Friday, April 03, 2020
A WHITE ROOM. Looks like a guy's room. Queen-size bed. TV. Laptop on a desk. A MISKATONIC UNIVERSITY pennant hangs on the wall, next to a few basketball and baseball trophies.
We see JUSTIN KING, the CAMERA on his phone aimed at his face, stringy black hair tied in a ponytail, but still falling into his face. Black t-shirt, black jeans. Justin is crouched and has wrapped his arms around his knees. It's obvious he's nervous and scared about something.
JUSTIN
(whispers, eyes closed)
I can do this. I can do this...
JUSTIN moves and we see different items on the wall in his dorm room. A green plush Cthulhu sits on one of his shelves, next to some old scuffed-up books. The CAMERA focuses on the pennant, unfocuses, then refocuses.
The CAMERA flips around again and we see JUSTIN's hand getting larger as it comes toward the camera to pick it up. We get a good shot at his face.
TITLE SCREEN: THE SEARCH FOR THE ELDER GODS, PART I: CTHULHU
INT. JUSTIN'S BEDROOM - NIGHT.
JUSTIN and his Internet sidekick, TOM PITTS, sit on the side of the neatly made bed, Justin's holding the cameraphone on a selfie stick pointed at them.
JUSTIN
(tosses a little wave)
So, hey y'all, I'm Justin King...
TOM
(scoots into view)
and I'm Tom Pitts...
JUSTIN
And this is "THE SEARCH FOR THE ELDER GODS, PART ONE." You might remember us from "INTERVIEW WITH A MASSACHUSETTS FISHERMAN."
TOM
(plays air guitar)
And we're one-half the band MYTHOS. You can see us perform weekly at Pop-A-Tops, right outside Arkham.
JUSTIN
(nods)
But, right now, if you're new around here, we've been talking about mythical creatures.
TOM
And we're going to start with the most famous of the famous, the numero uno elder god of them all, CTHULHU.
The CAMERA flips around and it zooms in on the CTHULHU plush toy.
CUT TO:
A DRAWING of a CREATURE with the body of a human, the wings of a dragon, and the head and tentacles of an octopus is shown inked on a piece of paper. It is a carbon-copy of the original drawing by Lovecraft. A signature in the corner reveals the artist: J.K.
JUSTIN (V.O.)
This is a picture of what the Elder God CTHULHU is supposed to look like. The body of a human, wings of a dragon and the tentacles of an octopus. He's sleeping under the ocean and if he wakes up, then (makes explosion noise).
TOM (V.O.)
We, also of course, know that this figure is just a myth created by Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Or maybe... we were just led to believe?
A blurry PHOTO showing four men in black robed, pointy hats, crossing a street with a crosswalk that looks almost identical to the Beatles' ABBEY ROAD album, but there are a few changes. In the lower right hand corner of the photo is a date and time stamp.
JUSTIN (V.O.)
This picture was taken a day or so ago. The email said that they were going to a place of worship but the picture-taker was too afraid to continue.
TOM (V.O.)
That right there is ridiculous. You know that's a picture of some people pretending to be cultists, right?
INT. BASEMENT
Anyone passingly familiar with the seventies is familiar with this room in one way shape or another. Brown wood paneling, orange shag carpet and two lime green arm chairs. A coffee table sits in front of the chairs.
TOM is sitting in a chair across from JUSTIN and takes the photo and rips it in half, the right half fluttering to the ground quicker than the left.
TOM
(picks up the pieces)
It's the jokers who I can't stand.
JUSTIN
(looks at TOM and holds up an Internet advertisement)
Yeah, but with my super amounts of Google-Fu, I found someone who's willing to talk to us about becoming cultists.
The INTERNET ADVERTISEMENT is an old style ad with a maroon top hat and cane and dull gold flair. The name OCEANSIDE SPRINGS is embossed in bright gold in bold formal font with an address located in a nearby town, a website and a phone number in the bottom right hand corner.
JUSTIN (CONT.)
This is where we need to go.
