Act 1
The trailer opens with the sound bridge of heeled footsteps on the ground. A shot dissolves in, it shows a woman walking down an alley, and we see her from the front. She is wearing a big frilly whitish dress; the clip then fades back to black. In the black an old man appears holding a golden lantern. He is possibly a gravedigger for they are in a graveyard. He speaks, ‘On the seventh night, of the seventh day, the day that god rested from his toil…(during this part of speech we see the young handsome detectives face) …that’s when the killer strikes. The scene cuts back to the woman walking, she’s walking faster now, the camera is following her from behind, she stops for a second, looks to her right, and from the shadows to her left a white gloved hand grabs her neck and pulls her into the darkness, her scream echoes throughout. The shot cuts back to the handsome man in the same scene, exclaiming, ‘But that’s tonight’ ‘Then he hath already striked.’ Cut to black.
4 shots flash up, each a beat long:
1 = Detective running fast, camera following. 2= detective shooting, different scene. 3= A victim falling in to a lake. 4 = killer standing in alleyway, silhouetted.
Act 2
Camera opens on detective, he is speaking to a friend, he looks a wreck:
It was adequate before, (A beat of the pathologist and dead body, than a second clip of the detective with his wife) I could cope (a beat of him leaning against a wall, out of breath.) But now, (another beat of the girl looking back over her shoulder, smiling) Its personal. (Shaky (documentary style) camera clip of a flashback, the detective is asleep next to his wife, a dark figure abducts the woman, there are screams, the detective grabs his gun and shoots, but they are gone.
Break
Act 3
Act three is the build up of shots to the title.
First shot: a girl, possibly a prostitute, running from the camera.
2: The killer putting on his glove.
3: A shot of someone’s shoes walking slowly on grass or a croaky floorboard.
4: His wife dancing in the snow.
5: The killer grabbing an axe
6: The detective kneeling in a church, before the altar.
7: The killers half lit face
8: A burning house? If achievable..
9: His wife again, walking out of the darkness in her nightgown, blood on her hands.
Main title
At the end, over the titles, the killer sings a chilling nursery rhyme.
‘Coming soon...’
