Home: Sample Scripts: The Seventh Gate

"The Seventh Gate"
Script by Joe Edkin
Art and lettering by Tom Martin
Script ©2006 Joe Edkin. Art ©2006 Tom Martin. All rights reserved.

(Click the thumbnails to see a full size version of the page.)

(While this story is envisioned as part of an anthology that Joe Edkin is trying to pull together, if you are a publisher who would like to make an offer to publish the story, please contact Joe Edkin.)

PAGE ONE

SPLASH PAGE
TANNER GRADY is being executed via the electric chair. We can not see his features through the leather hood he is wearing, but is it obvious that his face is contorted in pain. The current flows through hiss body, causing it to convulse. Smoke rises from where the metal conductors make contact with his body. Leave room for title and credits.
C-CAPTION (these captions look handwritten, as if from Conner's notepad): Tanner Grady claimed that he was doing God's work--killing those who were evil and trapping them in hell.
C-CAPTION: The way I saw it, he was the one who belonged in hell. I would have pulled the switch myself if they had asked me.
C-CAPTION: My name's Conner Hawke. I was a reporter. One of Tanner Grady's victims was my brother Wesley.
TITLE: THE SEVENTH GATE
CREDITS: Joe Edkin, writer, Tom Martin, artist

PAGE TWO

PANEL ONE--flashback
A courtroom during the sentencing of serial killer TANNER GRADY. Tanner is a religious fanatic kind of guy. He feels no remorse for the crimes he's committed, believing that he was on a mission from God to cleanse the world. The JUDGE is an old, stern, no-nonsense kind of man with gray hair. Tanner is flanked by his LAWYER and the PROSECUTOR is seated at his/her own table. There are numerous PEOPLE in the gallery.
JUDGE: The family members of the defendant's victims may now address the court.
C-CAPTION: I was in the courtroom the day of sentencing to speak for my mother and me about how Wesley's murder affected us.

PANEL TWO--flashback
CONNEr'stands at podium between the PROSECUTOR and TANNER & his LAWYER. Conner is reading from a sheet of paper.
CONNER: ...your honor, five years ago, my father was murdered. His killer was never found. Don't let my baby brother's killer go unpunished...

PANEL THREE--flashback
The JUDGE looks down from his bench at TANNER.
JUDGE: The families have spoken, Mr. Grady. Do you have anything to say before I pass sentence?
TANNER: You gotta listen t' me judge. I'm the seventh gate. I had to do it!
C-CAPTION: I heard what Tanner Grady said that day.

PANEL FOUR--flashback
Closer'shot of TANNER as he rants.
TANNER: They had to be taken! I hold 'em inside me so they can't hurt no one no more!
C-CAPTION: We figured that Grady was laying an appeal based on his mental state.

PANEL FIVE--flashback
The JUDGE glares at TANNER as he announces the sentence.
JUDGE: Given the heinous nature of your crimes and your lack of remorse, I sentence you to death by electrocution...
C-CAPTION: The judge wasn't about to let him off. Fine by me. He deserved to die for what he did.

PANEL SIX--flashback
PRISON OFFICIALS strap TANNER into the electric chair as CONNER watches from the gallery, taking notes. Tanner is trying to get anyone to listen to him, but his ranting falls on deaf ears.
TANNER: I'm holdin' 'em inside o' me. Kill me and they'll be free!
C-CAPTION: I was chosen to be one of the witnesses to see the switch thrown at midnight.

PAGE THREE

I'm not gonna describe or'spell out the exact number of witnesses or'souls of the damned that are involved in the action here. I'll let your imagination run wild. By the end of this, everybody but Conner must be dead.

PANEL ONE--back to present
From inside the room where they executed TANNER, two uniformed prison officers (HANK and DIETER) take the prisoner out of the chair. There are still wisps of smoke rising from Tanner's body where the conductors were engaged. DR. MORRIS is moving in, prepared to take a pulse and declare him dead. Beyond this tableau we can see the group of WITNESSES (let's say a group of eight including our narrator. We don't have enough pages to go whole hog in terms of carnage) looking through the observation window (obviously not in any great detail). CONNER is at the forefront of the witnesses.
C-CAPTION: Even in the observation room, we could smell the burnt flesh.

PANEL TWO
DIETER and HANK lay TANNEr's body on a stretcher as MORRIS moves in to take his pulse. Tanner's body is convulsing.
DIETER: What the hell?
HANK: I thought he was dead!

