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The Dunwich Horror 4
OPENING, EPISODE 4
ANNOUNCER The Dunwich Horror By H.P. Lovecraft
ANNOUNCER When a traveller in north central
Massachusetts takes the wrong fork at the
junction of Aylesbury pike just beyond
Dean's Corners he comes upon a lonely and
curious country.
ANNOUNCER __________ as Dr. Henry Armitage
ARMITAGE Some of the Whateleys and Bishops still send
their eldest sons to Harvard and Miskatonic,
though those sons seldom return to the
mouldering gambrel roofs under which they
and their ancestors were born.
ANNOUNCER __________ as Professor Warren Rice
WARREN Dunwich is indeed ridiculously old - older
by far than any of the communities within
thirty miles of it. South of the village one
may still spy the cellar walls and chimney
of the ancient Bishop house, which was built
before 1700; whilst the ruins of the mill at
the falls, built in 1806, form the most
modern piece of architecture to be seen.
ANNOUNCER __________ as Dr. Francis Morgan
MORGAN Oldest of all are the great rings of rough-
hewn stone columns on the hilltops, but
these are more generally attributed to the
Indians than to the settlers.
ANNOUNCER and __________ as Lavinia Whateley
©2011 Julie Hoverson (screnzy)
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LAVINIA [voiceover throughout] Folk wondered how
swiftly or how lingeringly a cow or bullock
was usually sacrificed. There was talk of a
complaint to the Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Animals but nothing ever came
of it, since Dunwich folk are never anxious
to call the outside world's attention to
themselves.
MUSIC
RICE [v.o.] Morgan stumbled out of the bushes, a
local lad over his shoulder. As the
townsfolk were simply staring, slack-jawed,
I leapt into action.
SCENE 4-1
AMB OUTSIDE
SOUND BODY DROP (from before)
RICE Catch him!
EARL Here. [anxious] And Chauncey?
CHAUNCEY [Moan]
LUTHER [relieved] Not dead! Praise god!
MORGAN [weakly, gasping for breath] Boy saved me.
Showed me a cut in the hillside. It
couldn't follow... though it tried hard
enough.
CHAUNCEY [moan]
LUTHER What's wrong with him? [Chauncey]
MORGAN [a couple of deep breaths] I don't know. He
looked back, and just - collapsed.
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ARMITAGE Bring him. Morgan, are you - able?
MORGAN Might be in a minute. Depends. [wry snort]
D'you have my flask?
RICE [sigh relief, almost ends in chuckle] Here.
LAVINIA After mama passed, I cud be gone too.
Stayed out in the woods fer un whole entire
night, and a day, father paid no mind atall.
suhtimes I think maybe I died too.
SCENE 4-2
AMB IN CAR
RICE Take it slow, Morgan. You're still a bit
wobbly on your pins.
MORGAN [grim] We'll have to take it slow, with so
many on the runners. It was carrying the
boy made me take a tumble, not... what
happened.
ARMITAGE We need to know, Morgan. Anything you can
tell us.
MORGAN [low] When it's just the three of us. [up]
Is the boy all right?
RICE I think his arm is broken, and he's still
unconscious, but he's alive.
LUTHER You can leave him with me and Miz Corey. Ef
you'll stop in there.
ARMITAGE The rest of you will come with us, won't
you? At least as far as the "low place?"
We need help to find our way.
EARL Well--
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SILAS [slow, reluctant] Yes. We will. [definite]
That far and no further.
ARMITAGE Understood.
LAVINIA Trees're alive 'n grass're alive 'n morning
glories and everythin all alive. All live.
All quiet. Not quiet like home, where
father sits with books and I just... sit.
SCENE 4-3
AMB OUTSIDE
EARL There it is up yonder. Ef you squint, yew
kin see the table rock atop the hill.
RICE No need to squint.
SOUND METAL SQUEAKS, TELESCOPE BEING PUT TOGETHER
RICE Just a little focus. Ah! It does look like
a table, doesn't it?
SILAS Zat a spyglass?
RICE Telescope. Basically the same - refractors
and reflectors and all that, but mostly it's
just bigger. Would you like to look?
