Gerald's Game (2017) Movie Script
1
["Bring It On Home to Me" playing]
If you ever change your mind
About leaving, leaving me behind
Baby, bring it to me
Bring your sweet loving
Bring it on home to me
- Yeah, yeah
- Yeah, yeah
- Yeah
- Yeah
I know I laughed when you left
But now I know I only hurt myself
Baby, bring it to me
Bring your sweet loving
Bring it on home to me
- Yeah, yeah
- Yeah, yeah
- Yeah,
- Yeah
I'll give you jewelry and money, too
That ain't all
That ain't all I'll do for you
And if you bring it to me
Bring your sweet loving
Bring it on home to me
- Yeah, yeah
- Yeah, yeah
- Yeah
- Yeah
- [turns radio off]
- You want something else?
No, nothing wrong with Sam.
Just... wanted to take in the scenery.
This is gonna be good for us, Jess,
really good.
[woman on radio] Police are investigating
a break-in
and burglary at a county cemetery...
Gerald.
- Yeah?
- Gerald!
Oh, shit!
and reportedly disturbing several...
He's starving.
...partially exhuming at least one casket.
[horn honking]
They should do something
about those strays.
Several city council...
I think he had a collar.
He might belong to someone.
He won't for long. If he keeps going for
roadkill, he's gonna be roadkill himself.
- We're not going back for him.
- I know.
- We're not. [laughs]
- I know.
[cell phone ringing]
Not again. [groans]
- Just be two minutes, babe. Okay?
- It's okay.
Yeah?
Yeah. No, I understand.
But the only way we can move forward
is if they accept a non-compete clause.
- You stocked us.
- Yeah. Enough for the whole weekend.
[Jessie] Here, boy!
You hungry? [whistles]
You out there?
[gulps]
[whines]
[chuckles]
There you are.
Look what I have for you.
[panting]
It's okay.
Here you go, my poor prince.
[whines]
- What are you doing?
- Oh. I was just...
Uh... I was just trying to feed that dog.
That's Kobe rib eye.
It's actually from Kobe.
It's... $200 a portion.
Sorry, there were four in the fridge.
I figured...
You've got such a good heart.
That's who I married.
For better or worse.
No, just leave it.
It'll be the best meat he's ever had.
Let's go in, get comfy.
Okay.
[Jessie] I would have only eaten
half a piece.
[Gerald laughs]
[Jessie] He looks so hungry.
- [chuckles] Sorry, I didn't know.
- [Gerald] No problem.
Do you wanna open
some champagne now or should we...
Um, we could...
[sighs]
Okay.
- Are you ready?
- I'm ready.
[cuffs jangle]
- Wow, babe.
- You look amazing.
Thanks.
Sorry, babe. Gloss. [chuckles]
[ratcheting]
Gotta say, I was... I was expecting...
more novelty things,
like with velvet or silk or something.
Oh, no. No, these are the real deal.
The others can just break
if you get going too hard.
- Okay?
- Yeah.
[cuffs click]
This is good. You'll like this.
[cuffs click]
[cuffs click]
[cuffs click]
Is it okay?
Sure.
Try to move.
Okay. [laughs]
I love this slip.
Oh, good, I bought it special.
You'll like it better
around your shoulders.
[grunts, gasps]
[both exhale]
[sighs]
[water running]
Ahh.
Well...
Look what I found.
- What?
- I bet you want me to leave.
I bet you think your husband
will be back any minute.
But something tells me he won't.
You can try to scream... if you want to.
There's no one for miles.
- Um... Gerald.
- Gerald?
I'm sorry, baby,
you don't get to know my name.
Try to call for help.
- Really?
- Come on, just try.
- Help. Somebody help me.
- Come on.
Come on, you said you'd try
to make it feel real.
Yeah, just... calling for help,
it's kinda...
- What are we trying to do here?
- Just try it.
I'm sorry. I'm feeling a little weird.
And I thought the point was
to feel sexy, so...
- Well, you'll settle into it.
- Okay.
Help! Somebody help!
[yells] Ow!
- Sorry, I'm just...
- That really hurt.
- You like it, though. Don't you?
- [muffled] Gerald. Gerald.
I don't like this.
- I'm serious. Stop.
- Yeah, like that. Make it feel real.
Stop it.
- Make me.
- Stop!
You can fight all you want,
but Daddy's gonna get what Daddy wants.
Fucking stop it!
Uncuff me now! [panting]
Are you... are you playing?
Wipe that absurd grin off your face.
Uncuff me
and stop calling yourself fucking "Daddy"!
Jesus.
Isn't this why we came up here?
To spice things up
and try and push some boundaries?
- I said I'd try a few things.
- Yeah.
- You said you'd try.
- And I tried, and it's not working.
Is this... Is this really
what it takes these days?
Well, fuck, Jess, I...
Sorry...
if I wanna try
and make things more exciting.
You haven't touched me... in months.
No interest whatsoever,
until I say I'll let you play
some sex game,
and it's turning into a rape fantasy
that I never knew you had.
Please, just unlock these.
This isn't gonna save us, Ger.
It never was.
I just... I feel ridiculous.
Nice.
- Now I'm ridiculous.
- No.
Babe, I feel ridiculous.
That's all I'm saying.
Jesus, I can't do
a fucking thing right, can I?
- That's not true.
- You can't blame me...
if I don't get excited anymore,
and you won't even try.
Okay. Just uncuff me and we can talk.
What if I won't?
What do you mean?
What if I won't?
Wait. You have to.
What if I'm sweet?
Go to the bathroom,
get the keys off the sink.
I'll just be sweet.
- Gerald...
- Shh.
- I need you to stop this.
- You'll like it.
[yells] Fuck!
What the fuck is the matter with you?
With me?
[panting]
How did we go so wrong?
Mnh-mnh.
Jess, we were happy once.
Of course.
- Weren't we?
- Yes.
- I mean, weren't we?
- Yes.
What?
[gasps]
Gerald?
- [gasps] Oh, my God.
- Honey.
Hey, that's not funny.
[moans]
Gerald?
- [gasps]
- Gerald?
What's... Gerald?
- [moans and gasps]
- Hey, hey! What's happ...
Oh, my God.
[whimpering and panting]
Honey?
[crying]
Come on.
[blubbers]
I can't...
Gerald! Gerald!
Hey, baby, look at me.
Wake up, Gerald.
Gerald?
[thuds]
Ger?
Where... Gerald.
Gerald, say something!
Please!
[yells]
[groans]
Oh, God!
Wake up!
Wake up!
Help!
Sound more real now, huh?
You wanna try again?
Just get back up here.
You can do anything you want.
I mean it.
Anything.
Help!
Help! Somebody!
Help! Somebody!
Help.
Help. [sniffles]
Wake up.
Just wake up.
It's time to wake up, honey.
It's time to wake up.
[branch snaps]
Hello?
[leaves rustling]
Help.
It'll be dark.
In an hour or so, it'll be so dark.
[gate clangs]
Hey!
We're back here! He's hurt!
Nate, Kelly, is that you?
[soft footsteps approaching]
Shit.
Hi.
How was the steak?
It's $200 a portion, you know.
I don't suppose you're a rescue dog.
I didn't think so.
Hey.
Hey.
Back off from him.
[snaps fingers] Hey!
- [stammers]
- [whines]
Hey!
Hey!
Get away from him.
Back off!
Bad dog!
Bad dog!
Hmm...
Hey!
Bad dog! Go away!
- [shouts] Oh, God!
- [growls]
Oh. Uhh... [grunting]
Get the fuck away!
Get the fuck away from him!
[gasping and panting]
No.
[wails and moans]
No.
[gasps]
[groans]
- [gasps] Gerald?
- What the hell?
Oh, my God. Thank God.
I thought... I thought you...
My goddamn arm!
- [stammers] I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.
- The dog, right?
- You were so right. I was so wrong.
- The one you fed.
Uncuff me and hold me. I'm so sorry, baby!
The goddamn dog.
That goddamn dog.
The goddamn dog you had to feed.
Smelled the blood, did what dogs do.
Fuck you, roadkill! I hope you choke!
Should've let you cut up all the steak.
Maybe it would've filled him up.
But I guess they always smell
fresher meat.
Do you remember the joke I told
at Christmas last year?
You came up behind me.
I was, like, four or five
into the night already.
I was loose but not slurring yet.
It was Tom Reynolds I was talking to...
in this low and conspiratorial, in that
very specific "guys only" fucking tone
that says, "You'll appreciate this,
brother, but only you."
You didn't hear the beginning
of the joke, just the end...
"And what is a woman anyway?"
And I waited.
That cocky little pause I take
before a punch line
that really makes me proud of myself,
and Tom said, "What?"
like he already knew the answer,
and I said...
"A life support..."
Come on.
"And what is a woman, anyway?"
- "A life support system for a cunt."
- Yeah, that was it.
You never told me you heard it.
You never raised an objection.
You smiled through the night,
hated me a little bit,
- but never once brought it up.
- Because you're not like that.
- You don't talk that way.
- Yeah, was I just putting on a show?
For a client?
Stooping to his level
to get something I needed,
or was that who I really was,
underneath it all?
Don't ask a question you don't wanna know
the answer to, I guess.
I guess.
A life support system
for a stupid fucking cunt is more like it.
How many hours you been chained
to that bed?
You never heard me breathe, not once.
And you know the sound.
