Crawlspace

(If you'd like to read this script, please email me at keylight2@hotmail.com. I'd be happy to provide a copy for your review.) Characters: Ryan – The home inspector. He’s in his late 20s, early 30s. Medium build. He’s an average working stiff, just trying to make a buck and pay his bills. Jim – The home’s owner and the guy who planted the stiff in the crawlspace. A very obese man with long scraggly hair that looks like it hasn't been washed in weeks, unshaven, oily skin, dressed in filthy clothes. He was a drug dealer back in the day. He killed his partner (the aforementioned stiff), invested his ill-gotten gains and now has enough to retire to Maui. Sarah – A real estate agent. Late 40's, early 50's, a bit on the zaftig side, lots of makeup. Very energetic. Synopsis: Ryan, a home inspector performing what starts out to be a typical pre-sale inspection, finds a body partially buried in the crawlspace of a farmhouse (or could be a house in a rural area). Before he can exit the crawlspace, Jim, the home’s owner and a former drug dealer, returns to discover that Ryan has found the body. Ryan is toast. Jim tries to get to Ryan under the house but is too big to fit through the access (he’s put on a few pounds since he planted his ex-partner down there). He unsuccessfully tries to coax Ryan out. When this proves fruitless, he blocks the access with a water tank, trapping Ryan while he contemplates his next move. When the real estate agent calls to tell Jim that she’s on her way over with the buyers to hear Ryan’s report, he becomes desperate. He blocks the vents with dirt and lobs several bug bombs into the crawlspace hoping to drive Ryan out. He positions himself at the access hatch, his gun trained on the opening, waiting for Ryan to appear. But Ryan stays put, choking on the pesticide fumes. Jim figures he’s screwed. He goes back in the house and starts packing in preparation to go on the run. But when he sees a photo of his condo in Maui, the little slice of heaven he’ll never get to use, he tries one last desperate move. He shoots through the floor at the spot where he thinks Ryan is located. He misses Ryan by inches, but doesn’t know that he missed. Ryan plays possum. Jim looks through the bullet hole to see what’s going on down there and Ryan stabs him through the eye with a screwdriver, killing him. Ryan punches a hole through the water barrel with the screwdriver and waits until the water drains out so that it’s light enough to move, then exits the crawlspace. He’s kneeling over the body as the real estate agent and the buyers come through the door.