I am including a spoof of the shower scene in my comic farce screenplay.

First of all, should I warn the reader that the next scene is a Psycho spoof scene or should I leave it to the reader to figure it out?

I believe that there was a close up shot of the knife and hand as it was about to descend on the victim. How do I describe a close up of just the knife and hand?

How do I describe the eerie repetitive screeching sound effect as the victim is repeatedly stabbed?

Thanks in advance.

I don't know the answer as I have never spoofed anything, but I do know they spoofed the psycho shower scene in National Lampoon's Vacation and also in Mel Brook's High Anxiety. You may try to find a copy of either of those scripts and see how they handled it.

I think for the blood you should use what Hitchcock used, choclate syrup. You could actually have a set guy sitting on a ladder with a bottle of Hershey syrup squirting it into the shower. That would make me laugh.

I would just write it as a regular scene without a warning about what you're spoofing - maybe a quick aside as the scene progresses.


INT. BATHROOM - DAY

The sound of RUNNING WATER. Janet's blurred outline is visible through the shower curtain.

She is HUMMING... a terrible off-key version of her school song. She reaches for a bottle of strawberry colored shampoo...

A HAND

darts into view. Holding

A LONG-HANDLED SCRUB BRUSH!!!

ANTHONY (O.S.)
NO!!! That's Mother's shampoo!!!

And suddenly it's like a scene from Psycho...

THE BRUSH

Rising and Falling, rising and falling...

Striking Janest's nubile, young body...

STRAWBERRY SHAMPOO

puddles in the bottom of the shower and makes lazy circles down the drain.

Anthony gets tangled in the shower curtain and trips. Ripping the curtain - rod and all - down with him.


That's how I would start out and then work on fine tuning it from there. Maybe someone here with some professional experience can give you some pointers for making it better.

how about this: The person in the shower is fully clothed and picking dirt from under their finger nails when the psycho comes and begins scrubbing the showering persons neck, which is stained with a dirt ring, violently with a handled loofah.

Have the victim slip on soap and when the killer opens the curtains about to stab, he is shocked and terrified...