You've heard it every night
for the last 11 years.
That tiny rumbling snore I make
in the back of my throat
that sometimes. I make when I'm lost
in thought. I forget myself. I zone out.
That tiny little "Gerald only"
fucking purr.
Hours of not hearing that sound,
total fucking silence, and you knew it.
Five minutes after my head hit the floor,
you saw blood. You heard the silence,
and you knew it, but you just laid there,
wasting precious minutes and hours
and breath and life, calling my fucking
name, talking to a corpse on the floor.
What's happening?
Well, I'm pretty sure
you just lost your mind.
Seeing a dog eating your husband
will do that.
If you're gonna have a mental breakdown,
that's a great excuse.
Right.
The blood stopped spreading.
A while ago.
And you did what you always do
when it gets too much, you ran.
In here.
You just laid here,
calling my name again and again,
and let critical time tick by
- like a stupid fucking...
- Stop it.
You should have been thinking
about life support.
Maybe that's why
you're remembering that joke now.
Gotta be for some reason, after all.
And why is that?
- Time.
- That's right!
You're a life support system.
You've been unplugged.
There's still juice in there,
but the charge is running down.
And if you don't get out of the cuffs,
it will go all the way to zero.
When did we get here?
One-ish, I think.
And how long till we got into bed?
- An hour, maybe more.
- Call that two o'clock, then.
And I dropped dead...
Ten minutes, maybe, after.
When's the sun been setting?
- 7:15 or so.
- Oh, that's pretty close.
That's another 15, 20, tops.
So, let's say... five hours, so far.
Five hours you've wasted,
screaming for neighbors
that are half a mile away.
[both] If they're even here yet.
And, you know,
if you really think about it...
- Nate and Kelly said they wouldn't...
- They wouldn't be heading up until June.
The maids came to prep for us yesterday.
Because the bed is made
and the house is dusted.
Which means they're done and gone,
and the grass...
- ...was cut, fresh.
- Which means no gardeners.
Because I arranged it all
to get the place ready for us today.
And I wouldn't want them
interrupting my little game,
so I probably gave them
at least the weekend off.
- So, who could possibly...
- ...possibly hear you scream?
Except Cujo over there?
[grunts]
- You tried that.
- I know.
You can pull till your wrists break.
You're not getting out of those cuffs.
[Jessie yells]
[bones cracking]
[laughs] I told you.
I told you.
[grunting]
It's that easy.
Oh, babe, you're really losing it now.
Except your hand won't fit
through the cuff
and the bedpost is reinforced.
- Nice thought, though.
- Shut up.
Don't listen to him. He's the reason
we're here and look how he ended up.
I'm just telling her
how things really are.
No, you're doing what you always did,
minimizing, condescending.
Men aren't so much blessed
with penises as cursed by them.
[laughs]
And we might die here today
because of Gerald's five inches.
Our life has to add up to more than that.
- I can't get out.
- What about the stories on the news,
where mothers lift their cars
to save their children?
She's no mother.
What's that supposed to mean?
No maternal instinct.
- Your career always came first.
- That's what you said.
Maybe you even started to believe it.
I'm not so sure you can hide things
from me now.
You're wasting precious time here.
I can't get out.
- You have to.
- I am chained to the goddamn bed!
Don't recite facts to me. Wake up.
Says the voice in your head.
This is you... all over.
Problem, panic, denial.
Hoping if you look away,
it'll magically vanish.
If you don't wake up,
you're gonna die in those handcuffs.
And we both know you've been sleepwalking
since you were 12 years old.
- Not now.
- If not now, when?
Not now, what?
He put you in those handcuffs
way before Gerald did.
Who's "he"?
If I can get to the phone...
Phone's gonna die anyway.
I never charged it.
Or did a load of laundry, for that matter.
Tough luck.
Okay, scrap that.
Phone might as well be on Mars.
If you can't get off the bed...
live long enough
for someone to find you on it.
Yeah.
[moans]
What's wrong?
My head hurts.
You know why?
Life support.
How long do you think
someone lives without water?
Three days?
At best.
Yeah, seems like
I've heard three days somewhere.
That feels about right.
And it's been, what? Five...
six, seven hours.
I wanted to please you so badly.
This was such a stupid fucking idea.
Remember when I first
started taking those?
I hid it.
For what, six months?
I found the prescription.
You found it and never said anything.
But I knew you'd seen it,
and I just stopped covering it up.
- We never talked about it, though.
- There was that one time.
That one time.
Late one night, you tried without a pill,
and it just wasn't working.
- I was as soft as a kitten.
- Until...
- Until...
- Until you held my wrists above my head.
- I hadn't done that before.
- No, you had.
- This time, though...
- I grabbed your throat.
- Softly, then I squeezed, didn't I?
- Mm-hmm.
And, God, was I hard.
I was harder than you'd felt in years.
And you just laid there...
and I went to town...
and you moaned...
like a dutiful wife, never objected.
But, for the first time, first time
in all those years, you wondered...
"Who exactly did I marry?"
We never really know, do we?
'Cause everybody's got a little corner
in there somewhere.
A button...
they won't admit they want pressed.
Year after year...
I barely gave you a glimpse of mine.
[Jessie 2] One thing for sure...
you're glad he took
those little blue pills.
Huh?
You're glad.
I couldn't figure out...
what was wrong with me that you needed.
No, you're not listening. Take one, babe.
Now give it to her.
Wait, I...
Give it to her.
- Are you...
- Give her what she needs.
Nice.
[Jessie 2] Thank God for those pills.
For those little blue pills
that made Gerald so thirsty.
Oh...
Okay. Okay.
[gasps, panting]
[panting]
You're smirking.
What?
[cuffs clank]
That's what.
- Stupid.
- No.
[whimpers]
Don't you dare let it go.
- But I can't.
- Put it down.
- Where?
- Right where you caught it.
- Where you know you can reach it again.
- Okay.
Careful.
[gasps]
Go away.
- Get the fuck away!
- Look at me.
That dog is just doing what it has to,
to get along, and you have to do the same.
- Focus.
- But I can't!
You're right. Give up.
Come tomorrow,
you and Gerald will be together again,
inside the fucking dog.
- Can we please get back to work now?
- Mm-hmm.
[Gerald] I love this slip.
I love this slip.
Oh, good, I bought it special.
You bought it brand-new.
[slurping]
Mmm.
[gulps]
Leave some for later.
[pants]
Why can't I keep my eyes open?
Stress makes your adrenaline
and cortisol levels skyrocket,
and now you're crashing.
That's it, just fade away.
Assume this'll all be fine.
- I know... I know I shouldn't.
- Well, maybe you should.
If anyone's gonna find you,
it'll likely be tomorrow, not tonight.
- I will need my energy.
- [Jessie 2] You will.
You will, at that.
Hmm. Tomorrow.
[whines softly]
[dog barking in distance]
[grunts]
Where'd you go, you little shit? [gasps]
Hello?
Who are you?
I... I need help.
You're...
not...
real.
Not real.
[footsteps approaching]
Not real.
Maybe.
Or maybe you're just not safe anymore.
People are safe from ghouls and ghosts...
and the living dead in the daylight.
And they're usually safe
from them at night...
if they're with others.
But a person alone... in the dark...
Women alone in the dark
are like open doors, Jessie.
And if they scream for help,
who knows what might answer?
Who knows what people see
in the moment of their solitary death?
Is it so hard to believe
that some of them may have died of fear...
no matter what the words
on the death certificates say?
Died of fear...
because they saw, at their bedside...
the Moonlight Man.
Maybe that's just what Death looks like.
Not... real.
Then why did the dog leave?
Maybe he just moved...
under the bed.
He could reach up at any time,
put his hand on your hip.
[gasps]
And if he wants that cold, dirty hand...
on your soft, warm flesh,
there's not much
you can do about it, Mouse.
- What did you call me?
- Close your eyes.
If there's a monster under your bed,
it won't bother you if you're asleep.
Everybody knows that, Mouse.
Don't call me that.
Dream your dreams.
Dream deep.
[mother] No, help your father, please.
You okay, Jessie?
- It's so much smaller than I remember.
- 'Cause you're bigger.
- Come on, Mouse.
- [mother] Wait up.
[sister] I'm going in the water!
- [father] No, no, no.
- [mother] No, no running, please.
Thank you.
Can you please bring
your lacrosse stuff inside?
- Can you help, please?
- [father] No playing that inside.
[man on radio]
For the first time in 26 years,
a total solar eclipse will occur
in the United States.
The few and lucky cities
along the path of the eclipse
who have decided
to create official viewing areas,
have set their focus to logistics,
ensuring the comfort and safety
of their guests.
For those of us who have never seen
a total solar eclipse,
this is an opportunity
to view one of the most rare...
- and beautiful phenomena on the planet.
- [siblings] Dad!
The eclipse is tracked...
- Oh, you did it!
- We finally finished them.
[brother] I made this, too.
All right.
Here, go on out to the boat now.
- Yes, sir.
- Be careful.
- [sister] Okay.
- [brother] Okay, Dad.
[man on radio] It's rare to see
more than one from any single location.
You'd have to wait an average of 375 years
to see two eclipses from the same place.
Since our area lies
within the path of totality,
we can expect to experience
two minutes and 20 seconds of totality,
starting today at around 4:17 p.m.
You want me to make sandwiches
for the boat?
