Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay
PLEASE NOTE: the central voice is a male narrator who remains nameless throughout. For the purposes of the summary he will be referred to as The Narrator.
NOW: The Narrator is temporarily, they’re not a real monster, living in Los Angeles having coffee with one of the producers of the Horror Movie remake. The producer, George, is a typical Hollywood narcissistic jackass however, he’s the first person to take a reboot of Horror Movie seriously so The Narrator puts up with it, what he won’t put up with are lies about the original Horror Movie, so when George says his close cousin’s friend worked on set, The Narrator calls out his bullshit. The Narrator wants to protect the few people who actually did work on Horror Movie as there are so few of them left now.
THEN: The first day of filming was June 9, 1993. The director, Valentina Rojas, gave an inspirational opening speech; they have four, maybe five weeks, to shoot the whole film and they’ll be doing it in chronological order. The Narrator was in his twenties and played the “Thin Kid” for obvious reasons, he's very thin, plus his thirst for blood. After Valentina, Cleo, the scriptwriter, gives a small speech, thanking everyone for their trust and hard work.
CUT to the script: Horror Movie written by Cleo Picane. Four late-high-school-aged TEENS walk down the middle of the road: Cleo, Valentina and Karson walk together, behind them is Thin Kid. No one is talking, the Thin Kid is indescribable, you can’t see his face properly and what you see of his clothes is non-descriptive. When you think back to him, it will be a false memory. At the end of a dead-end street the teens stop. They question whether they are going in the right direction, ahead of them is overgrown, but they continue on. Cleo, Valentina and Karson care about the Thin Kid who plucks leaves from the trees and pockets them as they walk.
THEN: It was in April 1993, after nearly two years since they last spoke, that Valentina contacted The Narrator with a proposition. They met when they were both undergrads while The Narrator was working at a bar and they became friends with casual making out, he being known as “Weird Guy.” After a brief and mysterious chat about a movie project she, Cleo and Karson are working on, they offer The Narrator an important role. They provide no details, only stating the role has two lines in the beginning, he’ll be given the script the night before as they film and the character is called the Thin Kid. Yeah, why not.
CUT to the script: exterior of an abandoned school. The four teens emerge from the woods into a schoolyard, broken glass is everywhere, the swing set is rusted, there are no viable paths or roads. The teens head inside, as they do they mention having gone to this school. Inside the lockers and walls are graffitied, the classrooms empty. The teens chatter nervously about teachers they remember. The teens head up the stairs, Cleo clutching a paper bag in her hands. On the second floor they head into a classroom. Thin Kid sits down on the single desk and chair they’ve maneuvered into the room. The three teens circle Thin Kid, Cleo taking a grey-green demonic reptilian scaled mask from the paper bag. It has a mammalian snout, and is so big it could house many huge teeth. It’s ugly and grotesque. They place the mask over Thin Kid’s head.
THEN: The Narrator is looking at the mask Cleo has just handed him while Valentia explains he’ll be wearing it for most of the movie. The mask is a relic, and Cleo says she found it in the abandoned McKay Elementary School in Rhode Island, which is the real-life inspiration from the screenplay and the school Cleo, Valentina and Karson went to. The Narrator thinks the mask is a lost object and therefore cursed, but Cleo says it was never lost, it was left on purpose.
NOW: In the Hollywood Hills, The Narrator meets with Horror Movie’s director, Marlee Bouton. She reminds The Narrator a little of Valentina. She’s working on the screenplay, adding scaffolding and connective tissue rather than changes, she wants to use Cleo’s original, she’s sure the Horror Movie fans will show up for the movie they are making. What Marlee wants to talk to The Narrator about is reprising, at least in part, his role of Thin Kid.
CUT to the script: The Thin Kid sits while the teens remove his shoes and socks, and when he stands, Karson cuts the T-shirt from his body before indicating he remove his trousers. Thin Kid looks emaciated standing in only his boxer shorts. The three teens place a hand on the Thin Kid and usher him to a supply closet in the room, close the door behind him, and walk out the school. The camera stays in the room, the chalkboard is out of focus so the words written on it are illegible. The door to the supply closet opens an inch.
THEN: the classroom section of the script is delivered to The Narrator’s hotel room, he reads through it and is less concerned by wearing the mask then stripping to his underwear on camera. He addresses his concerns to Cleo who promises that’s as far as it will go. After the call, The Narrator stands in front of the mirror in only his tighty-whities, hands covering his face in a mimic of the mask. His identity will be covered, maybe he will be implacable.
THEN: with his scenes filmed, The Narrator, still in just his tighty-whities, watches Cleo stand in for him in the supply closet. When they’re wrapped for the day, The Narrator asks Valentina if he can stay overnight at the school with just a flashlight, he wants to feel the space to help with being the Thin Kid. It’s not a great idea, he’ll likely only last ten minutes, but Valentina lets him.
