The Nightmare Before Christmas

FADE IN:

PROLOGUE:

CLOSE ON:

AN OLD-FASHIONED CALENDAR,

the kind that used to hang in offices in the forties. Each day

is a tear-off page. The dates are printed in bold black

lettering.

The pages of days of the year zip off -- at a rate faster than

the eye can really register. The impression should be of time

whizzing by...

Over this, SANTA CLAUS narrates....

SANTA (V.O.)

'Twas a long time ago, quite a bit to be fair

In a place that I'm sure you are quite unaware.

For our story that you are about to be told

Began in the holiday worlds of old.

Without holidays, goodness, how dull life would be

Without their distraction and pleasure and glee.

The calendar makes a SUDDEN STOP AT

CHRISTMAS.

The calendar page peels back to reveal the first hint of color in

the black and white of the year. Smoke curls up from the chimney

of a snow-covered cottage in a clearing of a snow-covered pine

forest. THE STOP IS ONLY FOR A BEAT.

Then the calendar speeds on.

SANTA (V.O.) (CONT'D)

But our holidays are the result of much fuss

And hard work for the worlds that must make them for us

The calendar STOPS again. This time at

VALENTINE'S DAY.

This stop is short, but longer than the last -- as each

subsequent stop will be.

In Valentine-ville, FAT CUPIDS shoot arrows at distant chocolate-

dripping hearts:
target practice.

SANTA (V.O.) (CONT'D)

See, each holiday town works all year to create

Twenty-four special hours, fantastically great.

Soon the calendar whirls on. Next STOP is

EASTER:

where it is spring. CACKLING HENS sit side-by-side on their long

row of nests. In unison, choreographed like some ballet, they

lay their pre-decorated eggs.

The eggs then drop down a chute and land on a conveyor belt which

carries them out ot the henhouse and into waiting Easter baskets.

SANTA (V.O.) (CONT'D)

Fleeting twenty-four hours take long to prepare,

A full year of planning and plenty of care.

But now getting back to the story at hand

I should mention THIS POINT about holiday lands --

The calendar flips to the

FOURTH OF JULY.

FIREWORKS.

-- ABE LINCOLN fires a cannon. The cannonball explodes mid-air,

showering down the word, "HAPPY."

-- BETSY ROSS uses a SPARKLER to write the word, "FOURTH."

-- PAUL REVERE sets off the first of six rockets. Rocket #1

erupts into an "O." #2 traces an "F" -- together they read "OF."

Rocket #3 won't light. Neither will #4, #5, or #6. Paul Revere

panicks.

But PAUL REVERE'S HORSE saves the day. He kicks off his

horseshoes -- shooting them at the side of a wooden fence. As

they hit the boards each becomes a letter: "J," "U," "L," "Y."

SANTA (V.O.) (CONT'D)

For each one, way back when, was alas unaware

Of the others' existence, now I've said it -- so there!

The calendar pages tear on, slowing at October 29, slowing more

at, and stopping at the 31st.

SANTA (V.O.) (CONT'D)

But once there occurred a calamity SO GREAT!

When two of the worlds did collide by mistake...

The october 31st page peels back to... nothing. To BLACK. We

fall in, or perhaps it should feel more like we're swallowed up.

TITLE SEQUENCE.

Carved JACK O'LANTERNS come at us in the long tunnel of darkness.

Collision seems inevitable, but in the instant before we would

slam into them, the jack o'lanterns veer off, turning to display

the various credits on their uncarved backsides.

When the last jack o'lantern zooms toward us, it doesn't veer

off. It keeps coming and fast. Rather than collide with it

though -- we fall straight into one of the PUMPKINHEAD'S CARVED-

OUT, TRIANGULAR EYES into the further black there and out...

A CRYPT DOOR:

which opens onto the

EXT. HALLOWEENLAND CEMETERY. NIGHT.

The bloated orange disk of the MOON illuminates Halloweenland's

delicately decrepit graveyard.

REVERSE ON PUMPKINHEAD,

giant jack o'lantern head now set on the squat vines of his many

leafy legs. He looks more like a spider than like anything else

as he scuttles across the cemetery toward the big pumpkin patch.

>>>>> THIS IS HALLOWEEN

PUMPKINHEAD:

Boys and Girls of every age

Wouldn't you like to see something strange?

Come with us and you will see...

This our town of Halloween!

Pumpkinhead has reached the

PUMPKIN PATCH:

where he drops down among his fellow pumpkins -- who all wake up

at once -- sudden jack o'lantern mouths and eyes glowing wide for

the chorus...

PUMPKIN PATCH CHORUS

This is Halloween, this is Halloween!

Pumpkins scream in the dead of night --

This is Halloween, everybody make a scene

Trick or treat 'til the neighbors gonna die of fright!

EXT. HALLOWEEN TOWN. NIGHT/CONTINUOUS TIME.

Beyond the graveyard lies the little city of odd expressionist

angles and the morbid extravaganza of Gothic manses.

PUMPKIN PATCH CHORUS (V.O.) (CONT'D)

It's our town. Everybody scream.

In this town of Halloween...

We swoop down the street, through the creaky iron gate of a...

EXT. DESERTED GOTHIC MANSE. NIGHT/CONTINUOUS TIME.

We enter THROUGH A BROKEN, COBWEB-CLOGGED WINDOW into...

INT. DESERTED GOTHIC MANSE. NIGHT/CONTINUOUS TIME.

Many CREATURES hide in the shadows of this creepy house. The

camera finds them...

CREATURE #1

I am the one hiding under your bed,

Teeth ground sharp and eyes glowing red.

CREATURE #2

I am the one hiding under your stairs

Fingers like snakes and spiders in my hair.

IN THE MANSE'S DECAYED PARLOR,

every item of furniture that could conceivably serve as a coffin

springs open -- the grandfather clock, the window seat, the sofa,

the chaise longe, the hearth rug (covering a trap door), the

drawers of a sideboard and out pop

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