I don't think I wanna go out
on the boat today. The lake scares me.
People have drowned out there, you know.
[father] If she's afraid of the water,
I'm not gonna force her out onto a boat.
[mother] We came here as a family
to do this on the lake.
It is not going to kill her
to spend some time with the rest of us.
She's a complete daddy's girl.
- That's normal, isn't it?
- Please don't.
What?
You didn't even wanna go skiing with us
over Christmas.
And we didn't force you out
onto the mountain, did we?
No, we left you at the lodge
and let you relax.
[mother] You wanna stay with her?
Stay with her. Fine.
She's a nuisance anyway.
She picks fights with her brother.
She rolls her eyes at me incessantly.
- [father] She's 12.
- Yeah. Smiles and sweetness for Daddy.
That's totally
age-appropriate behavior, isn't it?
Sure.
It's just...
It's fine. It's fine! It's fine.
Okay, I'm not...
[man on radio]
...than at any other point along its path.
This is another reminder to our listeners
not to look directly into the eclipse,
which should begin to...
[switching stations]
['50s music playing]
That's better.
Unless you don't wanna listen
to Daddy's old man music.
No, I like it.
That's a beautiful dress.
- Is that your new one?
- Yeah. Mom said it was too short.
Mom's wrong.
You look amazing.
You look like a proper young woman.
- Here, so you don't hurt your eyes.
- Thanks. Where's yours?
Oh, you know what? I don't know.
I think your mom might have taken it.
- Scoot close and we'll share.
- Okay.
It's starting.
Wow.
What? [chuckles]
Nothing.
I'm just remembering something.
You and me, sitting here together...
When you were a little girl,
you used to sit on my lap.
You'd point up at the stars,
and you'd ask me
how far away each one was.
[chuckles] That's embarrassing.
No.
It's the sweetest.
Some great evenings out here, you and me.
Me and Mouse.
Nah, that's stupid.
What?
I was gonna say...
What?
Well, how about it?
For old time's sake?
Nah, that's silly. That's just
a silly idea from your silly old man.
I was just...
thinking about how happy
those times were, that's all.
Hell, I know you're a grown woman now.
You're too big to sit
on your daddy's lap anymore.
I just miss my little girl sometimes.
I'm not too big.
You sure?
Yeppers.
Mouse...
- I love you.
- I love you too, Daddy.
["Bring It On Home To Me" playing]
- Awesome. It's just amazing.
- If you ever change your mind...
Daddy, you're missing it.
Just... you keep watching.
Baby, bring it to me
Bring your sweet loving
- Bring it on home to me
- Daddy?
Just keep watching.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah
- Yeah, yeah...
- Daddy...
- Just keep... watching.
[gasps]
[gasping and groaning]
[flies buzzing]
Oh, Jesus. Jesus! [winces]
You've been hanging on them all night.
They need circulation.
[gasps, wincing]
It burns!
Cramps. They'll...
[yells]
...pass.
The cramps will pass.
Keep pedaling. Get the blood flowing.
Oh, God...
Oh, God, that hurts.
[gulps, coughing]
[grunts with relief]
[Gerald] Bad dreams.
You never told me...
about the eclipse.
I never told anyone.
That's a marriage, isn't it?
- Telling each other the difficult things?
- Not that one, no.
No wonder it didn't work.
It wasn't relevant to us.
[Jessie 2] Really?
You married an older man.
Your father was a lawyer.
Gerald was a lawyer.
Your father minimized you,
objectified you.
Let's not forget
my burgeoning drinking problem.
Babe, if you had a drinking problem,
that's certainly cured now.
The point is, Jessie...
you married into the only dynamic
you've ever known.
You were a girl, he was a man, and...
you never walked away from that.
That afternoon never ended.
It's not enough... that I'm here.
I also have to be there? Again?
You tell me.
You'd gotten your period
for the first time a month before, right?
Maybe that's what got him going.
He smelled the blood and did what dogs do.
Our friend in the hall
is every man you've ever known.
He had Kobe rib eye...
- It's actually from Kobe.
- ...till he smelled Gerald.
Your father had your mother
till you were nice and ripe.
- It wasn't like that.
- And Gerald...
The late hours, the mystery callers...
The weekend trips...
What was he really doing?
You ignored it, but...
you knew his hunger for you had faded,
and a dog's gotta eat.
I handled it.
Sure.
Just like you handled
those last few minutes on Daddy's lap.
He didn't rape me.
He didn't even touch me.
He only touched himself. [sobs]
And if you wanna blame someone...
I might as well blame...
my mother or the boat.
The sundress that was too short.
What he did to me on that swing...
wasn't the worst thing anyone's ever done.
No, that would be what he did
to you after, in the bedroom.
What did he do?
Nothing.
He just talked to me.
Nothing?
Nothing on the swing.
And nothing in the room.
It might as well have been a bad dream.
I had a dream...
that night at the lake house.
There was a woman...
standing over a deep well,
looking down into the blackness.
And I'm in the well, looking up at her.
The sky was so dark behind her...
the eclipse burning overhead.
The smell... The smell in that well...
It was like pennies, and then oysters.
She was standing there in her red dress...
looking right at me.
What was in the well?
Secrets.
So many secrets.
You thought yours
could go down there, too.
Just... throw 'em in the well,
down in the dark.
Who was the woman?
I remember thinking
maybe she was supposed to be me.
Because she would never tell.
I knew that, looking at her.
She'd die before she told.
"I could do that," I figured.
I don't know why I thought of that.
It was just a dream.
Like the man in the corner.
He was definitely... a bad dream.
[laughs]
I don't know, princess.
You can tell yourself that
if you need to.
He was a trick of the mind.
Just like you, Gerald.
Just like both of you.
Then why won't you look over there
for more than a second?
What are you afraid you're gonna see?
- Why are you still listening to him?
- Shh!
- It's probably from the dog.
- It's bigger than that.
Look at it again.
[Gerald] I think it's a footprint.
- And if it is...
- Shut up!
...it was Death you saw.
He'll be back tonight, Jessie.
And when you're dead, he'll have
your wedding ring in his case...
with the rest of his pretty things.
His souvenirs.
- I am gonna close my eyes.
- No.
- And count to ten.
- Stay awake.
And when I open them...
you will both be gone.
- Ten, nine, eight...
- [Jessie 2] Do you hear me?
- Stay awake.
- I'm awake.
Seven, six, five...
four, three...
two...
one.
[father] You all right, Mouse?
I'm so sorry.
I'm sorry you were there when I...
It's not like I touched you, Jessie.
But still...
Maybe we should tell Mom.
I think we have to, don't you?
I hate to...
just because things have been pretty
tense between the two of you lately.
Hell, they've been tense
between us, too...
with the baby and all.
But this...
well, this could make things a lot worse.
She won't think it's your fault.
I'm sure.
Fairly sure. I mean, she might.
We all know... it wasn't your fault.
Maybe we shouldn't tell her.
I have to.
We have to.
Why?
Because...
- Because you can't keep it a secret.
- Because you can't keep it a secret.
I mean, if it's ever going to come out,
then it's better for both of us
that it happen now.
Not in a week or a year or...
even ten years from now.
Please...
I won't tell.
I mean...
if we don't tell your mom today...
then we could never tell anyone.
I wouldn't. Never.
Not ever.
- Ever.
- And not just your mother.
Not anyone.
That's a big responsibility
for a little girl.
I'm sorry.
A young woman.
But you might be tempted.
With friends...
One of them tells you a secret,
maybe you might wanna tell them.
- Never.
- Or your brother.
Or your sister.
There might come a time
when you wanna tell...
No.
No. I promise. I swear.
I don't know, Jess.
I think it might be better for both of us
if this were all out in the open now.
Take our medicine.
I mean, she can't kill us.
Please...
Please, please, please.
Please just don't tell her.
I won't tell anybody... ever.
Ever. Please.
I've never been able to refuse you
anything that you really wanted, have I?
Okay, Jess.
We'll try things your way.
Thank you, Daddy.
So I guess we have a deal.
I say nothing.
You say nothing, not to anyone else,
not even to each other.
We walk out of this room...
and it never happened.
Okay.
I did a shameful thing.
You looked away... when you said that.
You were able to face me with the lies.
But it was the truth
that finally made you turn away.
[father] I don't know what came over me.
Maybe it was the eclipse.
Well, thank God
we'll never see another one.
Nothing happened.
Nothing ever happened.
Come on, let's get grilling.
They should be back in a bit.
[licking sounds]
[yells and gasps]
- [growls]
- [bone crunches]
[flesh tearing]
He'll try that again.
It's fresher meat.
You're still strong enough to kick,
but you won't be for long,
and he can smell that.
Afternoon already.
Sun's starting down.
And no one came this morning.
Or if they did, you were asleep.
Eventually, someone will find you, Jess,
but it might take a long time.
The first assumption will be we're off
on some wild romantic fling.
I mean, why not?
Only you and I know, at the end,
I could only get it up
if you were handcuffed to the bed.
To the rest of the world,
we're the picture of marital function.
Sooner or later,
people will start looking, my people.
There are a couple of women
in New Orleans you call friends, but...
You've never really let them
inside your life, have you?
None of them are gonna worry much
if you drop out of sight for a week or...
ten days.
But I have appointments.
And when I don't show up by Friday,
there'll be questions.
That's how it'll start.
I think the caretaker
will actually discover the bodies.