PANEL THREE
Inside the observation room, CONNER (and another WITNESS or two) in the foreground looking through the window as TANNEr's chest explodes, spewing forth the tormented SOULS OF THE DAMNED which had been trapped in his body. (The only soul I'll name is Conner's brother WESLEY--although I don't want him immediately recognizable at this point as Conner'should not see him yet.) DIETER, HANK, and MORRIS are stepping away, covered with the spewed viscera.
WITNESS: Oh my god--
C-CAPTION: I'm not a religious man, but somehow I knew God had nothing to do with what we were seeing.

PAGE FOUR

PANEL ONE
Back inside the execution chamber, the SOULS OF THE DAMNED kill HANK, DIETER, and MORRIS in appropriately ghoulish ways.
SOULS (separate balloons): Free! Free! Free!


PANEL TWO
In the observation room, the WITNESSES and CONNER are frozen with fear as they watch a SOUL lift DIETER over its head.
C-CAPTION: We were frozen in fear, unable to comprehend what we were seeing, but unable to look away.

PANEL THREE
The SOUL throws DIETEr's body through the window, scattering the WITNESSES and CONNER who try to avoid the flying corpse and the shattered glass.
SFX: CRASH

PANEL FOUr'some of the WITNESSES and CONNER run toward the door, but their exit is blocked by the SOULS OF THE DAMNED.
C-CAPTION: By the time we regained our'senses and tried to escape, it was too late.

PAGE FIVE

PANELs one through FOUR
The SOULS OF THE DAMNED kill the WITNESSES in appropriately gruesome ways.
C-CAPTION PANEL 1: These monsters were fast.
C-CAPTION PANEL 2: They were hungry.
C-CAPTION PANEL 3: Although we tried to fight them, they were too strong.
C-CAPTION PANEL 4: What is it they say about flesh being weak?

PANEL FIVE
The SOULS OF THE DAMNED begin to close in on CONNER. Conner is covered with blood and gore by this time. He has picked up a chair and is trying to use it to hold off the Souls.
C-CAPTION: I was sure my time on Earth was over until I heard a familiar voice...
BALLOON (Wesley, off panel): Leave this one to me!

PAGE SIX

PANEL ONE
CONNER turns to see his now-demonic brother WESLEY. He lowers the chair in shock.
CONNER: W-Wesley?
C-CAPTION: It was my brother Wesley--the one who Tanner Grady murdered--or at least, it sounded like him...

PANEL TWO
WESLEY reaches out to CONNER, taking the chair out of his hands.
WESLEY: Join us, bro. I miss you.

PANEL THREE
TANNEr'shuffles into the observation room, his chest split in an upside down pentagram from which the souls escaped.
TANNER: Don't listen t' him!
TANNER: These souls need a livin' vessel to contain 'em. They're the damned! It was my job to kill and contain 'em!

PANEL FOUR
TANNER moves closer to CONNER. WESLEY tries to convince Conner not to listen to Tanner.
WESLEY: He murdered me, bro! Don't listen to him!

PANEL FIVE
The SOULS OF THE DAMNED looks up from the bodies they are consuming and begin to move in on TANNER as he tries to explain to CONNER why he killed Wesley.
TANNER: You know why I killed him? God told me to! He was damned for killin' yer pa!

PAGE SEVEN

PANEL ONE
The SOULS OF THE DAMNED try to hold TANNER back as he reaches out for CONNER.
TANNER: These demons will keep killin' less'n you take over fer me! Someone's gotta be seventh gate!

PANEL TWO
TANNEr'struggles out of the grasp of the SOULS and lays his hand on CONNEr's chest, burning an upside down pentagram onto Conner's chest.
CONNER: ARRRRGH!

PANEL THREE
The SOULS OF THE DAMNED, including TANNER, are sucked into the star-shaped portal on CONNEr's chest.

PANEL FOUR
PRISON GUARDS burst into the observation room, guns drawn, to see CONNEr'surrounded by the dead bodies of the WITNESSES.
C-CAPTION: Of course, they didn't believe me when I said I didn't kill these people.
C-CAPTION: That's all right with me. I have a mission now--

PANEL FIVE
The PRISON GUARDS lead the handcuffed CONNER down a hall lined with prison cells.
C-CAPTION: I am the seventh gate to hell. I am on Earth to absorb the souls of the damned and trap them for eternity.
C-CAPTION: And it seems to me that a prison is the perfect place to begin...