Hey there, fellow horror geeks and monsterphiles! Prometheus here with our next installment of FRIGHT FIGHT FRIDAY! Today we have one of my favorite monsters vs one of my favorite meta-humans! That’s right! The eight-foot-tall Scorpio Demon from Split Second, versus electrified homicidal maniac, Horace Pinker from Shocker! Let’s talk about our competitors!
THE SCORPIO DEMON (Split Second)
The Scorpio Demon is one of the most slept on monsters in film. It’s eight-feet tall, has razor-sharp claws that are the size of knives, sharp teeth, insane strength, and super speed, hence the name, Split Second. Oh, and it can use guns. This thing is smart, not just some big dumb creature!
The plot of the film is full of holes and makes little sense, and what we know about the Scorpio Demon is shotty, at best - but let me break it down. The Scorpio Demon is a serial-killer humanoid, suspected of once being actually human, though that is never confirmed. It kills on the high tide and absorbs DNA from its victims. That is never really fleshed out, either. It paints an upside-down triangle in a circle at one of its crime scenes and is tied to the occult. A few scenes allude that it might be a shapeshifter, but that is never confirmed either.
What we do know, is that the thing is insanely strong, so fast you can’t see it move, and is extremely violent and aggressive. At the end of the film, it is mentioned to be Satan, himself. I think this is just the assessment of the detective and not an actual fact. It’s a demon, through and through. It can be harmed with weapons if they are powerful enough. "We need some big fuckin guns!” - Detective Dick Durkin.
I could write an entire article on this creature and my theories, and maybe I will one day. For now, that should catch you up.
HORACE PINKER (Shocker)
Things just never go right for some people. Horace Pinker is one of those people. After being convicted, and sentenced to death for over thirty murders, his execution goes awry when the electric chair malfunctions. At least, that’s what appears to happen. At first.
Actually, Horace made a deal with the Devil to become pure electricity upon his death. He gains the ability to possess other people to commit murders for him. He can also travel through electric devices - but can be trapped inside them if they are cut off from their power source, which is how he is defeated in the film. Interestingly enough, Horace, AKA Shocker, cannot shoot electricity.
Horace is merciless, cunning, sadistic, unrelenting, and made from pure energy, but still bound to the laws of this world - as all energy is. His lack of empathy and new-found powers make him very dangerous. This (former) man is not to be taken lightly.
FIGHT!
Inside a dingy, neighborhood pawnshop a teenager stands looking at an old-school tube television. It was 25 inches, but it looked like it weighed at least fifty pounds.
“I’ll sell it to ya’ cheap kid. Sixty bucks,” yells the old man behind the counter.
“Sixty bucks?” scoffs the boy. “Aint good for anything but hooking up my old Nintendo.” The kid thinks for a moment, looking it over. “I’ll give you thirty and do you the favor of clearing it off your shelf,” he says as he brushes a thick layer of dust off the top of it. “Where did you get this thing anyway?”
“Hell, if I remember. Can’t keep track of all the junk that comes into this place. Thirty bucks’ cash, and we have a deal.”
The kid hands him the money and walks back to the shelf to pick up the television.
“All sales are final.”
“Wouldn’t it be better, if you said that before I handed you the money?”
“Better for you, maybe,” replies the grizzled man.
“Well played, old man. Well played. Now excuse me, I got some Zelda to dive into. Princesses don’t just save themselves.”
“No, I suppose they don’t.”
The kid exits the pawnshop and carries the heavy TV two blocks to his house, and into his bedroom. He sets it up on top of his desk and hooks his Nintendo to it. Finally, he can play Zelda! He powers the thing on, and hears a low, humming sound coming from it, but no picture.
“Great, the thing’s busted,” he says out. He hits the TV on its side with the palm of his hand. He sits on his bed and starts packing a bowl. As he brings the bowl to his lips, the television flashes on. A man’s face is taking up most of the screen. His smile is crooked, and off putting. The lights in the entire house begin to flicker as his mother comes in the front door.
Across town at the same time, a detective stares down at a gruesome crime scene. The worst of his career, by far. That was saying a lot because he worked some real doozies, for sure. Still, nothing could have prepared him for this. His stomach turns in place as he struggles just to keep his lunch in there. A battle he feels like he might lose at any given time.
The victim, a man who was probably in his 30’s - but it was tough to tell, had been completely eviscerated. His body lies facedown. Several feet of his intestines are strung out on the floor, starting underneath him, and leading to the middle of the room like a trail of bloody, macabre sausage links. It was cold outside, almost freezing, and the housekeeper who found him said that the pile of innards was still steaming when she used her to key to open the door. As gross as that is, to his cop’s mind, that just meant the killer was still close.