He'll call the cops when he spots you
through the window or...
when he smells us.
He'll turn his face away while he throws
the blanket from the closet over you
because he won't wanna see your fingers
sticking through the handcuffs.
Stiff as pencils, white as candles.
But, most of all...
he won't wanna look at the expression
of horror on your face.
Why are you doing this?
The forensics unit will show up
with the county coroner.
When they pull off the blanket,
they will...
wince and nod and tell each other
the woman on the bed died hard.
But they won't know the half of it.
They won't know...
the real reason your eyes are staring...
and your mouth is screaming...
is because of what you saw at the end...
coming out of the dark.
They'll take you to the medical examiner.
He'll cut you open, inventory your guts.
He'll have a peek
at what's left of your last meal,
take a little section of brain
to look at under his microscope.
But in the end...
in the end, he'll just call it
"death by misadventure."
- They were playing a harmless game.
- Harmless.
Only the gentleman had a heart attack
at a critical moment...
and the woman was left to...
Well, it's best not to get into it.
Just to say the lady died hard.
You only need to look at her to see that.
And maybe someone
will notice your wedding ring is gone...
but they won't hunt for it
for long, if at all.
They won't notice that one
of your bones...
not an important one, the third phalange
in your right foot, let's say...
is also gone.
But we'll know, won't we, Jess?
We'll know he took them.
Because it was Death.
And you did see him...
as people who die in the lonely places do.
It was Death.
And tonight, when the sun goes down,
he'll be back for you.
Hush, little baby, don't say a word
Mama's gonna buy you...
- I'm gonna die.
- Everything dies.
All things serve the beam.
And if that mockingbird don't sing
- I'm gonna die.
- Yes, love.
- Papa's gonna buy you a diamond ring
- He'll come quicker that way.
If that diamond ring turns brass
That way, you wouldn't have to wait
for the Moonlight Man.
- I'm going to...
- [father] ...sleep.
You're going to sleep.
Papa's gonna buy you a looking glass
I'm sorry.
I don't want you to be sorry.
Then what do you want?
I want you to remember.
You think I don't remember?
I remember every moment.
I remember every shame-filled glance
he threw my way, and I remember Mom...
- looking but not seeing...
- That's not what I'm talking about.
Because seeing?
It would have meant my little sister
was also doomed
to let that son of a bitch
steal her childhood,
and Mom would have died
before facing that.
So it was up to me to protect Maddie.
Even though it meant that I never felt
like part of the family again.
And that wasn't my job description.
Was it? My job was to be a kid.
Suddenly, that wasn't an option.
You've had everything you need
to survive from the beginning.
You just have to remember.
Not the sun, not the eclipse.
After.
[mother] We had fun on the boat.
Should we get one?
- [Maddie] Yeah.
- [mother] Yeah?
I hope it was as pretty here
as it was on the boat.
- It was awesome.
- It was fun.
- [laughing]
- "It was fun."
It was beautiful here, too.
Right, Mouse? We had fun.
Did you have a nice time
with your dad, Jess?
Jesus! Jess, are you okay?
I'm... I'm...
I'm sorry. It was an accident.
Just come on, let's get this cleaned up.
Oh, it's not so bad.
I think you'll live.
- Does it hurt?
- It's okay.
Just...
Just be careful.
The last thing I want...
is to have to take you
to the emergency room
and have your fingers sewn back on.
It's gonna fucking hurt.
- But the thing about blood...
- But the thing about blood...
...is that, until it clots,
it's as slick as oil.
That will not work.
Maybe not.
But the wrists have fewer nerves
than the body's other checkpoints.
That's why slitting wrists
is always the best way to...
How do you know so much about that?
Go too deep, you'll bleed to death.
Do nothing, I'll die of seizures,
dehydration or dog.
Or when my visitor with the bag of bones
shows up tonight.
The sun is starting down.
He'll be here soon.
Then I'll have to hurry.
Barely working, aren't they?
- I won't need much.
- Your legs won't be reliable.
It's been a day and a half
since you walked on them.
If my hands pull this off,
my legs better do their fucking part.
Okay.
Visualize it, then. All of it.
Yeah, okay.
Okay, okay.
[Jessie 2] Once you start,
you're not gonna be able to stop.
Everything has to go very fast
because your system is already dehydrated.
- And, Jessie...
- Huh?
you know, if anything goes wrong...
It won't matter.
Goodbye.
Okay.
You stay right there, dog.
One, two...
Okay, okay.
- Three!
- [glass breaking]
Okay, okay, okay, okay.
[grunting, panting]
Oh, God!
[flesh tearing]
[screams]
[panting]
[groaning]
[screaming]
Come on. Come on.
Shit!
[key jangles on desk]
[yells]
Okay.
Okay.
[panting]
[coughs]
[dog growling]
Get off me!
[car horn beeps]
[dog growling]
[whimpering]
[barks]
[whispers] You're only made of moonlight.
You're only made of...
Moonlight.
[car engine starts]
[groans]
- Oh!
- [tires screech]
Oh, God.
Please, just a little bit longer.
[mumbles] Please just... a little...
Oh, no.
Mouse.
[coughing]
[horn honking]
Hi.
[footsteps approaching]
I'm writing this letter
with my right hand,
nestled snug
in its frictionless burn glove.
Three skin grafts later,
it still doesn't work quite right,
and it still hurts to write.
But that's good.
This letter should hurt to write.
The doctors, the cops
and even the reporters
accepted my amnesia at face value.
And why not?
People who undergo serious trauma
often block out memories.
The cops knew that
even better than the lawyers.
And I knew it better than any of them.
Gerald's firm kept the details out
of the papers.
That was kind.
The coroners confirmed it was
a heart attack and a long time coming.
The insurance paid,
the headlines faded, and life went on.
The new normal.
Well, not normal.
Never normal.
Every night,
just before I closed my eyes...
[moaning]
[panting]
[gasps]
If it wasn't him, if it wasn't his face
keeping me from sleep...
it was the question.
That in all the reports,
all the cops that combed
through that house,
they never found my wedding ring.
What got me through those nights was you.
Thinking of you.
And why you came to me that day.
You, in your sunless world,
always on that swing.
What you needed me to understand...
that his shackles were silence,
and his were comfort.
My days were better.
I took the insurance money,
and I started a foundation
for girls and boys like us.
I spent so long never telling that story,
so... I made sure that I did.
I tell that story every day
to every kid it could possibly help.
When I was 12,
I went to the lake house with my family.
And while that helped my days,
I still sat up at night...
waiting for that pale face
in the moonlight...
to claim his runaway bride.
Six months after the handcuffs,
six months of being a widow...
six months of living death.
And then Raymond Andrew Joubert's picture
first appeared in the paper.
Two years ago,
reports of graveyard vandalism
in the backwoods of Alabama
hit the papers,
but I never read about them,
not in New Orleans.
And they were tiny stories, buried.
Someone was breaking
into crypts and mausoleums
of small town cemeteries
with drills, bolt cutters and hacksaws...
and stripping corpses of jewelry.
As the months went by, it escalated.
Incidents started being reported
in Louisiana.
He gouged out eyes, cut corpses' throats.
Last February,
two were found without noses.
Later hands. Then... ears.
Something I'd always assumed was the dog.
And when it came to removing genitalia
after having sex with the dead...
he stuck strictly to the gentlemen.
This was, clearly, extremely lucky for me.
I only noticed
when he finally made the front page.
He'd graduated, it seemed, from the dead.
And, one night, a man woke up
to find Raymond Joubert in his room,
naked, trying to cut off his ear.
Joubert suffers from acromegaly,
a progressive enlargement
of the hands, feet and face
that happens when the pituitary gland
goes into warp drive.
It causes the forehead to bulge
and abnormally long arms
that dangle almost to his knees.
They went to his only known address,
a farmhouse on Kingston Road.
They didn't find him there,
but they did find his sister
and her husband,
who he called his "mommy and daddy."
He'd scalped them both
and eaten most of "Daddy."
They found 50 bell jars
containing ears, lips, fingers.
They think he may have killed as many
as a dozen people in the last five years.
But, for some reason, he spared me.
This monster was real, real as they come.
As real as the cuffs, as the dog.
As real as the eclipse.
And so I had to write this
to you, Mouse...
because you're the only person
who'd understand...
and you're the only one who truly matters.
[Young Jessie] "He's being arraigned
tomorrow, and I'm going to see him.
Because the people who were supposed
to protect you from the monsters...
[both] turned out to be
monsters themselves...
[both] and it almost killed you."
We need the sun to come back out.
After so long...
I think we deserve the sun.
[reporter] This morning, it was announced
that cameras would not be allowed
inside the courtroom for the arraignment,
an unusual decision in a case
that's already full of surprises.
But nothing more unusual than the way...
Sources within the Alabama State
Police Department tell us
Raymond Andrew Joubert hasn't spoken
a single word since his arrest,
not even to his public defender.
[man] Sixteen counts
trespassing and vandalism.
Eighteen counts desecration.
Eight counts first-degree murder.
Twenty-one counts mutilation.
Twenty-eight counts
desecrating human remains.
Sixteen counts breaking and entering.
Hey.
- Four counts, assault and battery.
- [clears throat] Hey!
Ma'am?
You're not real!
[crowd gasps]
You're not real!
[woman] Officer!
You're only made of moonlight!
