THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE

     Luke rushes from the room.

     INT. GRAND ENTRY - NIGHT

     Luke YELLS and throws himself at the front doors.  Marrow
     runs over to help him and shoves the tire iron between the
     doors and PRIES.  Marrow throws the useless thing down and
     stands back.

     Luke joins him, and they shoulder block it together.  But
     this door is MASSIVE.  There's no way.

                         LUKE
               No you bastard! Break!

     He roundhouse kicks it, hurts himself.

     Theo, afraid, watches the Great Hall behind them.  Nell puts
     her hand on her shoulder.

                         NELL
               It's not safe for you anymore. The
               children need me, and Crain is doing
               everything he can to keep me from them.

     Theo stares, appalled.  Marrow looks around, puts his hand up
     to shush everyone.  The HOUSE MOANS, the BUMPING growing,
     searching.

                         MARROW
               Come on.

     He rushes down the hall, Luke right beside him, Nell and Theo
     in their wake.

     INT. DINING ROOM - NIGHT

     Luke's first barging into the kitchen.  Big windows all along
     the wall.  Huge windows.  Marrow follows him in, Luke's fear
     turning into a vicious smile as he sees the towering windows.

     Nell and Theo are right behind in time to see Luke and Marrow
     scooping up a table and chair respectively.

                         LUKE
               Watch out!

     The men rush the same window, side-by-side, and let the heavy
     pieces of furniture fly from ten feet.

     The WINDOW SHATTERS, dozens of panes blown out into the
     darkness beyond.  But the metal LATTICE remains, the chair's
     legs stuck in it.

     Marrow and Luke pause, taken back a beat.  They hustle over
     to it.  Theo and Nell stand a few feet back.

     Luke grabs the chair, levers it, tries to pry open the metal.
     Marrow reaches through, knocking loose glass, trying to find
     some sort of handle on the other side.

                         THEO
               Hurry!

     Theo watches the door behind them.  Luke pries at the inch of
     metal between him and freedom.  It won't break.

                         MARROW
               They don't open!

     Marrow slips on the broken glass and catches hold of the
     lattice LACERATING his ring and little finger.  With a cry of
     pain, he lands on the floor.

                         MARROW (cont'd)
               Oh Jesus my hand.

     Nell and Theo fall to the floor to help him.  Marrow moans,
     and Nell grips his injured hand in hers.  Fast, like she was
     born a trauma doctor, Nell clamps off the blood with her
     fingers.

                         NELL
               Give me your shoelace.

     Marrow tugs at his shoe, in shock, and looks at Nell.  She's
     calm.  Terrifyingly calm.  And in that moment, he realizes
     she's not out of her mind.  She just understands things
     beyond what he could possible begin to understand.

                         MARROW
               What'll happen to us, Nell?

                         NELL
               Nothing, if you leave right now. There's
               a war going on all around us. Don't get
               in the way, please.

     Nell cinches the shoelace tight around his wrist.

     Luke throws down the chair, giving up on the window.

                         LUKE
               Shit! All right, you sonofabitch...

     As he looks up at another one of Crain's painting hanging on
     the wall.  Nell Theo with Marrow straggle toward the great
     hall.

     INT. VESTIBULE TOWARDS GREAT HALL - NIGHT

                         LUKE
               Maybe this'll get your attention!

     Luke flicks a LIGHTER out of his pocket.

                         MARROW
               Luke!

     Before anyone can stop him, he LIGHTS a towering TAPESTRY on
     fire.

     He races from one to the next, lighting them.  Theo and Nell
     help Marrow up, back away as Luke shoots by.

     All the tapestries are ON FIRE, blazing up like torches.

     At last, his rage spent, heaving, he moves to join the others
     at the center of the room.  They stare at him, appalled,
     afraid.  Knowing he has done something wrong.

     Luke stops.  Maybe fifteen feet away.  He sees their
     expressions.

                         LUKE
               What?

     Nell looks over at the burning tapestries.  Heat sears the
     stone, blackens the carved figures in the woodwork.

     The ruddy light casts deep shadows throughout the room.

                         LUKE (cont'd)
               We'll get out after this wing burns down.
               Let's go.

     But there's no need.  The tapestries are consuming themselves
     too fast to ignite the walls or ceiling.  They all realize
     it.  As the last flaming scraps of cloth fall to the floor
     and go out, there is utter silence.

