WRAITHMORE by Matt Lazarus

A screenplay written step by step, live on the internet.

www.thestorycoach.net
re!ise" In the monster-ridden world of post-apocalyptic 1933, an aliented teen
inventor must defeat an invading King of the monsters, or else the king will go on
to kill all of humanity. He does this y venturing out into the monster-infested
woods at night, fighting mindless demons and their villainous commanders, all
while figthing the voices in his head that suggest he !oin the monsters himself.
His adventures enale him to develop a weapon, which allows him to fight the
monster king in the town. He succeeds y learning that in a world where
everyone is alone in the dark, no one is alone. (103 words)
The Worl#" "ew #ngland, 1933, $our %ears after the end of the world. &ilas
$alconer lives in 1933, four years after the end of the world. ' hole ripped open in
the sky in 19(9, and after seven days of darkness, the world was filled with
twisted, mutated, mindless, flesh-eating monsters.
'merica the nation is over. )eople live in walled cities and towns, traveling
etween them in aging *odel + $ords, taking cover at dusk, efore the monsters
come out. #very so often a human gains dark powers which twist and mutate
them. +hese madmen live in the woods, gaining power through human sacrifice.
Humanity has made do, e,isting in walled cities at night, reclaiming the land
during the safer daytime. -ut the king of the monsters is coming from across the
sea, and when he arrives, our race will die.
THREE A$T %TR&$T&RE"
A$T O'E
"ew #ngland, 1933. It.s een four years since all hell roke loose, and monsters
flooded in. &ilas /101 an alienated teen inventor, lives in one of the last walled
cities, safe ut stultifying. He dreams of uilding a special car, capale of crossing
the country to 2alifornia, rumored to e etter.
+here.s a hole in the sky and it whispers thoughts of madness to certain humans
who oey the voices, kill people and get stronger. &ilas has always heard the
voices, ut he ignores them. &ilas attacts the eye of 3race 3oodhue /101 a
willowy eauty with an eye for the strange, ut he.s afraid of sentiment so he
alienates her. 4ater, 3race goes missing while on a trade mission with her father.
&ilas knows he has to save her. He leaves the safety of his car in his under-
armored car, risking certain death to seek a girl who.s proaly already dead.
/15(1
A$T TWO A
3race is held captive in the lair of a +error who vivisects young girls. &he escapes,
wreaks havoc in the lair and escapes into the night. &he runs into &ilas, who.s car
is trapped y a horde of monsters. +hey team up, him driving, her shooting. +he
kill the terror, and escape. ' night in a haunted house reveals that the king of the
monsters, 6I4H#I* $#I-#7 is en route from across the sea. +he only thing that
can stop him is a the work of 87. 3#76I+9, a former colleague of &ilas.s father.
/MI(OI'T)" 3race easily talk &ilas int taker her to 3erwit:. /1;<1
A$T TWO *
+hey head upstate, fighting monsters. +he dark voices in &ilas.s head get louder
and louder, a strange musical eat thros eneath them. &ilas, desperate to
please 3race, doesn.t tell her aout the welling madness in his mind.
+hey arrive at 3erwit:.s home, a tower y the sea. 8r. 3erwit: welcomes them in
for dinner, ut something is very wrong. +he house is a nest of horrors, 3erwit:
has een running human e,periments in an effort to develop something that will
kill $eier. 3erwit: wants to kill $eier, not to save humanity, ut to enslave it
himself. &ilas and 3race fight their way through 3erwit:.s legions of monsters, kill
3erwit:, and discover the plans for a +esla-coil like device that can disrupt the
powers of the +errors. +hey race ack down the coast, ready to stop $eier.
$eier.s ship arrives at a lighthouse a few miles from town. +he device slows him,
ut he senses a taint of darkness in our heroes. He whistles an eerie melody,
&ilas races himself, ut it.s 3race who snaps, shooting him. &ilas falls off a cliff
inot the water. 8awn reaks, and $eier and his forces retreat to the woods until
the night falls. /1951
A$T THREE
&ilas improaly survives, and he prevents a grief-stricken 3race from killing
herself. &ilas admits that he also hears the voices. &ilas points out that most
people never get temped y evil, &ilas is stronger for always resisting it.
