"I SAW THE TV GLOW" (2024)

This GYM CLASS of elementary school kids all move together in a big circle, each holding onto their share of a big plastic PARACHUTE, colored vibrantly with those same pastel shades of pink and purple.

In unison, they WHIP the parachute high up into the air, creating a massive and temporary DOME in the center of the gymnasium.

And at that exact moment of creation, they all DUCK underneath the parachute, sneaking inside its innards.

We duck inside too, following just behind them, the parachute now towering over us like a giant pink pillow fort.

We follow one YOUNG BOY, 10, lost and dazed, his face blank. He wanders through the bubblegum-tinted chaos like an amnesia victim.

All around him his classmates SCREAM and DANCE and PLAY. All the while the paper-thin roof of the parachute slowly deflates downwards, a celebration in the process of self- immolation.

We keep following close to this one confused boy. His name is OWEN.

There's something dawning in Owen's eyes. Something akin to fear. Like he's just realized that he's alive, and that's a kind of horrifying realization.

The parachute descends over Young Owen, muffling the cheers and hysterics of his classmates.

Now Owen plays alone in the fresh aftermath of a winter blizzard, stumbling across conjoining backyards. He's a little puff ball in his bulky snow gear.

He crawls inside a small HOMEMADE CAVE that someone has packed together out of snow in one backyard.

He stares up at the wintry cavern just above him, alone, lost in dreams.

Owen now sits on the couch in his living room flipping channels on a television from the 1990s. The kind of bulky CRT model now rendered extinct by flat screens.

There's not much on television tonight for him to watch. News. Sports. Informercials. He keeps flipping.

We can't see the screen itself. But we can hear the sounds of each new channel as he flips past. And we can see the flickering glow that the screen casts against the couch and against his face.

Eventually, Owen lands on a channel that somehow seems louder than all of the others --

Owen watches an unseen commercial for what sounds like a children's horror TV show. Pink and red light flickers across his face as he slowly sits up on the couch.

From the screen -- we can hear ISABEL and TARA, two teenagers arguing in panic.

Owen stares mystified at the screen. He's finally found something worthy of his attention.

Owen fumbles for the remote. He very quickly CHANGES THE CHANNEL back to the nightly news.

He looks guilty, like he was just caught in the act of something forbidden.

He takes a moment before responding.

Owen hops up from the couch and heads up the staircase.

But we remain downstairs, in this room that's now empty save the glow of the screen.

It's summertime now, and all is calm on this quiet suburban street.

It's not yet dusk, but it's late enough that the streetlights have turned on. There are lights on in some of the houses too, but no one is out on the street anymore.

As the CREDITS begin, we drift slowly, traveling like a ghost over:

A child's CHALK SCRIBBLINGS on the pavement, an epic pink and purple neon collage, all overlapped and blended lines interweaving manically with little half-realized monsters scribbled into the folds. It looks like something a 5-year old Jackson Pollack would draw.

Out in the distance, way down the street, spinning in a rickety, endless circle--

The top of a lone ICE CREAM TRUCK, parked across the road as if to block traffic. A smiling, animatronic SOFT-SERVE HEAD creaks and rotates in a circle, accompanied by an endless loop of anemic music box melody.

ISABEL, 16, glares defiantly into her reflection in her bedroom mirror as she finishes applying black mascara.

She's wearing a PROM DRESS, but her expression looks like she's getting ready for war, not a high school dance.

Out her open bedroom window, we can hear the faint repetition of the Ice Cream Truck's song.

Isabel caps her mascara pen and glares once more at her reflection.

Then, without even a flicker hesitation, she GRABS A BATTLE AXE OFF THE NIGHT STAND and JUMPS OUT THE WINDOW.

A darker, more secluded street, canopied under looming trees.

Isabel marches down the road in her prom dress, eyes straight ahead.

WE REVERSE CLOSE ON:

THE BACK OF HER HEAD.

We bump up and down with her steps, focused on a small PINK TATTOO on the nape of her neck.

It's an ancient symbol - Greek or something... It looks like the left-half of the letter 'Y'

It's pretty dark, but we can still make out the yard lines painted on this freshly-sprinklered high school football field. And the yellow GOAL POST looming out in the distance, like a giant palm opened up towards the night sky.

Isabel marches across the field, headed towards the end zone.

She stops in the middle of the field, as if she's just noticed something ahead of her. She raises her open palm into the air to WAVE.

REVERSE TOWARDS:

The end zone.

TARA, also 16, short-haired and androgynous in a button-down shirt, leans against the goal post, a SHOVEL in hand.

She doesn't wave back.

She looks more somber than Isabel. She just stares out at her friend from across the field

A LIGHT FLICKERS BEHIND HER, beyond the end zone. A glowing spotlight pointed up towards heaven, flickering like a TV signal.

WE TRAVEL TOWARDS IT…

A SMALLER, DARKER FIELD. This one overgrown and unkempt, all grass, dirt, and weeds, like the evil twin of the perfectly manicured football field above.

We crane down, towards:

A HOLE dug deep into the ground.

And that BRILLIANT, UNNATURAL LIGHT FLICKERING up from its depths.

Its colors blink between grey, white, and blue, as if broadcasting a television signal from deep below the Earth.

We descend further towards this brilliant television light.

But before we can get too close...

It's like someone just changed the channel on us without warning.

Now we're in a high school hallway, after school.

ISABEL has cornered a JOCK, 16, up against a locker. She's interrogating him.

The Jock laughs uncomfortably, trying to mask how intimidated he is by this girl half his size.

On Isabel's expression: that is exactly what she didn't want to hear.

The Jock's eyes dart back and forth. He's shaken.

CLOSE ON ISABEL'S TERRIFIED EXPRESSION:

An ice cream cone nightlight is plugged into the wall. It looks just like the soft-serve head on the ice cream truck we just saw spinning earlier. It's head is spinning a rickety music box pattern as well.

A little KID, 9, is tucked under Mr. Swirly branded covers, but still wide awake in bed.

That's because he knows SOMETHING ELSE is in the room with him. He stares at a light left on in his CLOSET, the door creaking open just a sliver.

The kid sits up slowly in bed, squinting into the blackness of the room in front of him.

And then, from just inches away from his bed, SOMETHING EMERGES SUDDENLY:

AN ICE CREAM MAN. A literal, dripping ICE CREAM MAN, like the top of that ice cream truck from earlier come to horrifying life.

The cone head now gruesomely realistic, sprinkles flaking out onto the bedsheets below.

MR. SWIRLY'S eyes are caverns. His grin is pure malevolence. His teeth are very, very sharp.

He stares at us for a few seconds, then holds something out for the terrified kid in bed:

A MELTING BLUE ICE POP.

A moment of silence. And then...

Mr. Swirly POUNCES towards the bed, and just as he attacks:

We CUT TO BLACK.

TITLE ON SCREEN:

I Saw the TV Glow

Years later, now.

ADULT OWEN, looking somewhere between his twenties and the onset of middle-age, walks alone through the forest at night.

Leaves and sticks crackle under his footsteps, eventually giving way to:

The similar crackle of a fledgling FIRE, the flames just starting to rise up from the innards of a fire pit.

Owen tends to the fire, all alone at what appears to be a long abandoned campsite.

He takes out a small fabric pouch and tosses some DUST into the fire. The flames JUMP momentarily.

LATER.

The fire is really burning now, bathing Owen in a sickly orange glow. Owen sits on a log next to the fire pit.

He's lost in thought: here, but also clearly somewhere else far away.

We hold on Owen’s expression for awhile as the glow of the flames dance across his face.

And then, eventually, we drift back...

To YOUNG OWEN, around 13 now - that anxious in-between time just before puberty really kicks in.

He's walking, zig-zagging in no particular direction through a sea of adult torsos, just as lost as he was back in the chaos of the parachute.

TITLE ON SCREEN:

1996

It's ELECTION NIGHT at the local high school. One of the school's common areas has been transformed into a VOTING SITE.

Parents wait in line at various registration tables, gossiping with each other, eating snacks from a bake sale put on by the school's jazz band.

Owen weaves past the lines of adults. Someone has caught his eye in the corner of the room --

MADDY, 15, gothy and nerdy yet confident, sitting on the linoleum floor reading an oversized book.

Owen's close enough to see the cover of Maddy's book:

It's an EPISODE GUIDE for THE PINK OPAQUE. That TV show Owen heard a preview for earlier.

Maddy feels eyes on her. She glances up at Owen.

BRENDA, 45, Owen's mom, is calling to him from a conversation with another local PARENT.

Owen glances back at Maddy just in time to see that she's gotten up and is now exiting the room, heading deeper into the school.

Owen hustles over towards his mom. She nods to the woman next to her.

Brenda ushers Owen towards a VOTING BOOTH.

We're behind the cloth curtain now.

Brenda lifts her son up to pull the levers for her.

He is, and he looks vaguely embarrassed.

Owen brushes his fingers across the various levers, uncomfortable.

Brenda has joined a gaggle of parents by the bake sale table, her civic duty now complete.

But Owen's somewhere else now:

A hallway, dark and all shut down for the night.

Owen walks slowly down the hall. It's eerily quiet, a world away from the carnival of election night we just passed through.

All of the lunch room tables have been broken down and turned over for the night. Their legs point up into the air like turtles stuck on their shells.

Owen wanders past a glowing vending machine, towards MADDY.

Maddy sits on one of those turned-over lunch tables reading her Pink Opaque episode guide.

She stares up at Owen, unsure of who this younger kid is speaking to her.

Maddy hesitates a moment, then she shakes her head with a disaffected shrug.

A short beat.

Owen's got his eyes on the book in her lap.

Maddy glances down at her book.

Owen stands there in front of her, gawking.

Owen shakes his head bashfully.

A long silence between them. Conversation over?

Owen walks across the room, searching for a casual spot to sit. He doesn't want to let on that he's just followed Maddy here to talk to her.

Maddy looks back down at her book to keep reading. Owen settles into a spot in the corner wedged between two vending machines.