SILAS I? No. Too many things up and out there I
shouldn't want to see, up close.
EARL Might I?
RICE Certainly. In fact, why don't you fellows
hold onto this while we-- [faltering a bit]
we go on up there.
EARL Ayup. [looking - scared, awe] Ah! The
entire hill looks like it's close enough to
touch!
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LAVINIA Brown'n white. Brown'n white's cows. Brown
'n white's folks. All got brown 'n white -
'ceptin me. Tuk Maimie's clean whites off
th'line in th'dark 'n mashed 'em in th'brown
mud. How she carried on! Why'd she get all
th'pretty thin's?
SCENE 4-4
AMB OUTSIDE
SOUND WALKING
ARMITAGE Are you up to telling us now, Morgan?
MORGAN [very tense] Once we're up the hill and back
into clear sunlight, maybe.
RICE [trying to break the tension] Zebulon, back
at the house, told me some interesting
things about Wilbur's childhood. He seemed
quite impressed with your esoteric
ramblings, Armitage.
ARMITAGE [wry] Good to know my utter humiliation
served a purpose.
MORGAN [blurting] The bullets didn't even slow it
down!
A MOMENT
ARMITAGE [carefully neutral] Yes?
MORGAN [wobbling a bit] They kept shooting and
shooting, [a breath that is almost a sob]
and it kept coming.
RICE [urgent] What did you see?
ARMITAGE [calming] Tch! Let him tell it.
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MORGAN [manly sniff, then hollow and haunted] A
wave - a wave of wind. There was nothing at
all to see, and yet the trees bent, and the
grass flattened.
ARMITAGE [calm, understanding] As we expected.
RICE [taking the cue and staying calm] Yes, yes.
MORGAN [almost a whisper] Yes. [ramping up] But
none of our expectations could have prepared
us for [snarl] THAT--
RICE [voice over] Stunned or not, shocky or not,
Morgan had withstood a dreadful ordeal with
excessive fortitude. Who else could face
such an abomination and still have the
mental capacity to speak coherently of it?
LAVINIA Words words words. Books're words that keep
f'rever like stones. Father's're full of
words with teeth like rattlers. I want soft
'n small 'n quiet, like puffs of air, spoke
to another as mama talked 'n like them pairs
as walk out inta them woods.
SCENE 4-5
AMB COLD SPRING GLEN
COP1 [whispered] I hear something up ahead,
sarge.
O'REILLY [whispered] Good. Quiet, now.
SOUND SLOWLY CRUNCHING FOOTSTEPS
SOUND DISTANT CREAK OF WOOD, NOISE OF MONSTER
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O'REILLY [whispered commands] Fan out, boys. Two up
that way, the rest over here.
COPS [Right! Yes sir!]
WILLIAMS [aside, to Morgan] He was "over there".
MORGAN Ah.
WILLIAMS [explaining] In the Great War.
MORGAN Yes, I got that.
SOUND FOOTSTEPS MOVE TO THE SIDES
SOUND DISTANT CRASH
WILLIAMS [whispered] Ready, now?
MORGAN [whispered] I very much doubt it.
LAVINIA why fuss over mud? Messy, yeah, but cool
and soft. And do stop them words - them
soft ones - when mud craps from up a tree
and ruins a party dress. Or hair.
invisible - a word like ripples on a brook -
thass me, up in them trees.
SCENE 4-6
AMB HILLSIDE
MORGAN Even in that half light, down there, we
could see it coming - or rather [haunted] we
saw nothing.
ARMITAGE You have that sprayer handy?
RICE Right here. I'll get started, build up some
pressure.
SOUND PUMPING
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MORGAN Even if we can see it, I - I don't think
anything we can do will-- [falters, gasp]
ARMITAGE [gently, coaxing] Then why are you still
carrying your gun?
MORGAN [a bit lost] Oh, that. I never - never -
[loses it] I never took a single shot!
[manly sob]
ARMITAGE Oh, dear.
RICE Morgan? Morgan? [calming] If you never
took a shot, then we don't know your rifle
will be ineffective.
