Script excerpt #3
YOKNAPATAWPHA COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT
Investigating Officer(s): Det. T. Armstrong, Det. S. Murphy
Incident No.: 001985-19D-2020
Case Description: Dalton Kimbrough homicide investigation
This scene comes from the script of Dalton Kimbrough's movie, Death to the Revelers, taken as evidence (Evidence # 001985-03) from the master bedroom of the film crew's lodge.
Caution: Some rough language and situations.
DEATH TO THE REVELERS script, Lodge Draft 9, pg. 42.
CUT TO:
INT – LODGE BATHROOM, NIGHT
DARL is handcuffed to the faucet in the shower, thrashing about in the water, his hands and face streaming with blood. He rises from beneath the water, gasping for air. SHANE sits nervously on the commode.
DARL
Jesus! Sleepwalking. I had… a terrible nightmare. I dreamed that I died, but my spirit wouldn't rise. I was abandoned on earth, and what few spirits were here would have nothing to do with me. And somehow I could communicate with mortals, but they took no interest in me. And then I realized I was in hell. And there indeed was no salvation, for God had forsaken me. Worse than that, he'd forgotten about me, completely. It was the only way hell could exist. And the only devil was me, and the flames that consumed me were desperation.
SHANE
You've been beaten badly…
DARL
I'm dying? Do you think so?
SHANE
You're not dying, Darl.
DARL
I'm not scared. I know that's not the way it is because I've lived other lives. In fact, in my last life, I died young in a car crash. I feel it every time I get behind the wheel. And I can feel what my next life will be. I'm gonna be an astronaut. I'll make God notice me this time… get right up there in his face and yell, "Look at me, you sweet, wonderful bastard!"
SHANE
Darl—
DARL
Are you the angel come to get me? …
SHANE
I want to get you out of here.
DARL
My situation has become rather complicated. I don't know these people like I once thought I did.
(long pause)
So… do you have a plan?
SHANE
This is too surreal for a plan.
DARL
There's gotta be a plan. Otherwise, what's there to fail?
SHANE
The plan is this. We climb out the window, we run like hell for the reservoir.
DARL
That's a perfectly terrible plan. I'm chained, for Christ's sake…
SHANE
Well, break the goddamn faucet off. Don't just lay there in the wet.
DARL
What made you decide to save me?
SHANE
Maybe it's what you told me in the kitchen. Maybe I see my fate somehow intertwined with yours.
DARL
You sad, poor, savage creature. Good-night…
He struts up and down the terrace in a drunken-like stupor, peeping in windows and knocking on doors as he yells and drinks. An occasional frightened eye looks out through partially closed curtains.
Darl disappears under the water. For nearly two minutes of uninterrupted screen time, Darl lays under the water as Shane watches with a straight face. Finally, she grabs him up.
DARL
They dragged the lake, you know?
SHANE
What?
DARL
They dragged it … to look for my brother.
SHANE
Dammit, I'm tryin' to save you!
DARL
Didn't find nothin', of course. He put one right in the temple himself, did it right down by a creek near my house, then he slipped away under quicksand.
SHANE
(pleading)
We're both in this!
DARL
The only thing I remember is the funeral director. This f*****' slimeball was doing magic tricks, trying to cheer me up, while my brother is in the other room with a hole in his head, his body bloated and rotting. And this guy wants to be a f****** comedian. I pissed in his coffee mug, you know. And then we toasted my other brother, who saved himself too. Overdose. No question of intent.
SHANE
You're not beat yet.
DARL
Those weasels. I admire the hell out of 'em. I've thought of bailing out myself. Many a times… after a good performance. Take a bow, stick a gun in my mouth and shower the audience with gray matter. Share my knowledge with them.
SHANE
What's stopping you?
DARL
It's the only thing I'm truly scared of.
