A Grave on Deacon's Peak: Prologue

 

OPENING SEQUENCE:

A dark swamp, barely visible. Into the scene comes PA, wading through the dark shallow water, carrying a dim lamp. He is dressed, most incongruously, in rather fancy 19th Century clothing, now soiled and somewhat ripped. He stops his slogging and leans against a tree, listening. Many different swamp noises. He proceeds more quietly, looking cautious. One noise begins to stand out: something large is approaching, slowly at first, then faster and more obviously. PA quickens his pace until he is actually fleeing, and the noise is churning behind him. He comes upon a decayed house and tries to enter it, but the door will not open despite his desperate efforts. The unseen thing is suddenly upon him and there is a roar. He turns in fear in a sudden close up of his widening eye. The screen goes black.   There is a pause, and then the title comes up:

 

A GRAVE ON DEACON’S PEAK

 

Music up softly, title down, and then BOB speaks in the darkness:

 

BOB: My name is Bob Bellamy, and in the year 1803, when I was twelve years old, I had the most peculiar adventure you ever heard of. This is how it began.

 

FADE IN to a distant shot of New York City in 1803, that draws in until we are in FROBISHER’S office.

A while back I considered trying to write a film script, adapting my book A Grave on Deacon's Peak. I wanted to start it off, well, short and spicy, showing something never described in the book, though hinted at: the peril of Bob's father and a tease of his possible fate. It would set up the dilemma that starts the story in a more cinematic, dramatic way than the book does. I continued the adaptation for a while before it stalled at the morning after the mountain thunderstorm.