Poltergeist Page #6

INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT

DIANE:

(getting her back up)

I’m the one who lived with this

freaky thing all day. And nothing

bad happened. It’s like another

side of nature. A side you and I

are not qualified to comprehend.

When you overreact like this it

makes what happened much too

important.

STEVEN:

Nobody goes into the kitchen until

we know what’s happening.

DIANE:

(looking through the stash

box)

We’re out of papers.

46 INT. CHILDREN’S BEDROOM - NIGHT 46

Robbie is watching the tree. Carol Anne is asleep but she’s

tossing and moaning like the wind outside the window.

Another FLASH OF LIGHTNING. Robbie pulls the covers up over

his nose and mouth. His little breath pushing the fabric up

and down as he counts.

ROBBIE:

One... two...

30.

KA-BOOM! The room vibrates and Robbie takes his eyes off the

window for just a moment, looking at the open bedroom door

and the light down the hall from his parent’s room. He could

be out of bed and there in six seconds if he hurried.

.

A SAVAGE CRACK OF LIGHTNING. THE EXPLOSION OF THUNDER RIGHT

ON TOP OF IT.

Robbie snaps a look at the window just in time to see it

happen.

46-A ROBBIE’S POV 46-A

A hurricane BLAST of wind hits the monster oak. The two

branches resembling arms fold forward aiming at the window.

The disfigured crown with the horns and knotty eyes bends

back before tipping forward.

The finger-twigs at the end of the arms reach out hungrily.

46-B ANGLE - THE WINDOW 46-B

THE ENTIRE TREE CRASHES THROUGH ROBBIE’S WINDOW.

A FURNACE OF LIGHTNING accents the assault. Robbie starts

SCREAMING. The finger-twigs wrap around him like skeleton

hands and lift him right out of bed.

Carol Anne sits up and SCREAMS for Diane.

The tree seems to be exhaling. Its breath enveloping Robbie

in a phantom haze. The arms begin to retract pulling Robbie

toward the mouth and eyes.

46-C ANGLE - ON THE DOOR 46-C

Just then, Steve and Diane appear in the doorway. Diane

SCREAMS as...

The tree pulls Robbie right out the window and into an eighty-

mile-per-hour night. The ROAR of wind is almost unbearable...

drowning Robbie’s SCREAMS and those of his parents and Dana

who suddenly appears in the doorway.

46-D INT. DOWNSTAIRS 46-D

Carol Anne is suddenly forgotten as Dana, Diane and Steve

hurl themselves downstairs and through the kitchen, only to

find the door blocked by several large branches.

31.

They scramble back through the kitchen, out the sliding glass

door and into the raging storm.

46-E INT. CHILDREN’S BEDROOM - ANGLE - CAROL ANNE 46-E

The force from the shattered window shoves Carol Anne against

the headboard of her bed where she hugs her clown doll with

all her might, its broad smile suddenly disconcerting as it

appears to be looking toward the closet in her room.

46-F ANGLE - THE CLOSET 46-F

The closet door opens revealing the most feared and dreaded

space in this five-year-old’s tiny, tiny world. Carol Anne

looks where her doll is looking and SCREAMS horribly.

47 EXT. BACK OF HOUSE - SECOND STORY WINDOW - NIGHT 47

The storm lashes the tree. The tree lashes Robbie. RAIN and

WIND and CONDENSATION make it difficult to see everything.

Sixty branches form a briar prison that starts to tear and

strangle. Steve races outside. A WALL of WIND makes his run

SLOW MOTION.

48 INT. CHILDREN’S BEDROOM 48

ANGLE - THE CLOSET

The light inside grows to a supernatural intensity and a

SOUND unlike anything anyone would ever want to hear blasts

through the velocity of the storm. It is the closet sucking

the bedroom into its murderous glare. Anything not tied down

is swallowed. Carol Anne grabs her covers, and SCREAMS. NO

SOUND comes out.

She is lifted completely off the bed by the suction. Only her

death-grip on the sheets keeps her away. Unbelievably, her

clown doll is not affected by the vacuum pull. It just sits

on the floor where Carol Anne dropped it and stares up at

her, smiling.

49 EXT. SECOND STORY WINDOW - NIGHT 49

ANGLE - TREE

Steve reaches the twisting trunk and starts to climb. Diane’s

SCREAMING from the patio is lost in the storm.

32.

Steve reaches Robbie and the fight is defined only by the

flare of stroboscopic lightning. Every time it appears as

though Robbie will be freed, branches envelop him and wind

him tighter.

50 INT. CHILDREN’S BEDROOM - NIGHT 50

CLOSE - CAROL ANNE’S TINY HANDS

The sheets start to peel back. The closet swallows toys and

posters of Darth Vader and R2D2, then sucks harder, the NOISE

something like a colossal straw pulling at the last drop from

a deep, deep well. Only now does the bed give way, flipping

into the air and flying across the room, slamming Carol Anne

inside and blocking the opening with its frame and springs.

.

EXT. SECOND STORY WINDOW - NIGHT

ANGLE - TREE

Steve tears at the branches, trying to free Robbie. A crimson

fluid pumps thick from the branches that Steve destroys. As

suddenly as it began, the final burst of wind passes the tree

like the caboose at the end of a runaway train. He frees his

son and they topple out of the tree. Robbie throws his arms

around his Dad and the two hold on for their lives, gasping,

hugging, choking on the rain and sap. The tree is uprooted

before them and disappears into the storm.

52 OMITTED 52

53 EXT. FREELING’S BACK YARD - NIGHT 53

Steve and Robbie lie on the ground. Both are numb and

buzzing. Diane runs over and hugs them. Then Dana looks in

the sky and points to the horizon.

DANA:

Look, Mom... Dad!!!

Diane and Steve look off into the sky miles away.

54 EXT. BACK YARD - NIGHT 54

A funnel cloud is moving away from Cuesta Verde Estates,

breaking up as it hits the outlying hills.

33.

55 EXT. FREELING’S BACK YARD - NIGHT 55

DANA:

A night twister!

DIANE:

It must of just skimmed us. There

wouldn’t be a house standing if...

STEVE + ROBBIE

Carol Anne!!

DANA:

Upstairs?

DIANE:

(looking at the shattered

upstairs window)

My God!

Everyone runs to the house.

56 INT. UPSTAIRS HALL TO CHILDREN’S BEDROOM - NIGHT 56

Steve and Diane are first into the room. Their expressions

say it all.

57 INT. CHILDREN’S BEDROOM - NIGHT 57

FULL SHOT:

With the exception of the two beds blocking the closet,

Robbie and Carol Anne’s room is stripped clean. Diane lets

out a muffled shriek and throws herself against the

barricade, pulling back mattresses, boxsprings and blankets.

.

Steve joins her and together they work side by side, panting,

crying and calling for Carol Anne.

ANGLE - ROBBIE

Still in a state of complete dislocation, Robbie walks back

into his bedroom and looks at the window. The tree is there

no longer. E. Buzz, the dog, joins Robbie, whimpering at his

feet.

ANGLE - THE CLOSET

34.

Over Diane, SCREAMING out Carol Anne’s name, Steve does the

muscle work, pulling off end tables, Lone Ranger lamps, chest

of drawers, toys and stuffed animals, working his way to the

bottom of this innocent debris.

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