&ilas and 3race return to town, tell their story. #veryone pitches into prepare for
the final assault. +o &ilas.s incredile surprise, more people in town hear the
voices than not. &ilas works together with 3race, his father, the local lacksmith,
and various other townfolk to perfect 3erwit:.s device. -y admiting to hearing the
song of the darkness, they.re ale to find a counter to its powers.
+he monsters attack. It looks like the walls will hold, ut $eier.s powers ring it
down. It all comes down to a climactic final duel in a lighthouse, etween &ilas =
3race against $eier and his minions. +he device shorts out, ut &ilas.s father
sacrifices himself to fi, it, allowing &ilas to kill $eier once and for all.
6##K& 4'+#7> +he town throws a goodye for &ilas - he.s going to go up and
down the coast to warn the other towns and share the technology. 3race insists
on going with him. +he dark is still coming, ut now they have a shot. /(;?1
*eat %heet
+. %ilas searches the wil#s, ,i-hts a !onster
.. %ilas returns to Wraith!ore
/. %ilas -oes ho!e, we !eet Avra!
0. %ilas at school. Meet 1race.
2. The Terror
3. 1race pays a visit to the 4alconers
5. %ilas shows 1race his car.
6. 1race attac7e#, a#bucte#.
8. Wor# reaches the town as ni-ht ,alls.
+9. %ilas leaves town in his car
++. 1race !enace# by ab#uctor, learns about 4eiber.
+.. %ilas #rives throu-h woo#s, -ets a!bushe# by !onsters.
+/. 1race escapes ab#uctor:s lair.
+0. 1race an# %ilas 7ill the ab#uctor.
+2. Rest in stone house, #eco!press
+3. Must escape the bloo# !onster.
+5. lay the wa; cyllin#er, learn o, 4eiber
+6. Mi#point" 1race an# %ilas -o to 1erwitz
+8. Hea# upstate, ,i-ht !onsters, #ar7 voices intensi,y.
.9. %ilas an# 1race atte!pt conversation in car.
.+. A polite #inner with 1erwitz.
... 1erwitz shows his true ,ace.
./. %ilas an# 1race ,i-ht 1erwitz, -et the #evice.
.0. Race bac7 ho!e, try to ,i-ure #evice.
.2. 4eiber:s ship arrives, %ilas sacri,ices car.
.3. The #evice hol#s hi! at bay.
.5. 4eiber, controls 1race. %he shoots %ilas.
.6. The sun rises. 1race a#ri,t. 4eiber is co!in-.
.8. %ilas survives #ue to earlier sacri,ice.
/9. %ilas an# 1race save each other.
/+. %ilas an# 1race rally towns,ol7.
/.. 'i-ht,all. The truth about the voices.
//. Monsters attac7 the wall. Hu!ans ,i-ht bravely.
/0. 4eiber:s powers pull #own the wall.
/2. Avra! saves the #ay.
/3. 4inal show#own between %ilas an# 4eiber.
/5. $o#a. % < 1 leave town.
O&TLI'E=TREATME'T >THRO&1H *EAT +9)
A$T O'E"
1. %ilas searches the wil#s, ,i-hts a !onster
"ew #ngland, 1933. &I4'& $'42@"#7 /101 makes his way into the woods.
He.s a dour lad, lanky, right suspicious. He carries a shotgun. He.s
searching for salvage tech, like he does every weekend. He finds an adly
rusted old car on a dilapidated stretch of highway. -ones and lood inside,
the driver was eaten. He collects an old odometer. +he sun is high in the
sky, ne,t to the 3%7#, an angry violet cloud that looks like a gala,y. It.s our
world ut not.
&ilas sees what he.s een looking for. ' *odel + in perfect condition,
stopped y a cliffside. He looks at it like a starving man seeing a meal. -ut
he.s attacked y a "I3H+KI"8, one of the plethora of mindless monsters
that lives in the wilds. It was once a ear, ut now it.s hairless and mutated,
its eyes are clustered in the do:ens, it.s !aws in four pieces. &ilas arely
survives, fighting the "ightkind in the car as it slides down a cliff. He
manages to lasso the "ightkind to the car as it goes over. +he monster is
dashed to !elly, ut the car is lost.