CUT to the script: scenes flick between Valentina, Cleo and Karson who are at their respective homes, carrying on with life, interacting with their families. Thin Kid is still inside the supply closet in the abandoned school. Does he still have the mask on?
THEN: the supply closet is creepy in the dark when The Narrator is by himself. He hears strange noises inside the walls. He imagines what the Thin Kid must be imagining, must be thinking. The Narrator’s narration changes, he is no longer himself, he couldn’t stay all night but Thin Kid could. As Thin Kid he listens to claws scratching in the walls, as Thin Kid he falls asleep and wakes up to find his clothes folded underneath the blackboard in the classroom.
CUT to the script: Valentia, Cleo and Karson are at school. This school is not abandoned. They trade looks and glances at an empty desk, presumably Thin Kid’s. Later, in the abandoned school, they let Thin Kid out of the supply closet, motioning for him to stand in the corner of the classroom. Karson drags over a backpack and the three teens start to throw a lighter, stones, bottle caps and other stuff you find in an abandoned schoolyard at the Thin Kid. After, Valentina gives Thin Kid some bottles of water and snacks, ordering him to stay inside and use the bucket and bottles to go to the bathroom. They walk away and later each teen is asked by their parents where Thin Kid is, but they tell them nothing. Thin Kid is alone in the abandoned school until he hears footsteps and Cleo enters. She tells him about finding his mask as she paints symbols on the ground, the same ones she saw when she found it. Before she leaves, Cleo tells him to sit in the center once the paint has dried, crisscross applesauce. Thin Kid follows her instructions.
NOW: The Narrator still has the mask. He has brought it to the FX team in a paper bag, and when it’s taken out they treat it like a holy relic. The Narrator explains he’s tried to get rid of it in his many house moves, but it always comes back. The story adds to the mythos of Cleo finding it. The Narrator is not just there to show off the mask, he’s there to have a cast of his upper body and head made. When he takes his shirt off, there is silence in the room and The Narrator can feel them looking. He waits for their questions.
CUT to the script: the three teens are back, Thin Kid is sitting in the middle of the painted circle, the mask no longer loose but fusing to his skin. Valentina pulls out a packet of cigarettes, she lights one, takes a drag then stubs it out on Thin Kid who squeals with pain. Karson joins in, then Cleo. The three teens do this repeatedly until they have no more cigarettes and walk out again. Thin Kid reads from the blackboard then erases the words. There will be consequences.
THEN: They forgot cigarettes for this scene, but a grip was sent to get some. Though they weren’t supposed to actually burn The Narrator with the cigarettes, it happened because he insisted. It was the only way they could get an accurate take of his skin puckered and sore. The Narrator wanted Cleo to do it, and she did. It made her sick and she left the set. The cast and crew all lit up and smoked to help get the right smoky atmosphere. Thin Kid just stood in the corner, his smile growing behind the mask. The cigarette attack is one of the three scenes Valentina uploaded to YouTube.
THEN: Karson died in 1998 in a car accident, Valentia in 2008 from pancreatic cancer, and various crew members died over the years. The Narrator is the last remaining major participant left of Horror Movie. The Narrator is at Summer Scares, a horror convention, with the mask, stills for autographs, and a price list. There is a continuous stream of fans. The Narrator is cynical about the whole thing, Horror Movie was never a full movie, just a few scenes were ever released. Some “fans” are cautious, some gracious, some entitled, others assholes. The last one, known as Hat Guy, is a proper douchebag. As a statement, not a question, he wants to see The Narrator’s hand and his missing pinky.
CUT to the script: the three teens are angry with Thin Kid for erasing the chalk from the blackboard. Karson drags Thin Kid to the teacher's desk where they hold his right arm down. Cleo pulls out towels and a pair of garden shears from a backpack. As Valentina manipulates Thin Kid’s hand so the pinky sticks out, Karson cuts it off with the shears. Cleo comes over with the towels while Valentia picks up the pinky and holds it dripping onto the ceremonial symbols painted on the floor. Valentina then shoves the pinky into the mouth slit of the mask, forcing it into Thin Kid’s mouth. After choking and coughing, Thin Kid goes still. The three teens leave, the red smear around Thin Kid’s mouth looks like a smile, he’s looking back at us.
THEN: The Narrator recounts how he lost his pinky finger. At least it’s the version he has recounted to interviewers about the missing finger. It was an “accident,” he holds no one accountable. Also, no one is asking how the fake pinky attached to his hand wasn’t between the blades when they closed, but his real finger. Or were the blades not safety locked when Valentia insisted they do some reshoots? Or maybe The Narrator just wanted to be the real Thin Kid. Or maybe it wasn’t that at all. The Narrator insists they don’t try and reattach the finger, that they keep on shooting the movie.
