THE MURDER PALACE

By Howard Hallis

Here's an idea for a TV series on cable... In the future, what if scientists develop a "Resurrection Beam" that can bring people back to life after they die? The beam could re-construct dead neurons, cell tissues and any damaged organs by duplicating the dead genetic matter and re-charging it with the energy necessary to bring it alive once again. By this time in the future, since death and disease has been eradicated, every perversion and fetish is not only tolerated, but people keep attempting to out-do each other with how far they can delve into human depravity. When people could be brought back to life, it was only a matter of time before Murder Palaces would open. These giant towers of death allowed clients to hire professional "Victims" that they could murder in any grisly way they chose. The more grisly the murder, however, the more they would have to pay. Afterwards, the Victims are brought back to life and could option to have their memories erased if their death was too disturbing. Many lower class children work as Victims in the Murder Palaces, and some even enjoy it. .
Many keep every memory of their horrible deaths and actually take pleasure in remembering every detail. It seemed the more a person died, the more they craved the sensation of being dead. Scientists studying the phenomenon of enjoying the process of being murdered attributed it to the black-out that comes between the last moment alive and a person's resurrection. No matter how many attempts had been made to monitor a human or animal consciousness to discover where it goes or what it experiences when it is dead, nothing had been conclusively determined. People could only remember the last moment alive and their first moments after reincarnation. No one retained any memory of what happened in-between. Many scientists believed there was nothing at all happening within these moments, but the surviving religious sects still around believed that eternal life was depriving humanity of experiencing the afterlife and protested Murder Palaces fanatically. This made religious fanatics a main target of rich murderers who took delight in slaying a victim that did not wish to be killed. The wealthy elite could now take part in full-scale genocide: bombing thousands upon thousands of people for pleasure
It would cost a small fortune, but the thrill of playing a god made it worthwhile and popular enough for various companies to organize the events for upper echelon clientele. Murdering without remorse becomes a reality when humans can be brought back to life. Now imagine this as a TV show. It would have to be on cable (or at least FOX) so you could show a lot of gore. Every week you could feature a different horror writer who would get to show his or her most wickedly violent murder fantasy. You could explore other elements of this twisted future as well: episodes about the religious sects and the quest to record what happens in the moments between each life and death; episodes about the police force of this time. Would any be necessary? Who are the people who collect the bodies to bring them back to life? Can anyone be permanently murdered, and if they can, would this be seen as the ultimate thrill for a murderer after they have tasted the sensation of temporary killing? Maybe because of the imminent danger of getting murdered, people would have to have a file of their genetic structure registered and have their brains scanned daily.
They would also have to be electronically implanted with Locator Chips so the powers that be could find them if they were missing or resurrect them from their files if there was no useable remains left to acquire a genetic sample. How would relationships be in the future? Overpopulation would obviously make it necessary to colonize the oceans, the moon, Mars and space stations. And since there was now a whole solar system to explore forever, would anyone stay married more than 40 or 50 years at the very most? Would parents become more detached from their children, knowing they will eventually be killed? Will teenage rights of passage include a grisly murder or other horrible task? Just think of the story possibilities! Will a show like this have adverse effects on society? Who cares!?! It's art! It's entertainment! It's no worse than any teen horror flick... or throwing Christians to the lions... it's what people want to see! And the people can't be denied of what they want!