The Devil and the Daylong Brothers (2025) Movie Script
1
(ARROWS WHOOSHING)
(BRICKS RUMBLING)
()
()
I gotta fire burnin' low,
yeah
But burnin' steady
as she goes, yeah
I've got this fire
burning low, see
It's burned a hole inside
a me, yeah
Be it me or be it you
I'll keep it burning
till the burning's through
Be it me or be it you
I'll keep it burning
till the burning's through
Yeah
Cursed men they come
and go, yeah
Band with that devil
down below, yeah
This is the fate that
they have chose, yeah
My fire raging in their bones,
yeah
Until I've purified anew
I'll keep on burning
till the burning's through
Until I've purified anew
I'll keep on burning
till the burning's through
Yeah
You see my fire burning slow,
yeah
You feel that heat
beneath my coals, yeah
This fire burns me up inside,
yeah
It lights my way
so none can hide, yeah
There is not one thing
you can do
I will keep burning
till the burning's through
There is not one thing
you can do
I will keep burning
till the burning's through
Yeah
Yeah
There is not one thing
you can do
I will keep burning
till the burning's through
Yeah
Yeah
Yeah
ENOCH:
Hey Ish,
do you recall what kind
of reprobates
I hate the most this--
this here life?
Blasphemers and whoremongers.
ENOCH:
Worser.
Mormons?
Violent misogynists.
Hmm.
Better be praying to Christ,
you ain't talking to me.
Christ stopped taking up
our prayers a long time ago.
(GUN CLICKS)
()
Just this one time.
You say that every time.
You been awful quiet
through this ruckus?
Usually at this part,
there's a mess of crying
and bargaining.
DEAD MAN:
I figure I used up
all my bargaining.
(DRAGS CIGARETTE)
No way I'm gonna outpace fate.
(ISHMAEL CHUCKLING)
Well, I'll be.
This one's smarter
than a flick of a tit in winter.
But one request
before I go violently
into that good night.
Please, tell my family--
-(GUNSHOT)
-(WOMAN SCREAMS)
(PEOPLE CLAMOR)
Excuse me.
(CHAIR DRAGS ON FLOOR)
(DOOR SHUTS)
(CHUCKLES)
Y'all lucky we ain't a couple
of murderers out marauding.
Else you'd be carcasses
about now.
Ain't murderers?
You just executed my cousin!
ABE:
Don't be ignant.
All we's executed was
his contracts.
Now, don't-- don't--
don't kill me.
I said we ain't
m-- m-- m-- m-- m--
m-- murderers.
(CHUCKLES)
()
Murderers kill
'cause they want to.
Suckin' up some kind of
pre-verted pleasure from it.
Me and my brothers are killers,
'cause we got to.
There ain't no pleasure in it.
(GROANS)
(CHUCKLES)
Now, my little brother here
would be giddy as a dead pig
in sunshine
to put a quiet pill
between your eyes.
But that kind of sick fun sounds
an awful lot
like something a murderer
would do, don't it?
And we ain't murderers.
(GROANS)
CHAWBONE:
Horse shit!
You're the goddamn devil
hisself.
Who's gonna take him?
You mind if I take this one?
It's Abe's turn.
-It's all yours.
-It's your turn.
()
Don't go interruptin' me
this time.
Okay. On three.
One...
We're the goddamn
Daylong Brothers.
We got three different mamas
and the same sumbitch daddy
who sold our eternal souls
to the devil
before we was even born.
And we're rainin' down
holy terror to get 'em back.
And anyone--
And anyone standin' in our way
will be scoopin' dirt--
-Ishmael!
-Or screamin' for hell!
You can't help,
but be a goddamn bastard!
Don't blaspheme, you Philistine!
You just cut right in.
And say what you want.
Of course not!
I got the flick knife thing--
ENOCH:
With the gun and whatnot!
But you're dumb to notice!
Little crumb-snatcher swiped
my keys.
(DOOR SHUTS)
()
Now, Enoch, who's drivin'?
-Me.
-You don't got your gloves on.
I'll hold the keys while
you get your gloves.
(CHUCKLES)
()
(TIRES SCREECH)
()
-ENOCH: Slow down!
-ISHMAEL: All right.
ENOCH:
Slow down!
(INDISTINCT SPEECH)
Just got to hate this
catiwampus outhouse!
Don't blaspheme
this here vehicle.
ENOCH (OVERLAPPING SPEECH):
If you're never gonna do us in,
this cockamamie coffin
is gonna spew us
into a goddamn blasted ditch!
-Don't be cursin'!
-ENOCH: I'm not cursin'!
I'm just expressin' myself.
-Why don't you fix the car?
-ISHMAEL: It is fixed.
ENOCH:
That ain't fixed!
-MAN 1: (ON PHONE)
The crossroads?
-Yeah.
MAN 1: (ON PHONE)
I'll be there in a jiffy.
ENOCH:
Well, do it better
or somethin'!
ISHMAEL:
Oh.
(SIGHS)
He comin' or what?
()
All's I'm sayin' is,
we've gutted fish before, right?
Now, granted,
they're a little smaller
than what we're talkin' about.
But it's like the same thing.
ISHMAEL:
The good book says whale.
I ain't never seen whale guts
before, have you?
ENOCH:
Well, all's I'm sayin' is
that there's not much room
in there, boys.
ISHMAEL:
You comin' off
like a harebrained heretic.
ISHMAEL:
I'ma sure visit you in hell.
Oh, you gonna be roastin' right
next to me, you stupid dingus!
(ENGINE WHIRRING)
(HORN BLARING)
()
Mornin', fellas.
Spot of car trouble, have ya?
Yeah, I know
somebody I can call.
Huh.
For you, anything.
Oh!
My three wise malingering men,
yeah.
They give me gifts as fine
as turkey!
Oh!
Did he who made the lamb
make thee?
By our count
this here's all
but the last of them.
I can't help
but feel an ever-so-slight
twinge of sentimentality
as we near the end
of our bountiful partnership.
One is left wonderin', however,
as to how you might apply
your particular talents
once our arrangement comes
to a close.
(CHUCKLES)
This isn't it exactly the
occupation of the redeemed,
is it?
Hunting
and murdering the damned.
Ah!
We ain't murderers,
you slippery mung.
-That's right.
-CLARENCE: Apologies.
What I meant to say was
crusaders on a righteous quest.
Crusaders?
ENOCH:
Ah.
Huh.
Well, that goes down
real smooth.
All right, boys.
We are nearing
our grand finale.
Only one solitary damned soul
left to slaughter.
I'll hit my quota
and you will have what you
so desperately yearn for.
The worst villain of them all.
Dear old Dad.
Huh?
()
He was only a boy, you know.
Just a boy the night
he shook that fiery hand.
Enjoy yourselves, boys.
(CROWS CAWING)
(CAR DOOR OPENS, CLOSES)
I'mma fill his skull
with daylight.
()
Oh would I like to talk to you
about some stuff.
()
(DRAGS CIGARETTE)
(SPITS)
(DRAGS CIGARETTE)
(GRUNTS, WHISTLES)
()
Oh my!
What blessing has the Lord
chosen to bestow upon me
this day?
This New Hope?
You'll have to forgive
my little brother here.
He's crippled in a way
a walking cane can't help.
-(CHUCKLES)
-ENOCH: No, I ain't!
Jesus, God damn--
Don't blaspheme.
Your face.
Oh.
Uh, are you boys hungry?
I got some leftovers in there
from this morning's potluck.
Got some
of Mrs. Watson's Brunswick stew
that'll just make
your taste buds
think the angels are dancing
on 'em. (CHUCKLES)
You planning
on doing some digging?
Um...
I've been known to move
grave dirt in my past life.
Might could lend you a hand.
(CHUCKLES)
Oh, um...
Do I know you boys
from somewheres?
ABE:
Never been one for
church-going,
but you have got a beautiful
house of worship here.
()
Real secluded like.
(CHUCKLES)
(SHOUTS)
-You was right, Enoch.
-(GUN CLICKS)
Double barrel behind the door.
Fancy one, too.
(ENOCH CHUCKLING)
Don't you just love
being right, Reverend?
I had a deal!
Well,
the devil's calling the debt.
ABE:
Gotta read the fine print.
(YELLS)
Aah!
Hand me your belt.
Fork no. Use your own.
Hang in there, Rev.
Don't want you leaking out
just yet.
(GRUNTS)
()
(SHOUTS)
Whoa! Easy there, brother.
No need to go off the script.
We got him by the curlies.
No need rushing.
Rev, you've been busier
than a one-armed monkey
with two jimmies.
(CHUCKLES) Rapin' and clobberin'
these sweet little congregates
will keep you busy till rapture.
(STUMPWATER SCREAMS)
How did you find me?
The devil keeps track
of his own.
ENOCH:
You know, we've seen
trades for fame, women.
Enough money
to burn a wet mule.
Heck, one fella just
wanted a bigger pecker.
(CHUCKLES)
But your deal is something
more nefglorius.
Nefarious.
Nefarious.
Well, well,
the good lord saw fit
to give me particular appetites.
And the Old Dragon was
kind enough
to help me satiate 'em.
Traded my--
my soul for privacy!
(CHUCKLES)
Well, you must have been
pulverized
-(SCREAMS)
-when we rolled up, weren't you?
I can tell by the heap of fear
pouring out your eyes
you know who we is, don't you?
(PANTING)
()
Let no man deceive thee,
for that day shall not come,
except there come a falling
away...
ABE:
And that man of sin
be revealed.
The Sons of Perdition.
See now, you done got yours
burnt in.
You asked for your Goddamned
covenant of your own volition.
But we's three,
we inherited our damnation.
(STUMPWATER SOBBING)
Oh, come now.
This is a privilege, Rev.
Mm-hmm.
Today's a big day.
Last requisite of our
redemption. (CHUCKLES)
We turn you in and bang!
We're on our way
to the reclamation
of our goddamn eternal souls.
Don't blaspheme.
(GROWLS)
You simpletons!
Ought to get shed the idea
the devil's gonna make good
with deviants like you!
Your cup of iniquity
runneth over long ago.
I can smell the sin
on your breath. (CHUCKLES)
Welp,
you're wrong about that.
We snuffed that shiftless sod
we call, "Daddy".
Get back what he stole'd.
(STUMPWATER PANTING)
Vengeance is mine,
sayeth the Lord!
()
(GRUNTS, CHOKES)
Vengeance is why he made us.
There's a man on a mountain
Praying and a counting
Crying to the fountain
"Will the righteous burn,
too?"
Abram the brave man,
pleading for depraved man
Wrestles with the flames
And trusts the wicked burn
through, yeah
He's toe-to-toe
with incensed deity
But he's raising
up his hands
He understands...
That hell is at hand
And it's right here,
right now
Feel the heat on your bones
Hell is at hand
And it's right
in front of you
Do not misunderstand
Your fate is with the damned
And hell is at hand
(CHUCKLES)
All them unwashed in Sodom,
mocking up at God are
Abusing the despondent
when the sky rains a fire
ABE:
And it burns as it pours,
all consuming the abhorrent
Deplorable mortals
Unrepentant, on fire
ENOCH:
They're staring down
an incensed deity
And he's raising
up his hands
The cries demand
that hell is at hand
And it's right here,
right now
Feel the heat on your bones
Hell is at hand
And it's right in front
of you
Do not misunderstand
Your fate is
with the damned
And hell is at hand
-(STUMPWATER CHUCKLING)
-(GUNSHOTS)
What's all this nonsense?
STUMPWATER:
"Behold!
I am against
thee O thou most proud!"
"Your day of reckoning
will come.
The day when I will punish you."
Well, I don't care where they're
from or who they is.
I'm gonna pump iron
in their butt.
()
Nice shooting, Tex.
That oughta scare 'em
real good.
ABE:
Hey, dummies!
Our ticket to ride
is slitherin'.
Worshipping depravity and
reveling in vanity and lies
The heavens softly burning
As your plea extends
the yearning to a cry
Blinded by obscenity
and bathed in immorality
The fight
is spreading inside
Raging indiscriminately
Blazing through
a villainy decried
Your pride a sulfur
in your mind
Has all
but silenced Abraham
The end is now
and hell is at hand!