&ilas marks the car on his map. He.s methodically mapped a radius around
his town with the areas he.s e,plored. He.s running out of wilderness. +he
sun egins to set. &ilas heads home, worried aout the encroaching
darkness.
.. %ilas returns to Wraith!ore
&ilas walks down a stretch of freshly paved road as the night falls. +he high walls
are laced with silver and electrified wire. *achine gun nests stud the walls,
searchlights scan the distance. 4ike all surviving towns, it.s turned itself into a
fortress.
He gets there !ust as the gates shut, !ust in time. +he guards search him
suspiciously for lifeforms or contraand. He has a sack of car parts. @ne guard
wants to take the odometer, ut 2')+'I" &*'44#%, a cruel ut fair man, stops
him.
Inside the walls, the town is perfect, a pristine gray utopia of paved streets,
gothic revival houses, and perfectly polished motorcars. 7ows of electrical
powered streetlights kick on like stadium lights, and a truck full of 3oodhue
3olden apples rumles across town.
&ilas shrinks from the light, from the ordinary people who stroll the promenade in
their owlers and onnets, with swagger sticks and parasols. +he tech is 19(;.s,
the fashion even earlier, ut &ilas is a misfit tinkerer in a rich place, and that.s
timeless. He doesn.t like them, they don.t like him. 'ove, a guard tower fires a
salvo of shots at something. 6e hear it scream and die. "o one looks up.
/. %ilas -oes ho!e, we !eet Avra!
&ilas lives in a run-down Aictorian house near a fetid pond y the southern wall.
He goes home, hangs up his coat and rifle. His father 'A7'* /?;.s1 smokes a
pipe in the study, surrounded y a hoarded collection of te,tooks, diagrams and
old violins. He.s a water-eyed, retired inventor with early stage 'l:heimers and a
faint 3erman accent.
FATHER: Always working on that car... you think Caliornia is going to !" any
!"tt"r# &ilas does, there are rumors that 2alifornia is the safest and greenest
country. +he world has fallen into darkness. < years ago, a rift opened in the sky
and monsters flooded into the land. 'merica has fallen apart, people live in
fortified towns and cities, terrified of the dark, when monsters come out.
&ilas hates the town, hates himself, hates life. He wanted to e an engineer,
uilding things like the &pirit of &t. 4ouis. 4ike 4indergh, he.d wants to drive
across the great wasteland of the midwest and dare to try than live a coward.
'vram sighs.
0. %ilas at school. Meet 1race.
&ilas slinks to school. 4ate. He takes a shortcut through the rush.
He sees 37'2# 3@@8HB# /101, a willowy eauty, step ehind a tree. &he taps
out a cigarette lights it. &he notices &ilas and reacts like she.s een caught doing
lines of cocaine. &he shrugs cheerfully, offers him one. &ilas is really ad at
feelings, talking to people, or reciprocating kindness. He shakes his head, ug
eyed.
&ilas and 3race head to class, mi,ing in with the other students. 3race filters to
the top, where the rich and happy teens gather. &ilas walks off on his own. ' few
kids nod to him, ut he doesn.t really see it, caught in his own misery. 'nd then
his vision swims, and a shrieking sound fills his ears. He runs to the athroom as
his nose starts to leed.
&ilas looks out the window. +he gyre in the sky is right and pulsing. +he lood
streaming from his nose and the sound in his head pulse in concert. "ightmarish
voices sound from I"&I8# his head.
$%ill th"& all. Th"y hat" you' caus" you(r" a r"ak. %ill th" girl' )rac"... slit h"r
swan*lik" n"ck and drink th" !lood. +t will tast" lik" cara&"l and cr"a&... ,o it
wh"n th"y(r" distract"d wh"n th" at !oy di"s.-
&ilas doesn.t panic. He takes a moment to write down what the voices said in a
coded logook, and then pulls a handmade device out of his satchel, a
handcranked dynamoCgenerator. He winds it up and puts it to his temple. +he
voices aruptly stop. &ilas calms down, washes his face. He walks out of the
school.