The scent of copper is strong, but the God damned taste is unbearable. “No one touches anything until forensics get’s here.” He places his hand over his mouth and nose. “I’ll be outside.” He gives the two uniformed officers a nod as he exits the room. Once outside, he removes a cigarette from its pack and lights it, inhaling deeply. Suddenly, his phone rings.
“John, we got another killing. Need you over here. You got to see this.” Her voice was calm, but serious.
They had been partners for a long time, and Sarah wouldn’t call for no reason. “See what? I kind of have my hands full here, partner.”
There’s an awkwardly long pause before her reply. “Best if you just come see for yourself. I’ll text you the address.”
A breeze blows by his face, gently moving his hair. He hangs up the phone and takes a deep breath of the cool night air into his lungs. He can only imagine what horrors await. As if one horrific murder wasn’t enough for his plate tonight. His phone vibrates as the address comes in. He plugs it into the GPS on his phone, tosses the cigarette and gets into his car as something watches from the shadows.
He arrives at the scene about twenty minutes later with a fresh, black coffee in his hand. A uniformed officer guarding the door nods and lets him into the taped off apartment. His partner greets him at the door.
“Follow me, there’s someone I want you to talk to.”
“Where’s the body?”
Sarah pauses for a moment. “That’s the thing, John. There isn’t one.”
He stops walking for a moment. “Hold on. No body? No body, no crime. Why am I here? Why are any of us here?” He continues following her, but begrudgingly. “Sarah, what’s going on?” She leads him to a bedroom in the back of the apartment. Looks like a teenager’s room. Posters of movies and girls hang on the wall. An old school Nintendo is plugged into an old television. A woman sits crying on the bed.
“John, this is Ms. Hawkins.” She puts a hand on the upset woman’s shoulder. “Can you tell my partner what happened here?
The woman wipes her eyes and speaks the best she can between sobs. “He took… my boy!”
The detective’s face dampens. His interest piqued. “Who? Who took your boy, Ms. Hawkins?”
She lowers her head into her hands as streams of tears pour down her face. “The man… in the… television.” She is almost hysterical at this point, and her words are coming out in gasps and heaves. “He took him… into the… TV. I tried to stop him… but he… it was like… he was…” After that her words were mostly unidentifiable, save for one. “Electricity.”
He cuts his eyes sharply at his partner. “This is what you needed me for?” He looks softly at Ms. Hawkins. “Would you excuse us for just a moment, ma’am? I need to discuss something with my partner. In private.”
Sarah follows him out of the room, and into the hallway. “Look, before you say anything, John…”
“Sarah, do you know where I just was? I was at the worst crime scene that I’ve ever worked. Each one this week has gotten worse, and today was the icing on the cake that is my career. The killer has eluded us for a while, but today… we were close. You know how hard we have been looking for this guy. We had a shot at tracking this son of a bitch this time, until you dragged me here.
“John, I thought…”
“You thought what? That somehow, this woman who is so very clearly detached from reality was more important than the case we’ve been working for two months?”
“John, you don’t get it, do you? He’s back!”
A look of concern comes over his face. “Is this about your father, again? Sarah, Horace Pinker is never coming back. He’s dead.”
“Actually, my dad said he was trapped inside of a television. No one knows what happened to that TV.” She cuts her eyes toward the bedroom. “What if…”
“Sarah, listen to me. You’re a great kid, and an even better cop, but god damn it, you need to leave that in the past. He’s gone. You understand me? Horace Pinker is gone, and he’s never coming back. Your father, Lt. Parker, helped make sure of that.”
“My dad said that Horace swore to find a way out. Ms. Hawkins said the man came through the TV, grabbed her son, and escaped back into the TV. Now if that doesn’t sound like Horace fucking Pinker, then call me crazy!” A gust of wind blows her bangs back and forth as she speaks. “Unless you somebody else who can travel through appliances.”
Knowing he wasn’t going to win this argument he gestures for her to follow him back into the room. Ms. Hawkins is still sitting on the bed crying into her hands.
“Ma’am, did you unplug this television?” asks the detective as he picks the disconnected wire up off the floor.
“Yes. I didn’t want the man to come back.”
“I understand.” He leans down and plugs the TV in to the outlet and hits the power button. Nothing happens. “See. Just a regular old, crappy television from yesteryear.”