[chuckles]
You're so much smaller than I remember.
["Bring It On Home to Me" playing]
If you ever change your mind
About leaving, leaving me behind
Baby, bring it to me
Bring your sweet loving
Bring it on home to me
- Yeah, yeah
- Yeah, yeah
- Yeah
- Yeah
I know I laughed when you left
But now I know I only hurt myself
Baby, bring it to me
Bring your sweet loving
Bring it on home to me
- Yeah, yeah
- Yeah, yeah
- Yeah,
- Yeah
I'll give you jewelry and money, too
That ain't all
That ain't all I'll do for you
And if you bring it to me
Bring your sweet loving
Bring it on home to me
- Yeah, yeah
- Yeah, yeah
- Yeah
- Yeah
- [turns radio off]
- You want something else?
No, nothing wrong with Sam.
Just... wanted to take in the scenery.
This is gonna be good for us, Jess,
really good.
[woman on radio] Police are investigating
a break-in
and burglary at a county cemetery...
Gerald.
- Yeah?
- Gerald!
Oh, shit!
and reportedly disturbing several...
He's starving.
...partially exhuming at least one casket.
[horn honking]
They should do something
about those strays.
Several city council...
I think he had a collar.
He might belong to someone.
He won't for long. If he keeps going for
roadkill, he's gonna be roadkill himself.
- We're not going back for him.
- I know.
- We're not. [laughs]
- I know.
[cell phone ringing]
Not again. [groans]
- Just be two minutes, babe. Okay?
- It's okay.
Yeah?
Yeah. No, I understand.
But the only way we can move forward
is if they accept a non-compete clause.
- You stocked us.
- Yeah. Enough for the whole weekend.
[Jessie] Here, boy!
You hungry? [whistles]
You out there?
[gulps]
[whines]
[chuckles]
There you are.
Look what I have for you.
[panting]
It's okay.
Here you go, my poor prince.
[whines]
- What are you doing?
- Oh. I was just...
Uh... I was just trying to feed that dog.
That's Kobe rib eye.
It's actually from Kobe.
It's... $200 a portion.
Sorry, there were four in the fridge.
I figured...
You've got such a good heart.
That's who I married.
For better or worse.
No, just leave it.
It'll be the best meat he's ever had.
Let's go in, get comfy.
Okay.
[Jessie] I would have only eaten
half a piece.
[Gerald laughs]
[Jessie] He looks so hungry.
- [chuckles] Sorry, I didn't know.
- [Gerald] No problem.
Do you wanna open
some champagne now or should we...
Um, we could...
[sighs]
Okay.
- Are you ready?
- I'm ready.
[cuffs jangle]
- Wow, babe.
- You look amazing.
Thanks.
Sorry, babe. Gloss. [chuckles]
[ratcheting]
Gotta say, I was... I was expecting...
more novelty things,
like with velvet or silk or something.
Oh, no. No, these are the real deal.
The others can just break
if you get going too hard.
- Okay?
- Yeah.
[cuffs click]
This is good. You'll like this.
[cuffs click]
[cuffs click]
[cuffs click]
Is it okay?
Sure.
Try to move.
Okay. [laughs]
I love this slip.
Oh, good, I bought it special.
You'll like it better
around your shoulders.
[grunts, gasps]
[both exhale]
[sighs]
[water running]
Ahh.
Well...
Look what I found.
- What?
- I bet you want me to leave.
I bet you think your husband
will be back any minute.
But something tells me he won't.
You can try to scream... if you want to.
There's no one for miles.
- Um... Gerald.
- Gerald?
I'm sorry, baby,
you don't get to know my name.
Try to call for help.
- Really?
- Come on, just try.
- Help. Somebody help me.
- Come on.
Come on, you said you'd try
to make it feel real.
Yeah, just... calling for help,
it's kinda...
- What are we trying to do here?
- Just try it.
I'm sorry. I'm feeling a little weird.
And I thought the point was
to feel sexy, so...
- Well, you'll settle into it.
- Okay.
Help! Somebody help!
[yells] Ow!
- Sorry, I'm just...
- That really hurt.
- You like it, though. Don't you?
- [muffled] Gerald. Gerald.
I don't like this.
- I'm serious. Stop.
- Yeah, like that. Make it feel real.
Stop it.
- Make me.
- Stop!
You can fight all you want,
but Daddy's gonna get what Daddy wants.
Fucking stop it!
Uncuff me now! [panting]
Are you... are you playing?
Wipe that absurd grin off your face.
Uncuff me
and stop calling yourself fucking "Daddy"!
Jesus.
Isn't this why we came up here?
To spice things up
and try and push some boundaries?
- I said I'd try a few things.
- Yeah.
- You said you'd try.
- And I tried, and it's not working.
Is this... Is this really
what it takes these days?
Well, fuck, Jess, I...
Sorry...
if I wanna try
and make things more exciting.
You haven't touched me... in months.
No interest whatsoever,
until I say I'll let you play
some sex game,
and it's turning into a rape fantasy
that I never knew you had.
Please, just unlock these.
This isn't gonna save us, Ger.
It never was.
I just... I feel ridiculous.
Nice.
- Now I'm ridiculous.
- No.
Babe, I feel ridiculous.
That's all I'm saying.
Jesus, I can't do
a fucking thing right, can I?
- That's not true.
- You can't blame me...
if I don't get excited anymore,
and you won't even try.
Okay. Just uncuff me and we can talk.
What if I won't?
What do you mean?
What if I won't?
Wait. You have to.
What if I'm sweet?
Go to the bathroom,
get the keys off the sink.
I'll just be sweet.
- Gerald...
- Shh.
- I need you to stop this.
- You'll like it.
[yells] Fuck!
What the fuck is the matter with you?
With me?
[panting]
How did we go so wrong?
Mnh-mnh.
Jess, we were happy once.
Of course.
- Weren't we?
- Yes.
- I mean, weren't we?
- Yes.
What?
[gasps]
Gerald?
- [gasps] Oh, my God.
- Honey.
Hey, that's not funny.
[moans]
Gerald?
- [gasps]
- Gerald?
What's... Gerald?
- [moans and gasps]
- Hey, hey! What's happ...
Oh, my God.
[whimpering and panting]
Honey?
[crying]
Come on.
[blubbers]
I can't...
Gerald! Gerald!
Hey, baby, look at me.
Wake up, Gerald.
Gerald?
[thuds]
Ger?
Where... Gerald.
Gerald, say something!
Please!
[yells]
[groans]
Oh, God!
Wake up!
Wake up!
Help!
Sound more real now, huh?
You wanna try again?
Just get back up here.
You can do anything you want.
I mean it.
Anything.
Help!
Help! Somebody!
Help! Somebody!
Help.
Help. [sniffles]
Wake up.
Just wake up.
It's time to wake up, honey.
It's time to wake up.
[branch snaps]
Hello?
[leaves rustling]
Help.
It'll be dark.
In an hour or so, it'll be so dark.
[gate clangs]
Hey!
We're back here! He's hurt!
Nate, Kelly, is that you?
[soft footsteps approaching]
Shit.
Hi.
How was the steak?
It's $200 a portion, you know.
I don't suppose you're a rescue dog.
I didn't think so.
Hey.
Hey.
Back off from him.
[snaps fingers] Hey!
- [stammers]
- [whines]
Hey!
Hey!
Get away from him.
Back off!
Bad dog!
Bad dog!
Hmm...
Hey!
Bad dog! Go away!
- [shouts] Oh, God!
- [growls]
Oh. Uhh... [grunting]
Get the fuck away!
Get the fuck away from him!
[gasping and panting]
No.
[wails and moans]
No.
[gasps]
[groans]
- [gasps] Gerald?
- What the hell?
Oh, my God. Thank God.
I thought... I thought you...
My goddamn arm!
- [stammers] I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.
- The dog, right?
- You were so right. I was so wrong.
- The one you fed.
Uncuff me and hold me. I'm so sorry, baby!
The goddamn dog.
That goddamn dog.
The goddamn dog you had to feed.
Smelled the blood, did what dogs do.
Fuck you, roadkill! I hope you choke!
Should've let you cut up all the steak.
Maybe it would've filled him up.
But I guess they always smell
fresher meat.
Do you remember the joke I told
at Christmas last year?
You came up behind me.
I was, like, four or five
into the night already.
I was loose but not slurring yet.
It was Tom Reynolds I was talking to...
in this low and conspiratorial, in that
very specific "guys only" fucking tone
that says, "You'll appreciate this,
brother, but only you."
You didn't hear the beginning
of the joke, just the end...
"And what is a woman anyway?"
And I waited.
That cocky little pause I take
before a punch line
that really makes me proud of myself,
and Tom said, "What?"
like he already knew the answer,
and I said...
"A life support..."
Come on.
"And what is a woman, anyway?"
- "A life support system for a cunt."
- Yeah, that was it.
You never told me you heard it.
You never raised an objection.
You smiled through the night,
hated me a little bit,
- but never once brought it up.
- Because you're not like that.
- You don't talk that way.
- Yeah, was I just putting on a show?
For a client?
Stooping to his level
to get something I needed,
or was that who I really was,
underneath it all?
Don't ask a question you don't wanna know
the answer to, I guess.
I guess.
A life support system
for a stupid fucking cunt is more like it.
How many hours you been chained
to that bed?
You never heard me breathe, not once.
And you know the sound.