&creams. ' fat student has !umped off the top of the school uilding. #veryone
gathers. &ilas spots 3race in the crowd. &he spots him, she looks at him,
concerned. He attempts to nod reassuringly. &he nods ack, a sad smile. +he only
two who aren.t looking at the dead oy dashed against the school seal. +hen life
goes on.
2. The Terror
D+he $ar )atrols found the +error in the woods. He was living amidst the
nightkind. 2ohaiting...E 3race.s sister, +ess. &he knows things ecause she.s a
gossip, and on friendly turns with 2aptain &malley of the guards.
*7. 3@@8HB# /5;1 drives his car, a glossy lack, four door, hard top 19(? 7olls
7oyce with silver accents. ' 6orld 6ar @ne victory medal hangs from the rear
view mirror. He doesn.t want to hear it, he.s a reasonale, unimaginative man.
3race is in the ackseat, pretending to read a 5-year-old 2osmo maga:ine.
3oodhue is glad that the man is captured. +he "ightkind are ad enough, the
+errors are in a league of their own. +hey.re humans with an occult connection
the gyre. +hey gain power y killing, can direct the "ightkind like trained dogs,
and are said to have supernatural powers. 3oodhue figures the captured +error
will make the road safe enough to go on a long-delayed usiness trip. 3race egs
him to come along. He hates the idea, ut 3race points out that it might help him
make a good match for her.
+raffic stops. ' convoy of +'2+I2'4& rolls in, civilian vehicles modified with on-
oard guns, and e,tra armor lined with silver and wires. +he +error sits in the
ack, he looks like a pleasant, plump alding man in filthy clothes. He smiles at
3race, and the smile cracks his face, opening up a second set of lips and teeth on
his throat. +hose teeth are very sharp. He wears an electrified collar around his
neck to suppress any powers he might have. +he 3uards ring him in alive
ecause they want to study him.
' 8isconcerted crowd watches the guards take the +error into their arracks.
'vram is among them. +he 3yre aove pulses. 'vram sees it and life pours ack
into his fading eyes. He shrieks something /gierishF ' prophecyF +-81 and
collapses.
3. 1race ?isits %ilas at Ho!e
&ilas is trying to get his father to eat soup. 'vram, full of life, is cantankerous and
cray, trying to assert his independence. He yells things in 3erman, which &ilas
doesn.t speak. &ilas curses, angst and personal ullshit momentarily forgotten as
he deals with his pain-in-the-ass, aging father.
+here.s a knock on the door. It.s 3race, she.s rought over an 'pple 2oler. In
3race.s circle that.s good manners, ut manners, calling cards and hospitality are
foreign concepts for &ilas. He.s happy to see her, ut also nervous around her.
He.s scared of her ecause he likes her. &ilas doesn.t like anyody, so he.s never
had to worry aout re!ection efore now.
&ilas fronts like he.s tough, ut it takes 3race three proing Guestions for him to
admit he.s scared. He loves his father and thought he.d always e around. 6hen
his father dies, he.ll e completely alone in the world. It.s awkward, as he fights
tears. 3race touches his arm sympathetically and !ust listens. It is a small
moment, ut one &ilas will rememer for the rest of his life. &he asks him aout
his car. He lights up and takes her to the garage.
5. %ilas shows 1race his car.
3race has heard aout the car through rumors via the guards and her sister,
&ilas is Dthe weird kid who.s uilding a car.E &ilas shows off his incomplete car.
3race smiles politely. It.s the kind of thing only an engineer could love, ugly,
functional, every wire e,posed. +o &ilas it.s the most eautiful thing in the world.
-ut when he talks of 4indergh and adventure, 3race gets interested. +hen he
places a panel on it. 'nd another, and, from a certain angle, it looks really cool, a
lood red car with silver accents and a laGuered rose on the hood. He shows her
his lueprints, and his enthusiasm causes her to see it as it could e in the
future. 'nd &ilas sees her, and sees a hope and a fondness that hits him like a
knife.