     INT. GREAT HALL - NIGHT

     Luke looks at them helplessly.  An awful, impending beat.
     Without warning, the huge PERSIAN CARPET he's standing on
     JERKS out from under him.  Luke falls on his stomach.

     Stunned, Luke looks straight into Nell's eyes.  Then the
     carpet slides fast for the FIREPLACE.  It whips up to the
     hearth and sends Luke flying through the chain curtains.

     The others are speechless.  They can do nothing but watch as
     Luke lays there on the ashdrop.  A long moment.

                         NELL
                   (to the house, to Crain)
               No! No! Let them go!

     She knows what is going to happen, is powerless to prevent
     it.  Luke stands up, has time to give her a look.

     And then the LION'S HEAD FLUE drops open behind him.  Luke
     looks back into its iron eyes --

     -- and with SHOCKING SPEED the FLUE snaps shut again, taking
     Luke's head off his body.

     The decapitated corpse falls back in the fireplace like a
     puppet with its strings cut.

     Nell, Marrow and Theo stand there.  Not sure of what just
     happened, their minds unable to accept it.

     A sound comes up in Theo's throat.  A sob.  A horrified
     whimper.  Marrow and Nell stand there speechless.  It's as if
     saying the obvious will make it real:

                         MARROW
               Luke.

     BANG.  The blood-splattered LION'S HEAD drops open.  Luke's
     head falls out.

     Theo SCREAMS and SCREAMS again.  Nell backs away with Marrow,
     almost has the presence of mind to drag them away, but --

     -- CLANG!  The ASH DROP OPENS.  The sudden sound stops them
     in their tracks.

     As they watch, it's as if the House INHALES.  And BOOM!

     Out of the ash drop EXPLODES a hail of BONES, SKULLS, FLYING
     ASH.

     Nell, Theo and Marrow back up toward the Grand Staircase as
     TONS OF INCINERATED HUMAN REMAINS vomit from the fireplace,
     blasting across the floor, knocking over furniture with
     shocking violence.  Skulls bounce over wood.  Hundreds of
     them.

     Theo and Marrow cover their faces as shattered bits of bone,
     loose teeth pelt them.  Nell is immune.

     They run up the Grand Staircase toward the top and finally it
     can't reach them anymore.

     INT. MEZZANINE - NIGHT

     They look out at the full scope of Crain's horror.

                         THEO
               Oh God, we can't get out!

                         MARROW
               Nell, what do we do?

                         NELL
               He played hide and seek with the
               children. That's how he built the house.

     Marrow stares at her, trembling.  He glances around at the
     winding labyrinth of house.  Impossible.

                         MARROW
               We can't hide in here! We won't make it
               til morning.

     Nell looks at him, pitying.  Infinitely sad, but guarding
     them.

                         NELL
               I know.

     Behind them the huge painting of Hugh Crain in a golden frame
     with sharp metal spikes, looks down at them.  The room
     inhales and exhales, the bumping sound resumes.  A rumble
     runs through the house and they all look down in fear toward
     the great hall where a cloud of ashes still hangs in the air.

     Unseen by them, this rumble start to shake the painting
     behind them.  The sound from the great hall makes Marrow and
     Theo back up more, but Nell doesn't move... she senses
     something is about to happen and she will fight it...

     She suddenly turns and sees the painting... in a flash she
     reaches out for Marrow and Theo, pull them out of the way as
     the giant painting with the huge skull, falls face down
     toward them.  It misses them by a hair, but their clothes are
     shredded by the spikes.

     Marrow and Theo are-shocked as they back up right toward the
     GRIFFIN on top of the staircase.

     For a split second the BRASS Griffin right behind them,
     comes alive, opens it's fangs and claws and is ready to
     attack...but Nell sees the danger, grabs a human bone and
     batters the griffin.

                         NELL (cont'd)
               No, no, you leave them alone!

     And the griffin turns back into brass.  Marrow and Theo
     unaware of what happened behind them.  They have to get out of
     there.

     INT. SECOND FLOOR HALLWAY - NIGHT

     Nell leads Marrow and Theo down the dark hallway, the twisted
     woodwork along the walls frozen, but seeming poised to reach
     out, trip someone, grab a sleeve.

     It is a nightmare House.  Doing what it was made for.

