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It's pretty spooky in here, with the furniture just dim shapes and the WIND HOWLING outside.
BRANCHES TAP and TREES GROAN.
MIKE moves forward, the flashlight beam still spraying up from his coat pocket. He inadvertently KICKS SOMETHING. A DARK SHAPE rolls across the floor, hits a leg of MARTHA'S chair, and ricochets out of frame. MIKE follows after, takes the flashlight out of his pocket, and shines it into the lens of THE CAMERA he's looking at the object he kicked, although we can't see it from where we are. He replaces the flashlight in his pocket, raises the Polaroid, and bends forward.
FLASH! and:
165 INTERIOR: DAVEY'S BASKETBALL.
Splotched and stained with blood. Looks like some weird planet. FADES.
166 INTERIOR: THE LIVING ROOM, WITH MIKE DARK.
He rips off a piece of the tape, prints "EVIDENCE" on it, and sticks it to the basketball. Then he walks around the chair and aims the Polaroid at the TV.
FLASH! and:
167 INTERIOR: THE TELEVISION.
The picture tube totally smashed. The electronic guts of the thing visible inside the ragged hole.
It's like a gouged-out eye. FADES.
168 INTERIOR: THE LIVING ROOM, WITH MIKE DARK.
He's frowning, puzzled, thinking about the TV. He and Hatch heard the damned thing. They really did. He moves carefully toward it, then turns and raises the POLAROID.
FLASH! and:
169 INTERIOR: MARTHA'S CHAIR.
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Stark and bloodstained, as creepy as an instrument of torture. The cookie plate and bloodstained teacup are still on the table beside it.
170 INTERIOR: RESUME MIKE.
He wants a second one of this. He raises the Polaroid, then stops. He looks up at: 171 INTERIOR: ABOVE THE DOOR BETWEEN THE LIVING ROOM AND THE HALL.
There's something up there, written on the wallpaper above the arch. We can see it, but it's too dark to read.
172 INTERIOR: RESUME MIKE.
He points the Polaroid up, aims, and
FLASH!
173 INTERIOR: ABOVE THE DOOR BETWEEN THE LIVING ROOM AND THE HALL.
It's a message printed in MARTHA CLARENDON'S blood: "GIVE ME WHAT I WANT AND I'LL GO
AWAY." Above it is a drawing
We may or may not recognize it. FADES.
174 INTERIOR: RESUME MIKE.
He's shaken, and badly. Still, he's determined to do his job. He raises the Polaroid for that second shot of the chair.
FLASH!
175 INTERIOR: MARTHA'S CHAIR.
This time LINOGE'S cane lies across the arms of the chair, the bloodstained wolfs head snarling into the flash. If we didn't understand the significance of the drawing on the wall, we do now.
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176 INTERIOR: RESUME MIKE.
The camera drops out of his hands; if not for the strap, it would fall to the floor. He is understandably freaked. The cane wasn't there before. The WIND GUSTS the strongest one yet.
Behind MIKE, the window facing the street EXPLODES INWARD. SNOW SWIRLS into the room, twisting in ghostly cyclones. The sheers billow like ghostly arms.
MIKE is startled (hopefully we will be, too) but recovers quickly. He pulls the drapes across the broken window. They BILLOW OUT, but he quickly moves a table into place to anchor them. Then he turns back to MARTHA'S chair . . . and that unexpected cane. He bends over it, then raises the Polaroid.
FLASH! and:
177 INTERIOR: THE WOLF'S HEAD CANE, CLOSE-UP.
It stares at us with its bloody teeth and eyes like a ghost wolf in a stroke of lightning, then FADES.
178 INTERIOR: RESUME MIKE.
He remains where he is for a moment, trying to get himself back together. Then he pockets the last picture, tears off another strip of white tape, and tags the cane. On it he prints "EVIDENCE" and
"POSS. MURDER WEAPON."
179 INTERIOR: MARTHA'S DINING ROOM DARK.
MIKE comes in, removes the pine-cone-and-candle centerpiece from the table, then removes the white linen tablecloth.
180 INTERIOR: THE HALL, WITH MIKE.
He comes out of the dining room and approaches the shape of MARTHA'S body. As he does, he notices something on the wall by the door. He trains the beam of his flashlight on it. It is a key rack, in the shape of a key. MIKE runs the light along it, and finds the set of keys he's looking for. He takes them off their peg.
181 INTERIOR: THE KEYS ON MIKE'S PALM, INSERT.
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The tag on one reads "FRONT DOOR" in MARTHA'S spidery old-lady's writing.
182 INTERIOR: RESUME HALL, WITH MIKE.
He pockets the keys and sets his case and camera aside on the stairs for the moment.
MIKE I'm so sorry, old girl.
He billows the tablecloth over MARTHA, then takes up his gear again. He opens the door to the porch just enough to slip through and goes out into the SHRIEKING STORM. Night has fallen.
183 EXTERIOR: ON THE PORCH, WITH MIKE NIGHT
He uses MARTHA'S key to lock the door. Tries it to make sure it's locked. Then he goes down the steps and begins floundering back down the walk to the Island Services vehicle.
184 EXTERIOR: A HOUSE ON UPPER MAIN STREET NIGHT.
We can barely see it through the sheeting snow.
185 INTERIOR: THE CARVER KITCHEN, WITH JACK, ANGELA, AND BUSTER.
No generator here. The kitchen is lit with two Coleman gas lanterns, and there are big shadows in all the corners. The little family is eating
cold cuts and drinking soda. Each time the wind GUSTS and the house CREAKS, ANGELA looks around nervously. JACK is a lobsterman and less worried about weather (what's to worry about when you're on dry-back land, for gorry's sake?). He's playing airplane with BUSTER. The plane is a bologna sandwich; BUSTER'S open mouth is the hangar. JACK keeps approaching (making the appropriate airplane noises as he does), then pulling away. BUSTER is laughing heartily. Daddy is such a comedian.
There's a RENDING, SPLINTERING CRASH from outside. ANGELA grabs JACK'S arm.
ANGELA
What was that?
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JACK CARVER
Tree. Robichaux's backyard, from the sound. Hope it didn't hit their porch.
He starts playing airplane again, this time landing the sandwich in BUSTER'S mouth. BUSTER
chomps off a bite and chews with gusto.
ANGELA
Jack, do you have to go back to the store?
JACK Ayuh.
BUSTER
Daddy's gonna guard the bad guy! Make sure he doesn't get away. In a PLAYYNE!
JACK That's right, big guy.
JACK dive-bombs another bite into BUSTER'S mouth and ruffles his hair, then looks seriously at ANGELA.
JACK
This is a bad situation, honey. Everybody's got to do his part. Besides, I'll be with Kirk. It's the buddy system.
BUSTER Don Beals is my buddy! He knows how to be a monkey!
JACK Ayuh. Trick he learned from his dad, most likely.
ANGIE laughs and covers her mouth. JACK smiles at her. BUSTER starts making monkey sounds and scratching at his pits. Typical five-year-old dinner behavior. The parents treat him with absentminded love.
JACK
If you hear the whistle, take Buster and go. Hell, go before then, if you get nervous bundle up and take the snowmobile.
ANGELA
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Are you sure?
JACK
Ayuh. Fact is, the earlier you go, the better bed you and Buster are apt to have. People headed that way already. I seen the lights.