CUT to the script: Cleo visits Thin Kid and starts applying fake scales and green to his skin, covering some of the welts and wounds. She also changes the dressing on his finger. Later, the three teens bring a mannequin and screwdriver to the classroom. Karson indicates what Thin Kid should do while Cleo brings over a tape recorder and presses play. It’s not music, it’s a woman screaming, it’s Cleo. Eventually Thin Kid understands what he needs to do and strikes hard with the screwdriver into the mannequin before throwing it against the blackboard. Cleo escorts Thin Kid back into the supply closet, and the three teens leave.
NOW: Marlee explains to The Narrator that he won’t be reprising the role of Thin Kid for the entire movie, but he will take over from the mannequin scene so the body transformation has a bigger impact. The younger actor they have hired will film the scenes before, including the cigarettes and finger scene, then the final throat slash as it would be insensitive of Marlee to ask The Narrator to do that given what happened. They talk about Valentina’s editing of the throat slash scene, how it’s a little off, but also one of the few scenes Valentina released so she must have done it purposefully. Now, the party scene…
CUT to the script: Karson tells his Dad that Cleo’s dad wants to borrow their chainsaw. Later though, Valentina shoots down Karson’s suggestion of using it. In the classroom the three teens find that Thin Kid has stuffed himself inside a small space in the supply closet. They pull out duct tape and a knife, securing the blade to Thin Kid’s bandaged hand. After playing with a paper fortune teller, Valentina tells Thin Kid he’s coming with them.
THEN: unexpectedly in April 2008 Valentina’s calls The Narrator and leaves a voicemail. He heads back to the small town she grew up in, passing the abandoned school turned condos on the way to Valentina’s. When she answers her door, Valentina looks terrible, she has stage four pancreatic cancer and not much time left. Valentina has a plan to get Horror Movie made, she has all the film and edited three scenes which she will upload to YouTube. She needs The Narrator to help get the remake of Horror Movie made once she is gone, to go to conventions, to be seen, to help drum up interest. The Narrator doesn't say yes or no, but stands, leaves the house to his car, opens the trunk and takes out the mask.
CUT to the script: the three teenagers followed by Thin Kid arrive at the party house. As they stand looking at the bushes, contemplating how to get in, Thin Kid dashes off with a speed the teens didn’t know he had, then jumps impossibly high and over the bushes. The party noises change to screams and party goers run from the house into the yard. Thin Kid suddenly appears standing tall, his skin reptilian, but somehow not makeup. Valentina, Cleo and Karson back up, but Karson breaks loose and runs off. Thin Kid follows.
NOW: Marlee needs to know how Valentina pulled off the party scene, Thin Kid’s jump was incredible. The Narrator tells her, believe it or not it was simply a trampoline, clever angles, and a freshly cut shrub. He stuck the landing too. Marlee then asks if The Narrator has access to any of Valentina’s original script but he doesn’t and only ever saw his parts right before they filmed. There are notes in the script Marlee was given by Valentina’s family that are clearly from 1995: music choices for songs that weren’t out in 1993, and she is desperate to make Valentina’s vision come to life. The Narrator does confirm that the unhinged scene at Karson’s house was written by Valentina the morning of the shoot.
THEN: Hat Guy has the wind taken out of his sails when he demands to see the missing pinky, saying it’s fake and starts showing blurry pictures on his phone of people who are supposedly The Narrator with a pinky finger. Eventually, after conning $40 out of Hat Guy to see his hand, he never specified which, The Narrator does unwrap his hand and remove the prosthetic to show Hat Guy the stub. The stub which is gnarled and bumpy, and green. Weird, right?
CUT to the script: Karson runs to his house, he bangs at the locked front door calling for his dad and is able to get inside through a side door. Inside Karson can hear his father upstairs but can’t find the stairs. The lights turn off after he’s flicked them on, the stairs are nowhere to be found. Karson’s house has turned into a maze. In the dining room Karson stops and stares at the archway entrance, a small light in the other room. For nearly five minutes Karson stares at the archway until at last when he has resigned himself to his death, Thin Kid arrives. Karson recites a poem he hated as a child as Thin Kid walks toward him, towers over him, opens his teeth-filled mouth, holds him and slowly bites down on his neck past his left shoulder blade and toward his mid-back. [budget doesn’t allow for this, will replace with a slash or something but you need to feel it in the script]
NOW: Janelle, the FX person who will be casting the mold, notices all the “tattoos” on The Narrator. They look like hyper realistic scales, as if they have texture. The Narrator says nothing and the casting process begins. It’s like a cocoon not a mask and as it becomes uncomfortable Janelle tells The Narrator they will begin cutting him out. Once the cast is off, Janelle looks inside, where the silicone touches The Narrator’s chest with tattoos, it has left a scale-like impression in the mold.