She finishes the sentence she's reading, then glances over briefly at Owen from across the lunch room, as if assessing him.

She snorts in quick laughter.

Owen looks down at the linoleum, ashamed.

Maddy notices and feels bad. So she tries to change the subject.

Owen nods, not really following her train of thought but pretending like he is.

He motions towards her episode guide.

Maddy says it like she's almost offended by the question.

Maddy hesitates a moment. Then she gets up and walks over to Owen.

She offers him the book.

He takes it from her and looks down at the cover. It features a promotional still of ISABEL and TARA (the two girls we saw in the opening sequence) looking all heroic and superhero-y.

Maddy settles into a spot across from him, nestled against the parallel vending machine. Closer to him now.

Owen thumbs through the pages.

Owen finishes thumbing through the book. He closes it and hands it back to her, the two of them now bathed in the glow of twin vending machines.

He looks down at the ground, embarrassed again.

Maddy looks at Owen as Owen sulks. A bad idea starts to form in her head. She grins.

Owen looks up, on pins and needles for what Maddy might say next...

Owen lays in the backseat of his mom's car, driving home from election night. Streetlights reflect through the window and dance across his face.

Owen tries to catch his mom's eyes in the rear view.

Owen doesn't respond. He just waits for an answer.

Brenda considers the request...

Beat. Silence.

More silence from the front seat.

Streetlights continue to dance in shadows across Owen's face.

Brenda lets the two of them back into the house through the front door.

Owen scurries quickly up the stairs towards the second floor while Brenda heads towards the living room.

A TV LIGHT blinks From inside.cOwen’s unseen father is in there watching the screen…

Owen hides at the top of the stairs, eavesdropping on his parents’ conversation below. The sound of their voices is muffled by the TV drone, but Owen can hear certain words as his mother negotiates on his behalf:

“Sleepover,” “old enough,” “he’s a good kid, Frank…”

Owen doesn’t move a muscle as he listens…

We drift back out into the suburban night, across front lawns and power lines.

The streetlight's yellow glow tints and warms the gravel of the road, as if this whole town is one big electric-powered incubator.

Another day. Another side of town. The houses here are more spread out, surrounded by woods.

Brenda is parked by the curb.

Owen walks from the car across Johnny Link's front yard, sleeping bag still clutched under his armpit.

He's almost tiptoeing, as if on a stealth mission.

Owen winces at his mom's loud voice. She's rolled down the window, and is calling out to him from the car.

He glances back towards her.

Owen nods, answering tersely and quietly:

Satisfied, his mom rolls her window back up.

Owen continues walking lightly across the grass. He heads up the driveway and onto the porch.

Now at the front door, he reaches his hand out to ring the doorbell.

But instead of actually ringing it, he just BRUSHES HIS FINGERS OVER THE BUTTON.

He waits a few seconds, then glances back towards his mom, still parked at the curb, waiting to make sure he gets safely inside.

He waves to her, like, "I'm fine."

She doesn't move. Owen waits a few seconds more, then waves at her again.

Finally, she takes the hint. She leisurely shifts the car out of park and DRIVES AWAY.

Owen sighs with relief and waits a little longer by the door.

Then, when he's sure the coast is clear, he hops off the porch and rushes across Johnny Link's yard.

Owen speedwalks down a row of nearly identical backyards, his sleeping bag still tucked snug under his arm.

He walks past empty patios and drained swimming pools.

The sun sets over suburbia as a LIGHT RAIN begins to fall.

Owen ducks under a patio, shielding himself from the rain.

He can hear the faint sound of a television from the other end of the basement door, but the glass is all fogged up so it's impossible to see inside.

Owen KNOCKS and waits. No answer.

He glances from side-to-side, like he's suspicious this is all some prank.

He thinks for a moment longer, then, he slides open the glass door. He's clearly terrified, but trying his hardest to act nonchalant.

AMANDA and CHRISTINE, both 15, sit on a couch painting each other's toenails with pink nail polish.

They've both got a vaguely mall goth style, but in a kind of flakey way, as if they could revert to their natural 'cheerleader' status at the drop of a hat.

They half watch the end credits of a cartoon on the television screen at the front of the room, and hardly acknowledge Owen's presence as he steps into the room.

He lingers near the doorway. It's like he's just intruded on some intimate scene he has no right witnessing.

The girls on the couch finally look over at him. Then they turn back to each other and laugh, as if sharing some inscrutable inside joke where Owen is the punchline.

Owen continues to linger in the doorway, dripping wet from the rain outside, unsure what to do.

Slowly, he moves to take off his sneakers.

ON THE TV -- COMMERCIALS blink out across the room. Right now, an ad for a kid's magazine that comes with a free decoder ring.

A door opens near the top of the stairs. Owen glances up as Maddy steps into the room.

FROM THE UNSEEN TELEVISION SCREEN we can hear the show starting. The Pink Opaque's eerie synth theme song begins to bellow out across the room.

Maddy closes the door behind her, and carries a bowl of colored popcorn with her into the basement. Amanda and Christine grin at her from the couch.

Maddy glances for half a second at Owen, and then focuses back on the TV screen.

Maddy flips off the light-switch, and suddenly, the room is lit entirely by television light.

Owen continues to linger by the door, like everyone else in the room his eyes are squarely on the unseen TV screen.

Maddy hands Christine her bowl of popcorn and then hops over the back of the couch to sit with her friends.

Owen finishes taking off his shoes and then walks deeper into the room, as if the show is an invitation to join them near the couch.

The show's intro crescendos, And suddenly, we CUT INTO THE SHOW, full screen.

Just in time for the end of the credit sequence.

A TITLE APPEARS ON SCREEN:

The Pink Opaque

The show's LOGO floats towards us. Big, brilliant, and very Nickelodeon.

The theme song plays.

Maddy shares the couch with Amanda and Christine, their legs all splayed out over each other's laps.

Owen sits alone on the floor, back against the wall, staring ahead at the unseen television. Even though his spot down there looks uncomfortable, he couldn't care less. He's utterly transfixed by what he sees on the screen.

FROM THE TELEVISION WE CAN HEAR: the familiar sounds of Mr. Swirly's ice-cream truck.

WE CUT INTO THE SHOW ONCE AGAIN.

NOTE: When we watch The Pink Opaque, we are always watching it full-screen, as if there is no distinction between the show and the rest of the film we're watching. Though there are subtle hints of the pastiche of early 90s television in The Pink Opaque, it is shot in the same cinematic style as the rest of the film.

The JOCK who Isabel confronted in an earlier scene now sits on a curb with his JOCK BUDDY, 13. They both eat blue SWIRLY STICK ICE POPS.

Jock 2 chucks his popsicle stick down on the pavement, littering to express his angst.

They look at each other. Jock #1 has got an idea...

Uh oh. On the soundtrack: we can hear the show's OMINOUS SYNTH SCORE building.

We crane up from their spot on the pavement, high into the evening sky.

We DISSOLVE, journeying higher and higher into the bright, romantic, eerie cosmos, until finally we've arrived at:

THE MOON. Full and brilliant tonight.

But there's something WRONG with the moon:

It has a GRINNING FACE. Like from the old silent film 'A Trip to the Moon.'

The Man in the Moon LAUGHS wickedly at us, eager to grant this wish he's overheard.

An ICE CREAM TRUCK (the same one we saw at the beginning of the film) is parked in the middle of the road, in the middle of the night.

It's GLOWING unnaturally, as if in the midst of some awful transformation..

Neon PINK and PURPLE fluorescents spark from inside. COLORED SMOKE pours out from the windows.

The synth score goes WILD.

And CLOSER TO THE TRUCK NOW, through the window kids order their ice cream through…

A HAND WRITHES UPWARDS, gripping the counter.

It’s not quite human anymore. It drips with mushy sprinkles as it continues to TRANSFORM INTO SOFT SERVE.

We're back in Maddy's basement now, shortly after the show has ended.

THROUGH THE WINDOW -- the reflection of the television, now turned off.

And Amanda and Christine, hanging together under the porch light, sharing a single Black & Mild cigarette. They pass it back and forth like a holy object.

Owen stares out at them while he sets up his sleeping bag on the carpet of Maddy's basement. Maddy leans against the back of her couch, watching him.

It takes Owen a second to respond. He seems dazed, like he's still living inside that show he just watched.

Owen shrugs, pretending like he knows the difference.

THROUGH THE WINDOW -- a car pulls up to the curb past Maddy's lawn, headlights beaming out into the night.

Amanda and Christine stomp out their Black and Mild and run across the grass.

Maddy nods, studying this kid in her basement.

Owen watches Maddy's best friends get into the backseat of the car and disappear into the night.

Now they're all alone down here.

Suddenly the space feels very intimate. Owen's nervous. Maddy's not.

Maddy wanders through the space, cleaning up. As she works, she starts to ramble on about The Pink Opaque. This is clearly her favorite topic.

Owen glances back to look at her, clearly interested.

He's hanging on every word, trying to soak up as much info about the show as Maddy is willing to give him.

Maddy snorts like this is an idiotic question as she settles once again against the back of the couch above Owen.

Owen unzips his sleeping bag.

Maddy side eyes him, like she's annoyed by his apology.

Owen glances down at the carpet.

Silence. Then --

Maddy gets up from the top of the couch and walks across the room.

For a moment it seems like she's heading over towards Owen on the floor. But then she keeps walking past him towards the staircase.

He calls after her:

Maddy says this nonchalantly. Owen's not really sure how to respond to this.

So he just starts to get inside his sleeping bag as Maddy reaches the top of the stairs.

Maddy abruptly flips off the lightswitch, draping the room in darkness.

Owen settles into place on the floor, getting ready for sleep.

But he notices:

Maddy, still lingering at the top of the stairs, like she's not quite ready to leave yet.

It's silent for a long time, and then Maddy speaks again.

Her tone of voice has changed. It's hushed, less confident, as if she's speaking aloud her darkest, most vulnerable secret.

Owen lies there on the floor, unsure how to respond.

And then --

Maddy opens the basement door. She leaves the room, shutting the door behind her.