You've heard it every night
for the last 11 years.
That tiny rumbling snore I make
in the back of my throat
that sometimes. I make when I'm lost
in thought. I forget myself. I zone out.
That tiny little "Gerald only"
fucking purr.
Hours of not hearing that sound,
total fucking silence, and you knew it.
Five minutes after my head hit the floor,
you saw blood. You heard the silence,
and you knew it, but you just laid there,
wasting precious minutes and hours
and breath and life, calling my fucking
name, talking to a corpse on the floor.
What's happening?
Well, I'm pretty sure
you just lost your mind.
Seeing a dog eating your husband
will do that.
If you're gonna have a mental breakdown,
that's a great excuse.
Right.
The blood stopped spreading.
A while ago.
And you did what you always do
when it gets too much, you ran.
In here.
You just laid here,
calling my name again and again,
and let critical time tick by
- like a stupid fucking...
- Stop it.
You should have been thinking
about life support.
Maybe that's why
you're remembering that joke now.
Gotta be for some reason, after all.
And why is that?
- Time.
- That's right!
You're a life support system.
You've been unplugged.
There's still juice in there,
but the charge is running down.
And if you don't get out of the cuffs,
it will go all the way to zero.
When did we get here?
One-ish, I think.
And how long till we got into bed?
- An hour, maybe more.
- Call that two o'clock, then.
And I dropped dead...
Ten minutes, maybe, after.
When's the sun been setting?
- 7:15 or so.
- Oh, that's pretty close.
That's another 15, 20, tops.
So, let's say... five hours, so far.
Five hours you've wasted,
screaming for neighbors
that are half a mile away.
[both] If they're even here yet.
And, you know,
if you really think about it...
- Nate and Kelly said they wouldn't...
- They wouldn't be heading up until June.
The maids came to prep for us yesterday.
Because the bed is made
and the house is dusted.
Which means they're done and gone,
and the grass...
- ...was cut, fresh.
- Which means no gardeners.
Because I arranged it all
to get the place ready for us today.
And I wouldn't want them
interrupting my little game,
so I probably gave them
at least the weekend off.
- So, who could possibly...
- ...possibly hear you scream?
Except Cujo over there?
[grunts]
- You tried that.
- I know.
You can pull till your wrists break.
You're not getting out of those cuffs.
[Jessie yells]
[bones cracking]
[laughs] I told you.
I told you.
[grunting]
It's that easy.
Oh, babe, you're really losing it now.
Except your hand won't fit
through the cuff
and the bedpost is reinforced.
- Nice thought, though.
- Shut up.
Don't listen to him. He's the reason
we're here and look how he ended up.
I'm just telling her
how things really are.
No, you're doing what you always did,
minimizing, condescending.
Men aren't so much blessed
with penises as cursed by them.
[laughs]
And we might die here today
because of Gerald's five inches.
Our life has to add up to more than that.
- I can't get out.
- What about the stories on the news,
where mothers lift their cars
to save their children?
She's no mother.
What's that supposed to mean?
No maternal instinct.
- Your career always came first.
- That's what you said.
Maybe you even started to believe it.
I'm not so sure you can hide things
from me now.
You're wasting precious time here.
I can't get out.
- You have to.
- I am chained to the goddamn bed!
Don't recite facts to me. Wake up.
Says the voice in your head.
This is you... all over.
Problem, panic, denial.
Hoping if you look away,
it'll magically vanish.
If you don't wake up,
you're gonna die in those handcuffs.
And we both know you've been sleepwalking
since you were 12 years old.
- Not now.
- If not now, when?
Not now, what?
He put you in those handcuffs
way before Gerald did.
Who's "he"?
If I can get to the phone...
Phone's gonna die anyway.
I never charged it.
Or did a load of laundry, for that matter.
Tough luck.
Okay, scrap that.
Phone might as well be on Mars.
If you can't get off the bed...
live long enough
for someone to find you on it.
Yeah.
[moans]
What's wrong?
My head hurts.
You know why?
Life support.
How long do you think
someone lives without water?
Three days?
At best.
Yeah, seems like
I've heard three days somewhere.
That feels about right.
And it's been, what? Five...
six, seven hours.
I wanted to please you so badly.
This was such a stupid fucking idea.
Remember when I first
started taking those?
I hid it.
For what, six months?
I found the prescription.
You found it and never said anything.
But I knew you'd seen it,
and I just stopped covering it up.
- We never talked about it, though.
- There was that one time.
That one time.
Late one night, you tried without a pill,
and it just wasn't working.
- I was as soft as a kitten.
- Until...
- Until...
- Until you held my wrists above my head.
- I hadn't done that before.
- No, you had.
- This time, though...
- I grabbed your throat.
- Softly, then I squeezed, didn't I?
- Mm-hmm.
And, God, was I hard.
I was harder than you'd felt in years.
And you just laid there...
and I went to town...
and you moaned...
like a dutiful wife, never objected.
But, for the first time, first time
in all those years, you wondered...
"Who exactly did I marry?"
We never really know, do we?
'Cause everybody's got a little corner
in there somewhere.
A button...
they won't admit they want pressed.
Year after year...
I barely gave you a glimpse of mine.
[Jessie 2] One thing for sure...
you're glad he took
those little blue pills.
Huh?
You're glad.
I couldn't figure out...
what was wrong with me that you needed.
No, you're not listening. Take one, babe.
Now give it to her.
Wait, I...
Give it to her.
- Are you...
- Give her what she needs.
Nice.
[Jessie 2] Thank God for those pills.
For those little blue pills
that made Gerald so thirsty.
Oh...
Okay. Okay.
[gasps, panting]
[panting]
You're smirking.
What?
[cuffs clank]
That's what.
- Stupid.
- No.
[whimpers]
Don't you dare let it go.
- But I can't.
- Put it down.
- Where?
- Right where you caught it.
- Where you know you can reach it again.
- Okay.
Careful.
[gasps]
Go away.
- Get the fuck away!
- Look at me.
That dog is just doing what it has to,
to get along, and you have to do the same.
- Focus.
- But I can't!
You're right. Give up.
Come tomorrow,
you and Gerald will be together again,
inside the fucking dog.
- Can we please get back to work now?
- Mm-hmm.
[Gerald] I love this slip.
I love this slip.
Oh, good, I bought it special.
You bought it brand-new.
[slurping]
Mmm.
[gulps]
Leave some for later.
[pants]
Why can't I keep my eyes open?
Stress makes your adrenaline
and cortisol levels skyrocket,
and now you're crashing.
That's it, just fade away.
Assume this'll all be fine.
- I know... I know I shouldn't.
- Well, maybe you should.
If anyone's gonna find you,
it'll likely be tomorrow, not tonight.
- I will need my energy.
- [Jessie 2] You will.
You will, at that.
Hmm. Tomorrow.
[whines softly]
[dog barking in distance]
[grunts]
Where'd you go, you little shit? [gasps]
Hello?
Who are you?
I... I need help.
You're...
not...
real.
Not real.
[footsteps approaching]
Not real.
Maybe.
Or maybe you're just not safe anymore.
People are safe from ghouls and ghosts...
and the living dead in the daylight.
And they're usually safe
from them at night...
if they're with others.
But a person alone... in the dark...
Women alone in the dark
are like open doors, Jessie.
And if they scream for help,
who knows what might answer?
Who knows what people see
in the moment of their solitary death?
Is it so hard to believe
that some of them may have died of fear...
no matter what the words
on the death certificates say?
Died of fear...
because they saw, at their bedside...
the Moonlight Man.
Maybe that's just what Death looks like.
Not... real.
Then why did the dog leave?
Maybe he just moved...
under the bed.
He could reach up at any time,
put his hand on your hip.
[gasps]
And if he wants that cold, dirty hand...
on your soft, warm flesh,
there's not much
you can do about it, Mouse.
- What did you call me?
- Close your eyes.
If there's a monster under your bed,
it won't bother you if you're asleep.
Everybody knows that, Mouse.
Don't call me that.
Dream your dreams.
Dream deep.
[mother] No, help your father, please.
You okay, Jessie?
- It's so much smaller than I remember.
- 'Cause you're bigger.
- Come on, Mouse.
- [mother] Wait up.
[sister] I'm going in the water!
- [father] No, no, no.
- [mother] No, no running, please.
Thank you.
Can you please bring
your lacrosse stuff inside?
- Can you help, please?
- [father] No playing that inside.
[man on radio]
For the first time in 26 years,
a total solar eclipse will occur
in the United States.
The few and lucky cities
along the path of the eclipse
who have decided
to create official viewing areas,
have set their focus to logistics,
ensuring the comfort and safety
of their guests.
For those of us who have never seen
a total solar eclipse,
this is an opportunity
to view one of the most rare...
- and beautiful phenomena on the planet.
- [siblings] Dad!
The eclipse is tracked...
- Oh, you did it!
- We finally finished them.
[brother] I made this, too.
All right.
Here, go on out to the boat now.
- Yes, sir.
- Be careful.
- [sister] Okay.
- [brother] Okay, Dad.
[man on radio] It's rare to see
more than one from any single location.
You'd have to wait an average of 375 years
to see two eclipses from the same place.
Since our area lies
within the path of totality,
we can expect to experience
two minutes and 20 seconds of totality,
starting today at around 4:17 p.m.
You want me to make sandwiches
for the boat?
I don't think I wanna go out
on the boat today. The lake scares me.