MORGAN But the other guns, they-- [long shuddering
breath]
RICE Did it not react at all? As far as you
could see?
MORGAN [back to grim] Oh, it reacted all right.
LAVINIA Father whupped me fer talkin to Sally up to
town. Fillin me with nonsense bout a magic
babe what come long time ago to help folks.
Said them thick enough t'b'lieve in mary and
jesus deserve whate'er it is come fer them.
SCENE 4-7
AMB COLD SPRING GLEN
COP1 I see movement!
SOUND FLUTTER OF PANICKED BIRDS
O'REILLY Ready!
SOUND RUSTLE, CRASH
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SOUND CREATURE ROAR
WILLIAMS Watch the trees! they're parting... and ...
COP1 I don't see anything!
WILLIAMS It's the shady light down here!
O'REILLY Must be colored like the leaves.
MORGAN Then why am I seeing a patch of sunlight
through it?
O'REILLY [hissed] Stifle! It's just about in range!
COP2 Where?
WILLIAMS Aim between the trees - hiding or not, once
it bleeds, we'll see that.
O'REILLY Go!
SOUND GUNS UNLEASH
SOUND MONSTER ROARRRR!
LAVINIA Hurt! So bad! Father said pain is good-
pain is shown y'are alive. Screamed 'n
screamed - like mud was fillin m'eyes 'n
ears, 'n mouth 'n... others... drownin' like
a cat I thrown in the well and sticked down
til it stopped movin'.
SCENE 4-8
AMB HILLSIDE
MORGAN They unloaded all five guns, and I think at
least two of them reloaded, before it [deep
breath] reached us.
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RICE I think we're almost to that subordinate
hilltop. Looks like a good place to get our
bearings. Watch what it does.
MORGAN That's what I did - I just watched.
[horribly guilty] I didn't even unsling my
rifle, just stared.
ARMITAGE Fascination, in the deepest sense of the
word.
MORGAN [continues] I could not take my eyes off the
trees and bushes, and how they moved around
"it" - such a phenomena as I've never even
imagined before.
RICE We'll likely be seeing it again - soon.
ARMITAGE Sooner than you think. Look.
SOUND DISTANT CREAK OF TREE, RUSTLE OF BUSHES
MORGAN [shaky] Oh heavens!
LAVINIA All thanks to him as come to me, for all the
pain and all the time's gone away in my head
now I got him. My perfect baby. Papa let
me give him Wilbur for a name, since he has
the handlin of aught else.
SCENE 4-9
AMB ROAD, TOWNSFOLK
EARL They've gotten up past the trees! Surprised
how fast they can move it up there.
SILAS Steep enough a goat'd go round.
OSBORN Even that old feller?
EARL Them others have to help him time to time.
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OSBORN Why a gaffer like that would go gadding
about in other people's misery is beyond me.
CURTIS Let someone else have a gander, there, Earl!
EARL Just a tick. Ah. They're setting down.
Fixing to wait. Here.
SOUND METAL CHANGES HANDS
CURTIS Yuh too kind. [looking] Hmm. Ah, I see
them! [gasp, horrified] And I see - I see--
SILAS What?
CURTIS 'Gawd almighty, the grass an' bushes is
a'movin'! It's a-goin' up - slow-like -
creepin' - up ter the top this minute,
heaven only knows what fur!'
EARL Give over!
CURTIS Take it. I don't want to see no more.
EARL I wonder ef they kin see it from where
they're settin'.
OSBORN [hesitant] Maybe we should signal, like?
It's slow in the goin, they kin still get
ahead of it.
ZEBULON What? Yell? They'll never hear.
CURTIS Shoot off a gun, then.
SILAS No! Never! It will hear it and come a-
lookin.
EARL I think it's purt near set on the path it's
-- [cuts off with a Startled shriek, as--]
SOUND GUNSHOT
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OBORNE Right in my ear.
SILAS [terrified] It'll come!
ZEBULON [dead certain] Ain't nothin in this world'll
distract that beast, not now. Not ever
again, whatever happens.