ISHMAEL:
Feel the heat on your bones!
Hell is at hand!
Burning right
in front of you!
No repentance
for the damned!
Hell is at hand!
Burning right here,
right now!
Feel the heat in your bones!
Hell is at hand!
And it's staring
back at you!
Do not misunderstand
you're damned!
-(RETCHES, LAUGHS)
-There is no promised land
Hope is ash,
brimstone's sand
The burning's through
and hell is at hand
(GUNSHOT)
ISHMAEL:
Enoch! You done?
Get in!
(WHIRRING, SCREECHING)
ENOCH:
Goddammit!
Son of a bitch!
(CAR DOOR CLOSES)
-Goddammit!
-Nothing.
What do you mean, nothing?
I mean nothing, nothing!
Clarence
ain't never forgot a call!
ISHMAEL:
But we ain't never been shot up
by a bunch of
hooded hillbillies neither!
What the fresh hell was that!
For we wrestle not with flesh
and blood...
Brother, wrestling flesh
and blood
is our goddamn birthright!
Where is that hair-lipped louse?
He's probably hogtied
and stuffed with them big fe--
-Hey!
-(KNOCKING)
Keep mashing them buttons
till you get him!
I'm gonna mash your head
with this here receiver!
I'm gonna say you're moving
slower than molasses!
Shut it or I'mma snatch
your canines!
Shit's hit the box now!
Christ on a--
Don't blaspheme!
Hey!
This was on the Reverend.
The address.
Abe...
The damned all have something
in common.
Clarence. He's the closer.
Ain't no deal with the devil
gets signed without Clarence.
Sure as God's got sandals
if we want to find us
another damned soul
that might could tell us
where Clarence is,
this would be the place
to find him.
Hey brother, we can
always go somewhere else.
Find somewhere where
those serpents congregate.
Let's just get this over with.
()
ISHMAEL:
Get in.
(ENGINE WHIRRING)
()
Here.
()
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
(DOORS CREAKING)
You recognize it?
Better question is,
will they recognize you?
It's been a long time gone.
It's in the past now.
Them's and everything else.
We can take this one
without you.
Daggum enigma that one.
()
Hi, there.
Uh, we're here
to see our friend, uh...
-Frankie.
-That's right.
Old chum Franklin.
"Funny Frankie",
we used to call him back
when, uh...
You know.
(CHUCKLES)
(RADIO STATICS)
(CHATTER & LAUGHTER IN DISTANCE)
(BELL RINGS)
RECEPTIONIST:
(SPEAKS FRENCH)
(SPEAKS FRENCH)
Fuckers sexy.
Hey, we're uh, looking
for our friend, Frankie.
Have you seen him around?
()
I took four years of French,
you know.
I can speak it some,
but I can't write it none.
Ain't that something?
Would you do us the kindness
of letting him know we're here?
I only know the dirty words.
Little Miss,
we'd be much obliged if you
took us to see our friend.
Okay.
You stay put
and watch our behinds, yeah?
Hmm.
Do you care to strangle
the parrot with me?
It ain't got the muzzle velocity
of other drinks,
but it'll get you there.
I don't drink.
Now ain't that a shocker?
The Abraham I knew had
plenty of reasons
to tilt the bottle.
(GRUNTS)
(CRICKETS CHIRPING)
(COUGHS)
(WATER DRIPPING)
FRANKIE:
Your big brothers are probably
bled out like stuck hogs by now.
I asked they be diced up
real quick.
But you and me,
we are gonna slow dance
the night away.
Frankie.
-(SPITS)
-(KISSES)
How'd you know my name?
Come now, Abraham.
You didn't bury me along with
all those repressed memories?
You would never forget
your old roomie.
Your best friend
in the whole world.
(SNIFFS)
But maybe a real friend
wouldn't have bolted out
of this hellhole
without taking a tortured,
helpless little girl with him.
Francine.
You get that name out
'yer filthy gob!
Aah! (GRUNTS)
(CHUCKLES)
That little girl scattered
into the wind
when you left her in the hands
of a thousand hungry men.
There was nothing I could do.
I had a chance to get loose
and I took it.
There ain't no shame in it.
(SIGHS)
Of all the things that I've
ever put into my mouth...
...it was the barrel of a gun
that tasted the sweetest.
But I didn't have the sand
for it.
So, I made the deal.
Others, they traded
for selfish things.
But it turns out,
all my warped little mind
could fathom
was not getting fucked
four times an hour
by old men for loose change.
So, I sold my soul to get out.
()
But it wasn't long
before I realized that
this was all I was ever gonna
be good at.
If you're all that's left
of that little girl...
...I'mma reach down your throat
and pull out your goddamn soul
with my bare hands.
(SIGHS)
Oh, mi amour.
(SIGHS)
There is a fire that shines
the soul
A warmth
and glow I will never know
I am a reckoning
I am a reckoning
As is a hope
for fire redeemed
A second birth,
but it ain't for me
I am a reckoning
I am a reckoning
I am the guilt you feed
at night
The weighing cry
of endless fight
Anemic and vacant stares
I am a reckoning
I am a man from Galilee
No wounds
of three pouring clemency
I am a reckoning
I am the reckoning
There ain't a hope
in virgin wombs
No angel looming
in empty tombs
There is a reckoning
I am the reckoning
I am a dozen angry men
Accounting for your deals
in sin
No pardons, reprieves
or stays
I am the reckoning
Ah...
I am the end
I am at the end
I am a reckoning
Ah...
I am the end
I am the reckoning
Reckoning...
I am a dozen angry men
Accounting for your deals
in sin
You are the reason I'm sin
No pardons, reprieves
or stays
I am the reckoning
I am a reckoning
I am the guilt you've fed
at night
I am the end
The weighing cries
Of the never ending fight
No pardons, no bargains,
my heart is hardened
And I am
You are
I am your reckoning
You must be Frankie.
Well, this has been fun,
a real goat rodeo.
See, I'm tuckered out
and plumb outta rope.
Now, where's Clarence?
I don't know no Clarence.
Sure you do.
Gangly guy, fake eye,
reeks of rotted eggs.
Oh, wait.
Nah, now that dog won't hunt.
Aah!
Let's carve this whore turkey.
Oh, no.
I can take you to him.
(ENOCH CHUCKLING)
See!
I told you we could jog
her noggin'.
FRANKIE:
Not Clarence.
Nehemiah Daylong is a legend
to the damned.
Only one to get one over
on the old trickster himself.
-I know where he is.
-(GRUNTS)
ENOCH:
Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait,
wait, wait.
-What if...
-Ain't no what ifs.
I can prove it.
In the box.
In the box.
()
"To Fr...
Frankie, my fave...
Sound it out.
ENOCH:
"My fave-- favorite gal."
He toured these parts.
Back when he was doing
that sort of thing.
Mark me, this Babylonian whore
is somebody
we need to snuff now!
Probably so.
But...
What if...
"For I am a jealous God,
and will visit the iniquities
of the fathers
upon the children."
Make no mistake.
I know you're bleatin'
to save your skin.
-But seeing we don't
have much to go on.
-No!
(FRANKIE SOBBING)
If I had a soul,
I would swear on it.
Ow!
But I gotta be the one
to take you to him.
That's the deal.
Or you can just
dice me up now
and always wonder.
(SIGHS)
(SPITS)
(GRUNTS)
Wait!
My clutch.
It's got my lady things.
Oh.
()
Well, that happened quicker
than a knife fight
in a phone booth.
(BANGING)
FRANKIE:
Let me out,
you small-peckered pricks!
You all right back there,
little brother?
Need a towel or something?
FRANKIE:
I'm suffocatin'!
Just don't want you smearing
blood in Grace is all.
Oh, it's all right,
little brother.
We all get wound up tight
from time to time.
-FRANKIE: Hey!
-ISHMAEL: Yeah.
Some of us more than others.
Exactly!
See, even I get
hotter than a two-dollar pistol.
ISHMAEL:
You was defending yourself.
Defending the brains right
through that fella's skull.
You killed, 'cause you had to.
Weren't no pleasure in it,
right?
Oh, come off it,
you little snot gout.
(ISHMAEL CHUCKLING)
We got a new map to the holy
redemption
of our ever lovin' souls.
We about to get our hands
on Daddy.
ISHMAEL:
Whoo!
Can you fathom the look
on his face
when we come a-rambling up?
I have my whole wretched life.
I don't mean to
piss in your grits,
but that fork-tongued slut
don't know where daddy is
any more than she knows how
to cross her legs.
It could be.
But until Clarence comes
a-wandering
out of the wilderness
with locusts in his hair,
she's best we got.
(GUN CLICKS)
-Did you?
-I'm not s--
(GUNSHOT)
The upholstery!
-I had the girl! You had--
-You had to get the--
-You just had to try--
-Ow!
ENOCH:
Pull over! Gosh, darn it!
Pull over!
Shit!
Now, Frankie darlin'.
Let's talk this out.
Ain't no one gonna hurt you.
(GUNSHOT)
(INDISTINCT SPEECH)
(GUN CLICKS)
But we will light you up
like Christmas.
ISHMAEL:
Abe.
FRANKIE:
Don't.
Abraham.
You need me.
FRANKIE:
Okay, fine!
But I ain't saying spit,
unless I'm saying it
from the front seat.
Back seat, tied up.
-And gagged.
-Yes.
FRANKIE:
Even better.
What?
No.
Easy there, Sherman.
(LIGHTER CLICKS)
(GRUNTS)
But I ain't sitting with her
in the back seat.
What?
()
FRANKIE:
Hey!
Hey!
Don't leave me in here!
Hotter'n rabbit screwin'
in a wool sack!
Chuck her in the trunk.
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
(SIGHS)
(SIGHS)
(DOOR OPENS, CREAKS)
()
Don't y'all have something
to dull the pain?
Them two boys in there,
dryer than popcorn fart.
But me...
Well...
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
I ain't funnin'.
I'll ooze out by mornin'.
(FRANKIE SCREAMING)
Thank you for sparing me.
Sugar baby, I don't think
you're keepin' score here.
The minute I lay eyes
on my daddy...
...you're dirt.
FRANKIE:
You act tough,
but you
ain't like your brothers.
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
You ain't a cold-blooded
death dealer like them.
The blood that runs
through you is warm and kind.
You've got that wise blood.
(SIGHS)
(DOOR OPENS, CLOSES)
()
Why don't you quit torturing
that poor guitar
with them twisted fingers
of yours?
(ENOCH CHUCKLES)
Do you ever think about him?
ENOCH:
The fella I worked for
in Shabuta
was the nicest man I ever met.
Paid me real good to
dig them graves for him.
It was busy work,
on account of the cemetery
weren't but 2 miles from
what we call,
"the Hanging Bridge".
()
Now the good,
Christ-haunted folk
of Clark County
never missed an opportunity
to don their finest linens
and exact justice.
The kind of justice
that would leave a few niggers
hanging from that metal bridge.
Mississippi wind chimes.
So busy sometimes I had
to do my digging at night.
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
So on those nights I'd look up
to the stars
and whisper ignored prayers.
I'd think about our daddy then.
The whoremonger life
he was living,
spending our souls.
I'd pray to the Lord
asking him
to let me have his soul
at the edge of a knife.
I don't think about him no more.
I can't.
(RAIN PATTERING)
Hate's filled me up
and spil't the banks.
Hey Abe, get my fiddle
out of the trunk, will ya?
(CHUCKLES)
Why don't you climb off that
clap-infested Shetland of yours?
You think you got it all
figured out, don't you?
I ain't been burdened
with intelligence,
but I know enough to quench
my mind of pitying myself.
That'a way lies madness.
This job is just that, a job.
As far as I'm concerned,
Daddy is just another villain
lined up at the gates of hell.
He stole what's mine
and I'm stealing it back.
(CHUCKLES)
A spiritual smash and grab!
(ISHMAEL CHUCKLING)
You tell yourself
whatever stories
and lullabies you need
to get yourself to sleep.
I know exactly what heats
my boilers in the morning.