If &ilas wasn.t a social idiot, or if it was a etter word, he would kiss her and they
would make passionate, doomed, teenage love on a workench. Instead, he is
who he is, and he can.t handle everything he.s feeling, so he retreats. He has low
self worth and can.t fathom a world where a girl like 3race would like him
/speaking as oth the 3od of &ilas.s universe and as a person who dates, it
theoretically can happen and &ilas is eing dum. Instead, he scoffs that 3race
proaly doesn.t know cars. 3race, though smart, has a reference pool that
e,tends to !a:: singers, movie stars and cosmo, so &ilas succeeds in making her
feel really dum. &he doesn.t know 4e 2ouroisier or +esla /his father worked for
him on the notorious 6ardencliff pro!ect1 or )hilo +. $arnsworth. +his is asically
&ilas at his most dickish. 'lienated and scarred from the horrors of his youth
/when the world ended and his mother was eaten1, he.s terrified of acceptance.
&o it.s easier for him to disGualify her, make her dum, and ruin things so he has
the certainty of failure rather than the possiility of success /I.m sure no one
reading this has ever felt anything or known anyone like this. I guess this is a
stretch, ut I assume it could happen. 2ertainly, this is in no way a reflection of
me from age 1H-(51.
+o his surprise though, she doesn.t get mad. &he looks at him with a!ect
sympathy. D&ilas, if you know what a gimlet you.re eing, I won.t give you the
satisfaction. 'nd if you don.t... I feel really sorry for you.E &he walks out. &ilas
kicks his car knocking the panels loose.
0. 1RA$E A'( MR. 1OO(H&E 1O TO THE 'E@T TOW'
+hey.re in the midst of a caravan, earing apples and cider and most importantly
ethanol-fuel. +he 2aravan is heavily armed with +ommy 3uns and outriders, a
small army of guards.
.R. )//,H0E: 1ou !"gg"d &" to co&" along' and +(2" n"2"r s""n you so
&o3"y.
)RACE: 4orry' da33"r. + tri"d to do so&"thing nic"' !ut h" was a r"al cru&!.
.R. )//,H0E: 1ou(r" a !"autiul young wo&an. 1ou don(t n""d to do anything
nic" or a !oy' cru&! or not. And wh"n + was a !oy' + call"d &y ath"r 4ir.
)RACE: 4orry' ath"r.
'nyway, monsters attack. #n masse. +he 2aravan is armored enough to fight an
army, ut when the soldiers see what.s on the hori:on, they gasp. 'n army of
monsters, a fluke event. #veryone in this scene is smart and good at their !os,
what happens ne,t is like a ank roer who gets surprised during a ank
roery y a living tornado with pyrokinetic powers. It !ust shouldn.t happen.
I know 6H'+ happens. +he monsters attack, the soldiers fight ack. +hen 3race
in particular gets aducted y a +error who elieves that killing eautiful young
girls will gain him power.
I 6orld uilding alertJ 6e have no way to know this yet, ut the +error are aware
of each other and !ealous of each other, each wants to e the favorite child of the
3yre. +hey gain power from killing, ut there are diminishing returns. 6hether
this +error is right or not, he elieves he is, so his motivation at least makes
sense. +he +error might also steal the ethanol truck, which would give a more
clearcut motivation for the attack as well as eing a 6+$ moment K why would a
random madman in the woods needs a fuel truck /answer, it.s for the growing
army that.s forming K see act two1.
*ore specifically, is how is the action framed. I can.t frame the action ecause I
don.t know how this +error works.
If he.s a stealth nin!a, like "ightcrawler or -link, I.m going to want to see him
using cra:y acroatics to slip past the guards and wreak havoc. +hen I have to
show the whole choreography.
If he looks ordinary, ut has a high concept super power, I.d want to frame it with
him getting dismissed or shot, and then Doh shit momentE as we see e,actly what
he is.
If he /or she1 is, as implied, a shock and awe creature, he needs to shock and
'6#. He could e huge, at the head of an army, or something you clearly don.t
fuck with ased on a cool visual. +hen I have to write the cool visual that
showcases whatever fucking power I choose...
' small oy with four arms sits on the ack of a swarm of rats, riding them like a
flying carpet.
+he +error is a man who is turning into a ird. He sprays acidic foam onto his
enemies from every orifice on his ody.