LAVINIA Time and again, father said how we'd be like
mary 'n jesus only with real gods to give
him to me, and real power to change the
world, but don't care a snip fer that. just
wanted my baby. My wilbur. Someone to love
me, and be my very own. Foever.
SCENE 4-10
AMB HILLSIDE
SOUND DISTANT RUMBLING, GROWS THROUGHOUT THE SCENE
SOUND WHIPPOORWILLS BEGINS
MORGAN [breathless from climbing, but grim] You've
never seen anything quite so disturbing as a
man lifted into midair and pulled apart like
a toy by something ...unseen.
RICE [sympathetic noise] Mm.
ARMITAGE [very out of breath] And the boy?
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MORGAN Just as the thing finished with the last of
the hapless policemen, I heard a noise
behind me. It took the utmost effort of
will to turn my head, to ... [falters, quick
breath] to not look. And there he was,
beckoning up between the rocks. It was
quite a narrow and secret way, the kind boys
always seem to find, and it ... it couldn't
follow.
RICE Close shave.
ARMITAGE [breathing very hard, between the words] Do
you see where the creature has got to?
RICE I'll look - you rest.
SOUND GUNSHOT
ARMITAGE What's that?
MORGAN [panicking a bit] I don't know!
RICE [commanding] I'll go look!
SOUND FOOTSTEPS AWAY
MORGAN You shouldn't be here, Henry old man.
ARMITAGE [wry] As it might be the death of me? If
we don't stand, it will be far worse.
MORGAN But you--
SOUND RICE RETURNING, FAST
RICE [panting a bit] That was a signal. It's
getting close.
ARMITAGE Ready the sprayer. It may only appear for a
brief moment or two, but it will give us
something to aim at. You must be prepared--
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MORGAN To see such a hideous thing? Of course.
RICE Yes.
ARMITAGE Promise me, Rice. If I falter, you will
take this--
SOUND PAPER
ARMITAGE --and finish the spell, at any cost.
SOUND PAPER RUSTLES
RICE This is it? The incantation? Seems a
bit ...short
ARMITAGE You may be surprised - we shall have to keep
repeating it until it takes full effect.
[grim] No matter what.
RICE Of course.
MORGAN [teasing a bit] And I?
ARMITAGE [joking] Your latin pronunciation is
atrocious.
MORGAN [grim again] Hunh. I'll be the distraction
then. Just say when.
RICE [whispered to armitage] You would risk your
life, Henry?
ARMITAGE [annoyed, but trying to make light] You two
mother hens. I'd be dead either way.
LAVINIA his baby! my baby! why does he need so much
of my sweet wilbur? He's growin so fast and
strong but I don't bother over nothin odd he
does, for he loves me.
SCENE 4-11
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AMB ROAD, TOWNSFOLK
OSBORN [looking through the telescope] They're
getting the sprayer ready!
CURTIS Pass the glass along!
SILAS I wouldn't look if you paid me.
EARL He gave it t'me in the first place!
OSBORN Hold your damn hosses. Both of you.
SILAS Maybe we should ought to try and recall our
prayers, at a final moment like this.
ZEBULON Maybe it ain't thy Christian god thee
should'a been praying to all along, eh?
OSBORN Hush! It was talk like that brung up things
like that up there. Here, Curtis.
CURTIS [to Osborn, taking the telescope] Thanks
ever so.
ZEBULON They's gods that grant without askin the
whole entire world in return.
OSBORN You're as bad as old Wizard was! I've
always said--
EARL This ain't the time--
CURTIS [screams]
SILAS What?
EARL Catch him!
ZEBULON What? What'd thee see?
CURTIS Oh, oh, great Gawd... that... that...
ZEBULON [urgent] What?
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CURTIS [faints]
LAVINIA no! Said let t'other take on the mantel, 'n
father locked me in m'room for nigh a week,
and no one left outside to look after Wilbur
but them. Come out, 'n suthin's different.
Tis in the air. Thick as mud.
RICE [voice over] The powder revealed the
creature's visage - a monstrous apport none
on this earth have ever seen before, or god
willing shall ever see again. We stiffened
our resolve, and set on the next portion of
Armitage's plan.
