House on Haunted Hill

时间:2007-10-23 03:16:57来源: 作者:

EVELYN
Okay: this may sound crazy, but --

-- and in one savage blur of motion, Evelyn drives
Blackburn's scalpel right into his chest!

     Blackburn just stands there motionless, looking at her
     confused. She clears up any gray areas: thrusting deep and
     yanking down, gutting him like he's a trout.

INT. MAIN SALON - UPSTAIRS - CONTINUOUS

Eddie trots into the room, carrying the thick base of a
wrought-iron floor lamp. To Sara:

EDDIE
This is the best we're gonna do.

SARA
It'll have to do.

They start out of the room. Watson Pritchett remains morosely
sitting in his chair.

                           SARA
                You coming, or are you waiting
                for Blackburn?

PRITCHETT
Blackburn's dead.

SARA
Excuse me?

PRITCHETT
He would have been back by now.

Beat. Eddie and Sara look at each other: nahhhh. And then:

SARA
Hey: Dr. Blackburn...?

Nothing in response. Sara grabs Pritchett and they head for
the basement.

INT. BASEMENT - CORRIDOR - SIMULTANEOUS

-- the beautiful blood-caked FEET of Evelyn Stockard-Price
seen walking across the concrete.

Her gore-sopped HAND seen, traveling upwards -- we follow it --

-- as it undoes the lock on the door of the now pitch-dark --

INT. SATURATION CHAMBER ROOM

     Beat. And then the inert body of STEVEN PRICE slumps out.
     Evelyn walks out of frame. Beat. Then a WHIMPER is heard.
     It seems to be coming from the throat of Steven Price.

INT. BASEMENT - CORRIDORS - SIMULTANEOUS

The lights have begun strobing again. Sara, Eddie and
Pritchett move quickly down corridor after corridor --

SARA
Dr. Blackburn??

-- finally stumbling into:

INT. SATURATION CHAMBER ROOM - CONTINUOUS

      -- where the circle of pulsing lights inside the Chamber
     itself are as bold and blinding as looking into the sun.
     Lighting up the entire room, they can barely make out a thing
     -- except:

A FACE -- frozen in a scream that's pressed against the
capsule's window.

                           EDDIE
                Well, at least Price is still
                under wraps.

Sara squints. And then her eyes grow wide --

SARA
It's Blackburn.

-- the FACE in the window comes into focus:

DR. DONALD W. BLACKBURN

     The trio moves to the Chamber amidst the blinding lights,
     shield their eyes and throw the door open -- A BODY --
     comes tumbling out, the door closing shut behind it.

The three of them are in shock. Blackburn's face is still
pressed against the window. And then Sara re-opens the door.

     And they see: there's nothing attached to Blackburn's head,
     it's just propped in the small sill of the window. And the
     body on the floor just happens to be missing same.

And then Sara sets her teeth, and pulls out her gun.

INT. BASEMENT - CORRIDORS - JUST AFTER

Sara and Eddie on a mission, Glocks in hand and ready,
stalking like cats through the maze of corridors.

EDDIE
Price!!

SARA
He's gotta still be down here.

Pritchett is less enthused.

                           PRITCHETT
                You know, that crowbar, that window?
                Maybe we should just call it a --

SARA/EDDIE
-- Pritchett, shut the fuck up.

PRITCHETT
Oh, dear.

SARA
Price!

PRITCHETT
Oh, dear.

EDDIE
Pritchett -- !

And then he sees that Pritchett's staring slack-jawed into
the:

INT. MORGUE ROOM

-- the table where the body of Evelyn Stockard-Price once
lay is now empty and blood-soaked.

EDDIE
Price, what the fuck did you do?

Eddie turns, enraged, to Sara. She's nowhere to be seen.

INT. BASEMENT CORRIDOR - SIMULTANEOUS

     Sara is wending her way down a passage, gun now lowered
     slightly. For what she's in pursuit of is something that
     seems not only non-threatening, but familiar: a soft, high-
     pitched VOICE that sounds in pain, crying:

VOICE (O.S.)
Please.....anyone....help me?

SARA
Melissa...?

VOICE (O.S.)
For the love of God....please...?

SARA
Melissa, it's Sara -- is that you?

VOICE (O.S.)
Sara...?

SARA
Keep talking, I'll find you!

