7/21/88 -- Joe Prosser's adult Infocomic idea

Characters:

Husband
Gets more and more paranoid as film progresses.


Wife



Butcher
Intelligent man, handsome (this could drive the husband crazy), will give the 
viewer the impression that he's the protagonist.


Friend
It becomes more and more apparent that he's a psychopath.


Opening scene:

In rich house.  Husband has been drinking.  He and wife are arguing.
Maybe it gets violent; he slaps her.  He threatens to kill her.  Cut
to credits.


Plot from husband's viewpoint:

He goes into butcher shop [hungover], butcher realizes he's upset,
asks what's wrong.  Butcher is a trustworthy guy; he confides wife is
missing.  He shows typewritten note which threatens death of wife if
disappearance is revealed to cops.  Butcher looks strangely
overly-distressed.  Why???  [I think the first note should be typed,
the rest in her handwriting.]

Husband goes to work; confides in co-worker who's also a friend.
Friend is sympathetic, urges husband not to call police at risk of
harm to wife.

Some woman has been putting the moves on the husband.  He doesn't tell
her wife has disappeared, and resists her advances.  But they still
get kind of cosy.  As they leave together (or whatever), friend walks
by in background.  Jump to friend here, and learn that his suspicions
are confirmed -- husband and woman are involved.

Husband arrives home to find wife sitting watching tv.  At first he
only sees her through the window, from the back, or whatever.  Comig
closer, he sees there's a knife in her chest!  But there's no blood;
it's a mannequin that looks exactly like her!!!  There's a typed
ransom note clenched between her teeth.

The mannequins continue to arrive [2 or 3 more, perhaps one is found
hanging by the neck at the top of some stairs; long shadows slowly
swaying down the steps. there's a light behind it, all you see is the
silhouette.], each with some violence done to it. [Perhaps the
mannequins are made to look dead now. The mannequin looks like its
been hung.]  He pays half the ransom.  After the second dummy, the
friend suggests that she's engineering it so she can get money to run
off with her lover.  Points out rationale for this.  Suggests she
can't leave without her full share of money; He said "why not?  It's
cheaper for you than divorce and quicker for her too!"  Husband gets
really mad at wife for doing this to him.

Friends seems to know more and more about the situation, [husband is
really starting to get paranoid now. He starts to feel that he being
followed by, of all people, the butcher. more on that later.] even
what wife was wearing on evening of disappearance.  This is very
subtle.  Husband:  "Her clothes aren't even missing!  What would she
have worn?"  Friend:  "Oh, if she running off to her lover, no doubt
something sexy like a negligee." [ more detail about the negligee
would be too obvious.] Husband thinks:  "Gasp.  Francine has a
nightgown like that!"  He goes home, checks, finds that one is
missing.  Husband suspects the friend is the wife's lover, her
innocent victim!

He decides to follow the friend.  They go to warehouse in seedy part
of town.  Inside are mannequins, and the wife!  He shoots her.  The
end.

OR

He decides to set trap with rest of ransom money, insist on leaving it
in certain place, follow whoever goes to pick it up.  The friend picks
up the money.  The husband follows the friend to the warehouse, etc.
as above.


Butcher's viewpoint:

The butcher is a close friend of the wife who has helped him out in
some delicate situation.  The situation is still not resolved; he
can't resolve it without her help, and now she is gone!  Perhaps the
wife is a social worker who has been helping his daughter recover from
a drug addiction, or whatever.  He is devastated that the wife is
missing.

Butcher believes that husband killed wife and wrote the note himself.
[that's why only the first one needs to be typed. I think!] "but", the
butcher asks himself, "why doesn't he just go to the cops since
nothing can actually happen to her?"  He decides "he really wants to
play the whole thing out" [perhaps some 'Rear Window' innocent
bystander speculation here. More on that later.]

Butcher starts to follow husband. He also sees him getting cosy with
bimbo.  This confirms his theory about hubby's motive. Following
further, he watches as hubby carries a stiff looking female body
[mannequin] to an incinerator and stuffs it in; perhaps breaking off
an arm to fit it in! Later there is a scene where hubby and friend are
in a bar; butcher is there also, at a different table with his back
turned, but within earshot. [put camera at perimeter of bar. Have it
slowly pan around until all three are seen.]  What he hears makes him
speculate even more wildly.

This leads to a new ending.  Butcher follows husband to warehouse but
doesn't see friend.  Shoots husband after husband shoots wife.