I been wronged
So many times before
I've been wronged
So often I can't hide
behind a smile anymore
Oh
That devil honed
and he honed
And bent my bones
Until I groaned, I condoned
I cast my stone
But I cannot atone
'Cause I've been wronged
so long
I can't be alone
My mind is not my own
And I've been strong,
so strong
Fighting all along
But bleedings wrote my song
I been wronged
()
I been abused
So many times before
I been abused and used
So often, I don't notice
All the blood anymore
That devil honed
and he honed
And bent my bones
Until I groaned
and bemoaned
I cast my stone
But I cannot atone
'Cause I've been wronged
so long, I can't be alone
My mind is not my own
And I been strong, so strong
Fighting all along
But bleedings wrote my song
I been wronged so long
I can't be alone
My mind is not my own
And I've been strong,
so strong
But bleedings wrote my song
Oh
I been wronged
Oh
I been wronged
I been wronged
I been wronged
I been wronged
For so long
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
I've been wronged
(RAIN PATTERING)
(INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER)
I gotta make water.
ISHMAEL:
Again?
It's not on me the Lord
gave me a small bladder.
Wish he'd give you
a large tumor.
(CHUCKLES)
Well, I could go right here,
I guess.
ISHMAEL:
What? Nah-uh.
I done worse in the backseat
of the car.
ISHMAEL:
Dagnabbit.
(TIRES SCREECH)
(ENGINE SPUTTERING)
You out your cotton pickin'
mind?
Well, where am I supposed to...
What, you gonna stand there
and stare like perverts?
Phew.
She is...
...she is truly something, huh?
FRANKIE:
Sweet Jesus, I can't.
I'm gonna get my peach gobbled
by a snake.
Well, when you tally it all up,
she ain't a whole lot different
than a lot of us.
She's been dealt a bum hand.
FRANKIE:
Black widow spiders...
scorpions...
Hell, ya'll got
grizzlies up here?
(CHUCKLES)
And I don't know why you're
spitting nails at her.
Y'all both come up
in that den of iniquity.
Hell, you left her.
-(WHIMPERING)
-()
Oh, nah.
Hold on a tick, little bro.
I wasn't insinuating.
Abe.
Abraham.
(FRANKIE SINGING INDISTINCTLY)
Shit.
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
(PANTING)
You oughta baptize me.
Hold me down
under holy rushin' waters
until my spirit has flown.
-You repro--
-Shhh.
You J--
Jezebel.
Ain't nobody down here,
but us damned.
Sure as sunshine,
God ain't watching.
(CHUCKLES)
()
Thunder is good.
Yeah.
Thunder is impressive.
Yeah.
(GUN CLICKS)
But it's lightning
that does the trick.
(CHUCKLES)
ISHMAEL:
Enoch, you pumpknot!
You best not got tricked
out yer britches!
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
(SPITS)
FRANKIE:
All right. All right!
You got me big boy!
I'll quit.
FRANKIE:
Hell!
We ain't even picked
a safe word yet.
()
A snake's gotta shed her
skin every once in a while.
(CAR DOORS OPEN, CLOSE)
(ENGINE STARTS, WHIRS)
ISHMAEL:
Which way?
Spin the black circle.
You tired of living or what?
ISHMAEL:
Which way?
Any way you like it, baby.
Oh, here's the--
You'll be the fiery-lipped--
She's one of them.
We gonna bleed her out just
like the rest.
Yeah.
Just don't wanna turn Grace
into a slaughterhouse
is all.
Keep north, you got a ways yet.
Thank you kindly.
()
(ENGINE WHIRS)
(TIRES SCREECH)
FRANKIE:
You gonna flip us off the
mountain into a fiery death?
I ain't plannin' on it.
Pity.
FRANKIE:
You ain't gotta coddle him.
If you got to know him,
you'd find he's tougher
than you think.
You seen it with your own eyes
and his bloody fist.
ISHMAEL:
Ain't wise for you
to be supposing you know more
about my brothers than me.
FRANKIE:
Don't play babe in the woods.
You oughta know better
than anybody.
The torment that visits you,
makes you.
And I seen the kind of torment
in that little boy
that'll curdle blood.
Stuff that black tongue
back in your mouth, Jezebel.
Every word you speak has
got the stink of sin on it.
I seen what you do
when God ain't watchin'.
Yeah, I'm a fiend.
But what's worser?
The fiend,
or the devil that made her?
And y'all oughta know better
than anybody.
Ain't your daddy to
blame for what y'all are?
What's that?
()
()
Nehemiah Daylong!
Get your ass out here!
ISHMAEL:
Wooh!
(GLASS SHATTERS)
ISHMAEL:
Wooh!
She's been playing us like jazz.
Hold on, little bro.
Now just cause he ain't here,
don't mean he ain't here.
Ain't them the dumbest words
ever crawl out of your mouth?
Why you always gotta
talk about me like that?
-Well, no one knows
-You got better words?
-what you're talking about.
-Do you know what he's saying?
I don't know what he's saying.
ENOCH:
It's between me and you.
You look here--
Hold up.
(CHUCKLES)
ISHMAEL:
Wooh!
(LAUGHING)
(CROWS CAWING)
()
CLARENCE:
My boys.
Now what malign star did ye heed
to find yourselves here
this auspicious day?
FRANKIE:
I suppose that'd be me, baby.
(KEYS JINGLING)
Francine?
Francine, my tender
little fragrant sullied flower.
(BLOWS KISSES)
How the devil are ya?
And how's the fresh flesh
business been treating ya?
FRANKIE:
I heard you was wheelin' deals.
Deals for souls.
Ooh.
Do tell.
I want to strike up one
of my own.
A three for one.
You Sampson barberin' whore!
(GUN CLICKING)
What say ye, Clarence?
I, uh, laud the vim
and vigor of it, I do.
But it pains me to say that
you've misread the market.
See, these daylong souls
are worthless.
Just ask their father.
Mm.
FRANKIE:
Now, Clarence, don't make me
commence to cussin'.
I've been bedragged by
these scoundrels from hell
to breakfast,
and I am so scorched
I could drown puppies!
(CHUCKLES, BREATHES DEEPLY)
Every morning,
I awake to familiar faces
bangin' on my door.
Raw-boned, desperate,
desperate faces.
They've had an epiphanous
moment
and sought me out
because, well,
I was there the night that
they shook that unholy hand.
I don't make the deals, see.
I merely close them.
When a debt comes to call,
it's time to pay up.
I'm the one who collects.
Nevertheless,
that doesn't stop these filthy
wretches from fallin'
at my feet weepin', gnashin',
beggin', prayin',
as if it were somehow
within my authority
to void their contract.
Ha!
Well, I tell each
and every one of them poor,
twisted children
the very same thing.
In the business of damnation,
all sales are final!
ISHMAEL:
Horse cock, Clarence.
Hm?
ISHMAEL:
We shooked on it.
You said your handshake
was gold.
You can't shake
unless you mean it.
Oh, goodness.
Ah, let the little children
come unto me,
and do not hinder them.
(DOORS CREAKING)
Now, how to put this?
(SNIFFLES)
Oh, I work for the
Prince of Lies, mm-hmm.
And I had a quota to hit.
And my boss, God bless him,
isn't best known
for his patience.
So, none of y'all know
where our daddy is?
Half-truths and white lies.
I don't, but she does.
These lumbering piles
of dog scat are yours?
CLARENCE:
Hmm.
Yeah, I couldn't leave you
out there gallivanting
the countryside
with sharp knives
and axes to grind, could I?
Not once you'd hit your quota
and realized that,
well, I wasn't privy to
your father's whereabouts.
Whoops.
You backbite Judas Iscariot!
Come off it!
You were so hungry
for vengeance
that you placed a little bit
of your mucky father
in every single soul
you snatched.
Oh, you boys enjoyed
our partnership.
Raining down a holy, happy,
musical murder upon the damned.
(CHUCKLES)
But you're not allies of Azrael.
You're lackeys just like me.
Satan's debt collectors.
We are kindred spirits.
Sons of Perdition.
Now, usually people say
this as a derogatory platitude,
but I mean it with a profound
sincerity when I say...
...I'll see you in hell.
Swings and roundabouts, boys.
It's all swings and roundabouts.
(DOOR CLOSES)
Clarence.
You ain't gonna see
a goddamn thing.
(SHOUTS)
()
Lean close, into the quiet
Make haste your kiss
This tryst, silver
and scarlet
A match lit with lips
Dear friend
and bitter rival
Fulfill the need
Bleed out, utter reprisal
This end you feed
Awake my soul
Regain control
Black dog preaching
in the dead of night
(GUNSHOT)
Set fire all the ties
that bind
ISHMAEL:
Pray conspirators out
my mind
DAYLONG BROTHERS:
Set fire all the ties
that bind
ISHMAEL:
The ties that bind
(ENGINE SPUTTERING)
(GUNSHOTS)
Ignite!
Scattered in ashes
Old hopes consumed
Entombed,
hanging in branches
Revolt in bloom
Awake my soul
(SHOTGUN CLICKS)
Regain control
ISHMAEL:
Black dog preaching
in the dead of night
DAYLONG BROTHERS:
Set fire all the ties
that bind
Pray conspirators out
my mind
DAYLONG BROTHERS:
Set fire all the ties
that bind
Black dog preaching
in the dead of night
Set fire all the ties
that bind
ISHMAEL:
Pray conspirators out
my mind
Set fire all the ties
that bind
ISHMAEL:
The ties that bind
()
There is no middle anymore
There is no middle anymore
There is no middle anymore
There is no in between
There is no middle anymore
There is no burdened leash
Between what's left of you
and me
Black dog preaching
in the dead of night
DAYLONG BROTHERS:
Set fire all the ties
that bind
ISHMAEL:
Pray conspirators out
my mind
Set fire all the ties
that bind
Black dog preaching
in the dead of night
DAYLONG BROTHERS:
Set fire all the ties
that bind
Pray conspirators out
my mind
Set fire all the ties
that bind
The ties that bind
(EXPLOSION)
(TIRES SCREECH)
(MUSIC FADES)
It's finished.
Spill beans or push daisies.
(GUNSHOT)
I ain't funnin'!
(SPEAKS FRENCH)
Oh, we're gonna make this fun,
okay.
Where's Nehemiah?
Spin the black circle, baby.
I'mma get discourteous
and mash it out of you.
You ain't had your fill
of her cup yet?
You best tread softly now.
You misrememberin'
what all this is.
You wanna play dress up
all shiny armored
on your high horse?
Fine!
But you ain't no knight
and she sure as sin
ain't no damsel.
And she said y'all was
the dull ones.
Said that I got the wise blood.
Tell 'em!
Testify I'm made
to do great things.
(CHUCKLING)
Wise blood!
ABE:
You ain't listening
to what Clarence said!
Clarence is a deceiving son
of a bitch.
And now he's crow bait
with steel in his skull
for his trouble.
You'll bank on some eager
whore's tongue,
to make like you're better
than us?
You've still got that mark
on you, same as me.
That's right.
-Same as her, too.
-Yeah.
Except she didn't put it
there now, did she?
You did.
At least, I wouldn't up
and ghost someone,
leave them all behind
when they're in need.
Oh, 'fore you,
she might have lived in hell.
But you made damn sure
that she'd be buried there.
(SHOUTS)
ISHMAEL:
That's enough. That's enough.
FRANKIE:
I been wronged
so many times before...
I've been a real bad girl,
lying in the schoolyard.
I know all there is to know
about lying.
Lying on my back.
I seen boys lying
to their wives.
Lying to each other.
Lying to themselves.
Them's the ones that hit
the hardest.
But you?
Lying is your native tongue.
And you can't stop it anymore
than you can get the taste
of blood out your mouth.
You act like you are
an archangel
with a hip-slung sword.
But I reckon you would be
tending to your taste
for bloodletting
even if you wasn't marked
for damnation.
But you are right
on one account, though.
You ain't like your brothers.
You, are much, much worse.
You shut your mouth!
Don't mind that harlot's tongue.
She's still got the map
to Daddy.
FRANKIE:
Right here.
There's no use squawking at him.
This soul-hungry sot
can't help himself.
Go on, baby, try and deny it
before that rooster
starts crowing.
