Morgue

By

Maya McAllister Demangeat

an original screenplay

INT.REPOSING ROOM - INTRO - SETTING THE SCENE

We open on close ups of a shoe lace being tied, a neck bow

being tied, gloves being put on, pocket watch put in

place, hair being combed. It is then revealed in a wide

shot / birds eye view that a dead body is being dressed,

and lain in a casket at a funeral home, ready for the

visitation. A middle age man, Lets call him HUBERT, is

sitting at the caskets side, putting final cosmetically

touches to the deceased’s face. A teenage girl, MAUDE, is

sitting at the foot of the casket, calmly polishing the

shoes. She is clearly used to being around dead bodies.

CUT TO:

TITLE

Sounds of coffin being put in car, car engine starting.

BOB

Bye then Maude.

See title ’Morgue’

GRAPHIC MATCH:(BLACK SCREEN TO BLACK OF HEARSE)

EXT.FUNERAL HOME.DAY

MAUDE is sitting on the steps to the fuenal home, watching

the hearse drive away, waves. Walks out into street.

INT.FLORIST.DAY

MAUDE is in florist. Walks up to till.

MAUDE

Mornin’ Mr. Morrow.

MR. MORROW

Ah yes. Funeral... Bailey’s. Here

you go.

Mr. Morrow passes over a large tray of flowers.

MAUDE

Tankoo. Oh, ma wanted to ask you

to tonights party.

EXT. FLORIST. DAY

Maude exits shop, under the pile of flowers, and walks

down the streets, with difficulty. See her walking to

church. Goes in to church, where VICAR is setting up for

the afternoons funeral.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: (2) 2.

MAUDE

Helloo. Brought the flowers.

VICAR

Just in the knick of time.

MAUDE

Sorry.

VICAR

Gabrielle! Flowers!

A nervous looking woman, Gabrielle, takes them and begins

to arrange them. Maude begins to leave.

VICAR (cont’d)

See you tonight.

MAUDE leaves through the large church doors. She takes a

to do list out of her pocket, and walks through the grave

yard, occasionally looking up from the paper to the

graves, nodding at some of them in recognition ( many of

the people buried there she prepared for funeral).

INT. KITCHEN. NIGHT.

calm music plays, MAUDE makes cake.

cross cuts to DIMPY preparig her face for the party,

HUBERT sets out drinks/talks to wait staff.

CUT TO:

INT. PARTY. NIGHT.

We see Maude, carrying a tray, enter the sitting room

where the party is in full screen, attended by funnel

workers (hearse driver, florist, vicar, grave digger,

choirists)

INT.KITCHEN.DAY

It is morning. Maude and Dimpy are sitting at the kitchen

table, eating breakfast. Dippy is very hung over from last

night’s party. There is suddenly a cacophony from the

hall. HUBERT rushes in holding a letter. He points at it

and widens his eyes at Dimpy, who removes her elaborate

sun glasses.

DIPMPY

They haven’t? Us?

HUBERT

Mmmhmm.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: (2) 3.

DIMPY

Us???

HUBERT

Mmmhmmm!

DIMPY

When?

She reaches for letter and reads is ecstatically.

HUBERT

Day after tomorrow. Eight pm it

starts.

DIMPY

Oh I knew we were better than the

Hollies funeral home, I knew it!

HUBERT

Only tickets for me and your mum

I’m afraid Maude.

DIMPY

We’ll be on TV!

EXT. SCHOOL. DAY.

Maude is walking through her school courtyard with two

fellow pupils, who are all laughing happily together.

MAUDE

...and then his finger fell off!

JULIET

I can’t believe they’re going to

be on TV.

URMAN

Dad watches every year.Obsessed.

JULIET

Hey, Miss. Claude says you can

help with the costumes.

MAUDE

Oh great! Do you want to come to

mine to plan them.

JULIET and URMAN look at eachother uncrtainly.

JULIET

Err yeah.. or we could just do it

at break one day.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: (2) 4.

URMAN

Room two is free.

MAUDE

Sure.

JULIET and URMAN smile and depart.

MAUDE (cont’d)

Sounds good. (looks a trifle

miffed)

INT. MORGUE. DAY.

MAUDE and HUBERT dress a body. HUBERT is adding cosmetics

to the face, MAUDE polishes the shoes.

HUBERT

So we will only be away for a

couple of days, sorry you can’t

come darling.

MAUDE

No, thats ok.

HUBERT

But hey, you’ll watch on TV,

we’ll be on TV! I wonder if

Castro Du Mont will be there

MAUDE

Castro...

HUBERT

Castro Du Mont, the world famous

grave digger, his biceps...

DIMPY enters.

DIMPY

Hugh, when your done come and

look over Dimplebee’s will, i

cant figure out if he wants

cheddar or eementile.

Parents exit. MAUDE looks at the dead body.

MAUDE

hello... I’d go with cheddar.

She removes a button from his cuff and pockets it.

pats him on the hand. Nods at him.

Exit MAUDE.

5.

INT. MAUDE’S ROOM. DAY.

Close up of the worktop as MAUDE works the button into a

mobile.

INT.REPOSING ROOM.

Maude is sitting by a casket, looking at the person

inside. She is reading through the dead boys’s last will

and testament. She talks half to him, half to herself,

about how weird it was that such young people died, and

how nice he seemed. A lightbulb switches on

(metaphorically).

INT.ATTIC ROOM

We are on a close up of Maude’s face. We can see a bit of

the background but it is out of focus.

MAUDE

I’ve always been fascinated by

Frankenstein and his monster.

Life out of death. Working in a

funeral home you get so

habituated with the permanency of

death. But Frankenstein ignores

that. He has hope. My parents

don’t believe in God. I don’t

either. But it seems strange that

something which was living one

second can just... stop. And

never be brought back. That

there’s no hope after death? I

wanted to be Frankenstein, with

that hope, and intellect... and

frankly inappropriate disregard

to the dead, taking them out of

their grave and sticking them

together with people they may not

much have liked, and bringing

them back to life, but not as

themselves. I don’t know how to

do that. But I’d like to bring

you back.

We then focus on the background and see she has been

talking to the dead boy. We then see her building a

machine, and sticking it to him. She is not trying to

bring him back to life but to animate him. She succeeds,

and with a remote makes him stand up. He "introduces"

himself as Morgue.

6.

MAUDE AND MORGUE

We then see Maude and Morgue going to museums, baking,

talking, eating pick-nicks (Morgue being attacked by

crows, Maude calmly flapping them away)

BACK HOME

In the end they have to return to the funeral home, and

prepare him for the funeral. Resolution? A realisation?