Among Us Memories

I heard from Mark Polonia last night that there's probably one more weekend of shooting on RAZORTEETH before packing it in to finish next spring, when the warm weather returns. I'll need to get going on PETER ROTTENTAIL for them to start on in a few weeks.

This part of AMONG US is one of my favorites in the movie. It's when I realized on the set that the movie was going to turn out pretty well. I looked through the viewfinder and the shot looked great, and the acting was really good.

It was also the scene where they had to use a copy of the script for kindling to get the roaring fire started, but you have to take the bad with the good in life.

DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. CABIN -- NIGHT
Wayne and Jennifer are sitting by a roaring fire outside. Billy drags another branch out of the forest and throws it on the fire. He stands and looks at it.
BILLY
So there are these two teenagers making out at Lover's Lane, and they hadn't been listening to the radio to hear the story about the escaped lunatic...
JENNIFER
Don't start that!
BILLY
Really, it's true. It happened to my cousin's best friend's brother.
JENNIFER
I think everybody has enough scary things on their minds right now.
Billy crouches down next to Wayne and pokes at the fire.
Jennifer turns to Wayne.
JENNIFER (CONT'D)
Have you ever seen one yourself, Wayne?
Wayne rolls up his sleeve and shows Jennifer his arm.
WAYNE
See that row of teeth marks?
(beat)
Florida Skunk Ape. And he smashed my camera on top of that. No proof of what did it, and my insurance never paid.
JENNIFER
Skunk ape?
Wayne nods sagely.
WAYNE
Some say he is the bigfoot's angry, smelly cousin.
JENNIFER
That's close enough then, I'd say.
WAYNE
I've also seen the real Minnesota Iceman. The one they keep in the same hangar in Indiana where the remains of the Groom Lake UFO crash are also stored.
(beat)
What about your story?
Jennifer shudders involuntarily, then smiles faintly.
JENNIFER
What, didn't you see "Hunger of Bigfoot?"
WAYNE
I mean your real story.
Jennifer composes herself.
JENNIFER
I was at a writer's retreat. A small house where artists could pay to stay a day or a week at a stretch.
(beat)
I thought I would be a poet at the time.
BILLY
And she was good, too.
JENNIFER
Don't remind me that you came along later.
(beat, thinking)
It was very late...maybe three or four a.m. I was pacing through the house, and I was the only guest awake. I had insomnia a lot then. I tried everything...sometimes a glass of wine, warm milk, a hot shower, just walking it out. I was in the kitchen, thinking I might warm a little something up. I don't know if I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, or what, but I was drawn to the kitchen window. I thought....I thought I might see a raccoon.
Jennifer pokes at the fire.
JENNIFER (CONT'D)
Instead, there was this massive, hairy face looking back at me. Not an ape face, like in Billy's movies. Not exactly what you would call a caveman face either. I wish I could explain the expression. I guess I would say curious. But the eyes...they didn't reflect anything human.
They all think on this for a moment.
WAYNE
How long did you stare at each other?
JENNIFER
A second...the rest of the night...I wish I knew. Then it was gone.
Billy broods. Wayne turns to him.
WAYNE
What about you, Billy?
BILLY
What about me?
WAYNE
Your sighting.
Billy just shakes his head.
BILLY
I don't want to talk about it.
Jennifer looks open-mouthed.
JENNIFER
Oh no you don't.
But Billy just gets up and walks away from the fire.
Wayne shoots a sidelong glance at Jennifer, and in a moment she is up and following him.
CUT TO:
EXT. WOODS -- MOMENTS LATER
Away from the campfire, with a glow at their backs and the blue shadows of the night in front of them, Jennifer confronts Billy by grabbing his shirt and spinning him around.
JENNIFER
Not this time, Billy. Last time it was all me giving and you taking. And I told you I wouldn't go through that again.
After a long moment of soul-searching, Billy nods his head.
BILLY
Did you bring a flashlight?
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. WOODS (RIVER) -- LATER
We see Jennifer's flashlight picking out a thread of white light through the trees. Soon the pair are at the river. They watch the moon play tricks on the water.
Billy and Jennifer stand quietly for a moment.
BILLY
I was thinking about the movie...you know, just walking along the water and mapping it all out in my head.
Billy ruminates, then points.
BILLY (CONT'D)
And then I saw him standing in the water over there, bigger than God.
(beat)
He just looked at me. That's all. But I could smell him...I could feel his heat. People talk about, you know, guys in suits. When he moved, he wasn't like any guy in a suit. Too fast, too fluid...it was alien. Completely alien. It's like, you know, if you pass a stray cat in an alley or something. You both exist on earth and everything, but it's two different worlds. And that creature cared about as much for me as I would for that stray cat. And I've...I've never felt that way before. That the world was so big and that my part...
Billy just trails off. After a while Jennifer takes his hand and squeezes it.


Shout-outs welcome at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.