Owen lies there in the darkness, now alone, Maddy's words echoing in his mind amidst the silence of the basement.

Light peaks into the room.

Owen stirs awake in the dawn light.

Owen crouching over his sleeping bag, rolling it back up into a ball.

He's getting ready to leave. He's up early, before the rest of the town.

After a few seconds of silent work, he glances up... and LOOKS INTO THE CAMERA.

He speaks to us directly, suddenly transforming into the film's narrator.

When he speaks directly to camera, his tone is DIFFERENT. As if Adult Owen is channeling through his younger self.

Young Owen walks across the backyards of the suburbs once again, this time in the opposite direction back towards Johnny Link's house. He's got his sleeping bag tucked under his arm.

The grass is wet with rain from the night before.

He narrates directly to the camera once again:

The day is bright and peaceful. A perfect Sunday morning.

But we slowly DISSOLVE to:

A number of COP CARS are parked on the curb outside Maddy's house, which is now sectioned off with YELLOW POLICE TAPE.

A small crowd has gathered in the street. Among them:

TEENAGED OWEN, now 15. He lingers near the back of the crowd, letting the shadows and the rain keep him anonymous.

He finishes his own thought that we just heard in voice-over, direct to camera:

FLAMES ENGULF MADDY'S CRT TELEVISION out on the grass near her back patio.

It burns orange and brilliant, an inferno of melting electricity.

We push closer and closer towards the set, until we can almost feel the heat.

We draw closer to the flames, until SUDDENLY:

A34 EXT. WOODS - NIGHT A34

We're back with Adult Owen alone at that burning fire he's started in the woods.

He sits there silently, communing with the past, mournfully remembering...

And now we're back decades earlier with Young Owen, on that calm morning after that first sleepover at Maddy's.

He waits on the porch outside Johnny Link's house, as if he spent the night there.

His mom pulls up to the curb to pick him up.

Owen hustles across the lawn and lets himself into the backseat.

We watch from across the yard as:

He shuts the car door behind him and buckles up.

Brenda starts the car. A mattress commercial plays from the car radio.

His mom pulls away, but we don't follow the car. Instead, we linger here on Johnny Link's lawn, looking out at the peaceful, empty cul de sac across the street.

The pavement is covered with more Pollack-esque chalk scribblings in pink and purple.

We hold on this Sunday morning still life.

Even though Brenda's car is gone, we can still hear the MATTRESS COMMERCIAL that was playing on her car radio.

It grows louder. Uncomfortably so, even.

It's deafening now, distorted, Satanic, draped by awful radio static...

As we topple towards the pavement, we very quickly:

Another time entirely.

We're now riding in Brenda’s old car with ADULT OWEN, 24, as he pulls into a parking lot and up towards a fast food drive- thru window.

He's wearing a uniform and a nametag. It's hard to get too good a look at his face in the darkness of his car.

A pause.

ADULT OWEN DRIVE-THRU KID

Are you ready to take my What would you like, sir? order--

Owen winces to himself. He waits too long before trying again:

Ugh. Owen waits again.

A long pause. Owen stares into the anonymous speaker system in front of him, waiting for a response.

We travel with Owen inside the car for the entire loop around the back of the drive-thru.

As he pulls under the light of the pickup window, we get a good look at him:

He looks frail and a little bit unwell. He's the same anxious, introverted kid from earlier, just older now, and more tired.

He slows down at the drive-thru window to grab his paper-bag dinner from the kid inside.

The kid looks confused, unsure of what Owen is apologizing for.

The kid just stares at him, dead-eyed.

A small, sorta rundown single-screen movie theater in a huge, mostly empty parking lot.

TITLE ON SCREEN:

2006

Owen parks his car, locks it behind him, and carries his fast food bag through the parking lot, past abandoned shopping carts.

UP AHEAD, BY THE MOVIE THEATER BOX OFFICE --

A gaggle of SENIOR CITIZENS have congregated. They look confused and angry.

As Owen approaches them, they pounce.

Owen looks tired and annoyed as he gets out his keys.

He unlocks the door.

Owen is on his flip phone. He walks through a hallway in the theater's cluttered, staff-only, back area.

Owen opens the door to an office to find:

DAVE, 40, his manager, sitting in a chair getting a BLOWJOB from a half-naked WOMAN, 35, knelt on the ground.

Owen gawks, stunned. Dave BURSTS OUT LAUGHING at the unexpected intrusion.

Owen quickly slams the door shut as the woman on the floor scrambles to cover herself up.

Owen hangs up his cell phone.

Owen paces outside the office, his cheeks red.

39 OMMITTED 39

Owen eats his lukewarm fast food in a backroom near the projection booth. We can hear the projector rattling up here.

Dave, his boss, sits near him along with a TEENAGE MOVIE THEATER EMPLOYEE. They're both eating their own fast food takeout.

The teenage employee snorts quietly, trying to hold in his laughter.

Owen takes another bite of his cheeseburger and ignores the question.

The teenage employee is giggling now. And Dave is holding in laughter too --

They both crack up.

Owen walks with a flashlight through a dark theater, making the rounds.

He's a silhouette against the screen, which is playing a BRASH and CHAOTIC CGI SCENE of two GIANT ROBOTS flying around the sky and bashing the shit out of each other.

The CGI looks kind of dated, in that way that movies from the recent past sometimes do.

Owen reaches the front of the theater, then turns around and heads back up the aisle, a shadow against the ballet of destruction up on screen.

Now Owen drives home down a secluded local road. The sound of commercials low on the radio once again.

Something on the road ahead catches his eye:

A WHITE ELECTRIC SPARK flickering off the pavement.

Owen squints, unsure what he's looking at.

It almost looks like static from a television. Or like that light we saw coming out from the hole in the ground in the opening sequence of the film.

As Owen gets closer to the light, he slows to a stop.

Owen gets out of the car, not bothering to shut the driver's door behind him. There's no one else out on the road at this hour.

He walks slowly around the front of his car, heading towards the blinking electric light ahead of him:

It's a DOWNED POWER LINE, splayed out across the road.

It appears that an animal has chewed away the middle of the wiring. Now, it's shooting ELECTRIC SPARKS up from the pavement into the air.

The power line spasms and dances against the ground, the electricity powering its jolts.

Owen stares down at the light, and he notices something else there in the dark of the street:

Owen crouches down and picks one of the pages up. He squints down at it and discovers:

It's from THE PINK OPAQUE EPISODE GUIDE. That book Maddy was reading years ago in the school on election night

This particular page details a plot summary for an episode titled "Homecoming to Get You." It features a big black-and- white photo of Isabel in her prom dress holding her axe at a high school dance.

More pages blow past. Owen grabs a handful, and thumbs through them: another episode titled, "The Clown from the Carnival." And then one for an episode titled "Escape from the Midnight Realm, Part 1."

Owen notices the FRONT COVER of the episode guide lying nearby too, all ripped up and burnt.

He stays crouched there in the isolated street, surrounded by burnt pages and the sporadic ELECTRIC SPARK from the downed power line...

Later now, as Owen walks into his home. He drops his car keys in a bowl by the front door.

It's the same living room we saw him in as a child. Not much has changed, except that the TV has gotten a little bit bigger.

Owen walks past the staircase and peaks into the living room.

His FATHER is asleep on the couch. The years have not been kind to FRANK. He appears somewhat incapacitated there on the couch, his face pale like a living ghost.

The TV blinks its light across his face. From the screen, we can hear --

The sound of a classic 'TV Land' sorta show. Think 'All in the Family.'

Owen glances at the screen, then at his father.

Frank stirs awake. He stares at his son but doesn't speak.

There's something intimidating and disquieting about Frank's stare. Like he only half recognizes his son.

Frank never responds. Instead, he eventually just settles back down to sleep.

Owen stands there on the periphery of the living room for a few moments, then turns to head upstairs.

Owen inhales a puff from his ASTHMA INHALER.

He holds the inhaler in his hands. He allows his breathing to return to normal.

He's sitting on the edge of his bed in his dark bedroom.

From downstairs, we can still hear the sound of the sitcom on TV.

Owen picks up a remote control and flips on his own TV on a nightstand near his bed.

He changes channels, then settles on what sounds like a late night talk show.

The TV glow dances across his face now too, just like his father downstairs.

He settles into bed as we DRIFT towards:

His bedroom window.

And now we're outside his house, on a patch of grass near a streetlamp across the street.

SOMEONE IS WATCHING FROM OUTSIDE.

A WOMAN. Staring up at Owen's house. At the twin TVs glowing on each level of the otherwise dark home.

This mystery woman has her back turned to us, so we can't tell for certain who it is.

Eventually though, we reverse to reveal:

She glares ahead at Owen's house with authority and purpose, like a spy here on a secret mission.

She continues to stare ahead towards the dark house. Then:

She turns and walks away, departing down the road into the abyss of the suburban night.

And now it's just us out here. Alone, watching the twin TVs flickering through the windows on each level of the house.

Isabel (from The Pink Opaque) walks alone across a grass field in the foggy dusk at her sleepaway camp.

The field is still all set up from a game of Capture the Flag earlier in the day.

But Isabel's the only one out now, all by herself on her seemingly abandoned camp grounds.

We hear Maddy in voice-over, as if speaking to us through a dream--

Owen wanders through a county fair, lost in the colored lights and caffeinated buzz surrounding him. He seems more dazed than excited.

TITLE ON SCREEN:

1998

INSERT SHOTS OF:

The neon chaos of the fair...

SPINNING RIDES and TEENAGERS aggressively facing off against each other at game booths, spraying water into cardboard clown mouths, ring tossing, winning tiny goldfish in ziplock bags.

And Brenda (Owen's mom) by a snack booth, eavesdropping with concern on her son as he wanders aimlessly all alone through the fairgrounds.

Something has changed about Brenda since we last saw her:

She's looking pale. Her head is shaved. She wears a snood hat to cover her baldness.

Owen and Brenda lean together against a fence outside the spinning Gravitron 5000 ride. Owen picks at a big bushel of COTTON CANDY.

