House on Haunted Hill

                           PRICE
                It's...the House!

     And then the MASS OF DARKNESS swirls into sight from below --
     envelops Price -- and sucks him back downstairs, screaming.

     The door slams shut!

     Beat. The three of them just stand there speechless. Then:

                           EDDIE
                What --

                           SARA
                 -- was that??

                           PRITCHETT
                Something...that should probably
                be...avoided --

      -- they turn tail and tear from the room, back to

     INT. HALLWAY

     where they rush toward the partially pried-open window.

                           SARA
                The opening's still too small,
                we'll never get through!

                           EDDIE
                For chrissake give me a hand!

     Three pairs of HANDS grab onto the pry-bar and throw all
     their weight behind it. As they strain and the metal shrieks:

                           SARA
                Pritchett: what is going on?

                           PRITCHETT
                He must've unsealed the room!

                           SARA
                How, he's supposed to be dead!

     A POWERFUL GROAN reverberates through the house: the sound of
     timbers bending and twisting.

     EDDIE'S HEAD whips right - out of the corner of his eye,
     something seen MOVING:

     THE DOOR TO THE BASEMENT - it's turning BLACK -- GANGRENOUS
     -- it's PUTREFYING before their eyes -- bowing in and
     collapsing as it ROTS.

                           SARA
                I think...it's time...to go.

     They whip around and run down the hall toward the living
     room. As they near the end they are stopped dead in their
     track.

     THEIR POV:

     A WALL nearby TWISTS and BENDS into a new and different
     WALL -- one with DOORS that now swing open -- leading to
     some dark oblivion.

     INT. HALLWAY

     They stare at the sight before them.

                           PRITCHETT
                Hail Mary, full of grace -- the house is
                growing!

                           EDDIE
                It's not going to let us out!

                           SARA
                     (sensing something)
                No. It's just trying to frighten us.

                           EDDIE
                It's succeeding!

                           SARA
                All the plates sealing the windows and
                doors -- there's got to be some way of
                raising them manually. They didn't just
                appear out of thin air -- there's got
                to be pulleys, cables or something, that
                make them go up and down.

                           PRITCHETT
                In the attic?

     The WALL at the end of the corridor is bending and twisting,
     taking on a new, hideous shape.

                           EDDIE
                If you know where it is, get there!

                           PRITCHETT
                Me? You've gotta be kidding.

     The SHADOW THING rounds the bend at the end of the corridor --
     it's enveloped the entire CEILING.

     Pritchett looks at Sara and Eddie plaintively --

                           SARA
                Move!

      -- then BOLTS reluctantly down the hall. Just as THE THING
     OF SHADOWS drops down from the ceiling; begins spreading out
     across the floor and sinking into the floorboards.
     Disappearing. And then a terrible SILENCE.

                           EDDIE
                Where did it go?

                           SARA
                Run.

                           EDDIE
                What --

      -- and then the FLOORBOARDS of the corridor start EXPLODING
     in a path toward Sara and Eddie.

                           SARA
                I said run!

     They race down the corridor. Behind them the floor is ripping
     up, sending debris into the air.

     Sara and Eddie dash into another corridor. Shit! A cul-de-
     sac, terminating with nothing but solid wall. They whip back
     around, only to see:

     THE EXPLODING FLOOR banging a hard right and hurtling
     straight down the cul-de-sac right for them!

     Trapped, they just stare terrified and helpless - and then
     Eddie looks up and spots:

     An ORNATE CHANDELIER hanging above them.

     The EXPLODING FLOORBOARDS are nearly upon them.

     EDDIE LEAPS up grabbing the bottom on the fixture. He begins
     pulling himself up.

     A FLOORBOARD next to Sara's foot detonates -- she screams:

                           SARA
                EDDIE!

     He grabs her and pulls her up -- just as every floorboard
     she's standing on ERUPTS AND GOES FLYING, opening a HUGE
     CHASM below them!

     The two of them exchange a glance that is simultaneously I'm
     okay/you're okay/are we both going nuts? That's when they
     hear a METALLIC SCREECH above them:

     THE CHANDELIER is ripping out of the ceiling. PING! BAM! Two
     of the three remaining screws pop free and go flying -- the
     chandelier's mount takes a 90-degree screech'n'jolt - and
     Sara's already tenuous grip is lost. She crashes helplessly
     down into the CHASM, disappearing into the black void below.

     INT. DECAYING ROOM - CONTINUOUS

     Sara lands with a THUD, buried knee-deep in the rotted floor
     of the room below. The Room -- where Evelyn met her demise.

     INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS

     Eddie manages to swing the chandelier over to the side where
     the floor is still intact.

     INT. DECAYING ROOM - CONTINUOUS

     Sara's just about cleared her head from the fall -- when her
     eyes go wide. Looks down: she's SINKING INTO THE FLOOR.

     She cries out -- and suddenly everything beneath her just
     lets go. And she's hurtling like a rock down into:

     INT. SUBTERRANEAN CHAMBER - CONTINUOUS

     SARA lands on her face in some pitch-black space.

     When her eyes adjust, she sees she's in a vault-like room
     that is filled with stalaqmite-like MOUNDS OF DIRT AND ROCK.
     Bizarre geological formations, each one unique in its own
     skewed way, it appears for a moment as though Sara has fallen
     across time and space and onto the surface of a planet we
     don't even have a name for yet.

     INT. THE HOUSE - VARIOUS ROOMS - SIMULTANEOUS

     The full ANGER of this place is now manifesting:

      -- WALLS writhe and twist in fury, forming

      -- STAIRWAYS that shake themselves into splinters of frenzy;

      -- CARVINGS in the wainscotted paneling that become animate
     and turn upon themselves, cannibalizing the writhing,
     screaming walls that spawned them.

     INT. HALLWAY - SIMULTANEOUS

     EDDIE PEERS into the hole in the floor: there is only
     darkness that seems to go on forever.

                           EDDIE
                Sara...? Sara...?

     INT. SUBTERRANEAN CHAMBER - SIMULTANEOUS

     As Sara tries to pull herself to her feet she sees: DIRT and
     ROCK beginning to FALL from the strange FORMATIONS
     surrounding her. And then all becomes clear as to where and
     who she's with:

     Beneath all that effluence are the REMAINS of Vannacutt's
     VICTIMS. Some are missing body parts. Some are only body
     parts. Some are bound with leather straps as if they were
     just dumped there after dying on the electro-shock or
     dissection table.

     SARA, lets out the SCREAM of her life.

     INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS

     Eddie hears her and bolts madly down the hall.

                           EDDIE
                Sara!

     He races toward the stairwell leading to the basement.

     INT. SUBTERRANEAN CHAMBER - CONTINUOUS

     Sara leaps to her feet and tries to reach for the hole in the
     ceiling - it's just out of reach.

     Then she senses something else in there with her.
     Reluctantly, she turns around:

     The Shadow Thing appears, festering on the wall. It quickly
     splits into parts and disappears into the rotted corpses. AND
     THEY START TO MOVE.

     Rising to life, foul breath bellowing into them, slowly
     starting to come towards her in a dance macabre --

                           VOICE (O.S.)
                     (a whisper)
                Sara.

     Sara looks up to see EDDIE in the opening above.

                           EDDIE
                Grab my hand.

     He bends down to grab for her, but she's just out of reach.

     DECAYING HANDS AND ARMS are suddenly grabbing at Sara,
     tearing at her clothes, shredding the flesh beneath them
     bloody with their long, post-mortem nails.