SCENE 4-12
AMB HILLSIDE
NOTE - FACING THE CREATURE, ALL THREE MEN ARE VERY TENSE AND
CONTROLLING THEIR TERROR - THEY HAVE SEEN
ITS FACE!!!!
SOUND MONSTER NOISE - IT SEEMS CONFUSED
RICE Good god, it's huge!
MORGAN I told you - but seeing it, even for an
instant... is so much worse!
ARMITAGE [beginning a chant] [lorem ipsum]
MORGAN [manning up] I'll try and - and keep its
attention.
RICE Go.
ARMITAGE [chanting]
RICE [puzzled] It's - it's moving away?
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ARMITAGE [breaking off the chant] Stay with it.
Don't let it get out of hearing.
RICE Why isn't it - well - attacking us?
ARMITAGE [very grim] A malign singleness of purpose,
I fear. We must get to the top of the hill
before it does.
SOUND HUGE GUNSHOT
RICE Good old Morgan. Come along, then. I'll
carry you on my back if that's what it
takes.
LAVINIA Used to done everythin together - showed him
all th'best trees, stones on the hill - now
he says go back mother, but don't sound like
mother. Sound like toadstool 'n potato like
everyone else calls me! What got into him!
SCENE 4-13
AMB ROAD, TOWNSFOLK
CURTIS [horrified mumbling] Bigger'n a barn... all
made o' squirmin' ropes...
EARL Hush now, Curtis. Hush.
CURTIS The hull thing sort o' shaped like a hen's
egg bigger'n anything with dozens o' legs
like hogs-heads that haff shut up when they
step...
ZEBULON I told thee all. More'n oncet I told thee.
But wouldst any take heed?
OSBORN [quiet strain under osborn's weight] I gotta
lay him down.
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CURTIS Nothin' solid abaout it - all like jelly,
an' made o' sep'rit wrigglin' ropes pushed
clost together... great bulgin' eyes all
over it...
SILAS Let's get him over theere. Not s'muddy.
SOUND FEET MOVING
EARL Where's the-- aha.
SOUND PICKS UP TELESCOPE
SILAS [loudly hissed] Y'ain't gonna look!
EARL Someone has ta.
CURTIS [still muttering] ten or twenty maouths or
trunks a-stickin' aout all along the sides,
big as stove-pipes an all a-tossin' an
openin' an' shuttin'...
ZEBULON [serious] Come to eat the world, need a
sight of mouths.
CURTIS all grey, with kinder blue or purple
rings... an' Gawd in Heaven - that haff face
on top...' [wailing groan, passes out]
LAVINIA Ghost in m'own house agin. Father 'n Wilbur
spend all the time upstairs, and say I ain't
fit. Frettin' - nigh on had a fit when a
feller come through sellin fish 'n made to
try the door. He laughed, but not me, jest
prayed he din’t hear the hooves up there.
SCENE 4-14
AMB HILLSIDE
SOUND RISING WINDS AND NOISE - THE MEN MUST SHOUT
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ARMITAGE [chanting]
RICE It isn't having any effect!
ARMITAGE [stops, gasping for breath] Take it up.
Keep it going.
RICE [yelling] We could use a distraction!
ARMITAGE A what?
SOUND GUN SHOT
SOUND MONSTER ROAR
ARMITAGE [realizing] Ahhhh. Morgan. [gulping
breath, then yelling to the others] Keep it
from reaching the altarstone if we can.
RICE I'll move us a little closer. Here, lean on
me. I can chant while we walk. [begins
chant]
SOUND AWKWARD FOOSTEPS
RICE [voice over] Armitage's age and recent bout
of illness were clearly showing in his face
- greying in the thickening unnatural
twilight. And yet his lips were set in a
determination firm as any general in ages
past.
LAVINIA Ast wilbur - can't ast father - can't be
bothered with me no more - ast why they want
to do what they're purposin'. Why clear the
Earth atall? Glare poked me to th'heart all
while he was sayin "tis polluted by useless
creatures ...like you." [whimper]
SCENE 4-16
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AMB ROAD, TOWNSFOLK
EARL Two of them have made the topmost ridge -
apart from the table, but acrost from it.