Brenda studies her son, trying to get a read on him.

Owen lets some spit drop out of his mouth onto his cotton candy. He watches the blue and pink bushel dissolve back to sugar with the force of his spit.

ON THE SOUNDTRACK: The RUMBLE of the Gravitron ride overtakes us...

Now Owen is inside, strapped in and pinned against the wall for a ride.

Neon colors flash rapidly across his face as he spins. He's moving at warp speed, so fast that gravity is playing tricks on him.

He looks like he's going to be sick. He tries to move his arms and push off the wall, but the velocity of the ride keeps him pinned there.

There's terror in his eyes as he tries and fails to move.

It's like being trapped somewhere terrible.

Owen sits in the backseat as his family drives home from the fair.

Owen glances briefly into the rearview mirror.

From the front seat -- Frank drives in grumpy silence. He keeps his eyes peeled on the road ahead.

Brenda glances back at her son from the passenger seat.

Owen glances again into the rearview, daring to make eye contact.

Frank keeps staring ahead at the road for awhile.

And then finally, he speaks:

Silence.

Brenda cuts the tension, trying to let Owen down easy:

Owen looks down at his lap.

End of conversation.

Brenda, her face faded and gaunt from chemotherapy, stares at the road ahead.

Owen lies in bed, unable to sleep. He rolls over and leans in to check the alarm clock on his nightstand.

10:48pm.

He lays back down and stares up at the ceiling. Oh that special particular agony of knowing your favorite show is on right now but you can't watch it...

Owen sits up, and then:

He looks directly into the camera, addressing us once again as the movie's narrator.

It's after school hours. The hallways are mostly empty.

Owen walks past a few KIDS wrestling at their lockers.

We follow him for awhile through the halls, tracking with him as he enters:

An empty art classroom. Amateur watercolors sit all dried on easels. Half-finished pencil still-lives are taped up to the walls.

Owen walks across the art classroom, and then through a black curtain, leading into:

The school's DARK ROOM.

Owen is bathed in RICH RED LIGHT, like he's just stepped onto another planet.

He's alone in here, but there's something waiting for him...

A VHS TAPE, sitting on the counter right next to the chemical bath.

Owen picks it up and reads the handwritten label Maddy has scribbled for him:

pilot episode

(rerun)

He stares down at the tape, as if it holds all the mysteries of life in its innards.

After school now. Owen sits in the living room, staring down at his biology homework. He's supposed to be filling in names of internal organs on a diagram of the human male body.

But he's not doing his homework, really. Instead, he's waiting, biding his time until--

Owen listens, waiting patiently as the front door opens and closes. He waits a few seconds longer for the house to settle into silence.

Then --

He rushes out of the chair and up the staircase.

Owen digs inside his closet, turning over old toys and clothes until he finds:

A hidden PILLOW CASE where he keeps the various VHS TAPES Maddy has given him, each one lovingly hand-labeled.

He gently empties the tapes out onto his carpet, and then he carefully surveys his treasures.

Owen feeds the tape labeled "Pilot Episode" into the VHS player on a small, old CRT TV in his basement.

He kneels on the carpet in front of the television as the set's blue calibration screen flickers on.

He pauses a moment in front of the screen.

Then, he turns towards us, and:

HE LOOKS DIRECTLY INTO THE CAMERA, suddenly aware of our presence once again. He speaks to us as the narrator.

65pt2 LATER. 65pt2

Owen is splayed out on the couch, lights dimmed, staring ahead at the TV screen.

From the screen - we can hear the pilot episode of The Pink Opaque playing. The rustling of SOMEONE running through a forest, accompanied by scary 90s score...

Owen watches, transfixed.

We cut into the episode.

A scared CAMPER, 13, rushes through the woods, hopelessly lost. He glances down at a compass in his hands, but the needle just spins.

Footsteps scatter across the forest floor.

MARCO and POLO, two monsters, emerge slowly from the woods. Their faces are white and crater-like, all jagged and shaped like CRESCENT MOONS. They wear slick astronaut costumes, as if NASA collaborated on a new chic line with Gucci.

The LOST CAMPER stares ahead, eyes wide with terror.

He drops his compass into the dirt.

Isabel is crouched at the edge of a dock at the camp's lake: a large, shimmering body of water with a small area sectioned off with buoys for swim practice.

The water sparkles as Isabel stares up at --

THE MOON. Big and brilliant and full in the sky tonight.

And glowing with...

Isabel turns around. Tara is approaching her slowly from the other end of the dock.

She says it with confusion, as if she's not quite sure how she knows this fact.

She looks back up at the Man in the Moon and thinks harder, as if trying to remember a forgotten memory.

Tara nods.

She sits on the dock across from Isabel.

Isabel turns from the moon and looks at Tara with concern.

She says it forcefully.

Tara brushes her hair aside and turns to show Isabel her own MYSTICAL PINK BIRTHMARK.

It's a match for the symbol on Isabel's neck, except hers bears the mirror opposite symbol, as if the two birthmarks could connect together like puzzle pieces.

On Isabel -- fear and wonder in her eyes. No one has ever called her special before.

Owen lies on his side, watching the episode. He speaks along with the show, softly mouthing Isabel's lines from memory as she speaks them.

From upstairs: the sound of the front door opening.

Owen's parents are back home.

Owen jumps up from the couch quickly. He rushes towards the TV and shuts off the episode abruptly.

He hits EJECT, then grabs the VHS tape out from the machine. He hides it under his shirt, crouched there alone on the floor.

Maddy sits alone after school on the football field bleachers, eating a tuna sandwich with the crust cut off. She’s got the darkened contours of a half-healed black eye, which she’s tried to cover up with goth makeup.

From all the way across the empty bleachers: Owen approaches, trying his best once again to feign casualness. Like he’s just happened to stumble across Maddy up here alone.

Maddy glances up at him as he continues to feign nonchalance.

She picks at her sandwich. He sits down next to her, a ball of social anxiety.

A long silence. Maddy doesn’t look at Owen as he fidgets around a bit, working up the courage to ask:

A beat. Maddy looks vaguely annoyed at the question.

Owen looks disappointed.

Maddy snorts and rolls her eyes, pure spite.

ON OWEN -- working up the courage to ask his next question.

Maddy looks at him. Owen's clearly nervous.

Maddy studies him, trying to figure out his angle here.

Owen is immediately nervous, defensive.

Maddy looks Owen up and down, trying to feel him out.

A beat of silence. Maddy keeps eying Owen.

Owen looks down through the bleachers.

Owen just keeps staring down through the bleachers.

He thinks for awhile, like he doesn't know the answer. Then he half-smiles.

He says it like a self-effacing joke. But it just sounds sad.

Out in the distance -- some stoner kids in the area below the football field stamp out their joint and head off in the other direction, leaving Owen and Maddy completely alone out here.

Owen looks at Maddy, as if searching for confirmation of something.

Maddy thinks for awhile before responding.

Maddy bites her lip.

ON OWEN -- he ruffles his brow, considering it.

Owen walks across Maddy's backyard, sleeping bag tucked under his arm.

He glances side-to-side to make sure nobody's watching, then slides open the glass door to her basement and slips inside.

RISING ON THE SOUNDTRACK: EVIL CLOWN LAUGHTER.

We cut fluidly into The Pink Opaque:

Through the side-mirror of a parked car, we can see:

AN EVIL CLOWN MONSTER, holding court in the middle of the parking lot, giggling and frothing at the mouth like an absolute maniac.

Tara, speed-walking across the parking lot, a large SCYTHE in hand. She addresses the psychotic clown as she rushes towards him...

She raises her scythe into the air, ready for battle. But just before she strikes we cut to:

Owen and Maddy watching the episode on Maddy's couch. They're sitting side-by-side, closer together, both lost in the episode and the glow of the screen.

FROM THE UNSEEN SCREEN WE CAN HEAR:

The sounds of an epic, kind of over-the-top fight scene between Tara and the evil clown. Lots of GROWLING and SLICING.

Out of the corner of his eye Owen notices something --

Maddy is CRYING.

Tears roll down her cheeks. Her eyes are red and wet. The shadow of that black eye still not fully healed.

Owen looks confused. She knows he notices, but she's not able to cover up her tears.

She keeps her eyes ahead at the screen. She whimpers and continues to cry harder, a full-bodied emotional response now.

Owen sits there, unsure of what to say or do...

73pt2 LATER. Past lights out. 73pt2

Owen is alone in the basement, once again curled up on the floor in his sleeping bag.

His breathing is slightly and subtly asthmatic.

He's awake, and he's listening to:

NOISES from upstairs in Maddy's house.

It sounds like a heated argument. An angry MAN yelling, and a WOMAN trying to defend herself.

It's muffled enough so it's hard to hear the exact words, but it sounds on the edge of violence.

Owen lays there and listens.

The BASEMENT DOOR CREAKS OPEN.

Owen turns on his side, pretending to sleep as Maddy tiptoes downstairs and takes a seat on the staircase.

She's got something in her hands:

It's not clear if Maddy is talking to him, or just to herself.

Owen slowly turns over on his side and squints across the room at Maddy.

A long pause. Owen stares at Maddy from his spot on the floor.

Owen lies still, staring at Maddy. He turns back over on his other side, facing away from her now.

A long beat. Then -- Owen can hear Maddy getting back up from the stairs and walking slowly towards him.

She crouches at his side.

Owen doesn't speak or move.

Owen does, slowly.

He sits with his back turned to Maddy, not looking at her.

She reaches out and tilts his head down for him.

She uncaps her marker and begins to draw carefully on the nape of his neck.

She's drawing:

The symbol from the show. The 'half Y' that we've seen on the back of Isabel and Tara's necks.

Her marker's ink is pink and bright. It glows against the darkness of the basement.

Owen keeps his head down. They sit there in silence as Maddy colors in the lines of Owen's new temporary tattoo.

73pt3 LATER. 73pt3

It's the middle of the night.

Owen and Maddy lay on the floor next to each other. Maddy fast asleep on her side without a blanket.

