Poltergeist Page #13

STEVEN:

Not much room for a pool.

68.

MR. TEAGUE

We own the land. We’ve already made

arrangements to relocate the

cemetery.

STEVEN:

Can you do that? I mean, isn’t it

rather... I don’t know...

sacrilegious?

MR. TEAGUE

Don’t worry about it. It’s not an

ancient tribal burial ground. It’s

just... people. Besides, we’ve done

it before.

STEVEN:

When?

MR. TEAGUE

In ‘76. Right down there.

STEVEN:

(struck)

Cuesta Verde?

MR. TEAGUE

All three hundred acres. It was

quite a job, let me tell you.

STEVEN:

(to himself, his mind

racing)

I never heard anything about it.

MR. TEAGUE

Well, it’s not something you go

around advertising on billboards

and the sides of buses.

Steve is speechless. He looks back and forth between the

existing cemetery and Cuesta Verde Estates below.

MR. TEAGUE

What are you worried about?

Relatives and friends can visit

their loved ones at Broxton

Memorial Park. It’s only five

minutes further out for Christ’s

sake.

69.

STEVEN:

(quietly, to himself)

Five minutes. I guess that’s no

great hardship. I suppose that

would be okay.

MR. TEAGUE

Okay with whom?

STEVEN:

Whomever might complain.

MR. TEAGUE

Nobody’s complained up til now.

EXT. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT IRVINE CAMPUS - ESTABLISHING

105 105

-DAY

Students mill about between classes. It’s a beautiful day at

Irvine.

INT. PSYCHIC RESEARCH CENTER - LECTURE HALL - DAY

106

106

DR. LESH AND A SENIOR ADVISOR, ANTHONY FARROW.

They are sitting in an empty lecture hall. Monitors are

everywhere. Several people are filing out. Lesh is exhausted.

Apparently she’s been through quite an ordeal. Anthony Farrow

is twenty years old than Dr. Lesh, which puts him into his

early eighties.

He puts a comforting arm around her and sits on the desk,

smiling like the wizened sage he is.

FARROW:

In a word?

He hands her back the video tapes.

DR. LESH

In a word.

FARROW:

Too graphic!

DR. LESH

It was the episode as it occurred.

FARROW:

Perhaps.

70.

DR. LESH

Oh, Tony... you too?

FARROW:

I so wish to accept what I saw. I’m

only steps away from the old wooden

bridge myself. To believe that

something exists on the other side

would be like a warm light in the

window.

DR. LESH

Perhaps if tendrils of ectoplasm

were all that showed up?

FARROW:

Better.

DR. LESH

A smoky shape lasting merely an

instant.

FARROW:

Even better.

DR. LESH

Nothing on tape at all... only

sounds, rappings, a sigh.

FARROW:

You’d still be answering questions.

They’d all want to go back to the

house tonight. You gave them too

much, Martha. Too much too soon.

Nothing was left to the

imagination. This isn’t a science

yet. It’s still a sideshow and your

troubadours were not in their makeup.

DR. LESH

And these? What do you make of

these?

She gestures to the dozens of jewelry pieces on the desk.

Farrow picks up a beautiful brooch. He holds it up to the

light.

FARROW:

It’s the real McCoy, that’s one

thing for certain.

71.

Farrow pins the brooch on Lesh’s sweater and takes an antique

ring, placing it on her finger.

.

FARROW:

Dear Martha. May we cross that

bridge together someday? May all we

believe be true. May we picnic in

the clouds.

Dr. Lesh starts to laugh and punches Farrow on his leg.

DR. LESH

You old con artist. If only you

were fifty years younger.

FARROW:

Let me give you some advice. Secret

a few of those gems. Come out of

this with something in your pocket.

The National Enquirer pays more for

inventing what we must bust our

rumps investigating and for what?

DR. LESH

Okay, pops! I’m making you the

accessory in this crime.

She picks out a set of earrings and stuffs them into her

change purse. Farrow laughs as Dr. Lesh starts to fold up the

napkin containing the stones and jewelry. Suddenly Farrow

stops her, reaching for something in the pile.

FARROW:

This is interesting.

He picks up a thin, wiry clip that looks like it could be a

dog muzzle for a miniature poodle.

FARROW:

Did this teleport with everything

else?

DR. LESH

Yes, I picked it up myself. Why?

He turns it over in his hand.

FARROW:

It’s a staple, a clamp for the jaw.

DR. LESH

Not something you’d wear to the

masquerade ball.

72.

FARROW:

No, but you would wear it to your

own funeral. It’s a mortician’s

trick. It prevents the mouth from

suddenly dropping open when the

body is in repose. It discourages a

great deal of embarrassment and...

fainting.

DR. LESH

(with a shiver she looks

at her watch)

Oh darn, I promised I’d be back

before dark.

FARROW:

Martha, my dear. Why don’t you let

Tangina have a go?

DR. LESH

(sourly)

I was afraid you’d suggest that.

Tangina’s so... melodramatic.

FARROW:

Yes. But she’s a house-cleaner and

right now with what you tell me

about that little girl, I think

it’s high time you brought out your

big guns.

107 EXT. CUESTA VERDE ESTATES, PHASE ONE - NIGHT 107

This time we are framing the first row of headstones, PUSHING

PAST them to the warm suburban glow that reaches for miles

into the hills, joined by a sprinkling of stars on this

moonlit night.

108 INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT 108

MOVING SHOT:

We are following Steve and Diane. They seem to be gazing down

as they walk through their home. CAMERA WIDENS to reveal Ryan

and Lesh ahead of the Freelings. They appear to be following

something, also looking down at their feet. CAMERA PANS DOWN,

expecting to find E. Buzz at the head of this train.

Instead...

We meet TANGINA BARRONS, astrologist, clairvoyant, midget.

73.

She is dressed in a California Hawaiian print dress, wears

her hair in a beehive, dons aviator sunglasses and casually

sips coffee from a mug as she explores the Freeling home.

Tangina stops and looks at her followers. She speaks with a

very polite Southern accent.

TANGINA:

Would you all mind hangin’ back.

You’re jamming my frequencies.

They oblige and Tangina waddles her way down the hall and up

the stairs unaccompanied.

DR. LESH

I know what you’re thinking. You’ll

have to take my word on this. She’s

cleaned many houses. Her gifts are

well documented at the

parapsychology laboratory at Duke

University, University of Virginia,

the...

Diane is becoming more and more distraught over something.

DIANE:

We haven’t heard a word from Carol

Anne since last night.

TANGINA (O.S.)

Why is this door locked, Mr.

Freeling?

Steve looks up the stairs, he’s about to answer but instead

decides to concentrate. A pause.

.

DIANE:

Answer her.

STEVEN:

(softly)

I am.

Tangina appears at the upper rail and looks down between the

banister posts.

TANGINA:

I am addressing the living?

STEVEN:

(giving up)

I’m sorry. That’s the room my son

and daughter occupy.

74.

DR. LESH

We believe it’s the heart of the

house.

Rate this script:2.5 / 2 votes