1. EXT FOREST GLADE. DAY 1
The face of a young girl, Hilde.
Her eyes are wide open; her mouth slightly open showing teeth clenched as if in rictus.
We pull out to show her lying on a mossy bank with her blond hair fanning out beneath her.
But she is not dead, for as we watch she begins chewing. And as she does we glimpse the movement of a shoulder above her.
The shoulder moves rhythmically and HILDE chews to the same rhythm.
Occasionally we hear a grunt and HILDE’S eyes blink to each grunt.
The rhythm of the shoulder speeds up, as does HILDE’S chewing.
The grunts become more frequent, more rapid.
As they reach a peak, HILDE blows a huge gum bubble.

2. FOREST GLADE. DAY 2
Framed by a canopy of leaves, the face of a young man, IRWIN.
Like HILDE, IRWIN is blond. His eyes are closed, his mouth pursed in ecstasy as he back whistles through his teeth.

3. FOREST GLADE. DAY 3 HILDE’S gum bubble bursts. We pull out to show her lying under IRWIN who is now still with arms outstretched like a postulant before an altar.
We pull out further to show them lying beneath a huge tree whose roots burst from the mossy bank.
And still further, until our view is obscured by a bush.
We hear a sound, the hiss of breath inhaled; exhaling in a growl, as whoever is watching parts the obscuring bush.

4. FOREST GLADE. DAY 4
HILDE stands up. She finger brushes leaves from her hair and plucks twiggy things from inside her blouse. She looks down at IRWIN who is lying on his back snoring. His breeches are undone, showing as much as the League of Decency will allow.
HILDE prods him with her foot until he moves.
She bends down and picks up a leather wine flask he has been lying on.
HILDE shakes the flask and holds it over IRWIN’S face.
A single drop falls on his cheek runs into his open mouth.

HILDE
Irwin, you’re such a guts. That wine was
for Nanna, and you’ve drunk it all.
IRWIN smacks his lip and smiles.
HILDA makes to hit IRWIN with the flask. Instead, she shakes her head, puts the flask in a basket and picks up a red cloak they had been lying on.
She gives the cloak a shake, throws it around one shoulder, adjusts the hood and ties the cord under her chin.
She puts the basket on the crook of her arm and leaves the place where she and IRWIN had lain.


5. FOREST GLADE. DAY 5
Beneath that place is a path. HILDE follows the path, whistling a merry, little tune as she does.
Again, that bush obscures our view and again we hear that ominous, hissing sound from behind it as it parts and HILDE’S merry, little tune fades against the sound of thunder.

6. FOREST GLADE. DAY 6
Drops of rain begin to fall from the leaves with the sound of tinkling crystals on IRWIN’S face.
IRWIN farts.

7. INT. NANNA’S COTTAGE. DAY 7
A large room with upper walls roughly plastered and lime washed and lower walls covered in a dado of panelled wood. Between two mullioned windows is a Welsh dresser-shelves filled with plates, glasses and bowls. In the middle of the room is a table with some chairs arranged around. Above it, a lamp hanging on a chain.
There is a fireplace, with a mantlepiece. On the mantle shelf sits a softly ticking pendulum clock flanked by two shell cases of polished brass containing sprays of scarlet bougainvillea.
Around the walls are oleographs of bearded men and grim faced woman glaring from the imprisonment of their frames.
NANNA lies in her bed beneath mountains and valleys of quilt. By her bed is a table overflowing with pills, potions and a ganglia of those rubber tubes and pumps used by the severely constipated.
NANNA is old. Her skin, translucent, wrinkled, silken. Her pale blue eyes have a crust around them and the milky cast of one afflicted by blindness.
Lightning cracks and drops of water fall on her.
A stream of water runs down the wall behind her. The wall is stained by the blood rust marks where an ivory Christ hangs from an iron cross.
Beneath NANNA’S trembling, twig thin fingers is a huge, black bible.
She turns her ear to a knock on the door and opens her bible.
There is another knock.
She runs her fingers over the Braille nubs and begins to mutter prayers.

