ENTRANCE TWO
STARGHER'S WORLD: Catherine is locked in a box made of thick clean glass. The electronic hum becomes rhythmic, ambien noise . . . inside the box, staying calm, she searches for and finds a trap door on the top. She pushes out. The camera executes a complete 180-degree perspective change. Catherine plummets. She tries to reach out, to stop her descent, but cannot.
Catherine falls through a dark cavernous room resembling a mammoth hollowed-out rib cage. Below her is a dome like structure "growing" out of the floor, a hole in the center of its crest. Dozens of other such domes are visible in the murky hell-hole, but Catherine has no choice. She's dropping into this one.
Once she passes through the hole, inside the dome, Catherine's body looks as though it's moving through water, but there is no water. Like an aerial artist, she reverses her position so she's "heads up."
VOICE (echoing): Catherine.
Standing, stable, near the floor. Sensing something with her. And knows it is...
CATHERINE: Come here, boy. Valentine.
Out from the darkness, moving in normal motion, comes the white German Shepherd.
CATHERINE: Can you take me to Carl?
His face dissolves into a stark landscape, we see a house. Young Stargher retreats towards the bleak structure as Catherine approaches the door, she presses on.
STARGHER'S BOYHOOD HOME / KITCHEN: Young Stargher is at the sink washing dishes, an anxious eye on the clock.
CATHERINE: Need some help?
Catherine reaches the counter and helps with the dishes, much to Young Stargher's relief. As he works the dishes, Catherine hands him a mirror locket just like Edward's.
CATHERINE: I got a present for you.
He's hypnotized by the thing, his eyes lighting up.
CATHERINE: If you need me, or if you feel like I'm around but you can't find me, just shine it, like this.
She shines reflected light onto the walls. Carl sets down the plate and takes the locket. The dish slips from the counter and shatters on the floor. The boy's eyes fill with dread.
MARTIN (O.S.): Carl?
CATHERINE: What's the matter?
Carl pushes Catherine toward a broom closet and shoves her inside.
From within the closet, she watches the terrified child through a slot in the door. Startlingly, his father, Martin Stargher, is already in the kitchen. Cruel, imposing, manipulative man.
MARTIN: What happened over here? Broke all by itself, huh?
Catherine sees they are now sitting at the dinner table.
MARTIN: Did you break that plate?
YOUNG STARGHER: I broke the plate . . .
Young Stargher hardly gets out his confession before Martin smacks him hard on the head with a spoon.
MARTIN: Did you break that plate?!
In the closet, Catherine pushes, but the door won't budge.
CATHERINE: I broke the plate!
MARTIN: You think I'm made of money! But hey . . .
Martin flings a plate against the wall, smashing it.
MARTIN: Let's break them all, how about that! . . . You little fuckin' liar! I should have drowned you like the runt of the litter.
In the closet Catherine looks down and sees she's standing in a large but shallow glass bowl. Inside are snake and eels circling her feet. She moves away and looks out the closet, now they are in the living room.
An ugly middle aged woman barely wearing a man's robe sits with them. On a nearby table are whisky, tumblers, and an ashtray filled with butts. Martin wearing only his underwear. The woman has given young Stargher a toy doll.
MARTIN (O.S.): Dolls are for girls, you dumb whore. You don't give a boy a doll.
WOMAN: It's just a toy.
Martin rises and shoves the doll in her face. The woman cowers, familiar with his violent moods.
MARTIN: Shut up! You're not his mother! (to young Stargher) She's not your mother. She left us, Carl! Remember that!
Martin forcefully grabs young Stargher's shirt and pushes him towards the woman. He grabs her leg to open her crotch in view.
MARTIN: See that? See that! You slithered out one of them. But where is she now, Carl? As far from you as she could get, that's where.
In the closet, feeling the boy's shame, Catherine turns and finds a faded photo taped to the wall. It shows a dark bathroom with a tub and a wooden stool.
MARTIN (O.S.): Jesus Christ! What the fuck is this!
Catherine looks out the closet and now sees them in young Stargher's bedroom. Martin has discovered his son's secret hiding place - a camouflaged corner of the attic. Arranged in deliberate, artistic fashion are scavenged dolls. Heads, limbs and torsos held together with twine, tape and wire. Some wrapped in filthy plastic.
Faded photographs (including one of his mother), mementos, and most disturbingly, the feathers and bones of dead birds, insect carcasses, and dissected, desiccated mice. There's something peculiarly beautiful here, but Martin doesn't see it. Not at all. Little Carl scurries to get away.
>MARTIN: Get back . . . get over here! Playing with dolls! You little faggot!
The poor boy trembles with fear. Martin removes his belt from his pants and starts beating young Stargher viciously. Little Carl screams in agony.
MARTIN: Dammit! I'll give you something to cry about! I'll give you something to cry about! You momma's boy! I didn't raise no faggot!
In the closet, Catherine is helpless to stop him and can only cry. Martin goes over to his doll collection and sees young Stargher had plugged in an iron, perhaps for heating materials to work on the dolls. He grabs it, yanking the cord.
MARTIN: Stop your crying! You want to iron like a woman? Let me show you how to iron like a woman!
Catherine knows what's coming.
CATHERINE: NO!!!
Young Stargher lets out a blood curdling scream. In the closet, a weird noise snaps Catherine back to "reality." She turns just as a door opens behind her. Responding to the "invitation," she moves through it.
STARGHER'S BATHROOM: The adult Carl Stargher sits at the edge of the tub, his back to us, smoking a cigarette. A white German Shepherd puppy clicks across the floor. She again hears the wierd noise. A stainless steel bowl wobbles as Stargher's bloody rubber-gloved hands fill it with something. Stargher knows she's there and isn't surprised by her presence, but he's not sure what to make of her. What to do with her. Catherine sees a dead girl in the tub, her torso sliced open.
She turns, and Stargher is no longer at the sink. He rises and walks past her to the sink. He pulls off the gloves and washes his hands, glancing at her in the mirror.
STARGHER: She was my first... I made such a mess. Didn't know what I was doing...
Disgusted and mortified, she cautiously approaches.
STARGHER: Why are you here? Don't lie.
CATHERINE: I came to help you..
STARGHER (malevolent): Liar! Bitch. Whore.
Catherine stands her ground.
CATHERINE: You sound like your father.
Carl speaks with a distorted, surreal tone.
STARGHER: He was not! He is not!
CATHERINE: Who told you to say that? Do you remember the first time he talked to you? Were you in water? Maybe you went swimming . . .
STARGHER: It was my baptism. My father, he pushed me under. I think I had some kind of siezure, I think I was drowning. And everybody just looked at me, nobody helped me. My father, he took me home that night and he broke three of my ribs and fractured my jaw. I was six years old.
CATHERINE: What your father did to you is evil. What he did to you is wrong.
STARGHER: He was more powerful than me.
CATHERINE: No one should be treated like that.
|