TOM
Really? You know that, for sure.
JUSTIN
I have a source... someone who said he'd help us. Help us sneak into the Cthulhu cult?
EXT. THE BEGINNING OF A WOODEN PIER IN AN OCEAN
NOTE: TOM is controlling the camera and thus isn't seen in any shot.
JUSTIN stands in front of a wooden pier. Behind him, the pier looks as though it's seen a few better days though it still has some days left itself. People walk onto the pier, staring at him, some pointing and throwing weird looks their way, then they look away and start to walk up the pier or into a bar, The OCEANSIDE SPRINGS, next door.
The sound of the ocean is constant in the background as it's already high tide.
An orange and white lifesaver tied to the side of the pier swings in the constant wind.
JUSTIN
(tries to speak but the wind is too constant for him to be understood)
And this... this is where we'll be meeting MR MCTEAL who will...
TOM
(trying to yell over the wind)
You need to raise your voice for the mic to pick it up.
A very strange-looking man steps in to the scene. In fact, his head is an odd shape and balding. His skin is a greyish-green.
TOM (V.O.)
Hey, what're you doing?
JACK
(barely loud enough to hear over the wind)
You must be TOM and JUSTIN. Hi, I'm JACK MCTEAL. Let's go somewhere we can hear each other.
JUSTIN starts to respond. JACK waves him away, motioning for TOM to turn off the camera.
INT. AN OCEANSIDE BAR, LOCATED NEXT TO THE PIER
An oceanside window bench seat inside the bar. JUSTIN can see the full length of the pier from where he is seated. TOM sits next to JUSTIN. Several couples walk up and down the pier as well as fishermen with cast rods on both sides. The pier has five sections, three fishing areas and two fishing kiosks.
The bar is full of patrons, some of them having odd facial malformities similar to JACK's. On the table before JACK and JUSTIN are coffee cups turned upside down.
Before JACK comes to sit down, JUSTIN sets his phone to record and sets it camera-up between he and TOM on the table. As JUSTIN sets his phone down, we hear JACK smack him on the back a couple times in greeting.
JACK
Yeah, it's packed in the middle of the day. Not a good time to try and get a shot from the beach. You'd just think it was like any other.
The phone is in the wrong position to see much of what JACK and JUSTIN look like. Occasionally, on the top, we see JACK's balding pointy head.
JUSTIN
You're... Jack. Jack McTeal.
JACK
(turning over his coffee cup)
I did--I mean, I am him. You had questions.
JUSTIN
You're the guy I talked to on the phone. How'd you find us?
JUSTIN picks up the phone and, without JACK noticing, he aims the camera LENS in his direction.
JACK
Hate to say it but you guys kinda stuck out like a sore thumb.
TOM
Yeah, using the camera and the selfie stick gives it away.
A moment of SILENCE as they all look at each other.
JACK
Plus I watched your video of the Massachusetts fisherman. Mark Cayman, you said his name was?
JUSTIN
(looks surprised)
Yeah, that was it. You researched us?
JACK
Are you kidding? Of course, I did. The episode where the band got together and practiced was awesome, man.
TOM
(grinning)
I wasn't sure if we should've posted that one.
JUSTIN
Oh, MISTY--that's my girlfriend--MISTY uploaded it, for me, she said. I hadn't yet finished editing it.
JACK
Well, it's definitely my favorite at the minute. The SASQUATCH EXPEDITION episode was really interesting as well.
TOM
Yeah, I wish we had been able to find one. So, um, you said something about... you would help us...
JUSTIN
(finishing TOM's sentence)
Sneak in to the Cult of Cthulhu?
Notes from the Author
Nothing real exciting on this end except this was and is my first attempt at some sort of script. I couldn't get the Slo-Mo Guys out of my head and this was the result.It was challenging to think this way. I'm looking forward to the next episodes.
Part of me says, in a way, it's easier than writing in prose, but I'm sure once I would get deeper into the structure and what not, I would find it just as complex as prose can be.
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