David Garvin’s prosposed goth sit-com. Photo: DrGarvin
As we mentioned earlier, the Village gunman, David Garvin, was a kind of failed journalist. Turns out he was also a failed film director. (Shades of Peter Braunstein, anyone?) It’s generally not a good idea to view all creative output of future psychos as an, uh, teleological narrative, but in this case, the descent into madness is so blatant it couldn’t have been scripted any better. The following movies are listed as “active projects” on Garvin’s Geocities homepage.
AMBIENT
Plot: An experimental short from 2005: “Revis and Shane find their family farm transformed into a surrealist nightmare world.”
Retroactively scary screenplay fragment: “THE BEAST (telepathic): ‘Speak now if you want to save her.’ Revis closes his eyes tightly and grimaces with horror. In his mind’s eye he recalls abstract images of a bloody struggle under the shade trees on the shore of the pond.”
THE OBJECT
Plot: A mysterious, perhaps outer-space, object takes over the life of a philosophy professor, creating parallel realities and such.
Retroactively scary screenplay fragment: “A cop on foot gives chase. Cut to the cop’s POV as ahead a shadowy form with a glowing Object disappears around the corner of a building. Jacob does not realize he is invisible and cringes, expecting to feel hard hands on him at any moment. The cop walks close enough to touch Jacob, gun drawn, peering into empty space. Wary and confused, the cop uses his radio, ‘Negative contact,’ and goes back the way he came.”
NIGHTSHADES OF EDEN
Plot: “Babs Knows a Way Through the Garden Not Even the Gardener Knows About”
Retroactively scary screenplay fragment: Sadly none, but the whole thing is “available as a novel.” Production is promised to begin in 2008 in England.
THE DARKLYS
Plot: A Goth sitcom! “A family of old-world Goths move into their baroque mansion and try with comedic effect to assimilate into their conservative upper-class neighborhood.”
Retroactively scary screenplay fragment: “Porcilla Darkly — a talented, beautiful young woman who wants to do positively nothing with her life … Porcilla’s poems are morbid cries for help which the entire family completely ignores.”
STAND-UPS
Plot: A completed live-action short, available on DVD, about Gene and Nadine, stand-up comedians looking for their big break.
Retroactively scary screenplay fragment: “NADINE (close in Gene’s ear): You’ll be the first to know … Promise me you won’t let tonight prey on you. It was one strange night.”