People have drowned out there, you know.
[father] If she's afraid of the water,
I'm not gonna force her out onto a boat.
[mother] We came here as a family
to do this on the lake.
It is not going to kill her
to spend some time with the rest of us.
She's a complete daddy's girl.
- That's normal, isn't it?
- Please don't.
What?
You didn't even wanna go skiing with us
over Christmas.
And we didn't force you out
onto the mountain, did we?
No, we left you at the lodge
and let you relax.
[mother] You wanna stay with her?
Stay with her. Fine.
She's a nuisance anyway.
She picks fights with her brother.
She rolls her eyes at me incessantly.
- [father] She's 12.
- Yeah. Smiles and sweetness for Daddy.
That's totally
age-appropriate behavior, isn't it?
Sure.
It's just...
It's fine. It's fine! It's fine.
Okay, I'm not...
[man on radio]
...than at any other point along its path.
This is another reminder to our listeners
not to look directly into the eclipse,
which should begin to...
[switching stations]
['50s music playing]
That's better.
Unless you don't wanna listen
to Daddy's old man music.
No, I like it.
That's a beautiful dress.
- Is that your new one?
- Yeah. Mom said it was too short.
Mom's wrong.
You look amazing.
You look like a proper young woman.
- Here, so you don't hurt your eyes.
- Thanks. Where's yours?
Oh, you know what? I don't know.
I think your mom might have taken it.
- Scoot close and we'll share.
- Okay.
It's starting.
Wow.
What? [chuckles]
Nothing.
I'm just remembering something.
You and me, sitting here together...
When you were a little girl,
you used to sit on my lap.
You'd point up at the stars,
and you'd ask me
how far away each one was.
[chuckles] That's embarrassing.
No.
It's the sweetest.
Some great evenings out here, you and me.
Me and Mouse.
Nah, that's stupid.
What?
I was gonna say...
What?
Well, how about it?
For old time's sake?
Nah, that's silly. That's just
a silly idea from your silly old man.
I was just...
thinking about how happy
those times were, that's all.
Hell, I know you're a grown woman now.
You're too big to sit
on your daddy's lap anymore.
I just miss my little girl sometimes.
I'm not too big.
You sure?
Yeppers.
Mouse...
- I love you.
- I love you too, Daddy.
["Bring It On Home To Me" playing]
- Awesome. It's just amazing.
- If you ever change your mind...
Daddy, you're missing it.
Just... you keep watching.
Baby, bring it to me
Bring your sweet loving
- Bring it on home to me
- Daddy?
Just keep watching.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah
- Yeah, yeah...
- Daddy...
- Just keep... watching.
[gasps]
[gasping and groaning]
[flies buzzing]
Oh, Jesus. Jesus! [winces]
You've been hanging on them all night.
They need circulation.
[gasps, wincing]
It burns!
Cramps. They'll...
[yells]
...pass.
The cramps will pass.
Keep pedaling. Get the blood flowing.
Oh, God...
Oh, God, that hurts.
[gulps, coughing]
[grunts with relief]
[Gerald] Bad dreams.
You never told me...
about the eclipse.
I never told anyone.
That's a marriage, isn't it?
- Telling each other the difficult things?
- Not that one, no.
No wonder it didn't work.
It wasn't relevant to us.
[Jessie 2] Really?
You married an older man.
Your father was a lawyer.
Gerald was a lawyer.
Your father minimized you,
objectified you.
Let's not forget
my burgeoning drinking problem.
Babe, if you had a drinking problem,
that's certainly cured now.
The point is, Jessie...
you married into the only dynamic
you've ever known.
You were a girl, he was a man, and...
you never walked away from that.
That afternoon never ended.
It's not enough... that I'm here.
I also have to be there? Again?
You tell me.
You'd gotten your period
for the first time a month before, right?
Maybe that's what got him going.
He smelled the blood and did what dogs do.
Our friend in the hall
is every man you've ever known.
He had Kobe rib eye...
- It's actually from Kobe.
- ...till he smelled Gerald.
Your father had your mother
till you were nice and ripe.
- It wasn't like that.
- And Gerald...
The late hours, the mystery callers...
The weekend trips...
What was he really doing?
You ignored it, but...
you knew his hunger for you had faded,
and a dog's gotta eat.
I handled it.
Sure.
Just like you handled
those last few minutes on Daddy's lap.
He didn't rape me.
He didn't even touch me.
He only touched himself. [sobs]
And if you wanna blame someone...
I might as well blame...
my mother or the boat.
The sundress that was too short.
What he did to me on that swing...
wasn't the worst thing anyone's ever done.
No, that would be what he did
to you after, in the bedroom.
What did he do?
Nothing.
He just talked to me.
Nothing?
Nothing on the swing.
And nothing in the room.
It might as well have been a bad dream.
I had a dream...
that night at the lake house.
There was a woman...
standing over a deep well,
looking down into the blackness.
And I'm in the well, looking up at her.
The sky was so dark behind her...
the eclipse burning overhead.
The smell... The smell in that well...
It was like pennies, and then oysters.
She was standing there in her red dress...
looking right at me.
What was in the well?
Secrets.
So many secrets.
You thought yours
could go down there, too.
Just... throw 'em in the well,
down in the dark.
Who was the woman?
I remember thinking
maybe she was supposed to be me.
Because she would never tell.
I knew that, looking at her.
She'd die before she told.
"I could do that," I figured.
I don't know why I thought of that.
It was just a dream.
Like the man in the corner.
He was definitely... a bad dream.
[laughs]
I don't know, princess.
You can tell yourself that
if you need to.
He was a trick of the mind.
Just like you, Gerald.
Just like both of you.
Then why won't you look over there
for more than a second?
What are you afraid you're gonna see?
- Why are you still listening to him?
- Shh!
- It's probably from the dog.
- It's bigger than that.
Look at it again.
[Gerald] I think it's a footprint.
- And if it is...
- Shut up!
...it was Death you saw.
He'll be back tonight, Jessie.
And when you're dead, he'll have
your wedding ring in his case...
with the rest of his pretty things.
His souvenirs.
- I am gonna close my eyes.
- No.
- And count to ten.
- Stay awake.
And when I open them...
you will both be gone.
- Ten, nine, eight...
- [Jessie 2] Do you hear me?
- Stay awake.
- I'm awake.
Seven, six, five...
four, three...
two...
one.
[father] You all right, Mouse?
I'm so sorry.
I'm sorry you were there when I...
It's not like I touched you, Jessie.
But still...
Maybe we should tell Mom.
I think we have to, don't you?
I hate to...
just because things have been pretty
tense between the two of you lately.
Hell, they've been tense
between us, too...
with the baby and all.
But this...
well, this could make things a lot worse.
She won't think it's your fault.
I'm sure.
Fairly sure. I mean, she might.
We all know... it wasn't your fault.
Maybe we shouldn't tell her.
I have to.
We have to.
Why?
Because...
- Because you can't keep it a secret.
- Because you can't keep it a secret.
I mean, if it's ever going to come out,
then it's better for both of us
that it happen now.
Not in a week or a year or...
even ten years from now.
Please...
I won't tell.
I mean...
if we don't tell your mom today...
then we could never tell anyone.
I wouldn't. Never.
Not ever.
- Ever.
- And not just your mother.
Not anyone.
That's a big responsibility
for a little girl.
I'm sorry.
A young woman.
But you might be tempted.
With friends...
One of them tells you a secret,
maybe you might wanna tell them.
- Never.
- Or your brother.
Or your sister.
There might come a time
when you wanna tell...
No.
No. I promise. I swear.
I don't know, Jess.
I think it might be better for both of us
if this were all out in the open now.
Take our medicine.
I mean, she can't kill us.
Please...
Please, please, please.
Please just don't tell her.
I won't tell anybody... ever.
Ever. Please.
I've never been able to refuse you
anything that you really wanted, have I?
Okay, Jess.
We'll try things your way.
Thank you, Daddy.
So I guess we have a deal.
I say nothing.
You say nothing, not to anyone else,
not even to each other.
We walk out of this room...
and it never happened.
Okay.
I did a shameful thing.
You looked away... when you said that.
You were able to face me with the lies.
But it was the truth
that finally made you turn away.
[father] I don't know what came over me.
Maybe it was the eclipse.
Well, thank God
we'll never see another one.
Nothing happened.
Nothing ever happened.
Come on, let's get grilling.
They should be back in a bit.
[licking sounds]
[yells and gasps]
- [growls]
- [bone crunches]
[flesh tearing]
He'll try that again.
It's fresher meat.
You're still strong enough to kick,
but you won't be for long,
and he can smell that.
Afternoon already.
Sun's starting down.
And no one came this morning.
Or if they did, you were asleep.
Eventually, someone will find you, Jess,
but it might take a long time.
The first assumption will be we're off
on some wild romantic fling.
I mean, why not?
Only you and I know, at the end,
I could only get it up
if you were handcuffed to the bed.
To the rest of the world,
we're the picture of marital function.
Sooner or later,
people will start looking, my people.
There are a couple of women
in New Orleans you call friends, but...
You've never really let them
inside your life, have you?
None of them are gonna worry much
if you drop out of sight for a week or...
ten days.
But I have appointments.
And when I don't show up by Friday,
there'll be questions.
That's how it'll start.
I think the caretaker
will actually discover the bodies.