And Owen still wide awake, lying on his back inside his sleeping bag, staring up towards the ceiling.

A SUBTLE LITTLE LIGHT dances across his face.

We watch Owen in close-up for awhile as he stares upwards.

Then, we cut to a wide shot to see what he's staring up at:

There's a SMALL BLUE FLICKER DANCING IN THE AIR, six feet above his sleeping bag.

Like a TV's glimmering blue calibration screen that has somehow willed itself into this plane of existence.

Owen stares up into the light.

It's tiny, almost imperceptible. Perhaps just a trick of the light, perhaps not.

Perhaps a dream, perhaps not.

The film is caught in the gatehead, causing the projector to stall and spin out. Some of the FILM STOCK itself is spitting up from the reel, unfurling wildly onto the ground.

Adult Owen (back in 2006 now) stands six feet away, watching aghast and frozen as the machine malfunctions. His asshole manager Dave stands behind him, also frozen in the face of the crisis.

Owen glances at his manager, who is clearly expecting Owen to take charge here.

Owen moves to grab hold of the projector to try to stop it from unspooling further. It's like trying to grab hold of a bucking bronco.

He thinks twice, and instead UNPLUGS the machine, grabbing its wiring out from the wall socket.

The projector slows to a stop, returning the room to quiet.

Dave shakes his head in annoyance and condescension, like all this is Owen's fault.

Owen stands there, plug in hand, allowing his breathing to return to normal.

Now Owen shovels popcorn into black garbage bags. Going through the motions of his nightly routine.

TITLE ON SCREEN:

2006

REVERSE ON:

The clear glass doors at the front of the movie theater.

THROUGH THE GLASS WE CAN SEE -

The vast, empty parking lot. A desert of concrete.

A few stray SHOPPING CARTS drift down a slight decline, rolling slowly past the window like tumbleweed blowing in the wind.

RISING THE SOUNDTRACK:

The snack aisle, lit by the impossibly blinding fluorescents of a supermarket past midnight.

Owen lethargically pushes his shopping cart past a towering, carefully arranged Nabisco display. He's half-asleep for this late night shopping trip.

He inspects CRACKER BOXES on the shelf. They all look the same.

The store's overhead speakers switch from muzak to a chipper in-store ad for MICROWAVE POPCORN.

Owen looks up from the shelf and notices something strange at the far-end of the aisle...

She's wearing the same button-down we saw her in earlier when she waited outside Owen's house.

Owen looks around, like he's not sure if this woman is talking to him. Her style and appearance has changed with the years, so he doesn't immediately recognize her.

He steps in front of his shopping cart, nervous by the intensity of this mystery woman at the end of the aisle.

Maddy stares at him, concerned and serious.

Owen squints. He takes a furtive step down the aisle, closer towards her.

And then -- he realizes who it is.

His expression drops as the gravity of this moment hits him all at once.

FROM FAR DOWN THE PERPENDICULAR MEAT AISLE WE WATCH --

Owen rush towards Maddy and hug her. From this far distance his voice kind of blends with the electric hum of the store.

Owen leads Maddy across another empty parking lot. He walks slowly and glances back at her, as if he's scared that if he doesn't keep an eye on her at all times she'll disappear for another decade...

We're once again watching from far away, so the two of them are little more than specks. They're dwarfed by a billboard looming across the highway, advertising:

THE FUN CENTER. GRAND OPENING!

A state-of-the-art, Kid's Zone-style indoor entertainment complex.

BLUE and RED lights from a cop car strobe silently out into the night, reflecting off looming forest.

One of this week’s SPECIAL GUEST BANDS, playing on a small stage in a dank underground club.

They're draped in fog, in the midst of a moody, sad, sexy song.

We watch the band play for awhile, hearing a decent chunk of their song.

And the chorus:

Eventually, we CUT TO:

A corner booth. Where Owen and Maddy sit across from each other, drinks in front of them.

Maddy shrugs, fully non-committal.

Owen is struggling here...

Owen sighs, giving in.

He leans back in the booth.

Maddy glances around the club, then looks back at Owen.

She leans in a bit, gradually closing the booth space between them.

Owen ruffles his brow. He pauses for a moment to process the question.

Then --

He laughs nervously, like the question is absurd.

He looks her in the eye, as if recalling a blood pact they once took together:

Maddy stares at him, looking vaguely concerned.

Owen reminisces, a warmth entering his voice. This is his favorite subject.

He smiles, thinking about this plan of his.

A long silence. Owen's smile fades a bit with the dead air.

He looks confused.

Maddy leans in closer.

A beat. Owen blinks a few times.

Maddy bites her lip.

She stares at Owen, studying his face as he processes her question.

The music in the club carries us briefly back...

...Into the past. Back into Maddy's basement, all those years ago. The song we heard in the goth club moments ago is now playing diegetically on the unseen TV screen.

Teenaged Maddy sits on a piano bench, facing a closed closet door on the other end of the basement, waiting for:

Owen is rustling around from inside the closet. Maddy waits for him on the other side of the door.

Teen Owen opens the closet door. But before we can get a look at him, we return:

To 2006. To Adult Owen and Maddy's conversation at the bar.

Owen looks slightly alarmed at Maddy's strange question.

He says it like he's trying to explain to a toddler that you need oxygen to breathe.

He looks from side-to-side, then back at Maddy.

Owen looks at Maddy like this is obvious. He's starting to sweat a little bit.

The music carries us back into:

Maddy's basement. The past.

As Teen Owen steps out of the closet. We see Maddy's expression before we see what she's looking at.

REVERSE ON:

OWEN, wearing the same prom dress we've seen Isabel from The Pink Opaque wearing a few times.

He's embarrassed. He doesn't know what to do with his eyes, so he just glances nervously around the room.

He finally works up the courage to look Maddy in the eye.

She stares back at him, meeting his gaze.

Back in 2006. Owen is getting alarmed by Maddy's odd questions. Perhaps even oddly defensive...

She leans in even closer. There are just inches between them now.

Owen's heart is beating fast in his chest now.

There's something in his expression that almost resembles guilt. Like Maddy's verbalizing some secret he doesn't want spoken out loud.

The band on stage have finished their song now. There’s only silence surrounding Owen as he responds to Maddy’s escalating interrogations:

Owen is taken aback, panicked.

Teenage Owen and Maddy walk side-by-side down an abandoned suburban street, gently stepping over chalk drawings left out overnight on the pavement.

Owen's still wearing the prom dress. He's clearly equally terrified and exhilarated to be outside in it, even under the cover of darkness.

Maddy holds him by the hand, leading him down the street, past sleeping houses, deeper into the night...

A NEW BAND sets up on stage now as Maddy speaks across the table to Owen, her voice full of determination.

Owen breathes heavy. We can hear that familiar asthmatic wheeze now entering his breath.

Maddy says it forcefully.

She waits for him.

FROM THE STAGE -- the NEW BAND, faces all painted in classic METAL MAKEUP, begin a heavy, satanic dirge.

Maddy leans in closer towards him, her gaze intense.

Owen looks ghostly, as if he's terrified for what she's about to say.

A beat. Owen stares back at Maddy, all the color drained from his face.

THE STAGE. Where the new band’s intense dirge is building momentum. The LEAD SINGER screams at the top of their lungs into the microphone as we DISSOLVE and DESCEND back in time once again towards…

Maddy leading Owen by the hand onto the high school football field.

They're lit by bright moonlight. Owen continues to walk slowly and reluctantly, nervous in the prom dress.

Maddy looks at Owen, then up into the night sky. Up towards the moon.

Owen looks up.

We hold on his expression.

Maddy and Owen stand out there, alone on the football field, draped under the moon's strange glow.

And then finally, we reverse up towards:

Grinning silently down at them, huge and imposing in the night sky.

We push CLOSER and CLOSER in towards the moon.

Until he surrounds us. That sick, knowing grin...

He reaches his MOON ARMS out from the sides of the moon. And then --

He PULLS HIMSELF OUT FROM THE MOON.

POUNCING. Craters crumble into the cosmos behind him as he heads straight towards us.

Adult Owen, as he comes bursting out through the backdoor of the dive bar. Out into the parking lot.

He grabs his car keys from his pocket and rushes towards his car.

Maddy exits the club too. She watches Owen as he unlocks his car door and opens it up in a state of panic.

She calls out to him from across the parking lot.

She sounds calm, confident and resigned.

Owen pauses by the car door. He doesn't get inside, but he also doesn't turn back to face Maddy.

Owen closes his eyes and winces, as if he doesn't want to remember.

Maddy continues to stare across the parking lot at his back, and calls to him one more time.

Owen gets inside the car and closes the door behind him.

Maddy stands still, just watching as Owen puts his car into reverse and then drives out of the parking lot.

We're back in 1998. Back at Maddy's house, the morning after their night out on the football field.

Owen is hunched over the sink in Maddy's bathroom,

He's shirtless, desperately trying to scrub the PINK SYMBOL off the back of his neck.

He keeps scrubbing. It's almost entirely gone.

Owen zips up his sleeping bag into a ball. The nape of his neck is raw from his attempts to wash off the symbol.

He speaks to Maddy - who's over on the staircase in her usual spot - but doesn't look at her.

Maddy is sitting on the staircase, in her usual spot. The morning light casting shadows across her face.

Owen glances up from his work at her.

She looks resigned, deadly serious.

A long silence.

And then, finally, Maddy answers his question:

Owen turns back to his sleeping bag and continues his work on the floor, a world of conflict playing out silently in his expression.

CLOSE ON:

The prom dress he wore the night before, draped over the couch.

Now Owen walks slowly across backyards, sleeping bag tucked under his arms. Just like all those other Saturday mornings.

He looks like he's in a daze, a ghost sleepwalking in his own skin.

Slowly, he PICKS UP THE PACE, walking faster and faster.

Until he's sprinting. RUNNING as fast as he can across the endless sprawl of backyards.

As if he's trying to ESCAPE.

Owen's outside another house now, RINGING THE DOORBELL repeatedly.

