CAST
Phar Lap
Skeleton horse
Director, Melbourne Museum (MM)
Director, National Museum of Australia (NMA)
Director, Te Papa (TP)
Note: Once again, the museum employees depicted here do not in any way resemble the actual incumbents of these positions and I would not wish these nightmares on any of them.
PART III: THREE NIGHTMARES
EXT. FLEMINGTON RACECOURSE, DISTANCE SHOT, SHOWING TRACK AND STSANDS – AFTERLIFE LIGHTING (SORT OF BLUE-ISH, WITH CLOUDS MOVING PAST FASTER THAN YOU WOULD EXPECT)
EXT. FLEMINGTON RACECOURSE, TRACK – AFTERLIFE LIGHTING
The Director, MM is standing in the middle of the race track, in front of the stands. He looks around, wonderingly, and realizes he’s wearing is suit jacket but not his pants. He catches movement out of the corner of his eye and swivels round, but there is nothing. He hears a horse whicker and turns again, but again there is nothing. We see a shadow of something pass far behind him. Again he turns, but cannot see anything.
Then there is a far-off whinny. He looks, and sees a chestnut gelding standing some distance away, in front of the starting blocks (which weren’t there a moment ago either). The horse has no saddle or reins.
DIRECTOR, MM
Phar Lap?
The horse flickers, somehow, and is suddenly closer, close enough that the Director can see its eyes, which glow. The horse looks at him. It takes a step forward; the director involuntarily takes a step back. The horse paws the ground and begins to walk towards him. The Director stumbles backwards.
The horse starts to trot (with a little toss of its mane), as does the Director, turning now to face the direction of his travel and casting a horrified glance over his shoulder.
The horse breaks into a canter and gives a sort of horsie scream. The Director starts running now, with a sobbing breath.
EXT. FLEMINGTON RACECOURSE STANDS – AFTERLIFE LIGHTING
The Director, NMA is sitting in the middle of the stands, in her nightie. Everything is deserted. She hears a heart beating and looks around, but there is nothing.
The heart beat gets a little louder and a little faster. She stands up and walks down towards the front of the stands to look. As she does so, the beat gets louder. On a chair in the first row in Phar Lap’s heart, in its glass box. It is beating. As she watches, it beats faster and louder (probably we get closer to it, too; some nice close-ups of veins pulsing please).
Suddenly the glass shatters. The Director cries out and ducks, shielding her face. The heart now sits on the seat, still pulsing. The Director is visibly repulsed.
She hears a scream (the Director, MM) and whirls around, but sees nothing.
When she looks back, the heart is gone. But she can still hear it – possibly it’s even louder still. She looks about, but cannot see it. Then she looks down at her chest.
The heart is now embedded in her own body, half protruding from her chest, still visibly beating (it’s a 6.5kg heart, too, so it takes up a considerable portion of her chest). She tries to scream but can’t and watches in horror as it swells and pulses.
EXT. FLEMINGTON RACECOURSE, TRACKSIDE – AFTERLIFE LIGHTING
Director, TP is standing in the grassy area next to the track. He is wearing boxers and a singlet, and a fancy tie. There is post-race rubbish everywhere – bottles, cups, paper, food wrappers, actual food, cigarette butts, some shoes and the odd esky, vomit.
He hears a horse thundering from left to right along the track, and looks up, but sees nothing. Then he hears the clop of hooves behind him.
A skeleton horse steps out from around the corner of a building and stops and looks at him.
The Director freezes, horrified, backing up against the track fence. The skeleton eyes him, walking one way and then the other, but always keeping his eye (socket) on the Director. Then it walks right up to him and sort of clacks its teeth, or does a little shimmy, making its bones clack together. The Director just stares and sweats. The skeleton horse nips his arm. The Director sort of squeaks but can’t look away (or move). The skeleton nips him again, harder, and draws blood this time. The Director moans in fear but is still too frightened to move.
The skeleton horse suddenly bites down on him hard, around his shoulder and collarbone, and the Director screams. When the skeleton lets go, though, he still doesn’t run, so the skeleton horse pushes him with his nose (such as it is), pushes and nips and kicks him into a shuffle and then a slow run, then faster, always running easily alongside. The Director starts sobbing.
EXT. FLEMINGTON RACECOURSE, TRACK – AFTERLIFE LIGHTING
The Director, MM is still running, Phar Lap nearly upon him. Suddenly the horse flickers again and reappears in front of the Director. The Director skids to a stop, but slips and comes to rest half underneath the horse. Phar Lap stoops to look at him, nose to nose. He lifts his front leg and puts it on the Director’s chest, then shifts his weight onto it. His hoof starts to sink into the Director’s flesh. The Director screams.
EXT. FLEMINGTON RACECOURSE STANDS – AFTERLIFE LIGHTING
The Director, NMA stands looking at her chest, shaking and breathless. She claws at it but it cannot be shifted or scratched away. The beating of the heart gets stronger and stronger, and we see the skin on the heart start to stretch and split. The Director screams.
EXT. FLEMINGTON RACECOURSE, TRACKSIDE – AFTERLIFE LIGHTING
The Director, TP, is being harried along by the skeleton horse, whose bites and kicks are becoming more ferocious. Suddenly the skeleton grabs hold of his head from behind, so that the Director’s head is inside the skull of the skeleton. The Director can see out of the skeleton horse’s head through its eye sockets. He is sort of held hanging by the horse, falling backwards, his hands grabbing for the skull for support but equally afraid to take hold of it. The skeleton’s front teeth rest either side of the Director’s neck, and he starts to bite down hard. The Director screams.
The three directors screams now join together, as we see superimposed footage of the terrible damage being done to their bodies, along with the pulsing of the heart and the Phar Lap’s glowing eyes seeming to shine out through the skeleton’s eye sockets. Somehow each of the three directors become aware of the others – we can see them looking at the suffering of the others, even though we know they cannot possibly be near enough to see each other.
INT. BEDROOMS – LAMP LIGHT/NIGHT LIGHT (PERHAPS SWITCHED ON BY AN ALARMED PARTNER)
The three directors wake up, in their respective beds (or on their respective floors), sweating and gasping and clawing at the their chest or neck.
(To be continued)
Ghostie Phar Lap! WooOOOooo