*en in suits and oater hats slide out of the shadows graceful and fluid as -o
$osse 2horeography. @ne.s hat gets shot off. +he tops of their heads are gone,
and clews of maggots swarm in their e,posed rains working them like vehicles.
+he thing in front of them is 1; feet tall, it.s as if a very tall man were stretched
out and loaded up with eetles. He laughs as he rips the head off a guard, his !aw
stretching low on stretched muscles that can arely attack it to his face. He
doesn.t have a tongue, rather a parasite that attaches to his tongue, a eetle with
a human face. 6hen the eetle clicks and whistles, the "ightkind around him
respond to it in swarms like living waveforms.
@r a mad scientist K ut I already have one coming up, and I.m not sure how
dieselpunk I want to make this. *aye if he wore a mask...
+hen I don.t have to show the attack, !ust do the 3od:illa trick of setting up that
it happens, and cutting to the loody aftermath. #ither way...
8. Wor# reaches the town as ni-ht ,alls.
I thought I would have to frame &ilas.s logic, ut ecause I made good, specific
choices in eat ?, I feel like I don.t have to invent anything. &ilas goes ecause
he feels guilty. If I need to call this out, he can do this in the conversation with
the dad I.ve so thoughtfully framed.
+his has a uilt in who, needs a whatCwhereChow.
How does word reach the townF 6here is &ilas when he hearsF 6hat does he doF
+hese are three variales that don.t seem to have any earing on the story to
come, ut who knows, if I go with the Dtraitors in townE it, maye this will end
up eing totally important. I highly dout it, ut it.s possile.
'nyway, does this matterF "ot really.
+he easiest way /which I love ecause I.ve een working on this for like an hour
and I.m running out of steam1
&how survivors limping home. &how two rave outriders riding off to send for
help /maye one gets eaten, maye he doesn.t1. &how the rider returning home,
mortally wounded. &how word spreading through the town. &how &ilas uying
food and at the I3' market /it.s 1933 on the #ast coast, that seems like where
he.d e1 and hearing the news.
6riter note> 8ig the well efore you.re thirsty. &ilas has got to spend act two in
the wilderness, and if I need to ring in something narratively useful that it
seems unlikely would e at the house, I can !ust say he graed it at the I3'
while uying supplies.
7egardless, &ilas hears something, and we know what he.d do. He.d gra his shit
and get ready to rock. He spends his weekends in the wilderness, so we know
he.s got his gear together, maye he.s got a special go ag too. &o he has
whatever a smart -oy &cout with access to ooks would have. He also has to fi,
his doors real Guick, it flies in the face of his perfectionism, ut he has to do it. It
shows how him going into the second act is new territory, emotionally as well as
physically. It also sets up his flaw in an active way. -ecause he.s a perfectionist in
pretending to e a hero, he prevented himself from eing ready when he really
needed to e. +hat might seem like a different flaw than the one he showed in
eat seven, ut I.ll find a way to fit it under some umrella. &omething aout
fear.
'nyway, &ilas is packing. 'vram shuffles to the door in his roe. $4o you(r"
l"a2ing#- &ilas nods. 'vram is so emotionally cut off that he makes &ilas look like
*r. 7ogers, ut he loves his son. He gives him a warning /his stroke makes him
ale to hear the 3yre1, a cool gun /I want it to e one of those old-school 3erman
guns that has si, arrels instead of si, chamers. +hat seems like the kind of gun
'vram would have in his sock drawer, and information aout 6ardenclyffC8r.
3erwit:, which, owing to the law of conservation of detail, will totally make sense
and tie into the mysterious and se,y origins of the gyre, the "ightkind and the
+errors.
+9. %ilas leaves town in his car. He -oes to the -ates. The -uar#s stop
hi! an#AA
4et him throughF
8on.t let him through, forcing &ilas to ust his way out, ecoming an outlaw who
can.t come home without 3raceF
8on.t let him through, ut then the in!ured *r. 3oodhue returns and &ilas
convinces him to use his pull.
It actually doesn.t matter, ecause he doesn.t really get a chance to come ack,
so the DI can.t go ackE is artificial stake raising at est. $or now. +his variale,
like all variales will proaly come ack to ite me in the ass.