He KNOCKS loudly on the front door.

He's in a state of panic.

JOHNNY LINK'S MOM, 45, opens the front door and looks down in confusion at the pale kid on her front porch.

A beat. Owen stares back at her, pale and panicked.

He's speaking quickly. The woman on the other side of the door struggles to understand what is going on.

Owen is speaking quickly, as if in the midst of a panic attack. He hardly seems aware of his surroundings.

We stay close on Owen's face. On his desperate pleas for help.

And then we're back a decade later.

As Adult Owen pulls his car into the driveway, finally arriving home from his night out with Maddy at the dive bar, just as the sun is beginning to rise.

He turns the car off but doesn't get out.

He lingers in the driver's seat, his head hung down towards the steering wheel, exhausted with the weight of it all.

The empty room is bathed in pre-dawn light. We can hear the faint sound of TELEVISION coming from the next room over.

INSERT SHOT:

An urn resting on a table near the hallway, alongside a framed picture of Brenda. A modest shrine to the departed.

Adult Owen lets himself into the house through the backdoor, still exhausted.

He listens to the sound of the nearby television drone, and then walks slowly through the kitchen.

Frank, still looking sickly and weak with the advanced years, rests under blankets on the couch.

He's not watching TV. Instead, his eyes are peeled on Owen sneaking back into the house with the morning light.

Owen stops in the doorway, frozen under his father's gaze.

He sounds nervous and unsure of himself. He doesn't have anywhere near the conviction needed to sell this lie.

Owen waits for his father to respond to him.

Frank doesn't say anything. He just stares, his gaze weak but penetrating, full of anger and disgust.

We hold on Frank's gaze for several seconds -- that strange, otherworldly stare penetrating through us.

Owen looks around the room, uncomfortable, eager to break the silence..

Owen turns and hurries up the staircase.

We're briefly back in the 90s again, following behind Young Owen as he walks up the stairs and across the second floor of his house.

He heads down the hallway towards his bedroom.

And just as quickly, we're back in 2006.

Adult Owen closes the door to his bedroom behind him. He leans against the door and exhales deeply, letting out what sounds like a decade of stress.

Adult Owen crouching on the carpet in front of his opened bedroom closet.

He empties the contents of his old PILLOW CASE out onto the carpet. The one where he stored Maddy's homemade VHS tapes all those years ago.

The tapes are still in there, grown dusty and faded with time.

They fall from the pillowcase onto the carpet.

Owen sits in front of the collection of Pink Opaque tapes. He studies their labels: all of the different episodes and hand- written notes by Maddy.

He continues studying and surveying the collection.

And then, finally --

He looks up, directly at us.

At the camera.

Owen - his teenaged self once again - is laying in bed, trying and failing to sleep.

It's past his bedtime. 10:32, to be exact.

Owen stares at his bedside clock, feeling his weekly Saturday night FOMO.

He grabs the phone off the receiver in his bedroom, as if acting on instinct. He manages to do it before even the second ring.

He holds the phone up to his ear.

Owen's eyes go wide.

The line clicks off on the other end. Owen pauses a moment, processing this.

It's Frank at the door, suspicious about the phone call. He cracks the bedroom door open and peers inside.

A beat. Then:

Frank closes the door, satisfied at the incoherence of his son's sleep mumblings.

Owen stares up at the ceiling, wide awake and full of adrenaline.

He waits to hear his father walk down the hall and close his bedroom door. Then:

HE JUMPS OUT OF BED, on a mission.

ADULT OWEN sits in front of the VHS collection.

He continues narrating to the camera.

Young Owen creeps across the top floor of his house, walking like a jewel thief past his father's room, then down a staircase.

He takes each step gently, afraid of each potential creak in the floorboards.

Shrouded in darkness, Teen Owen opens the basement door and creeps down the stairs.

The clock on the stove nearby reads 10:36.

Owen kneels in front of the small CRT TV in his basement. He flips on the TV and quickly turns the dial to turn the sound down low.

He flips through channels manually on the TV itself, moving as fast as he possibly can, desperate to get to the episode.

And then...

We're inside it. Back in The Pink Opaque.

Isabel is sitting cross-legged on her bed. Her eyes closed. The symbol on the back of her neck glowing a BRIGHT, SUPERNATURAL PINK.

She speaks in her mind using her psychic powers, and we hear her in voice-over:

Tara answers from somewhere else...

Owen walks backwards towards the couch, careful not to take his eyes off the screen for even a second.

Now we're at camp, by the lake.

Isabel and Tara sit on the dock, levitating and communicating on "the psychic plane."

We're back with Adult Owen in front of the VHS tapes. He looks into the camera and continues to narrate the episode for us:

We hear Tara deliver her very dramatic next line from the unseen television:

Teen Owen's face: oh shit.

We hear the show's score crescendo on the unseen screen, and then we hear a commercial for FROZEN PIZZA begin.

Now that the show is on break, Owen remembers where he is.

He glances anxiously around the room, from the screen up towards his basement door.

No sign of his father... Yet.

Back with our narrator, back in 2006:

Isabel walks across the sprawling Capture the Flag field at her old sleepaway camp.

She's out of breath, as if she just ran all the way here.

She walks past empty bunks. She looks around, searching.

The door to her old bunk is hanging open. The door SLAMS over and over again with the wind.

Isabel looks inside the bunk from the porch. It's empty.

It's a ghost camp. No one else around.

But then, faintly, in the distance, Isabel hears something...

It's almost so quiet that it could be her imagination. Isabel stands there outside the bunk, listening to the wind.

There it is again, a little louder this time.

It's Tara.

She's calling from the distance, searching for Isabel like Isabel is searching for her.

Teen Owen moves slowly off the couch, once again careful not to take his eyes off the screen.

He gently picks up a nearby TELEPHONE off the receiver. He dials Star Sixty Nine.

He holds the phone up to his ear.

Before the first ring is over, Maddy answers.

She doesn't speak, but we can hear her breathing through the line.

They watch the episode together in silence.

Isabel approaches from the distance, hurrying, no time to waste.

She can see TARA sitting on the dock in the distance, waiting for her.

As Isabel rushes closer, Tara stands up to greet her friend.

Back with Adult Owen, our narrator:

Back to the show. Tara stands in the distance, smiling and waiting for Isabel.

Isabel stops in her tracks, suddenly frozen.

Teen Owen watches from his space on the floor, the phone still up to his ear. He's concerned. His breaths vaguely asthmatic.

A jarring and disturbing cut to:

Tara lying buried underground, covered in dirt, coughing violently.

Her pupils are dilated pure white, as if she's in the midst of an epileptic fit.

She coughs again, spitting up a GNARLY BLUE LIQUID all over her lips and chin.

Isabel stands there, frozen, terrified of this vision of Tara she's just had.

Teen Owen breathes asthmatically into the phone, his eyes wide. We can hear Maddy breathing back on the other end.

He lets the phone drift from his ear, lowering it down towards the carpet as he continues to watch the unseen screen.

We push in closer towards Tara. She stands waiting for Isabel on the dock.

But as we get closer, we realize:

It's not Tara. It's MR. MELANCHOLY, dressed up in Tara's clothes.

We see his gnarled, grinning, powdered white face for just a moment before we REVERSE BACK ON;

ISABEL, as she's grabbed by Mr. Melancholy's henchmen Marco and Polo (those monsters with the crescent-moon heads who we saw earlier).

Isabel struggles against their grasp as they begin to drag her away.

We can hear Maddy's voice faintly from the phone receiver by Owen's side.

But Owen's too invested in Isabel's struggles on screen to respond.

Our MOON HENCHMEN are hard at work digging a hole in the ground in the middle of a field.

Now the Moon Men carry a STILL BEATING HEART across the dining hall.

One holds open a LARGE STORAGE FREEZER. They place the heart inside next to one already in there, also still beating.

ACROSS THE ROOM:

Isabel is incapacitated now, tied with rope to a chair near the dining hall serving area, and barely conscious. There’s a bunch of blood on her shirt in the area where her heart was just removed.

Marco and Polo are forcing a straw between her lips.

They coax the confused Isabel to take a sip of juice from their oversized LUNA JUICE JUICEBOX.

She struggles a little bit, confused, but lets the BLUE GOO travel from the straw into her mouth; lets it dribble down her chin.

She struggles to return to consciousness, the world a haze around her as:

Mr. Melancholy emerges from the shadows of the dining hall like a mob boss waiting in the wings for his henchmen to complete their work.

Then - he kneels calmly in front of his incapacitated prisoner.

Isabel continues struggling, but a little less hard. We can tell that she's fading.

He grins big. He can't help but giggle.

Isabel has just a little bit of struggle left in her. She writhes and fights against the Moon Men's grasp. And then:

Her body goes limp.

The Moon Men shovel dirt, filling in the fresh grave they've just dug.

Isabel's body TUMBLING over dirt, down into the Earth.

NOTE: the sound of her body falling mirrors exactly the first sound we heard in the film.

A wide shot, peering down into the open grave.

WE ZOOM SLOWLY IN TOWARDS:

Her mouth, cheeks, and chin are CAKED WITH DRY BLUE VOMIT.

She's lying stiff, staring straight up into the night sky as dirt is shoveled over her body.

She's vacant, as if her mind is somewhere else, somewhere far from this body currently being buried alive.

We keep pushing down closer and closer towards Isabel. Until suddenly...

WE CUT TO BLACK.

We're back in the basement with Owen, staring with him at the BLACK TV SCREEN.

An end credit appears on the screen:

Owen struggles to breath, traumatized by this ending, as we hold on the TV screen.

Upstairs now.

The clock above the oven reads 11:01.

All is still and quiet in the house after dark. Until suddenly, we hear:

THE SOUND OF GLASS SHATTERING. It's loud and abrupt, and over as quickly as it started.

Then -- the sound of a bedroom door opening upstairs, and someone running down the unseen stairs.

FRANK rushes through the living room. He throws open the door to the basement and quickly descends the stairs.