8.EXT. FRONT DOOR OF NANNA’S COTTAGE.DAY 8
Hilde looks around at trees lashed by the storm and pushes on a locked door.
She fumbles in her basket while the wind billows her cloak, blows her hair in her eyes.
Harried by wind and rain, she bangs on the door and kicks it. As she does, grey feathers swirl around her feet like snowflakes, and we notice the door panels are deeply grooved with scratch marks.
HILDE
Nanna?
NANNA (VO)
Who is it?
HILDE
Hilde.

NANNA (VO)
Hilde who?
HILDE
Oh, Nanna. How many Hildes do you know?
Hilde at last finds a key among the parcels and things in her basket. She fumbles the key in the lock, opens the door.

9. INT COTTAGE. 9
NANNA
Hilde, is that you?
HILDE
Who did you think it was, Nanna?
Leaving the door ajar, she enters, puts her basket on the table and places her cloak over a chair.
NANNA
Thank god. I thought it was him again.
HILDE
Who, your fancy man?
NANNA
Don’t be cheeky. A bloody wolf.
Some feathers blow in the open door and around Nanna’s bed.
NANNA (Cont)
He was around here last night.
The feathers land on her bible, get under her reading fingers.
NANNA (Cont)
Shut the door for gawd’s sake.
She brushes the feathers away.
NANNA (Cont)
And I think he got one of the
Geese.

10. INT. LATE AFTERNOON. 10
Hilde is standing before the range. She tastes from the pot she is stirring and pours from the pot into two bowls. She puts one on a tray and takes it to Nanna.
NANNA
Any wine?
HILDE
No. I did bring some, but
the cork must have come loose.
I’ve got your snuff, though.
Nanna reaches out her hand.
HILDE (Cont’d)
Later.

NANNA
No wine, no snuff. It’ll be no
soup next and the little sisters
of the poor’ll find me lying on
bed a starved skeleton.

HILDE
You can have snuff when you
finish your soup. And its
time you had that roof
rethatched. You’ll drown
before you starve.

NANNA
Don’t have money for no thatching.

HILDE
Do too. You’re the richest
woman hereabouts.
NANNA
Am not. I’ve managed to put a
little bit away through not
spending money on silly things.
That’s for my burying. What’s
left over, and this house,
will be yours when I’m gone.

HILDE
A new roof is not silly things.
And there won’t be much to leave
If the place keeps rotting at this
rate.

NANNA
Rubbish, and anyway you wouldn’t want to live here. Take the money, leave the house to the forest. Go to the city and have a good time. There’s no future in this place.
Nanna pushes away her tray. Soup dribbles down her chin on to the quilt. She gropes for the snuff, takes a healthy pinch and sneezes loudly and messily. Hilde takes up a cloth. Making a face, she wipes Nanna’s chin and the quilt.

HILDE
How much money is there?

NANNA
That’s my business. When I die, then will it be your business.

Hilde stops wiping-thinks.

NANNA
You missed a bit.
Hilde looks into Nanna’s blind eyes, then to the crud on her chin.

NANNA (Cont’d)
You know? That was no ordinary wolf last night.

HILDE
What do you mean?

NANNA
It was a werewolf.

HILDE
How do you know?

NANNA
While he was scratching and growling at the door, I threw holy water through the keyhole. You should have heard him howl. It was as if he’d swallowed a red-hot poker.