ZEBULON Known better than to get within reach. More
sense than I give em credit fer.
SILAS Two? Did one of them fall aready?
SOUND GUN SHOT
MEN [all gasp]
SILAS That won't do no good - din't do them police
fellers no good.
EARL Glads my heart to hear, natheless.
OSBORN Drawin' down dark - [sarcastic] just what
they need, a thundershower.
SILAS T'ain't no storm!
ZEBULON [spooky] The Dark at noonday will herald the
opening of the way.
EARL If you can't say something nice, don't say
nothing atall!
SILAS It is a-gettin' dark up there.
OSBORN JUST up there.
ZEBULON [ominous] t'will spread over the face of the
land like wine stain on clean linens.
EARL [more fearful than angry] I said SHUT IT!
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LAVINIA Father gone, tis just me and them upstairs.
Wilbur 'n... that I never seen. Sounds so
big now. Wilbur's kinder - mebba thinks I
mourn father's passin. Wish it happened
years agone. Afore everythin went bad. But
not afore the birth. No - I wouldn't give
up my babies for nothin'.
SCENE 4-17
AMB HILLSIDE
SOUND MORE WIND, LIGHT STARTS TO GO. LIGHTNING
RICE I can't read any more! It's getting too
dark!
ARMITAGE Stay with me as best as you can. I have it
memorized - I hope.
MORGAN Science triumphs again.
SOUND CLICK - FLASHLIGHT ON
SOUND CREATURE MAKES A NOISE
ARMITAGE [chant for a minute, then] It's not working!
RICE I have an idea - the banishment of solomon!
MORGAN The what?
RICE A series of gestures outlined in the book of
Inanna of perimedes - an ancient alchemical
text. For the safe renunciation of summoned
spirits.
ARMITAGE Show us! Quickly! I'll continue the chant!
MORGAN It's at the altar!
RICE How can you tell? The powder faded--
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Page 22
MORGAN Just can. There's a-a "mistiness" when the
lightning flashes.
ARMITAGE All the more reason for us to keep moving
forward with the spell. Show us, Rice.
ALL THREE [CHANT]
ORVILLE Ygnailh... ygnaiih... thflthkh'ngha.... Yog-
Sothoth ...
MORGAN [gasp]
RICE [whispered] Invisible, and yet not silent.
ARMITAGE [grim] keep chanting!
LAVINIA "tis Hallowmass, mother." mother felt like
love again. "Time to see what we wrought."
So proud of him. of them. Opened the door
t'upstairs 'n led me up, he did. Father
kept us runnin onward so long and now,
finally - to see what's at the end.
RICE [voice over] Without warning came those
deep, cracked, raucous vocal sounds. Not
from any human throat were they born, for
the organs of man can yield no such acoustic
perversions. It is almost erroneous to call
them sounds at all, since so much of their
ghastly, infra-bass timbre [tam-bra] spoke
to dim seats of consciousness and terror far
subtler than the ear.
SCENE 4-18
AMB ROAD, TOWNSFOLK
EARL I guess he's sayin' the spell.
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Page 23
OSBORN Looks like they all are, dancing and a
shouting up there. God preserve em.
SILAS God preserve us, if they falter.
ZEBULON Hmph.
EARL And them Whippoorwills! What cud that
portent?
ZEBULON I cud tell thee, but will aught listen?
SOUND RUMBLING, THUNDER
SILAS [resigned] Tis the wrath o' god.
ZEBULON Mayhap, but which one?
EARL Sothin's happenin! Some kinda light!
SOUND PORTAL NOISE BEGINS
NECRONOMICON The gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate... where
the Old Ones broke through... no one can
behold Them as They tread. ...that shape
without sight or substance ... mutters with
Their consciousness.
SCENE 4-19
AMB HILLSIDE
[still shouting - noise is rising]
ORVILLE Yog-Sothoth ... Y'bthnk... h'ehye -
n'grkdl'lh...