Ish, you said yourself, right?
-She's a liar, right?
-Ssh, ssh.
She's a liar.
ISHMAEL:
I know, I know.
Just like it says on the tin.
But you...
You've got the self-same
blighted blood
as your goddamned dad.
Enoch, don't.
(PANTING)
FRANKIE:
(SPEAKS FRENCH)
(GUN CLICKS)
(GUNSHOT)
()
()
(CRICKETS CHIRPING)
(LIGHTER CLICKS)
(FIRE CRACKLING)
()
(SNIFFLES)
(FIRE CRACKLING)
()
(CAR WHOOSHES)
(TOOL WHIRRING)
ISHMAEL:
Damn.
(ISHMAEL GRUNTS)
Is this it?
Daggum!
It's like playing darts
with spaghetti in there.
Got a grippin' in my gut.
Aw, now he's tougher
than he looks.
Now, now, this one's
danglin' like a loosed tooth.
Now we're cookin' with grease.
I think he really broke
somethin' inside this time.
ISHMAEL:
Hand me that cranker, will ya?
I mean, what happens
if he dines on a bullet?
ISHMAEL:
Not that one, the one
with the big mouth like you.
ENOCH:
I'd be real upset
if that just...
ISHMAEL:
Hey.
I know.
Well, you're loster than last
year's Easter egg down there.
-What the hell I am?
-You are!
It's just like I got a more
formal relationship
with the finer points
of automobile--
Ain't it formal relationship?
-What--
-(DOOR OPENS)
Told ya.
(TOOL WHIRRING)
How's the sniffer?
(SNIFFS)
It whistles. (CHUCKLES)
(ENGINE STARTS, WHIRS)
(LAUGHS)
Lazarus come forth!
()
What?
You ready?
We're gonna stand around
and touch each other.
I think I figured it out.
Spin the black circle.
Ah.
I don't get it.
()
Yeah, thanks once again
for helpin' my pants-on-head
retarded brother there.
Adios, Big Sammy!
It's Little Sammy on the sign.
(GRUNTS)
ENOCH:
Well, he doesn't look very
little, now does he?
-It's a joke.
-Well, that's not very funny.
Well, you're not very funny.
You're not very funny.
(DOOR OPENS)
Aw, hell.
ISHMAEL:
Will you--
just get off.
()
(GLASS SHATTERS)
()
NEHEMIAH: (ON RECORD)
It's time to be moving on
Gots to be moving on
I'd rather be nowhere
Than be with
that thieving woman
So I'm a row, I'm a row,
I'm a row
Down that bitter shoal
I'm a row, I'm a row,
I'm a row, I'm a row
'til I drink my way back
home
Down that drowning
creek road
()
The devil gone find me
He'll find me alone
Well, I'll be goddamned.
Don't blaspheme.
NEHEMIAH: (ON RECORD)
Burdened down from pain
Reaping what I sowed
So alone, so alone, so alone
I wade and I atone
All alone, all alone,
all alone, all alone
I'm sinking like a stone
Down that drowning
creek road
()
Yeah
(ENGINE WHIRRING)
()
(CAR DOOR CLOSES)
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
(CHUCKLES)
()
ENOCH:
Wooh!
(CHUCKLES)
Hi, Daddy.
ENOCH:
Brothers and sisters.
The good word.
That was our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Who said, "Ye shall know
them by the fruit they bear."
That's what he said.
That's exactly what he said.
Keep talking, preacher.
Our Lord and Savior
then asked a question.
Well, that's right. A question.
"Do men grow grapes from thorns
and figs from thistles?"
No, they don't, Jesus.
Nuh-uh.
Keep talking, preacher.
ENOCH:
Them's the red letters,
brothers and sisters.
The red letters.
And there's truth
in them letters, ain't there?
Can I get a amen?
Amen.
(ENOCH CHUCKLES)
But there's more.
Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Wooh!
No, he don't stop there.
No, sir.
Well, yeah, he sayeth,
"Every tree that bringeth
forth not good fruit
shall be hewn down
and cast in the fire."
Jesus, been a long time gone,
Daddy.
Your three rotted apples,
they come back to their tree,
ready for some hew-in.
(CHUCKLES)
Oh.
After that whole dog
and pony show,
we figured you'd have some
type of retort,
maybe a plea.
Well, it is no skin off
my schnoz.
I reckon it's prunin' time.
Now, where are we gonna
start, brother?
My vote's for the hand.
(ENOCH CHUCKLING)
Thou shook our souls away.
ABE:
Hey!
Kids used to tease me
at the bus stop all the time.
Called me, "Space Boy".
'Cause when I was little,
little,
something like a week old,
I got found
in a dumpster out back.
Plastic bag wasn't tied
around my neck tight enough.
Like my momma thought
of something midway.
When I got older,
I found out
there was something else
there with me in that trash bin.
A guitar.
Like I was Moses layin'
in a wicker basket.
I know'd you was out there
in the tall grass,
waitin' for me.
You bet your balls
to a barn dance we were.
ENOCH:
And while you was
spendin' our souls bounty,
we been cleavin' all
through hell to find ya.
I want this.
It's how it should be.
Ain't no atoning
for what I done,
I know'd it that very day.
But there ain't no take-backs
with the devil, mm-hmm.
ABE:
This is yours, ain't it?
It's what I made my deal for.
You got to...
(YELLS)
You sold our eternal souls
for a dime shop guit-box!
(CHUCKLES)
No.
That.
My deal with the devil was to
be the greatest blues man
ever was.
But I soon learned that to
play the blues
you gotta live 'em.
To be the best,
you gotta live the worst.
I musta gave way
my heart a thousand times,
got it broke
to pieces just as many.
(CHUCKLES) People said I got one
over on the devil.
(CHUCKLES)
But he didn't do nothin'
except give me
exactly what I asked for.
Can't nobody sing
the blues better than me
'cause ain't nobody
got 'em as bad as me.
ISHMAEL:
Well, ain't that some kind
of a story.
No, but I was touched.
Was you touched?
Reached right in and tickled my
feeler is what it did.
Well, yeah, I-- I got one
for you
since we're tellin' tales
around the campfire.
But this here's the story
about three little boys
who were squirted into existence
already stinkin' of hell's fire
'cause their tone-deaf daddy
made some kind of a fucked-up
Old Testament deal
for a guitar
or whatever the hell
and then couldn't be
bothered to wear a Jimmy hat!
ABE:
I've been tryin' to
play this my whole life.
Ain't never really made
no sense of it, though.
Well, that's 'cause you
can't play the devil's music
in the Lord's tuning.
(GUITAR TUNING)
()
ISHMAEL:
Well, old man,
not everyone gets to
play their own funeral.
Let's hear what our souls
are worth.
()
I've got a weight
I cannot hold
It pulls from deep
within my soul
I tried letting go,
but it's taken hold
I can't lay this burden down
I can't lay my burden down
()
There's pressure building
in my bones
I fear they'll break
before I'm old
Lord, I'm begging please
You've sent me to my knees
I can't lay this burden down
I can't lay my burden down
Mmmmm
Mmmmm
Mmmmm
Mmmmm
Mmmmm
My debt I cannot pay
with gold
My blood, my fate,
are bought and sold
No matter what I try
I can't escape the fire
I can't lay this burden down
I can't lay my burden down
()
(GRUNTS)
Well, that's enough goddamn
caterwallin'.
It's time to start trimming
branches.
Yeah, Ish.
I was thinking we should
start with the pecker.
Keep pruning and pruning
until the blood runs dry.
(LAUGHS)
Oh, nope.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
This is not how it ends,
brother.
Oh, so y'all want to share
hugs with sentimental hard-ons?
Hell, how about we go
get some ice cream?
Maybe play a game of catch?
Would you like that, pops?
You don't get to wallow in pity!
This is our reckoning, boys.
If we don't kill him, we burn!
ABE:
All them corpses
we been plantin',
them's asked
for it a long time ago.
But this old man ain't nothin'
more than a dumb boy
that done fouled up proper
and been payin' for it
ever since.
Payin' same as us.
If you can't tell
the difference,
then we ain't nothin' more
than what Clarence said.
Oh, you--
ABE:
Sons a' hell.
(GROANS)
Maybe we get our souls back.
But the devil gets
the last laugh.
We ain't nothin', but the damned
killin' the damned.
But if killin' the guilty
is justice,
there oughta be bullets in there
with all our names etched
on 'em.
This here,
killin' someone
who ain't asked for it,
is murder.
We may not be saints,
but we ain't no murderers.
()
Go on, spend that bullet.
All's it gonna prove is that
Frankie was right about you.
Just like she was
right about me.
(CAR DOORS OPEN)
(CAR DOORS CLOSE)
(GRUNTS)
(PANTING)
()
(ENOCH PANTING)
(GUN UNCOCKS)
()
()
(CAR DOOR OPENS, CLOSES)
(ENGINE STARTS, WHIRS)
-(BELL RINGS)
-(PHONE RINGING)
ISHMAEL:
Well, now,
you're just being stupid.
-All right, Enoch!
-ENOCH: Stupid?
It's ain't the point.
You weren't gonna chop a baby
in half.
ENOCH:
Well, you don't know that.
Were you there?
ISHMAEL:
No, I wasn't there, but I've--
ENOCH:
You told me that he had
a whole mess of--
-He wrote the proverbs.
-Harlems, right?
They don't let you do that if
you're chopping up kiddies,
obviously.
ENOCH:
You can write whatever
you want.
-ISHMAEL: I didn't write it.
-I'm taking your word for it.
'Cause you're being ignorant
about the--
ENOCH:
Ignorant? Now why you gotta
be all personal
and start writing?
I'm not getting rides.
-(OVERLAPPING SPEECH)
-ENOCH: You're being personal.
Ain't someone gonna get
that ringer?
(PHONE RINGING)
(DOOR BELL RINGS)
(CROWS CAWING)
-()
-(PHONE RINGING)
CLARENCE: (ON PHONE)
Who knew after all that murder
and mayhem, crusading,
you boys would grow some
mawkishly clichd penchant
for redemption.
Perhaps you've been castrated
by an old man
and a pathetic whore.
You ingrown, cooter-haired,
lipped sycophant!
We're gonna unzip your skull and
baptize you in your own blood!
CLARENCE: (ON PHONE)
Oh! (CHUCKLING)
CLARENCE: (ON PHONE)
That being the case,
I come not with a threat
but with a proposition.
The big man downstairs
is a fan of your work
and until recently,
you haven't left a warm body
behind.
Perhaps you'd consider
continuing this unholy crusade?
You suggesting we shack up
with the devil?
CLARENCE: (ON PHONE)
Oh, well.
That's such a vulgar way
of putting it.
Now I'll start you
at the ledger.
You're still out three souls
and I've got quotas to meet.
You must be crazier
than a rat in a tin shithouse
if you imagine
we'll be under the employ
of that lying serpent.
There'll be no deal betwixt us.
We're done doing his bidding.
But we do intend
to hunt down each
and every pestilent-riddled
goddamned soul
until we snatched up you
and carved out a hole
big enough to drive
a loggin' truck through it!
And you tell your
soul-gluttonous boss that
we're gonna blow the hinges
off of Hell's gates
and come for him next!
(GUNSHOTS)
(ISHMAEL CHUCKLES)
Tell your boss
that we're coming for him next?
Well, I don't know.
I got all hot and Enoch
got to pop the fella
and you were just saying
all that menacing stuff,
so I just...
I thought it was menacing
aplenty, little brother.
And to be fair,
that old dragon still got
the deed
to our goddamn eternal souls!
Stop blasphemin'.
Let's cut dirt.
Right.
()
In the name of Mary, Joseph,
all the Aposticles
and saints put together,
would you please,
with a pretty cherry on top,
let me drive Grace?
()
(ENOCH CHUCKLING)
Well ain't that something?
ISHMAEL:
Now just don't goose it like--
ENOCH:
Shit fire and save
the matches, boys!
Woohoo!