HILDE
I’ll tell dad to come with his traps tomorrow.
NANNA
And silver bullets. You need silver bullets for werewolves.
10. EXT COTTAGE. DUSK. 10
The rain has stopped; the wind dying as Hilde makes her way through the forest. She looks behind her at the gathering shadows; around her at the branches clutching her shoulders, and down to her feet, where fronds of blackberries entwine around her ankles. Their thorns criss cross scarlet slashes on her legs, dripping blood on her white socks.
11.SEALED ROAD.NIGHT. 11
The welcome sight of headlights from passing traffic and streetlights leading Hilde through the village to her house.
She throws open the gate, runs up the path, fumbles a key in the lock.
Closing the door behind her, she stands panting with her back against it.
12. KITCHEN. NIGHT. 12
Hilde switches on all the lights, makes sure all the doors and windows are locked. She turns the radio and TV on loud. She pokes the fire and throws on a log. Now she goes to the sink, takes a big knife from the rack and starts slicing and dicing things for dinner. Her mouth is set and determined as she does this. She concentrates on this mundane task; as if in doing so it will blot out her fear.
As she is cutting up a large carrot, there is a sudden and loud rapping at the window. Hilde screams when she looks up and sees a face. She holds the knife before her as a hand clutches and a finger points from the other side of the window.
13. INT. KITCHEN. 13
Hilde opens the kitchen door. An angry looking man is standing under the porch light. Behind is darkness.
DAD
Took you long enough. I’ve been banging on that door for ages.
HILDE
I’m sorry, Dad. I didn’t hear you.
DAD
No wonder, with all that music blaring.
He strides into the room, switches off TV and radio.
HILDE
Have you lost your key again?
DAD
No, smart arse. I haven’t lost my key again. The doors were bolted. What are you doing that has to be done behind bolted doors? Have you someone in here?
HILDE
Yeah, I’ve the Vienna boy’s choir in the pantry.
DAD
You better not have.
He looks towards a door.
HILDE
And some Penrith Panthers.
He strides to the pantry, throws the door open.
HILDE looks up to the ceiling, sighs and blows a bubble.

14. KITCHEN TABLE. 14
HILDE is eating. DAD is sitting half turned away. He is reading a paper.
HILDE
Dinner’s getting cold.
DAD
Don’t want any.

HILDE
What’s wrong with it?
DAD
Nothing.
HILDE
Well, then?
DAD
Can’t eat.
HILDE
Why not?
DAD
Gotta nulcer. Abscess, or something in my mouth. Can’t chew.
HILDE
Better see a dentist, then.
DAD grunts, turns the page. HILDE gathers up the plates, takes them to the sink and stacks them. She gazes out the window. A huge moon is rising.


HILDE
Nanna says there’s a wolf, or something been after her geese.
Reckons she lost one last night. Wants you to come round with your traps. And a gun. Reckons it’s a werewolf. Wants you to bring some silver bullets as well.
Dad?
She turns around. No one is sitting at the table. The paper Dad had been reading lying on the floor, the kitchen door open. She picks the paper up, throws it on the fire and puts another log on top.
She sits down. The flames flare and flicker. She gazes into them.
NANNA (V/O)
That’s my business. When I die, then will it become your business. When I die. When I die. When I die.
15.INT. KITCHEN. MORNING. 15
Hilde is making breakfast. She turns as Dad comes in.
HILDE
Where did you get to, last night?
DAD
Down the pub.
HILDE
How’s the mouth?
DAD
Had coupla rums. Good as gold, now.
HILDE
Nanna said…
DAD
Yeah, you told me last night. I heard you
HILDE
Could’ve answered.



DAD
When you take her lunch today, tell her I’ll be around noon with the traps.
HILDE
And silver bullets. She said, silver bullets.
DAD
Silver bullets. There are no wolves here. And no such thing as werewolves.
HILDE
Nan said, silver bullets, and I’m not going back up there until whatever it is is caught.
DAD
You will go. You will take her lunch. You will take her wine. And you will make sure the stopper is on and that it doesn’t spill.
Dad pulls on his hat and leaves Hilde standing by the stove with sausages sizzling in the pan. She chews on a piece of toast, sticks a fork into a sausage, and watches through the window as he goes down the path.
16. INT GARDEN SHED. DAY. 16
Hilde rats around until she finds a hand rake. She puts the rake in a vice and tightens the vice. Now she takes a rasp file from its place on a shadow board.
After looking around her, she begins to sharpen the rake’s teeth.
She tests the rake’s teeth against her finger.
The teeth are sharp, draw blood.
She licks the blood from her finger.
She puts the file back on its shadow.
She loosens the vice and puts the rake in her basket.
17. EXT.DAY. NANNA’S FRONT DOOR. 17
HILDE
Nanna?