Owen's head is literally INSIDE THE TELEVISION, his body hanging out from it, propped up on the carpet.

Smoke rises from the broken set.

It appears Owen has smashed the screen with his head. He's now unconscious inside the screen.

Frank rushes down the staircase. He works to pull his son out from inside the TV screen.

At first Owen's body is limp and unmoving.

Then, as his father pulls him out, Owen shows signs of life again. And instinctively, he begins to struggle.

He flails his arms around. He tries to hold himself inside the TV screen, clutching for the edges of the set.

But Frank is bigger than Owen, and is easily able to pull his son out from inside.

Owen's head emerges from inside, and once again he GASPS and WHEEZES loudly, as if in the midst of both an asthma and panic attack. It's like some sick parody of a home birth.

ON THE SOUNDTRACK: The sound of a SHOWER turning on.

Frank runs the water as hot as he can.

He holds his son's body over the steam, forcefully positioning Owen to breath it in.

Owen is still GASPING AND STRUGGLING AND WHEEZING VIOLENTLY. His breathes are basically CRIES OF ANGUISH. He's lost all control of his body.

Frank's eyes are stern and resolved. He tries to hold his son up, tries to get him to breathe again.

Owen struggles against his father’s grip, trying to break free.

He continues to CRY AND GASP.

He barely has a voice, but he tries to scream:

His eyes dart around the room, red and wet and terrified.

IN THE DISTANCE -- the sound of an ambulance approaching.

Frank holds his son in place, trying to get him to breathe. Owen keeps thrashing and wheezing and crying.

Frank just holds his son firm.

Owen GASPS and HEAVES, as if he's about to throw up.

And then:

He PROJECTILE VOMITS.

But what comes out doesn't look like vomit.

It looks like soil.

Spewed out across the shower floor.

Dirt - brown and thick and wet, as if it was just dug up fresh from the ground and somehow inserted into the pit of Owen's stomach.

We only get a brief glimpse of the soil as it escapes from Owen's lips. Then we abruptly:

...

..

.

A pause.

FADE UP ON:

Maddy's TELEVISION, burning in the front yard, flames rising into the night sky.

Adult Owen stares at his reflection in his bedroom mirror.

We're back in 2006. Maddy's old VHS tapes are still scattered across the carpet of Owen's room.

Owen throws on a t-shirt. He looks at himself with uncertainty and then --

He climbs out of his open bedroom window.

We watch from across the street as Owen tries to gently descend from the second story of his house, dropping down into the grass.

The pavement of the road ahead is lined with those familiar PINK AND PURPLE CHALK DRAWINGS.

Owen drives slowly down quiet streets in his town. He looks unsure of himself, like a big part of him wants to just turn back around.

He glances in his rearview mirror and notices --

A CREEPY MAN, 50, standing in his front yard at a workbench, eyes on Owen's car as it passes.

Owen is the only one parked in the lot here at midnight at his old high school.

He sits in the silent darkness of the front seat, as if trying to run the clock out on this night. He doesn't want to face what he's about to face.

But he knows he has to.

He opens the door and steps out into the parking lot.

He walks slowly towards the high school.

Owen walks a dark pathway around the perimeter of the school.

He's looking for Maddy, but she's nowhere to be found.

Something catches his eye:

A DOOR propped open, leading into the school.

The glass of the door has been BROKEN, shards across the grass and pavement.

Owen steps carefully over the glass, and then lets himself into the school.

ON THE SOUNDTRACK:

The WHEEZE of MECHANICAL BREATHING, like oxygen being pumped.

It's coming from far away.

Owen walks slowly down the dark hallway.

He's headed towards that OXYGEN SOUND. It's rhythmic and powerful, like the sound of a giant respirator.

It's coming from down the hall. From the gym...

Owen enters the doorway to the gymnasium and stares out at:

It's plugged into the wall, slowly rising towards the ceiling. That respirator sound we've been hearing has been the oxygen machine powering its inflation.

Owen stares ahead.

There's a little light up pixel tunnel connected to the dome that one has to crawl through to get inside.

We descend into the darkness of the tunnel...

Now Owen crawls through the tunnel. It's been designed for kids half his size, so he has to struggle to make it through. PIXELS flash as Owen crawls.

AHEAD, near the end of the tunnel, Owen can see the shimmering glow of the artificial NIGHT SKY.

He continues to crawl through this portal, clawing desperately forward until he spots:

Maddy, waiting for him in the distance, looking melancholy and lonely.

Later now. We’ve caught up to Maddy’s monologue we’ve been listening to in voiceover.

It's romantic in here, like a pillow fort or the inside of a snow castle you built as a kid after a blizzard.

FAKE STARS shimmer across the inner walls of the planetarium. The FAKE NIGHT SKY glows with a dark blue warmth.

Maddy stands in front of the electric-powered night sky. This is her campfire.

She stares ahead, past the camera, continuing her story:

Her monologue continues as she paces through the space, telling Owen her scary story.

We reverse back on:

OWEN, sitting there on the ground in the inflatable planetarium, transfixed by Maddy's story, watching her with the same fascination he used to watch The Pink Opaque with.

ON OWEN ONCE AGAIN -- he furrows his brow. He doesn't move.

She sets the flashlight gently down on the ground and crouches. She continues speaking to Owen.

ON OWEN:

He's starting to look frightened as the true weight of what Maddy is telling him is beginning to sink in.

Maddy continues, nearing the end of her story now.

She trails off briefly, her voice breaking with the trauma of it all.

Owen looks stunned, his eyes nearly popping from his sockets.

Maddy stares back at him. Her voice is resolved, a little angry even.

Owen stares at her, quiet once again.

Maddy stares resolutely at him.

Owen looks guilty, as if he knows she's right, but can't bring himself to admit it.

Owen remains silent for a long time.

He shakes his head.

He struggles with his memories:

Owen winces, squeezing his eyes shut, trying to search his brain to figure out if this is true.

He says it like he's trying to convince himself it's true.

Maddy just glares ahead at him, resolved.

Her voice is firm, urgent.

ON OWEN - pale and terrified. But we can see in his eyes that Maddy's words have cut into him. He can't unhear them.

Maddy leads Owen slowly down the school hallway, back in the direction they came.

Owen's walking slowly. He's sweating. Terrified, almost out of his body.

As Owen walks past his old lunch room, he fleetingly glances through the doors into the empty cafeteria.

He sees the tables, all broken down for the night once again, turned upside down like turtles stuck on their shells.

The lunch room passes by his periphery as he keeps walking. He continues to follow behind Maddy.

Now Owen and Maddy walk side-by-side across the football field, headed towards the goal post out in the distance.

Owen is walking really slowly, like a man headed to the gallows.

He's sweating, ghost white, breathing heavily. Each new yard line on the football field brings him closer to his destiny.

Maddy glances back at him.

She looks at him, and notices his terror.

She keeps walking.

Maddy looks back at him once again, happy he's finally called her by her real name.

Maddy stares at Owen for a few silent seconds, the two of them alone out here in the middle of the football field.

Then -- Owen continues to mumble to himself, like a flurry of ideas are turning over in his head.

Alarm registers on Maddy's face for just a moment before --

Owen ATTACKS.

Very suddenly POUNCING and PUSHING Maddy over onto the grass.

She lands with a thud, and Owen loses his balance too, landing just next to her.

He's quick up to his feet. He pushes against the dirt and grass of the field, struggling to stand.

He kicks up mud and RUNS FOR HIS LIFE.

He sprints across the football field, running as fast as he can, trying desperately to get away from Maddy.

Maddy stands back up, but doesn't chase after Owen.

She just watches him run away.

Owen tears through the parking lot. He digs his car keys out of his pockets, hands shaking.

He frantically unlocks his car door and jumps inside.

He SLAMS the door shut --

And struggles to fit the car keys into the ignition. His hands are still shaking, as if they have a life of their own.

He finally manages it. He turns the keys to start the engine and quickly shifts into DRIVE.

But before he peels away, he can't help it --

He glances up through the windshield, out into the distant night...

Back towards THE FOOTBALL FIELD.

Maddy is waiting for him there at the near end of the field. Just under the goalpost.

She's not chasing after him or calling out to him or anything dramatic. She's just staring out at him, watching with unsurprised disappointment as:

Owen speeds out of the parking lot, high-tailing it out of there.

Owen drives through his town at night, trying to calm down

Even though it's the middle of the night, the owners of each house on this street are STANDING OUT ON THEIR FRONT LAWNS, staring blankly at Owen's car as he drives by.

Owen rushes through the front door and bolts the lock behind him.

He leans against the door, still breathing heavy. He closes his eyes, relieved to be back home.

He looks towards the couch, expecting to see his father there waiting for him like always in the living room.

But he's gone. There's no one there - just a pile of blankets.

Maddy’s VHS TAPES are still spread out on the carpet floor of Owen's bedroom.

Owen stands by the window, looking out into the streetlit suburban night. He clutches a pillow close to his chest for comfort.

It's like he's barricaded himself in there as he waits for his final showdown with Maddy to begin.

As he waits, he turns and narrates to the camera, as if finishing the thought we've just heard him express in voice- over:

The sun rises on the empty football field. It's returned to calm. No sign of anyone nearby.

There's a HOLE dug deep into the ground, and a pile of dirt nearby. But it hasn't been filled back in.

A grave, open indefinitely.

The wide open sprawl of the movie theater parking lot. Shopping carts idling between cars.

We're watching from near the highway. All the way across the lot we can see a GAGGLE OF SENIOR CITIZENS queued up at the box office to buy tickets.

Owen sweeps up after a screening in the movie theater, tossing out soda cups into a trash bag and picking up empty candy boxes from the floor.

He glances behind him into the empty theater, almost expecting to see Maddy waiting for him in a seat.

But it's just him in here. The theater is empty.

Owen continues to lifelessly sweep and clean, silhouetted against the blank movie theater screen.

He turns to the camera and narrates:

A BRIEF MONTAGE OF THREE SUBURBAN STREETS we’ve seen before throughout the film.