(TIRES SCREECH)
()
(ENGINE SPUTTERING)
()
(TIRES SCREECH)
()
()
(GUNSHOT)
(SCREAMS)
(CROWS CAWING)
()
(RAIN PATTERING)
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
()
()
(ARROWS WHOOSHING)
(BRICKS RUMBLING)
()
()
I gotta fire burnin' low,
yeah
But burnin' steady
as she goes, yeah
I've got this fire
burning low, see
It's burned a hole inside
a me, yeah
Be it me or be it you
I'll keep it burning
till the burning's through
Be it me or be it you
I'll keep it burning
till the burning's through
Yeah
Cursed men they come
and go, yeah
Band with that devil
down below, yeah
This is the fate that
they have chose, yeah
My fire raging in their bones,
yeah
Until I've purified anew
I'll keep on burning
till the burning's through
Until I've purified anew
I'll keep on burning
till the burning's through
Yeah
You see my fire burning slow,
yeah
You feel that heat
beneath my coals, yeah
This fire burns me up inside,
yeah
It lights my way
so none can hide, yeah
There is not one thing
you can do
I will keep burning
till the burning's through
There is not one thing
you can do
I will keep burning
till the burning's through
Yeah
Yeah
There is not one thing
you can do
I will keep burning
till the burning's through
Yeah
Yeah
Yeah
ENOCH:
Hey Ish,
do you recall what kind
of reprobates
I hate the most this--
this here life?
Blasphemers and whoremongers.
ENOCH:
Worser.
Mormons?
Violent misogynists.
Hmm.
Better be praying to Christ,
you ain't talking to me.
Christ stopped taking up
our prayers a long time ago.
(GUN CLICKS)
()
Just this one time.
You say that every time.
You been awful quiet
through this ruckus?
Usually at this part,
there's a mess of crying
and bargaining.
DEAD MAN:
I figure I used up
all my bargaining.
(DRAGS CIGARETTE)
No way I'm gonna outpace fate.
(ISHMAEL CHUCKLING)
Well, I'll be.
This one's smarter
than a flick of a tit in winter.
But one request
before I go violently
into that good night.
Please, tell my family--
-(GUNSHOT)
-(WOMAN SCREAMS)
(PEOPLE CLAMOR)
Excuse me.
(CHAIR DRAGS ON FLOOR)
(DOOR SHUTS)
(CHUCKLES)
Y'all lucky we ain't a couple
of murderers out marauding.
Else you'd be carcasses
about now.
Ain't murderers?
You just executed my cousin!
ABE:
Don't be ignant.
All we's executed was
his contracts.
Now, don't-- don't--
don't kill me.
I said we ain't
m-- m-- m-- m-- m--
m-- murderers.
(CHUCKLES)
()
Murderers kill
'cause they want to.
Suckin' up some kind of
pre-verted pleasure from it.
Me and my brothers are killers,
'cause we got to.
There ain't no pleasure in it.
(GROANS)
(CHUCKLES)
Now, my little brother here
would be giddy as a dead pig
in sunshine
to put a quiet pill
between your eyes.
But that kind of sick fun sounds
an awful lot
like something a murderer
would do, don't it?
And we ain't murderers.
(GROANS)
CHAWBONE:
Horse shit!
You're the goddamn devil
hisself.
Who's gonna take him?
You mind if I take this one?
It's Abe's turn.
-It's all yours.
-It's your turn.
()
Don't go interruptin' me
this time.
Okay. On three.
One...
We're the goddamn
Daylong Brothers.
We got three different mamas
and the same sumbitch daddy
who sold our eternal souls
to the devil
before we was even born.
And we're rainin' down
holy terror to get 'em back.
And anyone--
And anyone standin' in our way
will be scoopin' dirt--
-Ishmael!
-Or screamin' for hell!
You can't help,
but be a goddamn bastard!
Don't blaspheme, you Philistine!
You just cut right in.
And say what you want.
Of course not!
I got the flick knife thing--
ENOCH:
With the gun and whatnot!
But you're dumb to notice!
Little crumb-snatcher swiped
my keys.
(DOOR SHUTS)
()
Now, Enoch, who's drivin'?
-Me.
-You don't got your gloves on.
I'll hold the keys while
you get your gloves.
(CHUCKLES)
()
(TIRES SCREECH)
()
-ENOCH: Slow down!
-ISHMAEL: All right.
ENOCH:
Slow down!
(INDISTINCT SPEECH)
Just got to hate this
catiwampus outhouse!
Don't blaspheme
this here vehicle.
ENOCH (OVERLAPPING SPEECH):
If you're never gonna do us in,
this cockamamie coffin
is gonna spew us
into a goddamn blasted ditch!
-Don't be cursin'!
-ENOCH: I'm not cursin'!
I'm just expressin' myself.
-Why don't you fix the car?
-ISHMAEL: It is fixed.
ENOCH:
That ain't fixed!
-MAN 1: (ON PHONE)
The crossroads?
-Yeah.
MAN 1: (ON PHONE)
I'll be there in a jiffy.
ENOCH:
Well, do it better
or somethin'!
ISHMAEL:
Oh.
(SIGHS)
He comin' or what?
()
All's I'm sayin' is,
we've gutted fish before, right?
Now, granted,
they're a little smaller
than what we're talkin' about.
But it's like the same thing.
ISHMAEL:
The good book says whale.
I ain't never seen whale guts
before, have you?
ENOCH:
Well, all's I'm sayin' is
that there's not much room
in there, boys.
ISHMAEL:
You comin' off
like a harebrained heretic.
ISHMAEL:
I'ma sure visit you in hell.
Oh, you gonna be roastin' right
next to me, you stupid dingus!
(ENGINE WHIRRING)
(HORN BLARING)
()
Mornin', fellas.
Spot of car trouble, have ya?
Yeah, I know
somebody I can call.
Huh.
For you, anything.
Oh!
My three wise malingering men,
yeah.
They give me gifts as fine
as turkey!
Oh!
Did he who made the lamb
make thee?
By our count
this here's all
but the last of them.
I can't help
but feel an ever-so-slight
twinge of sentimentality
as we near the end
of our bountiful partnership.
One is left wonderin', however,
as to how you might apply
your particular talents
once our arrangement comes
to a close.
(CHUCKLES)
This isn't it exactly the
occupation of the redeemed,
is it?
Hunting
and murdering the damned.
Ah!
We ain't murderers,
you slippery mung.
-That's right.
-CLARENCE: Apologies.
What I meant to say was
crusaders on a righteous quest.
Crusaders?
ENOCH:
Ah.
Huh.
Well, that goes down
real smooth.
All right, boys.
We are nearing
our grand finale.
Only one solitary damned soul
left to slaughter.
I'll hit my quota
and you will have what you
so desperately yearn for.
The worst villain of them all.
Dear old Dad.
Huh?
()
He was only a boy, you know.
Just a boy the night
he shook that fiery hand.
Enjoy yourselves, boys.
(CROWS CAWING)
(CAR DOOR OPENS, CLOSES)
I'mma fill his skull
with daylight.
()
Oh would I like to talk to you
about some stuff.
()
(DRAGS CIGARETTE)
(SPITS)
(DRAGS CIGARETTE)
(GRUNTS, WHISTLES)
()
Oh my!
What blessing has the Lord
chosen to bestow upon me
this day?
This New Hope?
You'll have to forgive
my little brother here.
He's crippled in a way
a walking cane can't help.
-(CHUCKLES)
-ENOCH: No, I ain't!
Jesus, God damn--
Don't blaspheme.
Your face.
Oh.
Uh, are you boys hungry?
I got some leftovers in there
from this morning's potluck.
Got some
of Mrs. Watson's Brunswick stew
that'll just make
your taste buds
think the angels are dancing
on 'em. (CHUCKLES)
You planning
on doing some digging?
Um...
I've been known to move
grave dirt in my past life.
Might could lend you a hand.
(CHUCKLES)
Oh, um...
Do I know you boys
from somewheres?
ABE:
Never been one for
church-going,
but you have got a beautiful
house of worship here.
()
Real secluded like.
(CHUCKLES)
(SHOUTS)
-You was right, Enoch.
-(GUN CLICKS)
Double barrel behind the door.
Fancy one, too.
(ENOCH CHUCKLING)
Don't you just love
being right, Reverend?
I had a deal!
Well,
the devil's calling the debt.
ABE:
Gotta read the fine print.
(YELLS)
Aah!
Hand me your belt.
Fork no. Use your own.
Hang in there, Rev.
Don't want you leaking out
just yet.
(GRUNTS)
()
(SHOUTS)
Whoa! Easy there, brother.
No need to go off the script.
We got him by the curlies.
No need rushing.
Rev, you've been busier
than a one-armed monkey
with two jimmies.
(CHUCKLES) Rapin' and clobberin'
these sweet little congregates
will keep you busy till rapture.
(STUMPWATER SCREAMS)
How did you find me?
The devil keeps track
of his own.
ENOCH:
You know, we've seen
trades for fame, women.
Enough money
to burn a wet mule.
Heck, one fella just
wanted a bigger pecker.
(CHUCKLES)
But your deal is something
more nefglorius.
Nefarious.
Nefarious.
Well, well,
the good lord saw fit
to give me particular appetites.
And the Old Dragon was
kind enough
to help me satiate 'em.
Traded my--
my soul for privacy!
(CHUCKLES)
Well, you must have been
pulverized
-(SCREAMS)
-when we rolled up, weren't you?
I can tell by the heap of fear
pouring out your eyes
you know who we is, don't you?
(PANTING)
()
Let no man deceive thee,
for that day shall not come,
except there come a falling
away...
ABE:
And that man of sin
be revealed.
The Sons of Perdition.
See now, you done got yours
burnt in.
You asked for your Goddamned
covenant of your own volition.
But we's three,
we inherited our damnation.
(STUMPWATER SOBBING)
Oh, come now.
This is a privilege, Rev.
Mm-hmm.
Today's a big day.
Last requisite of our
redemption. (CHUCKLES)
We turn you in and bang!
We're on our way
to the reclamation
of our goddamn eternal souls.
Don't blaspheme.
(GROWLS)
You simpletons!
Ought to get shed the idea
the devil's gonna make good
with deviants like you!
Your cup of iniquity
runneth over long ago.
I can smell the sin
on your breath. (CHUCKLES)
Welp,
you're wrong about that.
We snuffed that shiftless sod
we call, "Daddy".
Get back what he stole'd.
(STUMPWATER PANTING)
Vengeance is mine,
sayeth the Lord!
()
(GRUNTS, CHOKES)
Vengeance is why he made us.
There's a man on a mountain
Praying and a counting
Crying to the fountain
"Will the righteous burn,
too?"
Abram the brave man,
pleading for depraved man
Wrestles with the flames
And trusts the wicked burn
through, yeah
He's toe-to-toe
with incensed deity
But he's raising
up his hands
He understands...
That hell is at hand
And it's right here,
right now
Feel the heat on your bones
Hell is at hand
And it's right
in front of you
Do not misunderstand
Your fate is with the damned
And hell is at hand
(CHUCKLES)
All them unwashed in Sodom,
mocking up at God are
Abusing the despondent
when the sky rains a fire
ABE:
And it burns as it pours,
all consuming the abhorrent
Deplorable mortals
Unrepentant, on fire
ENOCH:
They're staring down
an incensed deity
And he's raising
up his hands
The cries demand
that hell is at hand
And it's right here,
right now
Feel the heat on your bones
Hell is at hand
And it's right in front
of you
Do not misunderstand
Your fate is
with the damned
And hell is at hand
-(STUMPWATER CHUCKLING)
-(GUNSHOTS)
What's all this nonsense?
STUMPWATER:
"Behold!
I am against
thee O thou most proud!"
"Your day of reckoning
will come.
The day when I will punish you."
Well, I don't care where they're
from or who they is.
I'm gonna pump iron
in their butt.
()
Nice shooting, Tex.
That oughta scare 'em
real good.
ABE:
Hey, dummies!
Our ticket to ride
is slitherin'.
Worshipping depravity and
reveling in vanity and lies
The heavens softly burning
As your plea extends
the yearning to a cry
Blinded by obscenity
and bathed in immorality
The fight
is spreading inside
Raging indiscriminately
Blazing through
a villainy decried
Your pride a sulfur
in your mind
Has all
but silenced Abraham
The end is now
and hell is at hand!
