Strangler of the Swamp

Opening crawl:
Old legends - strange tales - never die in the lonely swamp land. Villages and hamlets lie remote and almost forgotten. Small ferryboats glide between the shores, and the ferryman is a very important person. Day and night he is at the command of his passengers. On his little barge ride the good and the evil; the friendly and the hostile; the superstitious and the enlightened; the living and - sometimes - the dead.

[first lines]

[Christian picks up a corpse lying on the bottom of Joseph's ferry]

Joseph Hart:
Can I be of any more help?

Christian Sanders:
No, thank you, Joseph.

Martina Sanders:
The noose!

Christian Sanders:
Oh quiet, quiet, I say. Can't you see there, you fools, there are only a few vines and roots around his neck? Nothing else.

Martina Sanders:
It's a perfect noose for anyone who can see. It's the strangler again!

Martina Sanders:
The strangler got him.

Joseph Hart:
Hah! You'd believe in anything, wouldn't you? Why doesn't he visit me? I live closest to his grave.

Dark-haired Woman:
He will! You, too, are a marked man.

Joseph Hart:
I'd like to see that old drunken card sharp again.

Dark-haired Woman:
He was all that, yes, and a no-good. But was he a murderer?

Martina Sanders:
And you got what you always wanted, didn't you, Joseph - his ferry?

Joseph Hart:
What do you mean?

Martina Sanders:
Nothing... nothing.

Martina Sanders:
[narrating] That evil noose was made when they found farmer Berkeley murdered in his field. They accused ferryman Douglas of the crime and hanged him. He swore that he was innocent, but that didn't stop them. It was then he spoke his curse.

Martina Sanders:
Joseph, why have you let that rope hang all these years?

Joseph Hart:
It serves as a warning.

Martina Sanders:
As a warning? To whom?

[discussing the noose that hung Douglas many years ago]

Martina Sanders:
Joseph, we're going to take that down.

Joseph Hart:
No! It stays there. Since that's been there, there hasn't been any more trouble.

Martina Sanders:
There's been more trouble than ever since it hangs there! Have you forgotten Bill Jenkins who was thrown from his horse and was choked by the reins?

Anna Jeffers:
And Shelton, strangled by the pulley rope as he fell from his hayloft?

Dark-haired Woman:
And Henry Craig, throttled by his fishnet?

Martina Sanders:
And tonight his son, Bill, choked to death by the weeds.

Joseph Hart:
What's Bill Craig got to do with it? He wasn't even at the hanging?

Martina Sanders:
Have you forgotten Douglas' vow that he'll return to strangle all the hangmen and their descendants for generations to come?

[the noose that hung Douglas drops out of the tree and lands around Joseph's neck]

Anna Jeffers:
It was a sign from heaven - a sign for you to make the sacrifice.

Dark-haired Woman:
And lift the curse and save the others. Yes, Joseph, heed it. Give yourself willingly into the hands of the strangler and the curse will be broken forever.

Joseph Hart:
Douglas! Douglas! Have you risen from the dead? What are you trying to do, frighten me? I know it's just a trick of my imagination, but how is it I can see you? Where did you come from?

Ferryman Douglas:
From my grave in the swamp. Whenever the heart and soul of a cursed one are filled with anguish to the brim, I appear. Tonight, it's your soul that calls me.

Joseph Hart:
You're not real!

Ferryman Douglas:
Your guilty conscience is. The rope you hanged me with is real.

Maria Hart:
I'm not afraid.

Martina Sanders:
No, young people never are - but I'm afraid!

Maria Hart:
I don't believe in the supernatural.

Martina Sanders:
Oh, but the danger is real!

[Christian discovers a confession among Joseph's papers that describes how he killed Berkeley and falsely accused Douglas at his trial]

Pete Jeffers:
Christian, that means we hanged an innocent man!

Christian Sanders:
We are guilty of acting too hastily, but what's done is done and all our regrets won't bring a hanged man back to life.

Pete Jeffers:
But he is back! He walks among us and kills us one by one!

Pete Jeffers:
You're so sure of yourself! You know everything, don't you? But let me tell you, Christian, there's only one way out for all of us - sacrifice.

Christian Sanders:
Oh, this swamp breeds more rumors than mosquitos.

Christian Sanders Jr.:
I don't see why Maria should suffer for a crime her grandfather committed. Why, she's as innocent as I am... or as guilty.

Maria Hart:
[to Douglas] Your cruel hands will not touch him anymore. I give myself willingly into your hands. Take me!

[last lines]

Christian Sanders Jr.:
Maria, I can breathe again!

Maria Hart:
He's gone, Chris. He's gone forever.