HAND AND FOOT DISEASE (14 page short horror script) by Luke Mepham

After an innocent foot massage, a happily married couple’s relationship is tested when they both become infected with a very strange and itchy skin disease…

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re probably well aware of all the craziness happening in the world right now. Actually, come to think about it, “living under a rock” is probably the wrong idiom to use. Because many of us, for the past six weeks or so, have actually been living under rocks. Many of us are are sitting in isolation right now as we speak, quarantining ourselves until this madness blows over (hopefully). Many of us are surviving this lock down alone while many of us are cooped up with our loved ones, doing our best not to get infected.

But what happens when you’re isolated with your significant other and one of you gets infected? What happens when BOTH of you get infected? Do you turn on each other? A little game of who-infected-who?

Writer, Luke Mepham, explores what could happen in his delightfully twisted body-horror short, Hand and Foot Disease.

Before I continue – this is NOT a COVID-19 script. Nor is this making light of all the terrible things happening in the world right now. This was written long before any of this happened, back when the word “corona” was strictly associated with alcohol consumption. This script, in particular, examines how a seemingly-healthy relationship can turn very unhealthy under very adverse and unusual circumstances.

Our story opens with Dennis and Helen – a happily married couple just enjoying each other’s company, sharing some relaxing TV time on the couch. Just another night, right? Well, as Dennis gives his loyal, loving wife a foot massage, his hand begins to itch. Deciding that it’s probably nothing but a slight skin irritation, Dennis decides to just sleep it off.

But, later that night while in bed, that itchy sensation becomes a little painful for poor Dennis. He wakes up to find his mitts covered in nasty, blotchy rashes. To make matters worse, Helen wakes up to find the same itchy rashes covering her feet.

            HELEN
Whatever you had, you passed it onto me.

            DENNIS
What do you mean?

            HELEN
Come and see for yourself.

Dennis gets up and walks around the bed to see the state of Helen’s feet match the same state as his hands. Blistered, boiled, dry flaky skin.

After Helen accuses him of spreading it to her, Dennis then questions the quality of the hand soap Helen had bought – the blame game has officially begun.

But, with their doctor away on holiday, they try to make do. Putting their heads together, they come up with somewhat of a game plan – in an attempt to sweat the infection out and keep it from spreading, Helen tapes off her feet with layers of socks while Dennis tapes oven mitts around his hands. Not the worst plan, considering the circumstances, but now they can’t drive to an ER – Dennis unable to operate the steering wheel with mitts on his hands and Helen unable to work the pedals. So, it’s looking like they’re stuck.

As their condition worsens and the itchiness becomes more difficult to resist, the couple’s need to scratch completely takes over, even resorting to dipping their hands into scalding-hot water. But when that doesn’t work… well… let’s just say a cheese grater comes into play.

You’re probably getting itchy just reading this review, aren’t you? Well, it gets much, much worse for Dennis and Helen, the story reaching levels of body horror gore that would make David Cronenberg blush. But, as a massive Cronenberg fan, I found this to be a very, very entertaining schlock-fest, hearkening memories of the legendary filmmaker’s earlier work. This also reminded me a little bit of Troma’s gruesomely effective, “Cutting Moments” short film.

BUDGET: Low. Three actors and a house. Most of the budget will probably be fake blood, makeup and some cheap prosthesis.

ABOUT THE WRITER: Luke Mepham has loved film since he was very young. His childhood favorites such as “Hook” and “Back To The Future” pushed his interest into the world of screenwriting, hoping to write classic films of his own.Luke has written a few other scripts, both short and feature length, while also having several published short horror stories. Luke can be reached at: lukemepham1988 (a) hotmail.co.uk

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*This screenplay may not be used or reproduced for any purpose including educational purposes without the expressed written permission of the author.

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About the Reviewer: Michael J. Kospiah is the award-winning screenwriter of critically acclaimed indie-thriller, The Suicide Theory (79% Rotten Tomatoes – available on Amazon Prime, Itunes, Google Play, etc) and 2020’s upcoming Aussie thriller, Rage. His horror feature, They Never Left is currently in development.