ISHMAEL:
Feel the heat on your bones!
Hell is at hand!
Burning right
in front of you!
No repentance
for the damned!
Hell is at hand!
Burning right here,
right now!
Feel the heat in your bones!
Hell is at hand!
And it's staring
back at you!
Do not misunderstand
you're damned!
-(RETCHES, LAUGHS)
-There is no promised land
Hope is ash,
brimstone's sand
The burning's through
and hell is at hand
(GUNSHOT)
ISHMAEL:
Enoch! You done?
Get in!
(WHIRRING, SCREECHING)
ENOCH:
Goddammit!
Son of a bitch!
(CAR DOOR CLOSES)
-Goddammit!
-Nothing.
What do you mean, nothing?
I mean nothing, nothing!
Clarence
ain't never forgot a call!
ISHMAEL:
But we ain't never been shot up
by a bunch of
hooded hillbillies neither!
What the fresh hell was that!
For we wrestle not with flesh
and blood...
Brother, wrestling flesh
and blood
is our goddamn birthright!
Where is that hair-lipped louse?
He's probably hogtied
and stuffed with them big fe--
-Hey!
-(KNOCKING)
Keep mashing them buttons
till you get him!
I'm gonna mash your head
with this here receiver!
I'm gonna say you're moving
slower than molasses!
Shut it or I'mma snatch
your canines!
Shit's hit the box now!
Christ on a--
Don't blaspheme!
Hey!
This was on the Reverend.
The address.
Abe...
The damned all have something
in common.
Clarence. He's the closer.
Ain't no deal with the devil
gets signed without Clarence.
Sure as God's got sandals
if we want to find us
another damned soul
that might could tell us
where Clarence is,
this would be the place
to find him.
Hey brother, we can
always go somewhere else.
Find somewhere where
those serpents congregate.
Let's just get this over with.
()
ISHMAEL:
Get in.
(ENGINE WHIRRING)
()
Here.
()
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
(DOORS CREAKING)
You recognize it?
Better question is,
will they recognize you?
It's been a long time gone.
It's in the past now.
Them's and everything else.
We can take this one
without you.
Daggum enigma that one.
()
Hi, there.
Uh, we're here
to see our friend, uh...
-Frankie.
-That's right.
Old chum Franklin.
"Funny Frankie",
we used to call him back
when, uh...
You know.
(CHUCKLES)
(RADIO STATICS)
(CHATTER & LAUGHTER IN DISTANCE)
(BELL RINGS)
RECEPTIONIST:
(SPEAKS FRENCH)
(SPEAKS FRENCH)
Fuckers sexy.
Hey, we're uh, looking
for our friend, Frankie.
Have you seen him around?
()
I took four years of French,
you know.
I can speak it some,
but I can't write it none.
Ain't that something?
Would you do us the kindness
of letting him know we're here?
I only know the dirty words.
Little Miss,
we'd be much obliged if you
took us to see our friend.
Okay.
You stay put
and watch our behinds, yeah?
Hmm.
Do you care to strangle
the parrot with me?
It ain't got the muzzle velocity
of other drinks,
but it'll get you there.
I don't drink.
Now ain't that a shocker?
The Abraham I knew had
plenty of reasons
to tilt the bottle.
(GRUNTS)
(CRICKETS CHIRPING)
(COUGHS)
(WATER DRIPPING)
FRANKIE:
Your big brothers are probably
bled out like stuck hogs by now.
I asked they be diced up
real quick.
But you and me,
we are gonna slow dance
the night away.
Frankie.
-(SPITS)
-(KISSES)
How'd you know my name?
Come now, Abraham.
You didn't bury me along with
all those repressed memories?
You would never forget
your old roomie.
Your best friend
in the whole world.
(SNIFFS)
But maybe a real friend
wouldn't have bolted out
of this hellhole
without taking a tortured,
helpless little girl with him.
Francine.
You get that name out
'yer filthy gob!
Aah! (GRUNTS)
(CHUCKLES)
That little girl scattered
into the wind
when you left her in the hands
of a thousand hungry men.
There was nothing I could do.
I had a chance to get loose
and I took it.
There ain't no shame in it.
(SIGHS)
Of all the things that I've
ever put into my mouth...
...it was the barrel of a gun
that tasted the sweetest.
But I didn't have the sand
for it.
So, I made the deal.
Others, they traded
for selfish things.
But it turns out,
all my warped little mind
could fathom
was not getting fucked
four times an hour
by old men for loose change.
So, I sold my soul to get out.
()
But it wasn't long
before I realized that
this was all I was ever gonna
be good at.
If you're all that's left
of that little girl...
...I'mma reach down your throat
and pull out your goddamn soul
with my bare hands.
(SIGHS)
Oh, mi amour.
(SIGHS)
There is a fire that shines
the soul
A warmth
and glow I will never know
I am a reckoning
I am a reckoning
As is a hope
for fire redeemed
A second birth,
but it ain't for me
I am a reckoning
I am a reckoning
I am the guilt you feed
at night
The weighing cry
of endless fight
Anemic and vacant stares
I am a reckoning
I am a man from Galilee
No wounds
of three pouring clemency
I am a reckoning
I am the reckoning
There ain't a hope
in virgin wombs
No angel looming
in empty tombs
There is a reckoning
I am the reckoning
I am a dozen angry men
Accounting for your deals
in sin
No pardons, reprieves
or stays
I am the reckoning
Ah...
I am the end
I am at the end
I am a reckoning
Ah...
I am the end
I am the reckoning
Reckoning...
I am a dozen angry men
Accounting for your deals
in sin
You are the reason I'm sin
No pardons, reprieves
or stays
I am the reckoning
I am a reckoning
I am the guilt you've fed
at night
I am the end
The weighing cries
Of the never ending fight
No pardons, no bargains,
my heart is hardened
And I am
You are
I am your reckoning
You must be Frankie.
Well, this has been fun,
a real goat rodeo.
See, I'm tuckered out
and plumb outta rope.
Now, where's Clarence?
I don't know no Clarence.
Sure you do.
Gangly guy, fake eye,
reeks of rotted eggs.
Oh, wait.
Nah, now that dog won't hunt.
Aah!
Let's carve this whore turkey.
Oh, no.
I can take you to him.
(ENOCH CHUCKLING)
See!
I told you we could jog
her noggin'.
FRANKIE:
Not Clarence.
Nehemiah Daylong is a legend
to the damned.
Only one to get one over
on the old trickster himself.
-I know where he is.
-(GRUNTS)
ENOCH:
Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait,
wait, wait.
-What if...
-Ain't no what ifs.
I can prove it.
In the box.
In the box.
()
"To Fr...
Frankie, my fave...
Sound it out.
ENOCH:
"My fave-- favorite gal."
He toured these parts.
Back when he was doing
that sort of thing.
Mark me, this Babylonian whore
is somebody
we need to snuff now!
Probably so.
But...
What if...
"For I am a jealous God,
and will visit the iniquities
of the fathers
upon the children."
Make no mistake.
I know you're bleatin'
to save your skin.
-But seeing we don't
have much to go on.
-No!
(FRANKIE SOBBING)
If I had a soul,
I would swear on it.
Ow!
But I gotta be the one
to take you to him.
That's the deal.
Or you can just
dice me up now
and always wonder.
(SIGHS)
(SPITS)
(GRUNTS)
Wait!
My clutch.
It's got my lady things.
Oh.
()
Well, that happened quicker
than a knife fight
in a phone booth.
(BANGING)
FRANKIE:
Let me out,
you small-peckered pricks!
You all right back there,
little brother?
Need a towel or something?
FRANKIE:
I'm suffocatin'!
Just don't want you smearing
blood in Grace is all.
Oh, it's all right,
little brother.
We all get wound up tight
from time to time.
-FRANKIE: Hey!
-ISHMAEL: Yeah.
Some of us more than others.
Exactly!
See, even I get
hotter than a two-dollar pistol.
ISHMAEL:
You was defending yourself.
Defending the brains right
through that fella's skull.
You killed, 'cause you had to.
Weren't no pleasure in it,
right?
Oh, come off it,
you little snot gout.
(ISHMAEL CHUCKLING)
We got a new map to the holy
redemption
of our ever lovin' souls.
We about to get our hands
on Daddy.
ISHMAEL:
Whoo!
Can you fathom the look
on his face
when we come a-rambling up?
I have my whole wretched life.
I don't mean to
piss in your grits,
but that fork-tongued slut
don't know where daddy is
any more than she knows how
to cross her legs.
It could be.
But until Clarence comes
a-wandering
out of the wilderness
with locusts in his hair,
she's best we got.
(GUN CLICKS)
-Did you?
-I'm not s--
(GUNSHOT)
The upholstery!
-I had the girl! You had--
-You had to get the--
-You just had to try--
-Ow!
ENOCH:
Pull over! Gosh, darn it!
Pull over!
Shit!
Now, Frankie darlin'.
Let's talk this out.
Ain't no one gonna hurt you.
(GUNSHOT)
(INDISTINCT SPEECH)
(GUN CLICKS)
But we will light you up
like Christmas.
ISHMAEL:
Abe.
FRANKIE:
Don't.
Abraham.
You need me.
FRANKIE:
Okay, fine!
But I ain't saying spit,
unless I'm saying it
from the front seat.
Back seat, tied up.
-And gagged.
-Yes.
FRANKIE:
Even better.
What?
No.
Easy there, Sherman.
(LIGHTER CLICKS)
(GRUNTS)
But I ain't sitting with her
in the back seat.
What?
()
FRANKIE:
Hey!
Hey!
Don't leave me in here!
Hotter'n rabbit screwin'
in a wool sack!
Chuck her in the trunk.
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
(SIGHS)
(SIGHS)
(DOOR OPENS, CREAKS)
()
Don't y'all have something
to dull the pain?
Them two boys in there,
dryer than popcorn fart.
But me...
Well...
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
I ain't funnin'.
I'll ooze out by mornin'.
(FRANKIE SCREAMING)
Thank you for sparing me.
Sugar baby, I don't think
you're keepin' score here.
The minute I lay eyes
on my daddy...
...you're dirt.
FRANKIE:
You act tough,
but you
ain't like your brothers.
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
You ain't a cold-blooded
death dealer like them.
The blood that runs
through you is warm and kind.
You've got that wise blood.
(SIGHS)
(DOOR OPENS, CLOSES)
()
Why don't you quit torturing
that poor guitar
with them twisted fingers
of yours?
(ENOCH CHUCKLES)
Do you ever think about him?
ENOCH:
The fella I worked for
in Shabuta
was the nicest man I ever met.
Paid me real good to
dig them graves for him.
It was busy work,
on account of the cemetery
weren't but 2 miles from
what we call,
"the Hanging Bridge".
()
Now the good,
Christ-haunted folk
of Clark County
never missed an opportunity
to don their finest linens
and exact justice.
The kind of justice
that would leave a few niggers
hanging from that metal bridge.
Mississippi wind chimes.
So busy sometimes I had
to do my digging at night.
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
So on those nights I'd look up
to the stars
and whisper ignored prayers.
I'd think about our daddy then.
The whoremonger life
he was living,
spending our souls.
I'd pray to the Lord
asking him
to let me have his soul
at the edge of a knife.
I don't think about him no more.
I can't.
(RAIN PATTERING)
Hate's filled me up
and spil't the banks.
Hey Abe, get my fiddle
out of the trunk, will ya?
(CHUCKLES)
Why don't you climb off that
clap-infested Shetland of yours?
You think you got it all
figured out, don't you?
I ain't been burdened
with intelligence,
but I know enough to quench
my mind of pitying myself.
That'a way lies madness.
This job is just that, a job.
As far as I'm concerned,
Daddy is just another villain
lined up at the gates of hell.
He stole what's mine
and I'm stealing it back.
(CHUCKLES)
A spiritual smash and grab!
(ISHMAEL CHUCKLING)
You tell yourself
whatever stories
and lullabies you need
to get yourself to sleep.
I know exactly what heats
my boilers in the morning.
