This is a tentative treatment for the Video for Her Name is Calla's New England...
The film is set in 2 parts. The first section is of an old man telling his grandchildren the story of the cursed town in which they live.
He says (in silhouette against a window, battered by a stormy night)
'On the very same night, in the dead of winter and once every 25 years, this town is visited by a demonic presence. As we townsfolk tremble behind our shuttered windows and bolted doors, a decaying figure in a tall top hat and battered cloak, stalks our rain soddened streets.
He wails an anguished elegy...
'I came to find the son I thought I'd lost'
'I speared my hands and knees upon the rocks'
'And my wife's tears will drown all of England'
'I came to find the son I thought I'd lost.'
Some of the townspeople believe the man to be an ancient resident, cast out by their ancestors for committing a foul and unspeakable crime. Others argue it was the Townsfolk who wronged the man and he returns on this night to reap his revenge on the descendants of his persecutors. Members of the congregation are convinced his presence is the Work of the Lord, sent down from the Heavens to rid each generation of it's sinners and heretics.
Yet for all our sins and in spite of our collective fears, a man emerges from each generation to save the town. This heroic man, this legend is born into each generation to sacrifice himself for the good of those who persecute him. For this man is a bastard child, an outcast from the day he is born. He will live his life, oblivious to his task, but on the day of his 25th birthday he will be called. A primeval clock shall strike within him and he shall know. He will meet his destiny, meet the spectre on The Black Hill on the edge of town and fight him to the death.
No one from the town dare watch this battle, but each quarter-century we know what must be done. Our saviour will never return from that hill, but neither will the spectre, not for another 25 years, in which time, we shall be ready for him again...'
The second part of the film will be the story coming true and continuing on top of the hill...
A shot of the grandchildren looking distraught.
'I'm sorry children, it's only a ghost story, there's no need to be alarmed'
At which point lightening flashes at the window, briefly revealing the silhouette of the old spectre-man. The lightening flashes again and he is gone.
The song is recited once more, floating down from the stoic hills...
'I came to find the son I thought I'd lost'
'I speared my eyes and ears upon the rocks'
'And my wife's tears will drown all of England'
'I came to find the son I thought I'd lost.'
Cut to a young man in a darkened barn, in the dim light we can see the walls are covered in tools of many natures, most are rusty and brutal. The man is angle grinding a sickle and as the sparks fly, his determined, rugged face is illuminated in the brilliant, dying light.
A door opens at the other side of the barn, casting a long shadow of a heavily pregnant woman.
'He is here' she says.
'I know' he replies.
Cut to him striding trough the rain drenched streets, sickle in hand, marching toward the edge of town and The Black Hill.
'Don't!' The pregnant girl calls after him,
'I will return' are his final words to her.
She falls to her knees in the mud and wraps her arms around their imminent child.
Cut to the top of The Black Hill. The man stands alone for a time, then from behind the hill rises the ancient man, clad in tattered rags and a tall, proud stove-pipe hat. He has a deep scar across his face and is wielding a sickle, similar to the man's, but weathered by 75 years worth of frequent use.
A lightening bolt sets the scene as they face off, then in an instant they cross blades. The old man is surprisingly agile and clearly a grand master at wielding such an unwieldily weapon, But the young man is hungry and strong; they are evenly matched. The battle plays out, back and forth they lunge and counter and after a time they find their weapons locked together, their faces close to each other, equals in fatigue and respect.
The old man says 'Do you know who i am?'
The young man frowns and replies 'An evil old crone who is staring death in the face.'
The old man says 'True, but I am also your Great Grandfather'
The young man is still breathing heavily, exhausted from the battle. He is eyeball to eyeball with his great-grandfather.
'Liar!' he screams, breaks the deadlock and slashes at the old man, who instinctively moves his head away from the blade. They stand, poised for the next bout, the wind whipping at their ragged clothes, silhouetted across the brooding storm.
And then another man wearing a slightly smaller stove-pipe hat appears slowly over the hill, followed on his left by a man with a thick shock of hair being ravaged by the wind. The two figures stand a little way back from the two combatants, poised motionless and taught like runners on their blocks. The older man speaks.
'Your Great Grandfather speaks the truth, as do i when i tell you that i am your Grandfather.'
The young man narrows his eyes but does not look away from his original opponent.
'And' begins the hatless man 'I am...'
'...next' finishes the young man, whirling around to attack the two new men. They produce their own sickles and an almighty battle ensues. The young man slashes in every direction, possessed by revelation, denial, confusion. The ballet of blades, glinting in the moonlight, reaches a crescendo when the young man belts the new stove-pipe hatted man in the face with his sickle, blood streaming everywhere and gouging a fresh recreation of the eldest man's scar in the face of his son.
At this point we cut to a shot of a hospital room, the girl from before is in the later stages of labour. An unprofessional looking doctor and his midwife preside eagerly over the woman's heaving body.
Back to the hill and the young man has the upper hand, one assailant is on the floor, clotting his broken face with a handkerchief and the eldest man is reeling from the viciousness of the blows laid upon him.
Another flash cut to expectant mother then...
Die! The young man decapitates his Great-Grandfather with a flourish,
'It's a boy' The eager Doctor proclaims, raising the gore smeared child to the heavens,
The young man watches as his foe drops limply to his knees, in the same moment he is coshed to the back of the head by his Father and follows his great grandfather to the floor.
There is a sequence of shots showing 5 generations of cursed family before we see the young man's father pick up the tall stove-pipe hat that has fallen from his grandfather's separated head, hand it to his injured father then he dusts off his father's smaller hat and puts it on his own head. The two drag their unconscious new relative over the crest of the hill and into infinite legend.
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