Friday the 13th, Part 3

Friday the 13th, Part 3  

FADE IN:

TITLE AND CREDITS

A piercing high note is sustained on the soundtrack as the

main title, "CRYSTAL JAPAN" speeds straight at the audience

in 3-D and seems to jump right out at them.

The opening credits follow. Ominous theme music fills the

soundtrack, growing darker and more dissonant.

The theme music slowly dissolves into the sound of a radio

news broadcast, as the credits continue to unfold.

RADIO NEWSCASTER (V.O.)

...and I'm Ed Harris with the KLTZ

Early Morning Report.

Theme music out.

RADIO NEWSCASTER (V.O.)

(continuing)

Crystal Lake in Pinehurst County,

the scene of several unsolved

deaths years ago, is tragically

back in the top of the news this

morning. Police have uncovered

the remains of eight, as yet,

unidentified persons in a gruesome

and baffling story of mass

murder...

End credits.

CUT TO:

EXT. ROADSIDE MARKET - EVENING

Shooting over a line of ruffled bushes with leaves just

turning towards a rural, time-worn country market. A wide

gravel parking area makes it accessible to the highway

running past it, otherwise, this Mom & Pop store seems almost

like a vision of times gone by.

The bushes and overgrown grass, unrestrained by any human

care, strengthen the sense of isolation. The dying sun

shoots its last rays through the trees behind the market.

The market has a battered second-story: the living quarters

of the people running it. A truck roars by. Then silence,

and then again the sound of the radio news report:

RADIO NEWSCASTER (V.O.)

...Judging from the sheer

brutality of the murders, police

theorize that they must have been

committed by at least four

persons...

EXT. THE HOUSE / STORE - ANOTHER ANGLE

Sagging clotheslines cluttered with drying laundry run across

a narrow backyard, all the way to a rickety old shed. The

clotheslines are supported by one solitary pole. Linen and

garments billow in the rising evening breeze.

Cold, foreboding music accompanies the camera as it moves

toward a pair of flapping khaki pants and an olive green

workshirt hanging side by side on the line.

The radio news report grows louder as the clothing snaps

directly into the lens.

RADIO NEWSCASTER (V.O.)

...The sole survivor of the

massacre has been taken under

heavy sedation to County Hospital

in Linfield for observation.

She's been unable to provide

police with any clues and is being

kept under round the clock guard...

HEAVY FOOTSTEPS

And then a man parts two shrouds of wet laundry, making his

way back towards the house. This is HAROLD: 40ish, paunchy,

unshaven and so clumsy that he hits the clothesline pole and

knocks it down, burying himself under a heap of linen. A

transistor radio pops out of the pocket of his threadbare

shirt, still broadcasting the news. One of the upstairs

windows opens with a creak, and

EDNA

Harold's wife, sticks her head out and looks into the

backyard:

EDNA

(loud, harsh)

Goddamnit Harold! I spent all day

yesterday washing your clothes and

look what you're doing to 'em.

Shows how much you care about me.

Harold watches her from under the pile of laundry. Then he

grabs the radio, staggers up, increasing the radio's volume

as he does so, to drown out the voice of his wife.

Above him, Edna raves on for a moment (we can't make out what

she is saying), then furiously slams the window shut.

CUT TO:

INT. UPSTAIRS LIVING ROOM - EVENING

The room is musty and cluttered like an old attic. Edna

stomps away from the window and turns her attention to the

partially functional, old clunker of a black and white TV.

She plops herself down onto the lumpy couch and picks up two

knitting needles and returns to work on a sweater. A news

report about the mass murders is being broadcast.

INSERT - TV

TELEVISION REPORTER

...A police spokesman tells

Eyewitness News that authorities

have been combing the area since

just before dawn. Reports of

cannibalism and sexual mutilation

are still unconfirmed...

Nevertheless, these murders are

already being called the most

brutal in local history.

EDNA

Leans in to adjust the long rabbit-ear antenna, spreading the

ears apart for a better picture. She listens intently.

TELEVISION REPORTER

The motive behind the grisly

murders remains a mystery at this

hour as does the identity of the

killer or killers. The search

continues for more bodies.