Exclusive : The Ocean Script Excerpt

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Who loves you? Well other then us, Dante Tomaselli director of HORROR, Satans Playground and now getting ready to shoot The Ocean. He dropped us a line to share a snippet of the screenplay for The Ocean. So no need for further babblings or introductions. Enjoy!

THE OCEAN

An Original Screenplay by

Dante Tomaselli

EXT. BEACH - DAY

SUBJECTIVE CAMERA STALKS THROUGH SMOKE AND HAZE. We hear a strange, reverberating wind.

WOMAN (v.o.)

I can't see.

MAN (v.o.)

Should be...right....

(pause)

It should be around the corner...

Suddenly, shockingly, the fog envelops everything.

Darkness.

BOY (v.o.)

(scared)

Dad?

MAN (V.O.)

The cave is right...right around here. I know it is.

I just have to get my bearings.

WOMAN (v.o.)

Where are you? Where are we?

SUBJECTIVE CAMERA POV - LAND.

Smoky and mysterious.

From out of the darkness we see shapes moving, four figures. The disoriented quartet are stumbling like they are deaf and blind. They do see the sky and fog -- but nothing else. The terrain is desert-like.

MAN (v.o.)

(different, older sounding)

Why did we go this way?

(pause)

Do you even know where you're taking us?

WOMAN (v.o.)

Let's go back. Sounds like we're getting too close to the...

(long pause)

Do you hear that?

Ocean water seems to be nearby. The sounds of a deluge ominously grow in volume. Louder and louder..The group of people experience a dizzying confusion.

BOY

Dad?

All at once, we see a bright white light piercing through the fog. Is it the sun?

Disturbingly, we hear the woman screaming.

And then...

QUICKLY CUT TO:

VIOLENT CRASHING SURF

Exploding into the frame and onto the soundtrack.

We HEAR and FEEL the sounds of frenzied choking, gasping for breath....

Cut to underwater chaos: thrashing limbs, bubbles, foam...

SUBJECTIVE CAMERA rises to the surface. The sky is blue and vivid. Menacingly, we see a giant wave. It's coming closer, closer...

CUT TO: BOY'S HEAD

Olive-skinned, dark-haired, bobbing lifelessly in the water...

But wait...he's alive!

The boy grimaces and braces himself for the curling wall of water.

The wave is at least 30 feet high...and growing...

Here it comes...

CRASH!

We hear a furious explosion of sound like thunder clapping. Subjective Camera is violently spinning backwards....tumbling, swirling...

Finally, the boy surfaces. He can't touch his feet on the bottom. Deep waters. We hear heavy, labored breathing on the soundtrack. Battered and dazed, the boy looks all around.

Eerily, from every angle, he sees nothing but ocean waters. Where's land? Where's the coast?

Boy

(barely audible)

Help.

FOCUS ON BOY

Disoriented and gasping for breath.

As the fog clears, the boy can see the beach. The air is hazy, misty. The sun is so bright.

Like a mirage, the coast beckons....He sees a lighthouse.

Exhausted and gulping for breath, the child swims towards the land. Using all his strength, he swims and swims...

BOY

I can't breath.

Luckily, the sea is calming.

Suddenly, though, he's being pulled in another direction. No matter how hard the boy tries swimming to the beach, the current keeps pulling him to the left. There's nothing he can do. It's frustrating, especially since there are no waves at this time and the beach is not that far away. Finally, he gives in and takes the ride. He has to. But then, he sees something. At first, it's blurry...

In the distance, the boy sees a patch of jagged rocks. They look like brown swords, a virtual row of knives. He must avoid them. He must!

The boy is desperately trying to swim to the beach. He is trying with all his might. But the current is pulling him back, right towards the pointy rocks. Closer and closer...

In a frenzy, the boy, crying, breathless, heart racing, makes one last attempt to swim the other way. But the ocean won't have it.

Closer, closer...

The current seems to be accelerating. Dreadfully, the boy is being pulled, dragged to this rocky area.

Closer, closer...

SUBJECTIVE CAMERA - ROCKS.

The boy passes by the first set of rocks...unscathed! The current pulls him faster...faster...faster...He's zooming...

OUCH! A rock sliver cuts his face.

The boy is gasping, crying, eyes spasmodically twitching. How could he ever make it through the next set of rocks alive? He can't breath anymore.

And then...just as he's about to pass out, he hears a faint, indecipherable rumbling. A murmur. Sounds are suddenly heightened...echoey. We hear BIRDS CHIRPING. The atmosphere itself seems to be changing.

He turns around and sees...

A TITAL WAVE!

Awestruck, before he can even blink...

CRASH!!

SHOT UNDERWATER: The boy explodes onto the rocks, dramatically, operatically. His body sliced open...obliterated.

The ocean water, for a brief, chilling moment, is crimson red...

OPENING TITLES SEQUENCE BEGINS