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breakinglight11More Wicker Man! With this, scene five, I build directly from the last scene I posted. I have done an unusually good job this time around writing this script in sequence, which is something I can’t often do. Maybe because I’ve already got a structural template from the original script. But I feel like I am doing a half-decent job capturing the significant stuff from the original while inflecting it in the thematic direction I want.
Day #23 - "Night Dance"
From The Wicker Man
By Phoebe Roberts
INT. BEDROOM AT GREEN MAN – EVENING
In her room at the Green Man, Elise sits at the small secretary desk in the corner in her pajamas, typing up her notes on her laptop. She takes one last frustrated glimpse at her signal-less cellphone, then plugs it in for the night.
As she crawls into bed, she fishes a cross on a necklace from her shirt collar, clutching it in her hand as she says her evening prayers.
ELISE: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…
She murmurs the rest, makes the sign of the cross, and switches out the light.
INT. BEDROOM – NIGHT
Elise is asleep in the narrow bed. After a moment, a thumping sound can be heard, banging against the plaster of the wall behind the headboard. It is accompanied by the creaking of metal springs, and muffled voices raised in wordless cries.
The clamor shakes Elise awake. She turns her head groggily a moment, then grinds her teeth as she realizes the source of the noise. She sits up and reaches above the headboard to bang her fist on the wall, in three sharp raps.
ELISE: Easy! People are trying to sleep.
But the thumping and voices only grow louder, as if specifically to spite her.
Elise flops back down in the bed, attempting to cover her ears with the pillow. But she tosses and turns, unable to block it out. Unable to take it anymore, she throws back the blankets with a growl and climbs out of the bed.
EXT. GREEN MAN YARD – NIGHT
Now dressed in sweats and a baker boy cap, Elise strides across the front lawn of the inn to walk the cobbled roads beyond.
EXT. STREETS OF SUMMERISLE – CONTINUOUS
Elise wanders the village, hands in her pockets, regarding the ancient, ivy-covered structures in the moonlight.
Rustling in the hedgerow beside the road stops her short. She can hear voices, muffled gasps and what sounds like distress.
MALE VOICE: Come here— come here!
FEMALE VOICE: (sharp cry)
MALE VOICE: That’s it!
Elise approaches cautiously, one hand on the extendable baton on her belt. She leaps back as movement explodes from the bushes, and a man and woman, half-dressed and cackling madly, drag each other arm in arm and stumble away into the darkness.
ELISE: For God’s sake! What is the matter with this place?
She jams her hands back in her pockets and walks on along the hedgerow.
EXT. HEDGEROW – NIGHT
Before long, Elise’s progress is interrupted by voices again— this time, the distant sound of women singing. Elise pauses, listening.
SINGER 4: “Take the flame inside you,
Burn and burn below.
Fire seed and fire feed
To make the baby grow…”
Elise feels her way along the hedgerow until she finds a thin spot to push through. She struggles through the plant growth toward the sound of the singing.
SINGER 4: “Take the flame inside you,
Burn and burn belay.
Fire seed and fire feed
To make the baby stay…”
EXT. MEADOW – CONTINUOUS
Elise emerges onto a ridge overlooking a meadow. At the center a bonfire burns, crackling and illuminating the figures surrounding it. A few masculine shapes are stationed at the compass points, playing pipes and drums, faces shadowed by headdresses in the shapes of a bull, a wolf, a ram, a stallion. But most of the figures are female, circling around the fire, naked as the day they came into the world.
SINGER 4: “Take the flame inside you,
Burn and burn belong,
Fire seed and fire feed
And make the baby strong…”
Elise crouches in the hedge growth, gaping at the spectacle. The women dance in a wild, undulating pattern they all seem to know by heart. Their long hair swirls around them and the firelight flickers over their skin, casting shadows that ripple like ghosts.
SINGER 4: “Take the flame inside you,
Burn and burn begin.
Fire seed and fire feed
And make the baby king!”
The playing comes to a crescendo, and with one last flourish the women fall inward upon their knees, prostrating themselves before the bonfire. At last the man at the north point, the drummer in the bull mask, pours sand over the flames and extinguish them. Darkness hides the figures again.
Slowly the women rise, and all the gathered begin to disperse, slipping away into the shadows. Elise dives back into the concealment of the hedgerow.
EXT. RIDGE – NIGHT
One of the women, WILLOW, tall and lean with a mass of wild red curls, makes her way up the ridge. She finds her clothes in a pile where she left them and scoops them to her chest.
