Things That Lurk In The Dark (A Short Film Script)

INT.  WOODS, NIGHT; ESTABLISHING SHOT:

We open in on a small wooded area in the dark of night; trees around every corner, dead leaves scattered about the ground, a small stream with running water, etc – a place that might have looked nice during the day, but at night it has become an eerie scene, a place that no one would ever want to visit alone….but…there is someone here. A young teen GIRL is here – we see her dragging something behind her…something that looks like a body bag. As all of this goes on, eerie MUSIC begins to play, and a CHILD’S PRAYER can be heard echoing in the background; “Now I lay me down to sleep…”

                                                                                 GIRL (V.O)

                  Everyone says monsters aren’t real; just a myth or fairytale…nothing to be afraid of. But I know better…

The PRAYER continues again,  and now something…or someone…as stepped in the path of our shot, sweeping pass the camera. All we can see is what looks to be a black-coated FIGURE. What is it? A person? An entity? We can’t tell, and goes by too fast to even make out. The GIRL doesn’t seem to notice anything though.

                                                                                    GIRL (V.O)

                                  (CONT.) …They’re everywhere…behind the trees…lurking in the shadows…

We cut to several different places in the woods, stopping at a few trees. Is something behind them? Maybe…maybe not…

The camera suddenly CUTS TO a shot of a house…we’re zooming in on it…heading straight for the front door…

                                                                                 GIRL (V.O)
           (CONT.) …They even try to get in our homes…Remember that door you could’ve sworn you kept locked? ….Or  that light tapping on the window your parents would always tell you was ‘just the wind’…those things that go bump in the night…things that use to have you waking up at night screaming bloody murder…

As she says these things, we are seeing them as we happen….a closet door seemingly opens by itself…someone tapping the blade of a knife against the window…and lastly, a child’s frightening SCREAM as they awake from a nightmare; but we can only see a child’s stuffed toy, falling and landing on the floor, right in front of the camera, while we hear a low GROWL come from under the bed. The prayer continues: “….If I die before I wake…”

We’re back in the woods now. The GIRL finally finds a place to stop at and drops the body bag. She looks around, slightly nervous but tries not to show it. She’s waiting for something…

                                                                                 GIRL (V.0)
       (CONT.) ….Every night each year I come down here, to give them what they want. It’s not much, really…only human flesh. Some might say that I’m the crazy, helping them steal innocent lives. But one life per night is better than thousands per day. But pretty soon…they’ll be hungry for more.   And when that happens…even I won’t be safe…no one will ever be safe from the things that lurk in the dark…

On that last line, we see someone sneaking up behind her. It’s the black-coated FIGURE. His face covered up by an eerie devil mask. He raises up his hand and we see a long blade glinting in the moonlight; the same blade that was tapping against the window earlier. He raises it high, and then, in one quick motion, he grabs the GIRL. She SCREAMS loudly, just as the screen goes blank and the credits starts to roll  

                                                                              The End