House on Haunted Hill Page #12

SARA:

Ghosts killed your father?

PRITCHETT:

Not ghosts... at least not what you're

thinking... Vannacutt used to dump the

bodies of his failed experiments

somewhere in the house...

SARA:

And you think it's in there?

PRITCHETT:

Accumulated evil... festering for

decades...

(switching gears)

But I'm a drunk... so don't listen to

me.

EDDIE:

So you're saying as long as that door

stays locked, we're okay?

PRITCHETT:

Hell NO!! The House will kill ya!

Pritchett's oblivious: he's shining his light back down the

corridor -- at its terminus it splits into four new

corridors.

PRITCHETT:

I think we go down there and take a

right.

The trio follow Pritchett. WE remain staring at the STEEL

DOOR. Almost imperceptibly -- or is it the darkness playing

tricks on us? One of the streaks of mold seems to have grown

longer.

CUT TO:

INT. CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS

Pritchett leading the three others down a new corridor,

clearly clueless as to where the hell they are. Shines the

flashlight up to find they're in --

INT. ELECTRO-SHOCK ROOM

a small room containing a large leather table with a myriad

of mildewed buckle-straps attached. Behind the table: a

monolithic brass and wood DYNAMO that looks powerful enough

to keep Orange County lit for a year.

PRITCHETT:

Electro-shock therapy. There's several

of them hooked together... Dr. Vannacutt

liked to zap his patients in multiples

of ten. More enerqy-efficient or

something. Let's try a left.

They turn left. A small, barely noticeable arc of electricity

zaps from a dangling, half-severed wire.

CUT TO:

INT. SATURATION CHAMBER ROOM

Pritchett dead-ended in another room.

PRITCHETT:

Damn-it-all! This is the Saturation

Chamber! Left again!

He all but yanks Price along with him, Price blurting as he

disappears from frame:

PRICE:

What's a "Saturation Chamber"?

EDDIE and SARA linger, staring at the big, cast-iron capsule-

shaped contraption. We hear Pritchett's Voice in the

distance, explaining:

PRITCHETT (O.S.)

New wrinkle on an old theory for

treating schizophrenia. 19th Century, I

think:
what would drive a sane man mad

should make a madman sane. The Vannacutt

version was:
bombard the patient with

aural and visual stimuli far more

frightening than any hallucination they

could ever produce, it'd traumatize 'em

back to "normalcy."

EDDIE:

Did it work?

Eddie looks up:
Pritchett and Price are nowhere to be seen.

EDDIE:

Hey! Where'd you guys go?

PRITCHETT (O.S.)

Left, goddamnit!

SARA:

(grabbing Eddie's arm)

C'mon -- I've got like zero interest

in getting lost down here.

He guides her out of the room and down --

INT. BASEMENT CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS

-- to his left.

PULL BACK -- And we see, simultaneously, Pritchett, Price

and flashlight walking down the corridor that was to their

left -- Eddie and Sara walking down the one that was to

their left:
a long, snaking passage going in the completely

opposite direction.

CUT TO:

INT. BASEMENT CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS

Eddie and Sara navigating the various twists and turns in the

darkness.

EDDIE:

Hey, Price! Pritchett!

Sara's gaze falls on: A RAGGED HOLE above their heads,

broken into the wall of the corridor. CABLES and WIRES can

be seen inside the hole.

SARA:

Lemme try something. Gimme a boost.

Eddie grabs her by her butt. She bristles.

SARA:

-- hey, pal, that wasn't code for --

-- and with his considerable strength, lifts Sara in the air

so she's sitting on his hands like a chair --

EDDIE:

-- where you need to go?

As much as she tries to stifle it, Sara lets loose a giggle.

SARA:

Three steps forward -- I want to get up

there.

EDDIE:

Why?

SARA:

This whole place can't be wired

to just one circuit --

CUT TO:

INT. CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS

Pritchett and Price taking a hard right into --

INT. GEAR ROOM

We recognize the rusted gears from the "lockdown" sequence.

PRITCHETT:

Bingo!

He shines the light through the cavernous space: an immense

mechanism of cams, pulleys and counterweights. Price stares

in absolute awe -- this is something straight out of the

Industrial Revolution.

He eyes the bank of long-handled, mother-of-pearl tipped

levers.

CUT TO:

INT. WALL - CONTINUOUS

Sara with her hands deep in the recess behind the wall

sconce, yanking and re-connecting wires until -- she gets

a spark.

INT. BASEMENT CORRIDOR - SIMULTANEOUS

It burns her fingers and she yelps -- but the lights in the

corridor FLICKER ON for a moment. And then again. And again.

It's a lousy source of illumination, but...

SARA:

-- better than nothing. Down, big

fella'.

Eddie lowers her back down to earth -- his hand lingering for

a moment on her bottom. Their eyes meet for a nanosecond.

SARA:

Thanks.

EDDIE:

Most fun I've had all day.

SARA:

You need to get out more.

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