I been wronged
So many times before
I've been wronged
So often I can't hide
behind a smile anymore
Oh
That devil honed
and he honed
And bent my bones
Until I groaned, I condoned
I cast my stone
But I cannot atone
'Cause I've been wronged
so long
I can't be alone
My mind is not my own
And I've been strong,
so strong
Fighting all along
But bleedings wrote my song
I been wronged
()
I been abused
So many times before
I been abused and used
So often, I don't notice
All the blood anymore
That devil honed
and he honed
And bent my bones
Until I groaned
and bemoaned
I cast my stone
But I cannot atone
'Cause I've been wronged
so long, I can't be alone
My mind is not my own
And I been strong, so strong
Fighting all along
But bleedings wrote my song
I been wronged so long
I can't be alone
My mind is not my own
And I've been strong,
so strong
But bleedings wrote my song
Oh
I been wronged
Oh
I been wronged
I been wronged
I been wronged
I been wronged
For so long
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
I've been wronged
(RAIN PATTERING)
(INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER)
I gotta make water.
ISHMAEL:
Again?
It's not on me the Lord
gave me a small bladder.
Wish he'd give you
a large tumor.
(CHUCKLES)
Well, I could go right here,
I guess.
ISHMAEL:
What? Nah-uh.
I done worse in the backseat
of the car.
ISHMAEL:
Dagnabbit.
(TIRES SCREECH)
(ENGINE SPUTTERING)
You out your cotton pickin'
mind?
Well, where am I supposed to...
What, you gonna stand there
and stare like perverts?
Phew.
She is...
...she is truly something, huh?
FRANKIE:
Sweet Jesus, I can't.
I'm gonna get my peach gobbled
by a snake.
Well, when you tally it all up,
she ain't a whole lot different
than a lot of us.
She's been dealt a bum hand.
FRANKIE:
Black widow spiders...
scorpions...
Hell, ya'll got
grizzlies up here?
(CHUCKLES)
And I don't know why you're
spitting nails at her.
Y'all both come up
in that den of iniquity.
Hell, you left her.
-(WHIMPERING)
-()
Oh, nah.
Hold on a tick, little bro.
I wasn't insinuating.
Abe.
Abraham.
(FRANKIE SINGING INDISTINCTLY)
Shit.
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
(PANTING)
You oughta baptize me.
Hold me down
under holy rushin' waters
until my spirit has flown.
-You repro--
-Shhh.
You J--
Jezebel.
Ain't nobody down here,
but us damned.
Sure as sunshine,
God ain't watching.
(CHUCKLES)
()
Thunder is good.
Yeah.
Thunder is impressive.
Yeah.
(GUN CLICKS)
But it's lightning
that does the trick.
(CHUCKLES)
ISHMAEL:
Enoch, you pumpknot!
You best not got tricked
out yer britches!
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
(SPITS)
FRANKIE:
All right. All right!
You got me big boy!
I'll quit.
FRANKIE:
Hell!
We ain't even picked
a safe word yet.
()
A snake's gotta shed her
skin every once in a while.
(CAR DOORS OPEN, CLOSE)
(ENGINE STARTS, WHIRS)
ISHMAEL:
Which way?
Spin the black circle.
You tired of living or what?
ISHMAEL:
Which way?
Any way you like it, baby.
Oh, here's the--
You'll be the fiery-lipped--
She's one of them.
We gonna bleed her out just
like the rest.
Yeah.
Just don't wanna turn Grace
into a slaughterhouse
is all.
Keep north, you got a ways yet.
Thank you kindly.
()
(ENGINE WHIRS)
(TIRES SCREECH)
FRANKIE:
You gonna flip us off the
mountain into a fiery death?
I ain't plannin' on it.
Pity.
FRANKIE:
You ain't gotta coddle him.
If you got to know him,
you'd find he's tougher
than you think.
You seen it with your own eyes
and his bloody fist.
ISHMAEL:
Ain't wise for you
to be supposing you know more
about my brothers than me.
FRANKIE:
Don't play babe in the woods.
You oughta know better
than anybody.
The torment that visits you,
makes you.
And I seen the kind of torment
in that little boy
that'll curdle blood.
Stuff that black tongue
back in your mouth, Jezebel.
Every word you speak has
got the stink of sin on it.
I seen what you do
when God ain't watchin'.
Yeah, I'm a fiend.
But what's worser?
The fiend,
or the devil that made her?
And y'all oughta know better
than anybody.
Ain't your daddy to
blame for what y'all are?
What's that?
()
()
Nehemiah Daylong!
Get your ass out here!
ISHMAEL:
Wooh!
(GLASS SHATTERS)
ISHMAEL:
Wooh!
She's been playing us like jazz.
Hold on, little bro.
Now just cause he ain't here,
don't mean he ain't here.
Ain't them the dumbest words
ever crawl out of your mouth?
Why you always gotta
talk about me like that?
-Well, no one knows
-You got better words?
-what you're talking about.
-Do you know what he's saying?
I don't know what he's saying.
ENOCH:
It's between me and you.
You look here--
Hold up.
(CHUCKLES)
ISHMAEL:
Wooh!
(LAUGHING)
(CROWS CAWING)
()
CLARENCE:
My boys.
Now what malign star did ye heed
to find yourselves here
this auspicious day?
FRANKIE:
I suppose that'd be me, baby.
(KEYS JINGLING)
Francine?
Francine, my tender
little fragrant sullied flower.
(BLOWS KISSES)
How the devil are ya?
And how's the fresh flesh
business been treating ya?
FRANKIE:
I heard you was wheelin' deals.
Deals for souls.
Ooh.
Do tell.
I want to strike up one
of my own.
A three for one.
You Sampson barberin' whore!
(GUN CLICKING)
What say ye, Clarence?
I, uh, laud the vim
and vigor of it, I do.
But it pains me to say that
you've misread the market.
See, these daylong souls
are worthless.
Just ask their father.
Mm.
FRANKIE:
Now, Clarence, don't make me
commence to cussin'.
I've been bedragged by
these scoundrels from hell
to breakfast,
and I am so scorched
I could drown puppies!
(CHUCKLES, BREATHES DEEPLY)
Every morning,
I awake to familiar faces
bangin' on my door.
Raw-boned, desperate,
desperate faces.
They've had an epiphanous
moment
and sought me out
because, well,
I was there the night that
they shook that unholy hand.
I don't make the deals, see.
I merely close them.
When a debt comes to call,
it's time to pay up.
I'm the one who collects.
Nevertheless,
that doesn't stop these filthy
wretches from fallin'
at my feet weepin', gnashin',
beggin', prayin',
as if it were somehow
within my authority
to void their contract.
Ha!
Well, I tell each
and every one of them poor,
twisted children
the very same thing.
In the business of damnation,
all sales are final!
ISHMAEL:
Horse cock, Clarence.
Hm?
ISHMAEL:
We shooked on it.
You said your handshake
was gold.
You can't shake
unless you mean it.
Oh, goodness.
Ah, let the little children
come unto me,
and do not hinder them.
(DOORS CREAKING)
Now, how to put this?
(SNIFFLES)
Oh, I work for the
Prince of Lies, mm-hmm.
And I had a quota to hit.
And my boss, God bless him,
isn't best known
for his patience.
So, none of y'all know
where our daddy is?
Half-truths and white lies.
I don't, but she does.
These lumbering piles
of dog scat are yours?
CLARENCE:
Hmm.
Yeah, I couldn't leave you
out there gallivanting
the countryside
with sharp knives
and axes to grind, could I?
Not once you'd hit your quota
and realized that,
well, I wasn't privy to
your father's whereabouts.
Whoops.
You backbite Judas Iscariot!
Come off it!
You were so hungry
for vengeance
that you placed a little bit
of your mucky father
in every single soul
you snatched.
Oh, you boys enjoyed
our partnership.
Raining down a holy, happy,
musical murder upon the damned.
(CHUCKLES)
But you're not allies of Azrael.
You're lackeys just like me.
Satan's debt collectors.
We are kindred spirits.
Sons of Perdition.
Now, usually people say
this as a derogatory platitude,
but I mean it with a profound
sincerity when I say...
...I'll see you in hell.
Swings and roundabouts, boys.
It's all swings and roundabouts.
(DOOR CLOSES)
Clarence.
You ain't gonna see
a goddamn thing.
(SHOUTS)
()
Lean close, into the quiet
Make haste your kiss
This tryst, silver
and scarlet
A match lit with lips
Dear friend
and bitter rival
Fulfill the need
Bleed out, utter reprisal
This end you feed
Awake my soul
Regain control
Black dog preaching
in the dead of night
(GUNSHOT)
Set fire all the ties
that bind
ISHMAEL:
Pray conspirators out
my mind
DAYLONG BROTHERS:
Set fire all the ties
that bind
ISHMAEL:
The ties that bind
(ENGINE SPUTTERING)
(GUNSHOTS)
Ignite!
Scattered in ashes
Old hopes consumed
Entombed,
hanging in branches
Revolt in bloom
Awake my soul
(SHOTGUN CLICKS)
Regain control
ISHMAEL:
Black dog preaching
in the dead of night
DAYLONG BROTHERS:
Set fire all the ties
that bind
Pray conspirators out
my mind
DAYLONG BROTHERS:
Set fire all the ties
that bind
Black dog preaching
in the dead of night
Set fire all the ties
that bind
ISHMAEL:
Pray conspirators out
my mind
Set fire all the ties
that bind
ISHMAEL:
The ties that bind
()
There is no middle anymore
There is no middle anymore
There is no middle anymore
There is no in between
There is no middle anymore
There is no burdened leash
Between what's left of you
and me
Black dog preaching
in the dead of night
DAYLONG BROTHERS:
Set fire all the ties
that bind
ISHMAEL:
Pray conspirators out
my mind
Set fire all the ties
that bind
Black dog preaching
in the dead of night
DAYLONG BROTHERS:
Set fire all the ties
that bind
Pray conspirators out
my mind
Set fire all the ties
that bind
The ties that bind
(EXPLOSION)
(TIRES SCREECH)
(MUSIC FADES)
It's finished.
Spill beans or push daisies.
(GUNSHOT)
I ain't funnin'!
(SPEAKS FRENCH)
Oh, we're gonna make this fun,
okay.
Where's Nehemiah?
Spin the black circle, baby.
I'mma get discourteous
and mash it out of you.
You ain't had your fill
of her cup yet?
You best tread softly now.
You misrememberin'
what all this is.
You wanna play dress up
all shiny armored
on your high horse?
Fine!
But you ain't no knight
and she sure as sin
ain't no damsel.
And she said y'all was
the dull ones.
Said that I got the wise blood.
Tell 'em!
Testify I'm made
to do great things.
(CHUCKLING)
Wise blood!
ABE:
You ain't listening
to what Clarence said!
Clarence is a deceiving son
of a bitch.
And now he's crow bait
with steel in his skull
for his trouble.
You'll bank on some eager
whore's tongue,
to make like you're better
than us?
You've still got that mark
on you, same as me.
That's right.
-Same as her, too.
-Yeah.
Except she didn't put it
there now, did she?
You did.
At least, I wouldn't up
and ghost someone,
leave them all behind
when they're in need.
Oh, 'fore you,
she might have lived in hell.
But you made damn sure
that she'd be buried there.
(SHOUTS)
ISHMAEL:
That's enough. That's enough.
FRANKIE:
I been wronged
so many times before...
I've been a real bad girl,
lying in the schoolyard.
I know all there is to know
about lying.
Lying on my back.
I seen boys lying
to their wives.
Lying to each other.
Lying to themselves.
Them's the ones that hit
the hardest.
But you?
Lying is your native tongue.
And you can't stop it anymore
than you can get the taste
of blood out your mouth.
You act like you are
an archangel
with a hip-slung sword.
But I reckon you would be
tending to your taste
for bloodletting
even if you wasn't marked
for damnation.
But you are right
on one account, though.
You ain't like your brothers.
You, are much, much worse.
You shut your mouth!
Don't mind that harlot's tongue.
She's still got the map
to Daddy.
FRANKIE:
Right here.
There's no use squawking at him.
This soul-hungry sot
can't help himself.
Go on, baby, try and deny it
before that rooster
starts crowing.
Ish, you said yourself, right?