She startles and nearly drops the lot when Elise appears suddenly from the bushes.
WILLOW: Ye gods!
ELISE: Sharon? What in hell are you doing out here?
Day #23 - "Night Dance"
From The Wicker Man
By Phoebe Roberts
INT. BEDROOM AT GREEN MAN – EVENING
In her room at the Green Man, Elise sits at the small secretary desk in the corner in her pajamas, typing up her notes on her laptop. She takes one last frustrated glimpse at her signal-less cellphone, then plugs it in for the night.
As she crawls into bed, she fishes a cross on a necklace from her shirt collar, clutching it in her hand as she says her evening prayers.
ELISE: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…
She murmurs the rest, makes the sign of the cross, and switches out the light.
INT. BEDROOM – NIGHT
Elise is asleep in the narrow bed. After a moment, a thumping sound can be heard, banging against the plaster of the wall behind the headboard. It is accompanied by the creaking of metal springs, and muffled voices raised in wordless cries.
The clamor shakes Elise awake. She turns her head groggily a moment, then grinds her teeth as she realizes the source of the noise. She sits up and reaches above the headboard to bang her fist on the wall, in three sharp raps.
ELISE: Easy! People are trying to sleep.
But the thumping and voices only grow louder, as if specifically to spite her.
Elise flops back down in the bed, attempting to cover her ears with the pillow. But she tosses and turns, unable to block it out. Unable to take it anymore, she throws back the blankets with a growl and climbs out of the bed.
EXT. GREEN MAN YARD – NIGHT
Now dressed in sweats and a baker boy cap, Elise strides across the front lawn of the inn to walk the cobbled roads beyond.
EXT. STREETS OF SUMMERISLE – CONTINUOUS
Elise wanders the village, hands in her pockets, regarding the ancient, ivy-covered structures in the moonlight.
Rustling in the hedgerow beside the road stops her short. She can hear voices, muffled gasps and what sounds like distress.
MALE VOICE: Come here— come here!
FEMALE VOICE: (sharp cry)
MALE VOICE: That’s it!
Elise approaches cautiously, one hand on the extendable baton on her belt. She leaps back as movement explodes from the bushes, and a man and woman, half-dressed and cackling madly, drag each other arm in arm and stumble away into the darkness.
ELISE: For God’s sake! What is the matter with this place?
She jams her hands back in her pockets and walks on along the hedgerow.
EXT. HEDGEROW – NIGHT
Before long, Elise’s progress is interrupted by voices again— this time, the distant sound of women singing. Elise pauses, listening.
SINGER 4: “Take the flame inside you,
Burn and burn below.
Fire seed and fire feed
To make the baby grow…”
Elise feels her way along the hedgerow until she finds a thin spot to push through. She struggles through the plant growth toward the sound of the singing.
SINGER 4: “Take the flame inside you,
Burn and burn belay.
Fire seed and fire feed
To make the baby stay…”
EXT. MEADOW – CONTINUOUS
Elise emerges onto a ridge overlooking a meadow. At the center a bonfire burns, crackling and illuminating the figures surrounding it. A few masculine shapes are stationed at the compass points, playing pipes and drums, faces shadowed by headdresses in the shapes of a bull, a wolf, a ram, a stallion. But most of the figures are female, circling around the fire, naked as the day they came into the world.
SINGER 4: “Take the flame inside you,
Burn and burn belong,
Fire seed and fire feed
And make the baby strong…”
Elise crouches in the hedge growth, gaping at the spectacle. The women dance in a wild, undulating pattern they all seem to know by heart. Their long hair swirls around them and the firelight flickers over their skin, casting shadows that ripple like ghosts.
SINGER 4: “Take the flame inside you,
Burn and burn begin.
Fire seed and fire feed
And make the baby king!”
The playing comes to a crescendo, and with one last flourish the women fall inward upon their knees, prostrating themselves before the bonfire. At last the man at the north point, the drummer in the bull mask, pours sand over the flames and extinguish them. Darkness hides the figures again.
Slowly the women rise, and all the gathered begin to disperse, slipping away into the shadows. Elise dives back into the concealment of the hedgerow.
EXT. RIDGE – NIGHT
One of the women, WILLOW, tall and lean with a mass of wild red curls, makes her way up the ridge. She finds her clothes in a pile where she left them and scoops them to her chest.
She startles and nearly drops the lot when Elise appears suddenly from the bushes.
WILLOW: Ye gods!
ELISE: Sharon? What in hell are you doing out here?
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