy won't cure.
The Titterer, out of sight, feigns fear.
Titterer:
Nothing a little liposuction won't cure.
She smirks. Wary, she follows the trail of blood along a corridor, passing a blood-stained sneaker. The red river diverges into two tributaries leading under doors that face each other across the corridor. She pauses.
Titterer, imitating Monty Hall:
Now, Miss Voorhies - will it be Door Number One or Door Number Two?
She whirls but fails to spot him, although, apparently, he is nearby. She stands mulling the options, finally chooses the door to her left. She opens it tentatively. Inside, a male orderly lies decapitated on the floor, blood now only trickling from his neck. His severed bead rests on his chest. The nurse backs away, terrified, her throat locked.
Enter the Titterer, sliding down the corridor in stocking feet along the river of blood. His face, arms, and smock are stained with blood.
Titterer:
Herrrrrre's, Johnny!
He bumps into the nurse, whose voicebox unlocks in a piercing scream. The Titterer imitates the scream, tears at his long, stringy hair, pulls locks from it, tosses them into the air. He grabs the nurse by the scruff of the neck.
Titterer:
What's behind Door Number Two, Jay?
He forces her into the room.
Titterer:
Monty, it's another lovely dead person with his head cut off!
A decapitated body sits at the desk, legs crossed, cigarette burning between its fingers. The head stands at the center of the desk, cigarette burning between its lips. The uniform is covered with blood.
Titterer:
There's your shock therapy, Nurse Blob. The inmates have taken over the asylum.
"'Revenge of the Psychopaths" - film at eleven.
He releases her. She flees screaming. At the reception desk she reaches over the
counter for the phone, pulls the receiver up, and finds a bloodied, severed hand
clinging to it. She screams and lets it drop.
The Titterer reappears, guiding a severed head along the corridor with a broom, as
if he were playing hockey.
Titterer:
He's got a breakaway. He skates in, shoots ...
He rolls the bead at her. She scrambles to avoid it. Bouncing erratically, it manages to find her feet. She screams.
Titterer:
He scores!
He celebrates as a hockey player would.
Titterer:
They're going crazy! They're going crazy! Hey-ho!
He imitates a cheering crowd.
The nurse runs outside and toward the security booth. As she opens it, the guard's headless body, which was propped against the door, falls backward at her feet, splashing her white shoes with blood. She backs away in terror, knocking the Jack-o-lantern from the sill. As it strikes the ground, it breaks and reveals a severed bead. She flees the grounds, screaming as she plods off into the dark night. The Titterer comes races past the gate after her, carrying a severed bead by the hair.
Titterer:
Hey, you forgot your lovely parting gift.
He overtakes her and, running backward beside her, holds the head up to her face. She is screaming as they fade into the distance.
Read Vic's stories, free:
http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature
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