NANNA (V/O)
Hilde?
Hilde again fumbles in her basket. The door panels, we notice, are scratched more than previously. As before, there are feathers under her feet. But, this time, the feathers are mixed with the bloody gobbets of long necks, yellow beaks and staring eyes.
Kicking the mess away, Hilde finds the key, puts it in the lock and opens the door.
18. INT NANNA’S COTTAGE. DAY. 18
NANNA
Thank God. I haven’t slept a wink the whole night.
HILDE
I’ve brought your lunch, Nan.
NANNA
Did you bring holy water? I’m out. That thing was around here again, last night. Nearly had the door in, and took the last of the geese.
HILDE
I’ve no holy water, but I’ve wine.
She takes the flask from her basket and shakes it.
HILDE (Cont’d)
The cork was tight. Its all here.
NANNA
Bugger the wine. We’ve no time for a drink with that thing out there.
HILDE
And Dad’ll be around noon with his traps and silver bullets. I’m not too sure about the silver bullets, but traps, for sure.
NANNA
Will he? Well you can get my things from the robe, for I won’t spend another minute here until that thing is dead.
Hilde puts her basket on the table. She takes off her cloak and places it across a chair.
NANNA (Contd)
Get me my woollen skirt, the green one, and my heavy coat, the one with the fur collar.
Hilde undoes the strings around the neck of her blouse and slips out of her skirt.
NANNA (Cont’d)
And the shoes I bought for my man’s funeral. The ones with the silver buckles I only wore that one time.
Hilde takes off her own shoes and lays them by the hearth. Now naked, she reaches into her basket and takes out the hand rake.


NANNA (Cont’d)
And stockings, stockings. I can’t go without stockings. The white Lisle from the drawer beneath the robe. And me corsets.
Hilde raises the rake above her and goes towards the bed.
NANNA (Cont’d)
What’s keeping you? Do you hear me? Get me ready.
She raises herself, holds out her hands in supplication.
NANNA (Cont’d)
It is you, Hilde?
She looks around; bewildered, afraid.
Hilde drags Nanna from her bed. In a montage of stop frames, she drags the hand rake across the old woman’s face, now frozen in a silent scream like Bacon’s triptych of the Popes.She drags the rake across the old woman’s body and imagines a wolf doing the same with its claws.
When she has finished her slaughter, she is covered in blood. Smearing the blood across herself, she licks it from her fingers.
Looking down at what she has done, she gives a little shrug of her shoulders.
Grabbing the still twitching body by the heels, she drags it across the floor.
19. EXT. 19
Blood stains the wattle as Hilde drags her kill along a path. Coming to a pool fed by a bubbling spring, she drapes Nan’s dead body across a fallen tree, as if discarded by some creature who has had its fill of it.
Standing in the pool, Hilde raises her head and howls as a wolf would. She washes her body clean of blood, and her mind clean of the terrible thing she has just done.
The pool is fringed by bushes. There is a rustling in the bushes, and we hear a low growl as the bushes part.
Hilde turns. The expression on her face freezes.
Rough hands, wrists covered in hair rip the bush further apart.
Hilde’s eyes widen.
Dad’s eyes are wider than Hilde’s. His mouth, more open, shows wickedly sharp incisors.
Hilde screams.
Dad’s growl becomes a roar as he jumps from the bushes.
Hilde’s scream ends abruptly as we cut to red and up titles.
ENDS.
NOTE. Suggest Stravinskys,’Rites of spring’ as background music. Primal and menacing, it would fit well with the visuals. And perhaps Straus’ ‘Skater’s waltz’ in counterpoint to the brutal slaying of Nanna.