House on Haunted Hill

      -- and Blackburn yanks the table-leg wire with all his
     might --

      -- and everything stops. The light show. The screaming. The
     smoke.

      -- and Evelyn, too. Her body drops back down on the table
     with a horrible THUD. Her eyes stare sightlessly. Blackburn
     leans over her. Head to her chest, a finger to her neck.
     Beat. And then he stands back up straight.

                           BLACKBURN
                I'm sorry --

                           PRICE
                 -- she's not dead! Just have to
                get her heart pumping aqain!

                           SARA
                Mouth-to-mouth!

     Price yanks the bite-piece from Evelyn's mouth -- a plume of
     purple ARTERIAL BLOOD spews from her lips and cascades all
     over her face.

                           EDDIE
                Oh, Jesus....

                           PRICE
                Adrenaline -- in your bag, Blackburn,
                you must have --

                           BLACKBURN
                 -- even it we were in the E.R.,
                Price: it's too late -- her heart's
                burst!

     Price puts his ear on Evelyn's chest -- listens -- his face
     falls.

                           PRICE
                No...

     Sara puts two fingers to Evelyn's wrist pulse. Feels.

                           SARA
                She's gone.

     Even Pritchett gets into the act, taking the flashlight and
     shining it into Evelyn's fixed pupils.

                           PRITCHETT
                They don't get any deader.

     Price strokes his wife's hair, tears begin to form in his
     eyes.

                           PRICE
                No.

     With his other hand, Price begins to unbuckle the restraints.

                           SARA
                I...don't think...anybody should be
                touching the body.

                           PRICE
                I think I'll do what I damn well please.

                           BLACKBURN
                She's right, Price. It's a matter
                for the police.

     He takes Price's hands firmly and removes them from Evelyn.

                           PRICE
                It is in-fucking-deed. At the risk of
                stating the obvious: this wasn't exactly
                a goddamn suicide.

     He smacks the now-loose steel-and-leather restraint with his
     hand -- in the tense silence of the room, the buckle BANGS
     like a GUNSHOT against the table, over and over again.

                           PRITCHETT
                House 2, Guests 0.

                           PRICE
                I think, Pritchett, we've got a
                situation here that even you can't
                explain away as "ghosts." This is ice-
                cold homicide by person -- or persons --

     He glares furiously at his Guests.

                           SARA
                 -- not entirely unknown.

     She cocks her pistol and aims it at Price.

                           PRICE
                Convenient place to point blame, hon',
                but this time, the only wrong one: for
                all I know, somebody should be pointing
                that gun at you.

     She shakes her head and keeps the gun where it is.

                           SARA
                I was upstairs with Eddie --

                           EDDIE
                 -- that's the fact, bud --

                           SARA
                 -- where the hell were you?

                           PRICE
                Upstairs, too. Come with me, I'll show
                you another body, a friend of mine named
                Schecter --

                           BLACKBURN
                 -- what was he doing here?

                           PRICE
                Running all the bells and whistles we
                set up to scare hell out of everybody --

                           EDDIE
                 -- the stained glass --

                           PRICE
                 -- yeah, we did that --

                           SARA
                 -- the window and door grates --

                           PRICE
                 -- no -- that's when everything went
                ragtime -- whoever else is in this house
                has been doing everything since -- I
                thought it was Evelyn --

                           BLACKBURN
                 -- which is why you killed her.

     And now he takes his pistol and cocks it at Price.

                           PRICE
                I was upstairs!

                           SARA
                I never saw you --

                           BLACKBURN
                 -- I did: down here.

                           EDDIE
                And I think that's case --

      -- likewise producing his gun and chambering a shell.

                           EDDIE
                 -- closed.

                           PRICE
                Pritchett, you're not joining
                this necktie party?

                           PRITCHETT
                I was upstairs looking for... well,
                uh... moral support. I don't know
                what's going on down here, but I like
                you, and if you say the house didn't
                kill your wife --

     Pritchett fumbles out his pistol.

                           PRITCHETT
                 -- then I guess then it had to be
                you. Sorry.

                           PRICE
                Thank God -- I was afraid I'd be
                lynched without a quorum.

                           SARA
                If you've got a gun on you, Price,
                I'd hand it over now.

                           PRICE
                Not just yet. Would any of you be
                interested in knowing exactly why I
                ended up here in the basement?

                           SARA
                Fascinated.

                           PRICE
                I was chasing after somebody I saw
                in the salon.

                           BLACKBURN
                Oh, really: who?

                           PRICE
                Didn't catch his or her name, just
                followed them down here. Somebody all in
                white surgical gown.

                           PRITCHETT
                     (suddenly terrified)
                Vannacutt!!

                           PRICE
                Or somebody wanting me to believe that.

                           SARA
                Well, I don't.

                           PRICE
                Then just wait -- maybe this whoever's
                got you next on the Asylum's equipment-
                test list. Maybe a literal mind-blow
                inside the "Saturation Chamber."

                           SARA
                I'll take my chances.

                           PRICE
                Well, I can't, sweetheart.

     And now Price produces his gun.

                           BLACKBURN
                If there really is someone else in this
                house, I think the four of us can handle
                the situation.

                           PRICE
                I think one of you has been part and
                parcel of making this situation!

                           SARA
                The gun, Price; hand it over: now.

     Price cocks his pistol.

                           PRICE
                Don't test me, I'm real prepared to
                use this to stay alive --

                           SARA
                 -- confirming everything we already
                know --

                           PRICE
                 -- I'll take the chance, come morning
                and cops, I'll be proved right --

      -- Sara advances --

                           EDDIE
                 -- you lose either way, Price --

                           SARA
                 -- listen to the man --

                           PRICE
                 -- listen to me, goddamnit --

                           SARA
                 -- no more --

                 -- she reaches for his gun --

                           PRICE
                 -- no!

     And Price pulls the trigger right in her face!

                           SARA
                NO!!

     Only...there's no explosive report, no whine of bullets --
     just this CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! from Price's gun.

     The room freezes for a moment -- wide-eyed shock all around.
     Price looks down at his Glock: the weld on the clip's been
     broken.

                           PRICE
                Who fucked with my gun??

     Freeze broken: Eddie lunges for him.

                           EDDIE
                You sonovabitch!!

     And he tackles Price to the floor, punching the gun from
     Price's grasp and nailing him in the face a few times for
     good measure. Price is down for the count.

     Pritchett walks towards the stairs. Blackburn looks to Sara:

                           BLACKBURN
                Now what do we do? We've got to
                hold him somewhere 'til the police --

                           SARA
                 -- the "Saturation Chamber." Where
                he wanted to put me.

     Pritchett stops in his tracks on the stairs, alarmed.

                           PRITCHETT
                What would drive a madman sane would
                drive a sane man mad.
                     (pauses)
                I need a drink. Anyone wants me, I'll
                either be upstairs or dismembered.

     INT. SATURATION CHAMBER ROOM - JUST AFTER

     Price lets out a scream as Eddie SLAMS the door to the
     "Saturation Chamber". Price's face appears in the small
     porthole.

     Sara twists the WHEEL that seals tight the cast-iron, capsule-
     shaped device. Asks Blackburn:

                           SARA
                Pretty old and rusted out -- you sure
                this thing'll hold him?

     Through the single small window on the side, we can see a
     furious, panicked Price slam his full weight against the
     inside of the door. It doesn't budge a millimeter.

                           BLACKBURN
                Don't think it'll be a problem.

                           SARA
                     (to Eddie)
                C'mon.

     Through the Chamber window, we see Price make another futile
     CRASH against the door.