VOICE (O.S.)
Something....happened --

SARA
-- I'm coming --

                           VOICE (O.S.)
                 -- something horrible...I don't
                understand --

The Voice is somewhere close now -- within just a few feet of
her -- but Sara can see no one.

                           SARA
                If you can stand, if you can just
                raise your arm --

-- and then, from behind a tall pile of stone and mortar
rubble, rises a bloody and absolutely terrified

STEVEN PRICE -- so freaked-out his Voice is just a squeak.

                           PRICE
                I woke up on the floor....there
                was Dr. Blackburn...I don't know
                what happened!

Sara's surprise quickly fades -- replaced by cold, stone
anger.

SARA
I do.

Price rises and starts to slowly approach her, hands in front
of him, stretched in supplication.

PRICE
Then tell me, please -- help me...!

SARA
Don't think so. Stay the fuck back.

PRICE
Please! I need your help.

                           SARA
                Not even for a million dollars, Mr.
                Price.

-- and Sara squeezes the trigger --

PRICE
-- no!! --

-- the first shot splits a brick right next to his ear --
pieces flying everywhere --

      -- the next six are all right on torso-target. .45 caliber
     slugs that make a nice round black hole as they hit him --
     huge ragged explosions of blood and meat as they exit.
     Hideous. Bonnie and Clyde died in their sleep in comparison.
     Pritchett and Eddie enter on the run.

EDDIE
What the hell are you shooting --

-- and then he sees the riddled Price on the ground.

EDDIE
Oh. Jesus.

PRITCHETT
Poor Mr. Price --

SARA
-- fuck Mr. Price! --

He takes the shaking, wild-eyed Sara in his arms. She doesn't
weep, just stands there spasming with shock.

EDDIE
It's okay, everything's okay now.

SARA
He's dead...?

Eddie takes one more look at the carnage...

EDDIE
Don't think it's even an issue.

SARA
We're safe?

PRITCHETT
Uhhhh...

EDDIE
What?

                           PRITCHETT
                Okay -- I'll admit it: I'm totally,
                clinically insane. But I'm still the
                only one who actually got a check
                tonight. It's yours -- if you just get
                me the hell out of here now.

EDDIE/SARA
You got yourself a deal.

     They exit the room, heading for the stairs, not looking back
     at Price's corpse for a second. Beat. And then, emerging from
     the shadows, strolls EVELYN who walks over to her husband's
     body, talking to it:

                           EVELYN
                Steven, you poor, absolutely clueless
                geek. All it would've taken was a simple
                divorce -- and ripping our pre-nup to
                little pieces.

She kneels down next to the bioody corpse, whispers:

                           EVELYN
                But no matter how it ended, please know
                just one thing: from that first moment I
                set eyes on you, I've always loved...
                your money. You, personally -- well,
                frankly just the sight of you has always
                turned my stomach.

A HAND suddenly lashes out and grabs her hard by the
throat.

VOICE
Is that a fact, Princess?

     EVELYN'S EYES widen in horror as she chokes out a GASP: The
     hand belongs to STEVEN PRICE, and he literally picks her up
     by her neck and brings her to her feet.

                           PRICE
                Well, you could have saved us all a
                great deal of time, not to mention
                money, if you'd just let me in on it
                years ago.

With his free hand, he rips off his shirt -- and the blood-
squibbed Kevlar vest underneath it.

                           PRICE
                This kind of special effects crap
                doesn't come cheap -- and I had to pay
                out of pocket! No write-offs here!

He begins moving toward her. She instinctively backs away,
slowly being cornered in an alcove.

EVELYN
How --

     In the alcove is a door -- a very familiar door -- the sealed
     steel portal leading to Vannacutt's body dump. The metal is
     so corroded its surface is misshapen with rust.

                           PRICE
                 -- you must be kidding. You're talking
                to Steven Price -- every place you've
                gone, every person you've seen, every
                word you and Blackburn ever said to each
                other: bugged, taped, seen and heard as
                it happened!

He squeezes tighter, now with both hands; she can barely
breathe.

EVELYN
Steven --

                           PRICE
                 -- anything, sweetheart, you need only
                speak --

EVELYN
-- what...are...you...going...to --

                           PRICE
                 -- just what you wanted everyone here
                to believe in the first place: I'm going
                to murder you, Evelyn, with the greatest
                of pleasure --

EVELYN
-- wit...nesses --

                           PRICE
                 -- witnesses to what? You're already
                dead, Evelyn! Happy Birthday, baby --

-- and before Evelyn can even let out a gasp, he's SLAMS her
up against a door.