-She's a liar, right?
-Ssh, ssh.
She's a liar.
ISHMAEL:
I know, I know.
Just like it says on the tin.
But you...
You've got the self-same
blighted blood
as your goddamned dad.
Enoch, don't.
(PANTING)
FRANKIE:
(SPEAKS FRENCH)
(GUN CLICKS)
(GUNSHOT)
()
()
(CRICKETS CHIRPING)
(LIGHTER CLICKS)
(FIRE CRACKLING)
()
(SNIFFLES)
(FIRE CRACKLING)
()
(CAR WHOOSHES)
(TOOL WHIRRING)
ISHMAEL:
Damn.
(ISHMAEL GRUNTS)
Is this it?
Daggum!
It's like playing darts
with spaghetti in there.
Got a grippin' in my gut.
Aw, now he's tougher
than he looks.
Now, now, this one's
danglin' like a loosed tooth.
Now we're cookin' with grease.
I think he really broke
somethin' inside this time.
ISHMAEL:
Hand me that cranker, will ya?
I mean, what happens
if he dines on a bullet?
ISHMAEL:
Not that one, the one
with the big mouth like you.
ENOCH:
I'd be real upset
if that just...
ISHMAEL:
Hey.
I know.
Well, you're loster than last
year's Easter egg down there.
-What the hell I am?
-You are!
It's just like I got a more
formal relationship
with the finer points
of automobile--
Ain't it formal relationship?
-What--
-(DOOR OPENS)
Told ya.
(TOOL WHIRRING)
How's the sniffer?
(SNIFFS)
It whistles. (CHUCKLES)
(ENGINE STARTS, WHIRS)
(LAUGHS)
Lazarus come forth!
()
What?
You ready?
We're gonna stand around
and touch each other.
I think I figured it out.
Spin the black circle.
Ah.
I don't get it.
()
Yeah, thanks once again
for helpin' my pants-on-head
retarded brother there.
Adios, Big Sammy!
It's Little Sammy on the sign.
(GRUNTS)
ENOCH:
Well, he doesn't look very
little, now does he?
-It's a joke.
-Well, that's not very funny.
Well, you're not very funny.
You're not very funny.
(DOOR OPENS)
Aw, hell.
ISHMAEL:
Will you--
just get off.
()
(GLASS SHATTERS)
()
NEHEMIAH: (ON RECORD)
It's time to be moving on
Gots to be moving on
I'd rather be nowhere
Than be with
that thieving woman
So I'm a row, I'm a row,
I'm a row
Down that bitter shoal
I'm a row, I'm a row,
I'm a row, I'm a row
'til I drink my way back
home
Down that drowning
creek road
()
The devil gone find me
He'll find me alone
Well, I'll be goddamned.
Don't blaspheme.
NEHEMIAH: (ON RECORD)
Burdened down from pain
Reaping what I sowed
So alone, so alone, so alone
I wade and I atone
All alone, all alone,
all alone, all alone
I'm sinking like a stone
Down that drowning
creek road
()
Yeah
(ENGINE WHIRRING)
()
(CAR DOOR CLOSES)
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
(CHUCKLES)
()
ENOCH:
Wooh!
(CHUCKLES)
Hi, Daddy.
ENOCH:
Brothers and sisters.
The good word.
That was our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Who said, "Ye shall know
them by the fruit they bear."
That's what he said.
That's exactly what he said.
Keep talking, preacher.
Our Lord and Savior
then asked a question.
Well, that's right. A question.
"Do men grow grapes from thorns
and figs from thistles?"
No, they don't, Jesus.
Nuh-uh.
Keep talking, preacher.
ENOCH:
Them's the red letters,
brothers and sisters.
The red letters.
And there's truth
in them letters, ain't there?
Can I get a amen?
Amen.
(ENOCH CHUCKLES)
But there's more.
Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Wooh!
No, he don't stop there.
No, sir.
Well, yeah, he sayeth,
"Every tree that bringeth
forth not good fruit
shall be hewn down
and cast in the fire."
Jesus, been a long time gone,
Daddy.
Your three rotted apples,
they come back to their tree,
ready for some hew-in.
(CHUCKLES)
Oh.
After that whole dog
and pony show,
we figured you'd have some
type of retort,
maybe a plea.
Well, it is no skin off
my schnoz.
I reckon it's prunin' time.
Now, where are we gonna
start, brother?
My vote's for the hand.
(ENOCH CHUCKLING)
Thou shook our souls away.
ABE:
Hey!
Kids used to tease me
at the bus stop all the time.
Called me, "Space Boy".
'Cause when I was little,
little,
something like a week old,
I got found
in a dumpster out back.
Plastic bag wasn't tied
around my neck tight enough.
Like my momma thought
of something midway.
When I got older,
I found out
there was something else
there with me in that trash bin.
A guitar.
Like I was Moses layin'
in a wicker basket.
I know'd you was out there
in the tall grass,
waitin' for me.
You bet your balls
to a barn dance we were.
ENOCH:
And while you was
spendin' our souls bounty,
we been cleavin' all
through hell to find ya.
I want this.
It's how it should be.
Ain't no atoning
for what I done,
I know'd it that very day.
But there ain't no take-backs
with the devil, mm-hmm.
ABE:
This is yours, ain't it?
It's what I made my deal for.
You got to...
(YELLS)
You sold our eternal souls
for a dime shop guit-box!
(CHUCKLES)
No.
That.
My deal with the devil was to
be the greatest blues man
ever was.
But I soon learned that to
play the blues
you gotta live 'em.
To be the best,
you gotta live the worst.
I musta gave way
my heart a thousand times,
got it broke
to pieces just as many.
(CHUCKLES) People said I got one
over on the devil.
(CHUCKLES)
But he didn't do nothin'
except give me
exactly what I asked for.
Can't nobody sing
the blues better than me
'cause ain't nobody
got 'em as bad as me.
ISHMAEL:
Well, ain't that some kind
of a story.
No, but I was touched.
Was you touched?
Reached right in and tickled my
feeler is what it did.
Well, yeah, I-- I got one
for you
since we're tellin' tales
around the campfire.
But this here's the story
about three little boys
who were squirted into existence
already stinkin' of hell's fire
'cause their tone-deaf daddy
made some kind of a fucked-up
Old Testament deal
for a guitar
or whatever the hell
and then couldn't be
bothered to wear a Jimmy hat!
ABE:
I've been tryin' to
play this my whole life.
Ain't never really made
no sense of it, though.
Well, that's 'cause you
can't play the devil's music
in the Lord's tuning.
(GUITAR TUNING)
()
ISHMAEL:
Well, old man,
not everyone gets to
play their own funeral.
Let's hear what our souls
are worth.
()
I've got a weight
I cannot hold
It pulls from deep
within my soul
I tried letting go,
but it's taken hold
I can't lay this burden down
I can't lay my burden down
()
There's pressure building
in my bones
I fear they'll break
before I'm old
Lord, I'm begging please
You've sent me to my knees
I can't lay this burden down
I can't lay my burden down
Mmmmm
Mmmmm
Mmmmm
Mmmmm
Mmmmm
My debt I cannot pay
with gold
My blood, my fate,
are bought and sold
No matter what I try
I can't escape the fire
I can't lay this burden down
I can't lay my burden down
()
(GRUNTS)
Well, that's enough goddamn
caterwallin'.
It's time to start trimming
branches.
Yeah, Ish.
I was thinking we should
start with the pecker.
Keep pruning and pruning
until the blood runs dry.
(LAUGHS)
Oh, nope.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
This is not how it ends,
brother.
Oh, so y'all want to share
hugs with sentimental hard-ons?
Hell, how about we go
get some ice cream?
Maybe play a game of catch?
Would you like that, pops?
You don't get to wallow in pity!
This is our reckoning, boys.
If we don't kill him, we burn!
ABE:
All them corpses
we been plantin',
them's asked
for it a long time ago.
But this old man ain't nothin'
more than a dumb boy
that done fouled up proper
and been payin' for it
ever since.
Payin' same as us.
If you can't tell
the difference,
then we ain't nothin' more
than what Clarence said.
Oh, you--
ABE:
Sons a' hell.
(GROANS)
Maybe we get our souls back.
But the devil gets
the last laugh.
We ain't nothin', but the damned
killin' the damned.
But if killin' the guilty
is justice,
there oughta be bullets in there
with all our names etched
on 'em.
This here,
killin' someone
who ain't asked for it,
is murder.
We may not be saints,
but we ain't no murderers.
()
Go on, spend that bullet.
All's it gonna prove is that
Frankie was right about you.
Just like she was
right about me.
(CAR DOORS OPEN)
(CAR DOORS CLOSE)
(GRUNTS)
(PANTING)
()
(ENOCH PANTING)
(GUN UNCOCKS)
()
()
(CAR DOOR OPENS, CLOSES)
(ENGINE STARTS, WHIRS)
-(BELL RINGS)
-(PHONE RINGING)
ISHMAEL:
Well, now,
you're just being stupid.
-All right, Enoch!
-ENOCH: Stupid?
It's ain't the point.
You weren't gonna chop a baby
in half.
ENOCH:
Well, you don't know that.
Were you there?
ISHMAEL:
No, I wasn't there, but I've--
ENOCH:
You told me that he had
a whole mess of--
-He wrote the proverbs.
-Harlems, right?
They don't let you do that if
you're chopping up kiddies,
obviously.
ENOCH:
You can write whatever
you want.
-ISHMAEL: I didn't write it.
-I'm taking your word for it.
'Cause you're being ignorant
about the--
ENOCH:
Ignorant? Now why you gotta
be all personal
and start writing?
I'm not getting rides.
-(OVERLAPPING SPEECH)
-ENOCH: You're being personal.
Ain't someone gonna get
that ringer?
(PHONE RINGING)
(DOOR BELL RINGS)
(CROWS CAWING)
-()
-(PHONE RINGING)
CLARENCE: (ON PHONE)
Who knew after all that murder
and mayhem, crusading,
you boys would grow some
mawkishly clichd penchant
for redemption.
Perhaps you've been castrated
by an old man
and a pathetic whore.
You ingrown, cooter-haired,
lipped sycophant!
We're gonna unzip your skull and
baptize you in your own blood!
CLARENCE: (ON PHONE)
Oh! (CHUCKLING)
CLARENCE: (ON PHONE)
That being the case,
I come not with a threat
but with a proposition.
The big man downstairs
is a fan of your work
and until recently,
you haven't left a warm body
behind.
Perhaps you'd consider
continuing this unholy crusade?
You suggesting we shack up
with the devil?
CLARENCE: (ON PHONE)
Oh, well.
That's such a vulgar way
of putting it.
Now I'll start you
at the ledger.
You're still out three souls
and I've got quotas to meet.
You must be crazier
than a rat in a tin shithouse
if you imagine
we'll be under the employ
of that lying serpent.
There'll be no deal betwixt us.
We're done doing his bidding.
But we do intend
to hunt down each
and every pestilent-riddled
goddamned soul
until we snatched up you
and carved out a hole
big enough to drive
a loggin' truck through it!
And you tell your
soul-gluttonous boss that
we're gonna blow the hinges
off of Hell's gates
and come for him next!
(GUNSHOTS)
(ISHMAEL CHUCKLES)
Tell your boss
that we're coming for him next?
Well, I don't know.
I got all hot and Enoch
got to pop the fella
and you were just saying
all that menacing stuff,
so I just...
I thought it was menacing
aplenty, little brother.
And to be fair,
that old dragon still got
the deed
to our goddamn eternal souls!
Stop blasphemin'.
Let's cut dirt.
Right.
()
In the name of Mary, Joseph,
all the Aposticles
and saints put together,
would you please,
with a pretty cherry on top,
let me drive Grace?
()
(ENOCH CHUCKLING)
Well ain't that something?
ISHMAEL:
Now just don't goose it like--
ENOCH:
Shit fire and save
the matches, boys!
Woohoo!
(TIRES SCREECH)
()
(ENGINE SPUTTERING)
()
(TIRES SCREECH)
()
()
(GUNSHOT)
(SCREAMS)
(CROWS CAWING)
()
(RAIN PATTERING)
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
()
()