On a Deadman's Chest story
Danny Darwin, the hard-partying front man of the heavy metal band Exorcist, announces at the band's latest show that his best friend, guitarist Nick Bosch, has gotten married. Danny fears that Nick's wife, Scarlett, is attempting to break up the band, giving him a burning hatred for her. His groupie, Vendetta, also hates Scarlett, and helps Danny calm down by letting him visit Farouche, a mysterious tattoo artist who ends up giving him a tattoo of Scarlett on his chest. Things quickly become surreal when the tattoo seems to develop a life of its own and won't go away, even after Danny murders the object of his hatred. Directed by: William Friedkin. Story by: Larry Wilson.
12 total · 1 choice · 6 major · 5 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| descent into madness | choice | Danny became evermore unhinged as the story progressed. At first he was perturbed by best friend's bothersome new wife and the prospect of the band breaking up. Later he was driven insane by a mysterious and neigh unremovable tattoo of the woman in question. The tattoo drove him so mad (one may speculate that it contained hallucinogenic Voodoo toxins for example) that he used a piece of broken mirror to slash the skin off his entire upper torso and rid himself of it when he thought it had taken the form of a dragon-like creature and burst out from inside his chest. |
| clairvoyance | major | Farouche explained that he could make the skin tell its own story, or something along those lines. He was therefore able to reveal truths about the past (and possibly the future) that were otherwise unknown to him. |
| falling out of friendship | major | Danny and Nick were on the brink of having a disastrous falling out over Nick's new wife, whom Danny could not abide. |
| husband and wife | major | Nick was being pressured by his new wife, Scarlett, to quit his already successful rock band, thinking it was only a matter of time before the band imploded. |
| murder | major | Danny murdered Scarlett, seemingly in no small part egged on by frustration, or even madness, induced by the tattoo. |
| music | major | This was another story in the series about the hard life of hard rock entertainers. |
| romantic relationship | major | Vendetta was Danny's enamored groupie and appearances gave that they slept with each other regularly although the relationship was unlikely to be exclusive on either side. |
| coping with excruciating pain | minor | Danny was in visible agony as Farouche applied a tattoo to his chest using traditional tools. |
| living corpse | minor | The story is presented by the Crypt Keeper, a cackling, wisecracking cadaver. |
| medical occupation | minor | A doctor, presumably dermatology surgeon, was seen tending to Danny's freshly unbandaged skin-graft that failed to remove the oh-so offensive tattoo. |