Page 42 of The Cut
Then very slowly Ben rolls off and collapses into a deep slumber.
Mark lies awake, eyes wide, glued to the shadows on the canvas, as if he will never sleep again.166
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FEBRUARY 2024
‘Roll A008 Scene 23 Take 1. Mark it.’
‘I’m not afraid of him.’ The girl being held in an embrace was clearly upset. Her tears seemed real. At distance, the camera crept painfully slowly towards them, as if stalking from behind, their faces obscured.
‘I know.’ The boy spoke in a low whisper, barely voiced. ‘But you know you’re safe with me.’ He pulled her in closer.
‘I’ve told him I’m not ready.’ The girl’s face was suddenly revealed as clouds passed across the moon. She appeared almost in monochrome; her eyes shone as the camera finally moved into a close-up.
‘Good timing,’ Max muttered to himself.
‘I understand.’ The boy stood and gestured towards the tents. ‘You know it’s just us here.’ His hand reached out and she held it tentatively. ‘You can always talk to me.’
He’s a bit wooden, but she’s good. Max made a note.
It was normal to introduce a jump scare early in the story. The boy and girl were about to ‘split up’, which always signalled that one of them was about to die. In the edit, they would lose him and focus entirely on her face. It was all about her reaction anyway – after all, it was her story.
An animal shrieks deep in the dense thicket of trees.
‘That wasn’t a fox.’ The girl pulled away and stood up from the bench, wrapping her coat tightly around her as she backed off into the shadow of the trees. ‘What was it? What’s out there?’168
Her improvisation was good, she was completely present, racked with fear. A flicker of light from a torch passed between the trees.
The boy stood from the bench and moved slowly forward, deeper into the thicket towards the fading light. The body language was stiff, he didn’t know what to do with his hands. The camera followed, and then a peal of mocking laughter rang out across the campsite.
‘Someone’s spying on us.’ His voice was like gravel. ‘Stay here … don’t move.’
The boy walked forward. The lack of wind and the unnatural stillness made Max lean in closer. The tension wound tighter and was about to break. No one moved a muscle. Then the camera moved rapidly in a startling push, up close, from a low angle, right into the boy’s face. His breath trembled and tears formed in his eyes. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all.
‘Wait for it,’ Max muttered.
In an explosion of light, the camera turned on a hideous face, dramatically illuminated from below in a stark flare.
‘Who’s there?’ The boy shielded his eyes and lurched forward, deeper into the forest.
The camera chased after him, ‘cowboying’ low to the ground, swooping across the surface of the muddy grass. Faster and faster, chasing a single beam of light dancing in the woods like a firefly. A branch broke with a snap. The girl froze and whipped around, truly terrified, her heart racing.
In an explosion of movement, something suddenly burst forward, charging at speed from out of the gloom. A high-pitched shriek erupted from the creature hunting her; her lover changed from man to beast, in a transformation of flesh to fur. The rabid werewolf hungry for blood, hunting its prey. She cried out in fear,169turned and sprinted back to her tent. She stumbled, almost tripping on someone who was lying on the ground.
‘Aaagh.’ Lily stumbled to her knees, shielding her eyes with her hands.
‘Ow!’
‘Nate, what are you doing down there? That’s not what we rehearsed. Get up.’ Lily cried out in pain as her ankle buckled beneath her, twisting on the uneven, muddy ground.
Max leant in to study the screen. There was a sudden jerking reframe as the camera found focus. In the darkness, the terrifying silhouette of a body rose like a demon from the depths of the earth, leaving the devoured corpse of the boy dead in the grass. An all-powerful manifestation of evil loomed up from the ground. The figure grew taller than any man, then, spreading muscular arms wide, let out an animal howl of agonising pain.
‘Kill it,’ Max mumbled unconsciously from behind his fingers. ‘You need to kill it, or it will never leave you alone.’
Out of nowhere, a huge chunk of a fallen branch swung violently into the stomach of the beast. Its hind legs buckled as it was cut down. The club was raised again, suspended in the air before swiping down hard like an axe. It was the final blow.
