Killer In The Room

Written by
/u/talkingbook
Copyright (c) 2014 Giallo Draft
05/13/2014
INT. DINGY BASEMENT
A dingy basement one floor beneath a buther's shop.
DARIO BOSCH, a young, sharply dressed police inspector, is
trying to pick up a beautiful young American detective,
ANGELA.
Angela, having none of it, concentrates on her paperwork.
They speak in poorly OVERDUBBED ENGLISH, but it's clear by
how out of sink the sound is, they're speaking Italian.
DARIO
Italians make the finest horror
movies in the world. Better than the
French. Better than Japanese. And a
whole hell of a lot better than the
Americans. Giallo's we call them. You
ask me if you want to go, I know the
perfect place. Thursday night they
show Giallo double features. You have
to start with Argento, the early
films especially. 'The Bird With the
Crystal Plummage' being his
masterpiece. People say they have no
plots but I couldn't disagree more.
Violence no matter how beautiful is
meaningless without the heart and
soul of the characters.
Dario lights a cigarette.
DARIO (cont'd)
Critics call him a diminished Brava,
but that's bullshit. And I love
Brava. No if you want the real
inspiration of Argento's films, and
the Giallo in general, you have to go
back to not Brava, but Argentio's
mentor and inspiration, Sergio Leone.
Do you know him?
ANGELA
He made westerns, right?
DARIO
No. He defined them and changed the
face of all cinema at the same time.
In A Fistful of Dollars he took the
plots of the generally sanguine
American John Wayne pictures and gave
them heart and blood.
(MORE)
(CONTINUED)
With no censors here he was able to
DARIO (cont'd)
show the blood and savagery of the
old west. It was these masterworks, I
maintain, that gave us the genius
directors of the Italian Giallo.
ANGELA
Is this what all Italian police talk
about, or did I just get lucky being
partnered with you?
Dario drags on his cigarette and considers this challenge.
DARIO
What do police in New York talk
about?
ANGELA
Crooked politicians, garbage, and the
Yankees.
beat ( )
Unless there's a crime to be solved.
Then we talk about clues, evidence,
and catching scumbags. Not stupid
movies.
Angela steps away from Dario revealing THREE BADLY MUTILATED
CORPSES flat on the ground.
She kneels down at the first corpse, AN OLDER MALE, wearing
a butchers apron.
She notices his hands are tied.
ANGELA (cont'd)
The first victim was bound. It's hard
to tell without lab work but these
wounds appear to be inflicted after
he died. Maybe he was dragged here?
DARIO
How bout our lady friend?
The next body, a LARGE MIDDLE AGED WOMAN.
ANGELA
Again, hands tied. No post-mortem
bruising. Likely died here.
Dario agrees.
DARIO
And man number three?
(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED:
2.
The third victim on the floor, GUY IN MID-TWENTIES, appears
far more intact, hands free.
ANGELA
Strange. No bruising. Hands not tied.
DARIO
Do you think he died from fright?
ANGELA
Poison would be my guess.
DARIO
A butcher, his wife, and a mystery
man.
ANGELA
How do you know she's his wife?
Dario bends over the woman.
DARIO
When our two departments decided to
do this little exchange program, what
was your first thought?
ANGELA
All expenses paid visit to Rome.
DARIO
Did it not seem strange to you, to
get an offer like this out of the
blue?
ANGELA
Maybe a little. What are you driving
at?
DARIO
In America you have the idea of the
Bogey Man, right?
ANGELA
Yes.
DARIO
We have something similar to that as
well. Luomo Nero. A tall man with an
unseen face, a heavy coat, and a
black hat. He hides under the table,
taking, unsuspecting children away
who don't eat there supper. He leaves
a mark, resembles a set of horns.
(MORE)
(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED:
3.
Have you ever seen horns like that on
DARIO (cont'd)
any of your unsolved cases?
ANGELA
Had a guy killing prostitutes in
Manhattan. Carved a set of horns on
the victims left ring finger.
DARIO
Take a look.
She sees that the three victims do indeed have the horns on
their fingers.
Dario stands up.
DARIO (cont'd)
You asked how I knew these two were
married.
ANGELA
Yes.
DARIO
Matching wedding bands. And we can't
be sure but the guess is, that's
their son, poisoned.
ANGELA
Why was I not notified about this
before coming?
She stands up, agitated. Dario puffs on his cigarette.
ANGELA (cont'd)
Will you put that fucking thing out!
You'll contaminate the crime scene.
Dario puffs out a huge plume of smoke.
DARIO
In a windowless basement, far beneath
a buthchers shop, with three murdered
victims and clues scarce, we need to
use every means of detection to our
advantage.
ANGELA
Not following.
(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED:
4.
DARIO
When you have nothing to go on
sometimes, you need to notice the
air. See...
The smoke flows across the room, to a tiny grate near the
ceiling.
He walks over to it, following the smoke.
Using a knife from his pocket he removes the grate revealing
a hidden camera.
DARIO (cont'd)
Seems we're not alone. The killer is
in the room with us.
beat ( )
Come on. While we wait for the lab
results, we should see some Giallos.
Our friend thinks he's a filmmaker,
maybe we should study some films.
-- --- --
CONTINUED:
5.