     The BUMPING they've left behind seems to vanish up and into
     the ceiling.  It gives chase, on the floor above.  Nell keeps
     looking back, and every time she does the BUMPING seems to
     get more firm, MORE LIKE A FOOTSTEP.  Calm, Nell urges them
     on.

                         NELL
               Hurry.

     The FOOTSTEPS upstairs come faster; whatever's up there
     moving better, more naturally.

     Theo and Marrow turn LEFT through an archway.  Nell looks
     back at the ceiling.  The thing's moving fast.

     She dodges toward the archway where Theo and Marrow went, and
     STOPS.  It's a wall.  Solid wall.  There's no archway here!
     Nell backs away.  Alone.

     The House has separated them.

     Nell tries to open any of the hall doors, but they are all
     locked.  There's no other way then going back.

     INT. MEZZANINE - DAY

     Nell is back in the mezzanine, steps carefully over Crain's
     painting.  The long white lace curtains in front of a side
     window start to flutter in the wind...but the window is
     closed!

     Nell walks up to the top of the stairs, her back to the
     window, calls out:

                         NELL
               Jim! Theo!

     No answer, and as she steps forward, listening for a reply,
     the CURTAIN BILLOWS OUT behind her, and in its movement,
     becomes for a split second, the image of CRAIN, GRABBING for
     her.

     Nell, oblivious, steps just OUT OF REACH, and as the breeze
     fails, the contours and patterns of the billowing curtain
     dissolve into chaos.  Nell glances back at it, just sees
     curtain, and looks up at the open window.

     She turns from it, determined, and starts out to find her
     friends and walks down the steps.

     INT. GRAND STAIRCASE/GREAT HALL - NIGHT

     CLOSE ON THE BRASS GRIFFINS that guard the staircase.

     Behind Nell's back they all turn toward her, follow her with
     their eyes as Nell enters the great hall.  And they cower in
     fear for what is about to happen.  Again Nell calls out for
     Theo and Marrow.

     And Nell doesn't see the scores of TINY ARMS OF CHILDREN that
     fold out from the carvings in the high backed chairs in the
     hall as Nell carefully avoids stepping on the skulls and
     bones of the children that cover the floor.

     Horrifyingly alive are these TINY HANDS as reach out for her
     hair after she passes.  We're screaming as they almost have
     her... and Nell steps away.

     And then... CREAK... CREAK... CREAK...

     The terrified animal heads on the balustrade, their eyes
     flash in fear.  The lions above the big fireplace snarl
     restlessly.

     Cherubim, afraid, clasp hands.  Gods and men pay unwilling
     witness to what is now coming down the stairs.

     The upper flight of stairs strains under the weight of the
     thing coming down, over our heads, coming down, down... and
     now at the landing.  The sound stops.

     Nell's BREATH escapes, visible in the cold as she watches,
     rooted to the floor in the Grand Entry.

     Darkness against darkness.  Something BLOCKS the glint of the
     gilded frame up on the landing.  Something huge.  A beat.

     And then a SHADOW sweeps across the scene, impenetrable,
     darkening the stairs, wiping them from sight, like something
     gliding down them.

     Before our eyes, out of the most subtle variation of shadow,
     flickers into existence:

     THE SHAPE, tall, eight or nine feet, featureless, black, but
     in the proportions of an enormous man with his head bowed,
     shoulders stooped.  And just like that, all it is...

     ...is a well of darkness and night once again.  We don't even
     know for sure what we just saw.  But it is still there in
     that bar of shadow.

     Nell goes rigid, not breathing, not seeing anything but the
     awful presence.  She is spellbound.

     BANG.  A door in the connecting passage opens, and Theo and
     Marrow come out, between Nell in the entry and the thing in
     the Great Hall beyond.

     In a flash the SHAPE is moving at Theo and Marrow.  They
     don't see it, have their backs turned.

                         THEO
               Nell! There you --

     But Nell is looking past them.  They see her face and turn
     around.

                         NELL
               Nooo, not them!

     What is coming at them makes the blood stop.

     The Shape rushes from the Great Hall, vanishing as it crosses
     the pools of moonlight, reforming darker as it hits shadow
     again, its wake like a shockwave, invisible itself, but
     VISIBLE IN ITS EFFECTS:

     Theo SCREAMS.  Marrow stumbles back.  And then Nell's voice
     rings out: