The Haunting Page #5

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EXT. HILL HOUSE DRIVEWAY - DAY

The car rumbles up the drive toward the carport.

INT. NELL'S CAR - DAY

Nell stops the car in front of the entrance, right inside the

carport. In the silence all we can hear is her breathing.

EXT. HILL HOUSE - DAY

Her car sits in front of the house, tiny, alone. Its brake lights

go off.

The finger-like pillars of the car port seem like a hand pinning

the car in place under the House's gaze.

Nell gets out of the car.

Nell stares, daunted... yet there is something about the House. A

romance in its lilac heavy Gothic decay. Nell feels it, is drawn

to it.

EXT. GRAND ENTRY - DAY

Nell, suitcase in hand, climbs the steps to the front doors. On

closer inspection, the snaking shapes of the carved doors depict a

Garden of Eden. At center on the knocker, a tarnished silver Adam

takes the forbidden fruit from his counterpart Eve.

Nell lifts Adam and knocks heavily. There is no answer. Nell

looks around for some sign of life.

Off to one side is a LADDER and PAINT CANS. Somebody must've been

touching up the window trim.

When she looks back the door is AJAR a fraction of an inch.

NELL:

Hello? Hello? Mrs. Dudley? Mrs.

Dudley, are you here? Anybody?

Tentative, she pushes it open into --

INT. GRAND ENTRY - DAY (CONTINUOUS)

-- a vast entry towering away to a ceiling lost in shadow far

above. Rays of light filter through floor-to-ceiling curtains.

Doors lead off in a half dozen directions.

Every piece of woodwork or plaster in the house is carved,

filigreed, painted or ornamented in wild, ornate fashion. It

overwhelms the eye.

NELL:

Wow...

She turns around, sets her suitcase on the marble floor. A short

hallway straight ahead seems to let onto some vast space, dimly

lit.

And then Nell hears a SOUND. Carrying through the empty halls from

some distant place: a low, plaintive MOAN.

Nell freezes. The MOANING stops. Nell strains her ears. And then

the MOAN again. It comes from the short hallway ahead. Nell

starts for it. The Moan stops.

INT. HALL FROM ENTRY TO GREAT HALL - DAY

Nell moves down the hall. It's dim, stale, lined with pier tables,

candelabra.

NELL:

Hello? Hello? Mrs. Dudley?

Her voice echoes from the room beyond. She follows her own voice

into --

INT. GREAT HALL - DAY (CONTINUOUS)

-- A long, oval great hall. Passages and doors lead off in all

directions to God-knows-where. A double-grand staircase at the far

end ascends to a landing shrouded in darkness before turning up the

next floor. Magnificent ANIMAL HEADS carved on the newel posts

glare at her.

Nell makes her way past clusters of furniture, stops at the center.

Silence. An ENORMOUS FIREPLACE dominates one wall. Large enough

to stand in. An iron mesh SCREEN hangs in its mouth. Mantle and

chimney rise in dark, baroque masonry, becoming lost in the shadows

above.

The MOANING sound. Nell spins away from the fireplace. The sound

rises from the door at the very back of the hall. Nell takes a

step toward it.

NELL:

Mrs. Dudley?

She moves up to the door, puts a hand out to it. The MOANING

rises. Nell pushes through --

INT. 1ST FLOOR HALLWAY TOWARDS KITCHEN - DAY (CONTINUOUS)

-- into a much narrower, curving hallway. Doors all along it. The

sound comes from the door right there across from the one Nell just

came through. She flings it open --

INT. KITCHEN - DAY (CONTINUOUS)

-- and comes through into a vast kitchen. A woman in black with

her back to Nell stands at a counter. The moaning comes from a

disreputable old CAN OPENER.

Nell breaths, feels stupid. The woman senses her, turns from her

cans of potatoes. She is MRS. DUDLEY, sallow, unsmiling.

MRS. DUDLEY

It's make the soup or answer the

door. Can't do both.

NELL:

Mrs. Dudley.

MRS. DUDLEY

So far.

Mrs. Dudley wipes her hands, regards Nell, nods.

NELL:

I'm Eleanor Vance, I'm with --

MRS. DUDLEY

-- Dr. Marrow's group. You're the

first.

Mrs. Dudley just stares with her sunken face. It unsettles Nell.

MRS. DUDLEY (cont'd)

I'll show you your room.

INT. GRAND STAIRWAY/MEZZANINE - DAY

Mrs. Dudley glides up the stairs. Nell follows, hoisting her

suitcase after her. It appears the mezzanine ahead leads to a

hallway. But as we draw closer what we thought was a hallway is an

ENORMOUS OIL PAINTING. In it stands a man, his features lost in

the shadows above, only his body visible.

The nameplate reads HUGH CRAIN.

NELL:

Hugh Crain.

Nell looks up:
Mrs. Dudley waits coldly at the top of the stairs.

INT. 2ND FLOOR HALLWAY, NORTH WING - DAY

Mrs. Dudley leads Nell down a curved hallway, over aged Persian

carpets and turns to a door on her left. She throws it open,

stands back. Nell enters.

INT. NELL'S ROOM - DAY

Nell lowers her suitcase.

MRS. DUDLEY

The Purple Room. You're going to

be the first visitors that Hill

House has had since Mister Crain

died.

The room is spacious, in a rococo gothic style with low-relief

woodwork on the walls rising to a dark, coffered, ceiling of carved

ivory. A king-size bed, furniture, all in blue purple. An open

door gives a glimpse of a bathroom.

A large fireplace dominates one wall. Its mantle is carved with

the faces of children, happy, at play, alive. Nell touches the

wood, loving.

NELL:

They're so beautiful. Aren't

they?

MRS. DUDLEY

I've seen 'em. Lot to dust.

NELL:

Well, I've never lived with

beauty. You must love working

here.

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