Suddenly, it powers on with a high-pitched sound. On the screen is the face of a man. The same face that has haunted Sarah’s dreams since she was a little girl. Ever since her father told her the stories. “Boo!” yells the man, as Sarah draws her weapon and fires. At the same time the man lunges forth form the television, and into John - taking control of him.
Ms. Hawkins yells, and runs for the door, but before she can make it a breeze blows, and her body is ripped in half violently. Blood splatters the walls in warm, thick, gobs. The two halves of her body writhe on the floor feet apart from each other as her life leaves its mortal vessel.
“John, what the fuck is going on? What was that?” asks Sarah as she scans the room frantically looking for whatever tore Ms. Hawkins apart so effortlessly.
“Now it’s party!” says John as he looks up at his partner. His eyes are wild, and somehow not his own. He reaches for the gun by his side as Sarah steps back.
“John, what are you doing?” She takes another step back and places her hand on the bedroom door, opening it behind her. She takes another step back and trips over something in the hallway, falling to the ground. Her arm lands in something, wet, and sticky. She rolls over and sees the two cops that were waiting in the hallway. Both of them had been severely mutilated, and she was lying in a pool of there coagulating blood. John is closer now, his weapon drawn on her as he towers of her.
“John, what the hell is wrong with you? Put the gun down your…”
“John isn’t home, sweety.” A shadow surrounds him, and suddenly, looming over him is something clearly not from this world. It stands about ten feet tall, it’s eyes red behind what looks like a visor. It’s muscular body is black, and it’s hands are adorned with claws the size of butcher knives. Blood drips from them, landing on the floor next to John. He notices this, and spins around, coming face to face with the Scorpio Demon.
The demon plunges its claws deep into his stomach, twists counterclockwise, and pulls out a string of his entrails. As John falls forward to the ground, Horace Pinker jumps from his dying body and into Sarah who is now covered in her partners blood, and on the verge of going into shock.
Possessed by Horace, she snaps into action. She fires three shots from her gun, hitting the demon in its large sternum. It fails to even slow the monster, so she fires two more shots. The demon is coming fast, and with no one left alive to jump to - Horace turns to other tricks.
As the Scorpio Demon closes in the TV explodes next to it, knocking it back. The Nintendo explodes immediately after, causing a small electrical fire at the foot of the bed that quickly spreads as it engulfs the cotton sheets and blanket.
The demon watches as Horace jumps from Sarah’s body into her cell phone in her pocket. Sarah gazes around the room, a look of profound confusion comes over her face as she tries recalling the last few minutes. The demon lunges fast, and rips her entire pocket from her jeans, lacerating her thigh in the process. She falls to the ground in pain, her blood pouring onto the floor. Mere moments before the demon crushes the phone in his giant hand, Horace jumps again. This time, into the radio. A song plays, Ride the Lightning, by Metallica.
Sarah manages to get to her feet, and as the demon focuses on the stereo, she manages to make it out the door. Her leg burns like nobody’s business, but she doesn’t stop, she doesn’t even look back once she’s outside. Not even at the large stack of smoke or the orange flames beginning to rise from the building.
Inside, the stereo makes the sound of changing stations until it stops on a man (Horace) laughing maniacally as the walls of the room begin to catch flame. The heat rises drastically, and the man’s laugh grows louder and louder, taunting the demon as embers glow and pop throughout the room.
There’s a loud bang outside and then suddenly… the laughing stops. The lights go out completely, across the entire neighborhood, leaving only the growing flames spewing from the building to brighten the dark night.
Outside the Scorpio Demon stands next to a downed powerline, watching the house burn. Still unsatisfied the demon enters the burning building, walks up to the bedroom and slices the cord of the stereo in two - cutting it off from power for good. As the building begins to collapse around itself, and sirens blare in the distance, the demon disappears into the night. After all, it had someone to catch up to…
THE SCORPIO DEMON
Well guys, there it is. Look, I’m a huge Horace Pinker fan, and Shocker was a favorite of mine as a kid - but there was no way Horace was walking out of this one. I just couldn’t see it. The Scorpio Demon is not only incredibly strong and vicious, but its intellect is similar to ours. It can use guns, and other weapons, and can plan things out. It thinks like us. So, once it saw Horace was traveling through electricity, it didn’t take long for it to figure out how to trap him!
What do you think out there? Am I way off? Yell at me in the comments! See you soon for VICTOR CROWLEY (Hatchet) VS BRUCE (Jaws)! This is going to be interesting fellow monsterphiles!
Until next time, keep on geekin’ on, my friends!
Joshua “Prometheus” Scafidi