ARMIOTAGE [chanting]
MORGAN That light!
RICE The gate is opening!!!
MORGAN What is that?
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Page 24
RICE Something's coming through!
ARMITAGE The chant and the gestures, boys! Don't
stop for anything! This may be our last
hope!
ALL THREE [start the chant again]
NECRONOMICON Nor is it to be thought that man is ...
earth's master...The Old Ones shall be. The
wind gibbers with Their voices, and the
earth mutters with Their consciousness.
SCENE 4-20
AMB HILLSIDE
SOUND DISTANT BARKING OF DOGS.
SOUND WHIPPORWHILS CRECENDO
ORVILLE [chanting]
ALL THREE [Chanting]
SOUND CRACKING AND RUMBLING
SOUND LIGHTNING FLASHES
SOUND WARP IN THE PORTAL NOISE
ARMITAGE It's faltering!
SOUND BULLETS INTO RIFLE
MORGAN Let's see if this will throw it off its
stride.
SOUND GUNSHOT
ORVILLE [SHRIEK]
SOUND GUNSHOT
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ORVILLE Eh-y-ya-ya-yahaah - e'yayayaaaa...
ngh'aaaaa... ngh'aaa... h'yuh... h'yuh...
HELP! HELP!
SOUND NOISES WARp, CRECENDO
ORVILLE HELP! ...ff - ff - ff - FATHER! FATHER! YOG-
SOTHOTH!...
SOUND HORRIBLE ENDING!!!!!! NOISE CONTINUES UNDER
RICE, OBSCURING SOME OF HIS WORDS
RICE A single lightning bolt shot from the purple
zenith to the altar-stone, and a great tidal
wave of viewless force and indescribable
stench swept down from the hill to all the
countryside.
SCENE 4-21
AMB ROAD, TOWNSFOLK
EARL I heard that!
SILAS Get down!
EARL You can't tell me you didn't!
OSBORN It's a-comin!
EARL No! They stopped it! I swear'n they did!
ZEBULON Its going out should be terrible to behold.
SOUND HUGE WIND SUDDENLY HITS
SILAS I said get down!
SOUND BODIES DROP
ZEBULON [muttered like a mantra] Great Cthulhu is
their cousin, yet can he see them only
dimly!
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SOUND THUMP
ZEBULON [ungh - knocked out]
SILAS Hmph. I'm that tired o' him.
RICE The pallid group in the road jumped
violently at the terrific report which
seemed to rend the hills; the deafening,
cataclysmic peal whose source no hearer was
ever able to place.
SCENE 4-22
AMB HILLSIDE
SOUND HORRIFIC CRACKING NOISES - STONE BREAKING
MORGAN I don't "see" it any more?
RICE Time to go. Armitage?
ARMITAGE [exhausted] Tired...
RICE Grab him before he falls!
MORGAN [grunt as he catches] Gotcha.
RICE I'll get the other side--
MORGAN Go on, you lead. You've got the flashlight?
I can't see a damn thing in the dark.
RICE Yes. All right. [looking around] Hmm.
[definite] Right. This way, then.
SOUND THE WIND IS DYING DOWN, BUT...
SOUND SMALL IMPACT
MORGAN [panicked] Oh god, what now?
SOUND SMALL IMPACT
RICE Something falling--
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Page 27
SOUND MORE OF THEM
MORGAN Keep moving! If anything got through that
gate, we'll have to regroup.
SOUND THUMPS GO ON
SOUND RUNNING IN GRASS
RICE The stench left quickly, but the vegetation
never came right again. To this day there is
something queer and unholy about the growths
on and around that fearsome hill.
SCENE 4-23
AMB ROAD, TOWNSFOLK
SOUND SMALL THUDS, BEGINNING
SOUND THE MEN ARE ALL SLIGHTLY MUFFLED, TUCKED
FLAT, TRYING TO STAY SAFE
EARL Hail?
OSBORN Ow! Ain't been hail this hard since
eighteen ninety five- oh my gawd!
SILAS Don't tell me. I want to go to my maker
innocent as a babe.
OSBORN [snide] So glad you have a dream, Silas.