The pavement on each has been tagged with those familiar pink and purple CHALK SCRIBBLINGS.

But there’s something different about the final drawing we see. Below those familiar intersecting scribbles someone has scrawled some text as well.

There in the pavement, big and bold, scrawled in messy handwritten pink:

And out in the distance:

MADDY, her back to us, chalk in hand, inconspicuous in a hoodie, walking away from this place.

Owen lugs an OLD, BULKY CRT TV out to the curb, leaving it for the garbagemen.

A time-lapse of the same shot. It's now ANOTHER DAY, further into the future.

Two DELIVERY MEN carry a big box up to the doorstep.

A FRESH NEW FLATSCREEN TV.

Owen opens the front door. He drags his new television inside, but pauses to narrate directly to camera before doing so:

He closes the door behind him, leaving us alone out here in the quiet, peaceful suburban morning.

After awhile, we DISSOLVE TO:

Owen, still alone at the fire pit we saw him set up all the way at the beginning of the film.

The flames are dying down now, but still Owen sits here in silent reflection, as if the whole film has been a memory playing inside his head.

He exhales softly, then digs inside his backpack for a JUG OF WATER. He pours it out over the fire, immediately extinguishing the only light left in the forest.

Owen stomps through the pitch black woods, headed back in the same direction he came from.

After awhile, he turns his gaze from the path ahead and LOOKS DIRECTLY INTO THE CAMERA, becoming our narrator one more time:

Owen is laying on his couch, searching on a streaming platform on his fancy new 60-inch HD TV.

Owen scrolls through the episode listings on a streaming platform interface. Eventually, he chooses episode 204:

"The Curse of Mr. Swirly."

A brief loading icon appears on the flat screen.

And the episode begins.

REVERSE ON:

Owen, lying on the living room couch, looking a lot like his father used to look splayed out there, staring blankly ahead at some old TV show.

He looks terrible. White as a ghost, gaunt, weak.

Near death, honestly.

He's gently wheezing with each breath as he stares ahead at the screen.

REVERSE ON:

The TELEVISION SCREEN.

NOTE: This is the first time we've actually seen The Pink Opaque playing on a screen (rather than cutting into it in full-screen).

IN THE SHOW, a group of KIDS run down a suburban street being chased by SOMEONE.

The scene on television cuts to:

ISABEL - but NOT OUR ISABEL (another actress, who looks similar) shouting at MR. SWIRLY in his evil, plastic ice cream helmet.

The scene is shot from an awkward mid-length. Suddenly, The Pink Opaque feels less like cinema and more like a shitty 90s TV show.

We reverse on MR. SWIRLY, who seems a lot less imposing in this version of the show.

Back to Fake Isabel. She thinks for a few seconds, and then with the DING of an unseen lightbulb, she gets an IDEA.

She raises her hands into frame and shows Mr. Swirly a fresh, hot CUP OF CHOWDER.

REVERSE BACK ON:

Owen, on the couch, watching this garbage.

Owen is barely conscious.

Owen takes each breath like it's his last. A slow death rattle.

RISING ON THE SOUNDTRACK --

A cacophony of BLEEPS and BLOOPS, as if from an arcade...

Welcome to "The Fun Center."

A giant, windowless cavern of arcade games and flashing lights. A cacophony of antiseptic neon - an epileptic's nightmare, like if the ninth circle of hell was a Dave and Buster's.

We cut between shots of gameplay at the chic arcade.

We see:

-KIDS in birthday hats, all playing SKEEBALL, one after another, straight down in a line.

When someone gets a ball in a hole, bells RING from the skeeball machine, and it lights up with FLASHING NEON.

-NEON LIGHTS inside another machine whip around in a circle from one bulb to the next. A KID slams his fist down on a BIG RED BUTTON, trying to stop the speeding light in just the right spot to win a prize.

-A KID playing a horror-themed PINBALL MACHINE. The machine clinking and clanking and dinging wildly...

CLOSE ON: The animation screen at the head of the pinball machine. It's old school -- just monochrome yellow graphics against a black background.

Mr. Melancholy's mechanical laugh transitions us into our next shot:

A CLOSE-UP on Owen's face, pale and sickly. He looks exhausted and frightened.

We're across the floor of the arcade, with Owen now as he loads up a TOKEN MACHINE with TOKENS.

He's still wheezing as he works, just like back on his couch. It's like his whole life these days is one long, slowly encroaching asthma attack.

But still he works through it. He's got a "Fun Center" vest on, along with a nametag.

He uses a box cutter to open up a carboard box of token rolls, then, with his HANDS SHAKING all the while, he rips one roll of tokens open to load into the machine.

But before he can successfully load the tokens in --

He WHEEZES HARSHLY and accidentally drops the opened roll of token across the carpeted arcade floor.

From behind his back:

Owen weakly grabs for his ASTHMA INHALER in his vest pocket.

He shakes it, then attempts to take a PUFF. But it doesn't work:

The inhaler is JAMMED, no longer working.

He shakes it again and tries once more. But it's futile. The asthma inhaler is long broken, now. A stop-gap solution that no longer works...

TITLE ON SCREEN:

2016

ON THE SOUNDTRACK: hysterical, rapturous laughter:

A little later. Now the BIRTHDAY BOY (who we know is the Birthday Boy because he’s wearing a big hat that says “Birthday Boy” on it) laughs hysterically from inside:

A BIG, CLEAR BOX. Like a see-through plastic coffin propped up vertically into the air.

He gasps and screams and laughs as he grabs at COLORED PAPER MONEY blowing around wildly in a windstorm inside the box.

It's a game: grab what you can before the wind slows down.

The Birthday Boy continues to grab and flail wildly, his cheeks flapping in the wind as he tries to clutch the colored bills whipping by.

His FAMILY and FRIENDS cheer him on as neon lights blink all around. Everyone's laughing and screaming, on a collective sugar high.

REVERSE ON:

Owen, watching from the other side of the room, still wheezing, but trying to hold himself together. He looks like a living corpse -- gaunt and old, yet somehow still young at the same time.

Now Owen stumbles with the crowd near the back of a line of FUN CENTER EMPLOYEES.

The MAN at the head of the line is carrying a BIRTHDAY CAKE, candles already lit and burning.

We track behind Owen as he follows his co-workers, zig- zagging past the web of games and machines on the arcade floor.

The Fun Center team burst through a door, entering into a new room:

Where a PIZZA PARTY is underway, crust drying out on paper plates while KIDS laugh in their seats and PARENTS gossip in the corner.

Owen is singing with them, but he looks like he's not even sure where he is, like this whole thing is a dream he's sleepwalking through.

The employee with the cake sets it down in front of the Birthday Boy.

Owen stops singing in the middle of this line, as if he's just had a flash of deja vu.

Everyone laughs and claps as the song ends. Then --

Everyone in the room is immediately silent as Owen lets out a blood-curdling SCREAM.

They all look at him. He's standing in the corner, looking confused and terrified.

He gasps and wheezes and looks around the room at the faces staring at him.

They're all smiling vacantly and staring blankly ahead, like robots powered down.

Owen blinks a few times, then feels embarrassed for his outburst.

He looks at the blank faces for approval.

After a few seconds, life slowly returns to the room. The kids all look at each other and continue to joke around like nothing happened. The parents start gossiping again over by the pizza boxes.

Owen looks around the room, his face still ghost white and damp with sweat.

Suddenly, his co-workers start CLAPPING and SINGING in unison:

Owen doesn't sing with them. He stands frozen in front of some doilies, that look of PANIC returning to his face...

Everyone freezes and quiets down again. All eyes are on Owen as he has another very loud and very public breakdown:

And once again, Owen tries to control himself, looking around the room at everyone staring, feeling a sudden burst of shame.

He KEELS OVER and HEAVES VIOLENTLY.

One of Owen's COLLEAGUES knocks on the bathroom door, then calls inside.

The sink is filled with little clumps of DIRT, and some BLUE GEL that looks like dishwasher fluid..

Owen stands in front of the bathroom mirror.

His shirt is off, and discarded on the linoleum floor nearby.

His back is to us. He's blocking the mirror from view.

We slowly pan around Owen's bare back and torso.

Until:

His reflection in the mirror slowly enters frame...

He stares at the skin of his chest. And he slowly lifts something up towards his ribcage...

The BOX CUTTER we saw him using earlier.

Hand-shaking and desperate, he begins to slowly CUT INTO HIMSELF, tracing as straight a line as he can manage down the middle of his torso.

He stares at his reflection, in no apparent pain.

There is no blood, no grotesque innards spilling out. Just a clean, fresh slit down his body.

MOMENTS LATER.

Owen has now dropped the box cutter to the ground, and is staring at the FRESH SLIT he’s carved all the way down his torso, from his rib cage down to just under his belly button.

Slowly, Owen uses his hands to...

A GLOWING LIGHT -- flickering blue, like the calibration screen on a television.

We don't quite see it, but we see Owen stare into the mirror, at the shimmering blue light glowing from inside his chest.

He stares at himself, terrified by what he's uncovered inside.

MOMENTS LATER.

Owen is still in the bathroom, but now he's working to clean himself up. He runs the sink, washing away all evidence of the dirt and blue poison he just coughed up.

He crouches over the ground, throwing his uniform back on over his bare back. The fabric shimmies down his spine, hiding his body once again.

Owen steps out of the bathroom and walks back through the arcade, across a long row of games.

He nods to co-workers and to guests from the birthday party as he passes them in the hallway.

No one's really paying much attention to him as he mumbles these apologies.

And for Owen, everyone else in here is an out-of-focus blur, blending together with the flashing lights of the arcade.

He apologizes to everyone he stumbles past, but there's something more than embarrassment in his eyes:

Dawning terror. Like he's seen something that he can't unsee.

We stay close with Owen as he continues walking through the arcade, continues apologizing to the bodies and lights blurring past him.

He picks up his pace. He's rushing now, as if he wants to beeline towards the emergency exit.

And still, he keeps apologizing as he rushes through the space:

We abruptly:

CUT TO BLACK.