THEN: wearing the mask, The Narrator reenters Valentina’s house. Valentina takes The Narrator/Thin Kid into her office and logs on to her YouTube account and uploads three videos then uploads stills and the screenplay as plain text to her website and blog. Valentina takes Thin Kid upstairs to her bedroom and makes him lie on the bed and explains what he will do to help get Horror Movie made. Thin Kid feels sick. They return back downstairs to the kitchen, where Valentina takes an OxyContin pill before grinding one up, stirring it into a cup of tea and handing it to Thin Kid. Eventually the effects for the drug start to work and Valentina uses a butcher's knife to cut the pinky off The Narrator’s hand. Valentina leaves the kitchen and crawls into bed, while The Narrator leaves and starts to drive to the doctors carting the severed digit. At one point he lifts the mask, places the digit in his mouth and tries not to chew. Because it was in the script, The Narrator swallows but the finger gets stuck in his throat, so he pulls the mask back down and becomes Thin Kid again, with the Thin Kid’s mouth and the Thin Kid’s throat.
CUT to the script: Cleo runs to Karson’s house, she sees Thin Kid emerge carrying Karson’s body. It’s her turn next. She runs, Thin Kid follows. Cleo doesn’t run as fast as she could, she wants to make sure Thin Kid keeps following her, at times lights in a house distract him. Eventually they reach the abandoned school and the classroom.
THEN: it’s near time to wrap filming. In an unusual event, Cleo insists that they film the last scene before the penultimate scene so they can celebrate in the classroom. A second strange occurrence is Cleo taking The Narrator for brunch. They share general chit-chat but eventually The Narrator asks if movie Cleo is the real Cleo and she explains yes, everyone's characters are a little of the real person but it’s not to be taken literally; Cleo and Valentina had a dream and a vision. The Narrator now wonders if he is a figment of Cleo’s imagination, she tells him it’s the mask. It’s cursed after all.
CUT to the script: Cleo runs into the classroom, Thin Kid follows. She grabs the chainsaw from the teacher's desk where Karson left it. Cleo pulls the cord and it roars to life. She turns and faces Thin Kid across the bloody symbols on the floor.
THEN: The chain is left on during the initial stand-off. Thin Kid and Cleo lunge and step-back from each other. The chain comes off and when the real fight begins, Valentina isn’t happy, the sound of the chainsaw is different and the chainsaw looks wrong.
CUT to the script: Eventually Thin Kid and Cleo are at a stalemate. Though Cleo is clearly exhausted, she makes a lunge at the Thin Kid but he’s able to hold her off. He pushes back and the chainsaw drops to the ground and goes silent. Cleo is backed up, Thin Kid picks up the chainsaw and pulls the cord bringing it back to life. Thin Kid holds it above his head, Cleo dives forward trying to wrestle Thin Kid but he pushes back. Cleo lands on the teachers desk. A sacrificial altar.
THEN: the chain has been put back on the chainsaw for the final climactic scene. The table is rigged with a face shield for Cleo and a chunk of wood for The Narrator to drive the chainsaw in. He makes a couple of practice cuts with a mannequin stand-in, his vision is limited in the mask, but should be okay. They move forward with the scene. Cleo lies differently on the table. The Narrator looks into her eyes as he makes the cut. Cleo puts one hand in her jeans pocket, tells The Narrator/Thin Kid “I’m sorry,” and with the other hand on the chainsaw pulls it down as she lifts herself up. This action is clearly visible on the footage as the chainsaw cuts through her jugular. The courts rule Cleo’s death as a suicide.
CUT to the script: Valentina pulls Thin Kid away from Cleo’s body, from the classroom where the bloody symbols are gone, out of the abandoned school and to Valentina’s bedroom. Thin Kid crawls under Valentina’s bed at her instruction. We can’t see the Thin Kid in the darkness, but he’s always there.
NOW: Marlee barely uses The Narrator in the reboot, his part is hacked and slashed until it’s only the scene in Karson’s house left. However, The Narrator has a plan to volunteer to be Thin Kid for Cleo’s death scene. He sneaks into the new Thin Kid’s trailer the night before the scene is being shot, and the next day, he hides under the bed while the new Thin Kid goes to makeup The Narrator puts cameras all over the trailers and in his own blood draws out the symbols on the floor, and waits. When new Thin Kid returns The Narrator/Thin Kid emerges completely covered in green scales and armor, his mouth full of teeth. He grabs new Thin Kid, crushes his throat so he can’t scream and starts to take bites from him. What remains of new Thin Kid is hidden under the bed, Thin Kid will finish the carcass later. He hasn’t decided how the movie will end after the chainsaw scene, a good old fashioned monster rampage perhaps, or something more postmodern. You’ll have to watch the movie to find out.
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