[grunts and he gets up, then hit again] Ow!
It's ... [laughs in wonder]
SOUND THUMPS BEGIN TO SLACK OFF A BIT
OSBORN It's safe, fellers. They won't do you no
harm. Can't even peck y'no more.
EARL What? [coming up, getting it] Hah! You want
to tell him?
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Page 28
OSBORN It's whippoorwills, Silas. And they're all
dead.
SOUND THUMP
RICE As we approached, the scattered senses of
poor Curtis Whateley began to knit back into
a sort of continuity. Memory seemed to pick
itself up where it had left off, and, not
realizing the events he had passed through,
insensible, the horror of the sight that had
prostrated him burst in upon him again.
SCENE 4-24
AMB ROAD, TOWNSFOLK
CURTIS [muttering, waking]
SOUND THE THREE APPROACHING
OSBORN Can we help you fellers atall?
MORGAN We'll be fine. After a bit of rest.
ARMITAGE You can put me down now, boys.
RICE Gently now.
SOUND HELPING ARMITAGE INTO SITTING
ARMITAGE [noise of sitting, deep breath, quiet
chuckle] This'll be a story for the
journals, Rice.
RICE More like the stories my friend Edward
writes.
CURTIS [wakes with a yell] Oh! Oh my Gawd!
OSBORN [annoyed sigh] Oh, someone tell him it's all
over.
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EARL It is all over, isn’t it?
ARMITAGE Yes. Shh.
CURTIS [muttering, earnest, urgent] that haff face
- that haff face on top of it... that face
with the red eyes an' crinkly albino hair,
an' no chin, like the Whateleys...
SILAS Hush, Curtis. It's a-gone now.
CURTIS It was a octopus, centipede, spider kind o'
thing, but they was a haff-shaped man's face
on top of it, an' it looked like Wizard
Whateley's, only it was yards an' yards
acrost....
ZEBULON [distant, musing] Fifteen year' gone, I
heered Ol' Whateley say as haow some day
we'd hear a child o' Lavinny's a-callin' its
father's name on the top o' Sentinel Hill...
OSBORN [ignoring him] What was it, anyhaow, an'
haowever did young Wizard Whateley call it
aout o' the air it come from?
ARMITAGE [heavy sigh] It was - well, it was mostly a
kind of force that doesn't belong in our
part of space; a kind of force that acts and
grows and shapes itself by other laws than
those of our sort of Nature.
SILAS But how do they--?
ARMITAGE We have no business calling in such things
from outside, and only very wicked people
and very wicked cults ever try to.
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Page 30
EARL [not joking] Like opening the door and
lettin a fox in at the hens, eh?
ARMITAGE Mm. There was some of it in Wilbur Whateley
himself - enough to make a devil and a
precocious monster of him, and to make his
passing out a pretty terrible sight.
RICE [quiet] Amen to that.
ARMITAGE I'm going to burn his accursed diary, and if
you men are wise you'll bring down that
altar-stone up there, and all the rings of
standing stones on the other hills.
MORGAN [grim] I'll personally send a consignment of
dynamite.
ARMITAGE Those stones brought down the beings those
Whateleys were so fond of - the beings they
were going to let in, tangibly to wipe out
the human race and drag the earth off to
some nameless place for some nameless
purpose.
NECRONOMICON After summer is winter, after winter summer.
[huge, and yet fading out] They wait.
ARMITAGE But as to this thing we've just sent back -
the Whateleys raised it for a terrible part
in the doings that were to come. It grew
fast and big from the same reason that
Wilbur grew fast and big - but it beat him
because it had a greater share of the
outsideness in it.
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Page 31
LAVINIA Only ever saw Wilbur. Father said be happy
with my share of th'god's bounty. Now my
baby, grown so tall, took me up them stairs
to face the other. Twas hallowmass, and I
wan't afeared no more.
ARMITAGE You needn't ask how Wilbur called it out of
the air. He didn't call it out. It was his
twin brother, but it looked more like the
father than he did.
LAVINIA [fading] Part of my boys ...forever.
END OF DUNWICH HORROR
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