He'll call the cops when he spots you
through the window or...
when he smells us.
He'll turn his face away while he throws
the blanket from the closet over you
because he won't wanna see your fingers
sticking through the handcuffs.
Stiff as pencils, white as candles.
But, most of all...
he won't wanna look at the expression
of horror on your face.
Why are you doing this?
The forensics unit will show up
with the county coroner.
When they pull off the blanket,
they will...
wince and nod and tell each other
the woman on the bed died hard.
But they won't know the half of it.
They won't know...
the real reason your eyes are staring...
and your mouth is screaming...
is because of what you saw at the end...
coming out of the dark.
They'll take you to the medical examiner.
He'll cut you open, inventory your guts.
He'll have a peek
at what's left of your last meal,
take a little section of brain
to look at under his microscope.
But in the end...
in the end, he'll just call it
"death by misadventure."
- They were playing a harmless game.
- Harmless.
Only the gentleman had a heart attack
at a critical moment...
and the woman was left to...
Well, it's best not to get into it.
Just to say the lady died hard.
You only need to look at her to see that.
And maybe someone
will notice your wedding ring is gone...
but they won't hunt for it
for long, if at all.
They won't notice that one
of your bones...
not an important one, the third phalange
in your right foot, let's say...
is also gone.
But we'll know, won't we, Jess?
We'll know he took them.
Because it was Death.
And you did see him...
as people who die in the lonely places do.
It was Death.
And tonight, when the sun goes down,
he'll be back for you.
Hush, little baby, don't say a word
Mama's gonna buy you...
- I'm gonna die.
- Everything dies.
All things serve the beam.
And if that mockingbird don't sing
- I'm gonna die.
- Yes, love.
- Papa's gonna buy you a diamond ring
- He'll come quicker that way.
If that diamond ring turns brass
That way, you wouldn't have to wait
for the Moonlight Man.
- I'm going to...
- [father] ...sleep.
You're going to sleep.
Papa's gonna buy you a looking glass
I'm sorry.
I don't want you to be sorry.
Then what do you want?
I want you to remember.
You think I don't remember?
I remember every moment.
I remember every shame-filled glance
he threw my way, and I remember Mom...
- looking but not seeing...
- That's not what I'm talking about.
Because seeing?
It would have meant my little sister
was also doomed
to let that son of a bitch
steal her childhood,
and Mom would have died
before facing that.
So it was up to me to protect Maddie.
Even though it meant that I never felt
like part of the family again.
And that wasn't my job description.
Was it? My job was to be a kid.
Suddenly, that wasn't an option.
You've had everything you need
to survive from the beginning.
You just have to remember.
Not the sun, not the eclipse.
After.
[mother] We had fun on the boat.
Should we get one?
- [Maddie] Yeah.
- [mother] Yeah?
I hope it was as pretty here
as it was on the boat.
- It was awesome.
- It was fun.
- [laughing]
- "It was fun."
It was beautiful here, too.
Right, Mouse? We had fun.
Did you have a nice time
with your dad, Jess?
Jesus! Jess, are you okay?
I'm... I'm...
I'm sorry. It was an accident.
Just come on, let's get this cleaned up.
Oh, it's not so bad.
I think you'll live.
- Does it hurt?
- It's okay.
Just...
Just be careful.
The last thing I want...
is to have to take you
to the emergency room
and have your fingers sewn back on.
It's gonna fucking hurt.
- But the thing about blood...
- But the thing about blood...
...is that, until it clots,
it's as slick as oil.
That will not work.
Maybe not.
But the wrists have fewer nerves
than the body's other checkpoints.
That's why slitting wrists
is always the best way to...
How do you know so much about that?
Go too deep, you'll bleed to death.
Do nothing, I'll die of seizures,
dehydration or dog.
Or when my visitor with the bag of bones
shows up tonight.
The sun is starting down.
He'll be here soon.
Then I'll have to hurry.
Barely working, aren't they?
- I won't need much.
- Your legs won't be reliable.
It's been a day and a half
since you walked on them.
If my hands pull this off,
my legs better do their fucking part.
Okay.
Visualize it, then. All of it.
Yeah, okay.
Okay, okay.
[Jessie 2] Once you start,
you're not gonna be able to stop.
Everything has to go very fast
because your system is already dehydrated.
- And, Jessie...
- Huh?
you know, if anything goes wrong...
It won't matter.
Goodbye.
Okay.
You stay right there, dog.
One, two...
Okay, okay.
- Three!
- [glass breaking]
Okay, okay, okay, okay.
[grunting, panting]
Oh, God!
[flesh tearing]
[screams]
[panting]
[groaning]
[screaming]
Come on. Come on.
Shit!
[key jangles on desk]
[yells]
Okay.
Okay.
[panting]
[coughs]
[dog growling]
Get off me!
[car horn beeps]
[dog growling]
[whimpering]
[barks]
[whispers] You're only made of moonlight.
You're only made of...
Moonlight.
[car engine starts]
[groans]
- Oh!
- [tires screech]
Oh, God.
Please, just a little bit longer.
[mumbles] Please just... a little...
Oh, no.
Mouse.
[coughing]
[horn honking]
Hi.
[footsteps approaching]
I'm writing this letter
with my right hand,
nestled snug
in its frictionless burn glove.
Three skin grafts later,
it still doesn't work quite right,
and it still hurts to write.
But that's good.
This letter should hurt to write.
The doctors, the cops
and even the reporters
accepted my amnesia at face value.
And why not?
People who undergo serious trauma
often block out memories.
The cops knew that
even better than the lawyers.
And I knew it better than any of them.
Gerald's firm kept the details out
of the papers.
That was kind.
The coroners confirmed it was
a heart attack and a long time coming.
The insurance paid,
the headlines faded, and life went on.
The new normal.
Well, not normal.
Never normal.
Every night,
just before I closed my eyes...
[moaning]
[panting]
[gasps]
If it wasn't him, if it wasn't his face
keeping me from sleep...
it was the question.
That in all the reports,
all the cops that combed
through that house,
they never found my wedding ring.
What got me through those nights was you.
Thinking of you.
And why you came to me that day.
You, in your sunless world,
always on that swing.
What you needed me to understand...
that his shackles were silence,
and his were comfort.
My days were better.
I took the insurance money,
and I started a foundation
for girls and boys like us.
I spent so long never telling that story,
so... I made sure that I did.
I tell that story every day
to every kid it could possibly help.
When I was 12,
I went to the lake house with my family.
And while that helped my days,
I still sat up at night...
waiting for that pale face
in the moonlight...
to claim his runaway bride.
Six months after the handcuffs,
six months of being a widow...
six months of living death.
And then Raymond Andrew Joubert's picture
first appeared in the paper.
Two years ago,
reports of graveyard vandalism
in the backwoods of Alabama
hit the papers,
but I never read about them,
not in New Orleans.
And they were tiny stories, buried.
Someone was breaking
into crypts and mausoleums
of small town cemeteries
with drills, bolt cutters and hacksaws...
and stripping corpses of jewelry.
As the months went by, it escalated.
Incidents started being reported
in Louisiana.
He gouged out eyes, cut corpses' throats.
Last February,
two were found without noses.
Later hands. Then... ears.
Something I'd always assumed was the dog.
And when it came to removing genitalia
after having sex with the dead...
he stuck strictly to the gentlemen.
This was, clearly, extremely lucky for me.
I only noticed
when he finally made the front page.
He'd graduated, it seemed, from the dead.
And, one night, a man woke up
to find Raymond Joubert in his room,
naked, trying to cut off his ear.
Joubert suffers from acromegaly,
a progressive enlargement
of the hands, feet and face
that happens when the pituitary gland
goes into warp drive.
It causes the forehead to bulge
and abnormally long arms
that dangle almost to his knees.
They went to his only known address,
a farmhouse on Kingston Road.
They didn't find him there,
but they did find his sister
and her husband,
who he called his "mommy and daddy."
He'd scalped them both
and eaten most of "Daddy."
They found 50 bell jars
containing ears, lips, fingers.
They think he may have killed as many
as a dozen people in the last five years.
But, for some reason, he spared me.
This monster was real, real as they come.
As real as the cuffs, as the dog.
As real as the eclipse.
And so I had to write this
to you, Mouse...
because you're the only person
who'd understand...
and you're the only one who truly matters.
[Young Jessie] "He's being arraigned
tomorrow, and I'm going to see him.
Because the people who were supposed
to protect you from the monsters...
[both] turned out to be
monsters themselves...
[both] and it almost killed you."
We need the sun to come back out.
After so long...
I think we deserve the sun.
[reporter] This morning, it was announced
that cameras would not be allowed
inside the courtroom for the arraignment,
an unusual decision in a case
that's already full of surprises.
But nothing more unusual than the way...
Sources within the Alabama State
Police Department tell us
Raymond Andrew Joubert hasn't spoken
a single word since his arrest,
not even to his public defender.
[man] Sixteen counts
trespassing and vandalism.
Eighteen counts desecration.
Eight counts first-degree murder.
Twenty-one counts mutilation.
Twenty-eight counts
desecrating human remains.
Sixteen counts breaking and entering.
Hey.
- Four counts, assault and battery.
- [clears throat] Hey!
Ma'am?
You're not real!
[crowd gasps]
You're not real!
[woman] Officer!
You're only made of moonlight!
[chuckles]
You're so much smaller than I remember.