     Her body smacks against the rusted metal with a rotted CRACK!
     The "solid" door EXPLODES inward in a shower of rust. The
     rest of the door drops with a thud from its moldy hinges,
     sending Price and Evelyn hurtling down with it, into the
     room.

INT. DECAYING ROOM

Stunned for a moment Evelyn and Price suddenly become aware
that there is another presence in the room:

something DARK -- CHURNING -- TERRIBLE.

     EVELYN'S EYES look across the floorboards: the DUST on the
     floor stands up on end and starts to move like metal filings
     being pulled by a magnet.

EVELYN
Steven...? Are you doing that?

     A dazed Price pulls himself to his feet, he can only hold the
     cut that the fall has opened on his forehead and stare at the
     movement on the floor.

PRICE
No...

                           EVELYN
                No. OhmyGod, Pritchett was right --
                The house IS haunted.

EVELYN tries to right herself. Price's EYES fix on the wall
behind her, trembling.

PRICE
Evelyn... Get up... NOW!

EVELYN
Steven??

She turns and follows his gaze:

A CREEPING DARKNESS is gathering on the wall behind her.

                           PRICE
                It's the Patients -- the Evil -- we've
                released it --

Price tries to move, but he can't -- just stands there,
paralyzed with the surreal horror of it all.

EVELYN scrambles to her feet. Price backs up in horror.

EVELYN
NO -- !!

     Evelyn BOLTS for the door. She doesn't get far. Because,
     suddenly THE CHURNING SHADOWY MASS springs forward! Grabbing
     Evelyn and SLAMMING her back against the wall.

She tries to cry out -- but the dark shape on the wall has
begun to ENGULF her, literally corroding her flesh!

     BLACK TENDRILS like acid-tipped vines, scuttle all over
     her, eating every inch of her body: Her TEETH drop from
     their gums, her EYES rot out of their sockets, her RIBS
     sizzle from her chest -- until she no longer has solid
     human form --

     She's just a flat, silent-screaming image burnt/etched flush
     into the wall -- just like the gruesome images Melissa Marr
     saw through her Camcorder, "painted" on the corridor walls
     outside Vannacutt's operating room.

Price, every limb shaking, backs out of the room into the --

INT. BASEMENT - CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS

      -- his eyes shooting every which way in fear of God-knows-
     what new nightmare -- it doesn't take long. Subtle at first
     -- glimpses caught out of the corner of his eye -- of SHADOWS
     in the room seeming to move:

-- PHFT! -- on the ceiling -- Price whips his head up --

-- PHFT! -- did he see something on the rear wall -- ?

-- PHFT! -- motion from a corner of the floor --

     THEN all the SHADOWS IN THE ROOM - begin to move together
     toward the center of the room -- coalescing into one huge
     MASS OF DARKNESS.

     Price doesn't hang around to see what happens next -- he
     bolts from the room -- only to smack right into: AN OLD
     RUSTED MEDICAL CABINET that swings open to reveal inside one
     of its doors: a 1920's vintage ANATOMICAL CHART with all the
     human organs and parts cut up and re-arranged so that they
     are displayed alphabetically, viewing top-to-bottom.

     And then Price's whole face goes fright-white: on the inside
     of THE OTHER DOOR are the organs and parts of MELISSA MARR
     likewise cut up and alphabetized -- her decapitated head near
     the bottom, labeled "skull."

     Price GASPS and dashes back down the corridor to find that
     the Mass of Darkness has evolved into a HUGE, constantly
     morphing THREE-DIHENSIONAL BEING that lets out a nails-on-
     blackboard SCREECH and charges right for him.

INT. UPSTAIRS - HALLWAY

Where Sara, Eddie and Pritchett are trying with all their
might to pry open the slightly-ajar window -- when they hear:

PRICE (O.S.)
He was right! Pritchett was right!

PRITCHETT
I am.

Sara and Eddie dash further down the...

INT. UPSTAIRS KALLWAY

... where Price staggers into the doorway that leads to the
basement stairs -- frenzied, nearly all his strength gone: