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DR. LESH (CONT)
(indicating monitors)
Any movement out of those things?
RYAN
(whispering)
There’s been some ionization fluct. I’d like
to make sure they’re not caused by humidity
coming from structure leakage, but I’m not
going up there to find out.
Lesh goes to the console TV and, assuming everyone is asleep, she turns it off. In a very small voice Diane leans on her elbow.
DIANE
Please. Leave it on.
Dr. Lesh smiles, it’s the first time we’ve seen her do this and it reminds Diane at once of her favorite story-book grandma who bakes cookies and knits cornforters.
CLOSE - DIANE
She smiles back and motions for Dr. Lesh come over.
DIANE
When things get. quiet like now I can imagine
how all this must look from your end. I’m
really embarrassed.
DR. LESH
Oh, nonsense. I’ll tell you what is embarrassing.
My being here with you nice people. Parapsychology
isn’t something you master in. There arc
no certificates of graduation, no license
to practice. I’m a professional psychologist
who spends most of her time engaged in this
ghostly hobby, which makes me, I suppose,
the most irresponsible sixty-one-year old
woman I know.
DIANE
You were so funny. Your hands were shaking
a mile a minute.
Diane starts to giggle. It’s a release and Dr. Lesh joins her.
DR. LESH
It isn’t over. I’m perfectly terrified. It’s
all these things we don’t understand. I feel
like the proto-human, stepping out of the
forest primeval and seeing the moon for the
first time. Throwing rocks at it.
DIANE
You mean someday we’ll understand these things?
DR. LESH
When it is recognized for what it is. As
any science. Understanding and sponsorship
seem always to be one hundred years behind
ridicule and doubt. Out of this experience,
should we capture a high resolution photograph
of a genuine manifestation Time Magazine
will still put President Reagan on its next
cover.
ROBBIE
If I got killed would I come back as a ghost
and get stuck in the house like my sister?
DIANE
Your sister isn’t dead, Robbie.
ROBBIE
If I got killed could I visit her and show
her how to get back here if you tied a rope
around me and held it tight? Then somebody
could come get me and we could move somewhere
else?
DR. LESH
Some people believe that when you die your
soul goes to heaven.
ROBBIE
When Grampa was dead I looked at him on the
hospital bed and I was watchin’ , hut nothing
went out of him.
DIANE
His soul was invisible. You couldn’t see
it going to the sky.
ROBBIE
How come then Grandpa isn‘t on television
with Carol Anne?
DR. LESH
Some people believe that when you die there
is a wonderful light. As bright as the sun
but it doesn’t hurt to look into it. All
the answers to all the questions you want
to know are inside that light. And when you
walk to it...you become a part of it forever.
Now, some people die, but they don’t know
they’re gone.
ROBBIE
They think they’re still alive?
DR. LESH
That’s right. Maybe they didn’t; went to
die. Maybe they weren’t ready. Maybe they
hadn’t begun to live yet or lived a long,
long time anyway, but wanted more life. They
resist going into the light no matter how
hard the light wants them. They hang around,
watch TV, watch their friends grow up, feeling
all unhappy or jealous and those feelings
are bad, they hurt. And then some people
just get lost on the way to the light. They
need someone to lead them there.
ROBBIE
So some people get angry end throw things
around like in my bedroom?
DR. LESH
Yes. Just like in school. There are people
who are nice to you. And people who are mean.
ROBBIE
I got beat up once by three kids. They took
my lunch money. Maybe they got hit by a truck
and are upstairs right now.
DIANE
Let’s get some shuteye, whad’ya say, partner?
ROBBIE
Goodnight, Mom. ‘Nite, lady. ‘Nite, Dad.
‘Nite, E. Buzz.
Robbie puts his head down on the pillow and Diane and Dr. Lesh share a warm look over him. Robbie sits back up suddenly and looks at the TV set.
ROBBIE
‘Nite, Carol Anne.
Flanked by four banks of monitors and oscilloscopes, Tak's stomach growls. He turns back looking over his shoulder at the kitchen.
ANGLE - TAK
He leans his chair back on its hind legs until his head reaches around the corner. Tak “pfffts” to Ryan. Ryan looks up from a Penthouse Magazine that he is studying by penlight. Tak gestures for Ryan to relieve him for a few minutes.
FULL SHOT - BOTTOM OF STAIRCASE
Tak gets up and Ryan sits down, getting right back into his Penthouse after a cursory look at the monitors and readouts. Ryan puts a Walkman over his ears and pops a Herbie Hancock tape in the cassette.
The refrigerator is the perfect target for Tak’s housebreaking skills. He turns once, looking over his shoulder before opening the Amana.. The light inside bathes everything in white. Tak takes out a salad bowl and noshes from that, but his chewing is too loud so he opts for a beautiful New York steak wrapped in cellophane.
Placing the steak on the dark counter, Tak stuffs a chicken leg into his mouth and searches the kitchen for a steak knife. He pulls his flashlight from his hip pocket and begins pulling out drawers...
A new sound is added to his search. A CRAWLING GUSHY SOUND that bubbles and softly hisses. Tak turns and sees a shape moving along the counter where he put the steak. Approaching, Tak tilts his flashlight so the beam hits the object moving on the counter.
Tak's P.O.V.
The New York Steak is alive with CANCER! It actually crawls over and over its own rampant cell growth.
He starts to gag looking at it and realizes the chicken is still in his mouth. He spits it onto the floor and shines his flashlight on top.
A thousand maggots crawl away from it into the dark corners of the kitchen. Tak starts to retch and flails into a small powder room.
Tak turns the light on and retches into the sink.
Ryan is reading the letters to Forum and hasn’t noticed the activity on the first readout. Slowly, the equipment comes alive, purring softly, images vibrating. Ryan is too involved in Penthouse to notice the change. Herbie Hancock leaks from his headphones.
Tak is catching his breath, his head lowered in frame. He stands up suddenly checking his complexion in the mirror.
SMASH CUT TO:
HIS MIRRORED REFLECTION
His reflection is a ROTTING CORPSE, hair wild and streaming, his mouth open in a crazy way, teeth hanging by leathery threads, a funeral suit from the neck down.
The bulb over the mirror CHANGES HUE from white to yellow to orange to pink. In a burst of electricity it EXPLODES over the sink as Tak wheels around showing us his LIVE IMAGE, BACK TO NORMAL.
CLOSE - RYAN
Aware of nothing, reading, tapping his foot.
ANGLE - BEHIND RYAN
Something is aglow at the top of the stairs.
Something is starting to descend.
Something ectoplasrnic and blue-green.
The oscilloscopes are sine-waving like crazy. The remote cameras are triggered and click on. Tape machines roll automatically.
The substance is heading down.
Tak walks forward, his eyes riveted to the staircase. He feels in the dark until his hand touches Ryan's head. Ryan turns around to see who’s behind him and shines his flashlight up into Tak’s face.
CLOSE - TAK
Lit from below adds a demented aspect to Tak’s already terrified expression. Ryan looks immediately in the direction Tak is fixating...THE TOP OF THE STAIRS.
BEHIND BOTH TAK AND RYAN
The crawling mass coming down the stairs
resembles a giant hand
with long, searching fingers, flowing down
the stairs and heading right
for the two technicians.
Ryan stands and backs away two steps.
CLOSE -TAK
He wants to scream out but cannot find the breath. The air in the room is suddenly thin and electrostatically charged.
RYAN
It's manifesting! It’s manifesting! Look
at the scope!
TAK
Watch the trip wires! Temperature's dropping.
RYAN
Radical!!
TAK
Can you breathe?
RYAN
Can you run? I’m workin' on it.
The fingers are almost to the bottom. The smoking fingertips suddenly rise straight up into the air like sky-writing. Rising right up to the ceiling. Another tentacle of ectoplasm seems to come forward. Larger and thicker than the rest and still growing, it studies the VTR and Panasonic camera, waltzing above it, hovering curiously close, then retracting suddenly like a King Cobra.
Dares to look at the monitor. His mouth drops open. He sees something we don’t. His eyes shift back and forth between the manifestation and the monitor. He bears his teeth to scream and...
TAK
DOCTOR LEEEEEEEEEEESH!!!
EXTREME - CLOSE SHOTS
DR. LESH
Her eyes open and she immediately pulls out
her glasses.
STEVE
Falls between two chairs trying to stand.
DIANE
Rising to her knees she looks out into the
hall and hugs Robbie protectively.
Ectoplasmic mist wanders aimlessly, passing under tables, chairs, circling lamps.
DR. LESH
(to Diane)
Have you experienced this before?
DIANE
First time!
DR. LESH
Me too.
At this moment every lightbulb in the room comes on. The brightness growing to blinding levels. Everyone covers their eyes.
STEVE
(yelling)
Smells like a short!
DIANE
(yelling)
It’s going to explode!
The hum of electrostatic charge races up the scales to what sounds like feedback Overload, then...
FLASH FLASH - FLASH
Everything is dark again. The episode ended. The room is very quiet.
Dr. Lesh breaks the silence.
DR. LESH
Roll it back!
Tak hits the rewind switch on both VTRs.
Diane, Steve and Robbie all run to the display panel.
RYAN
(like a kid)
I think it recorded. 1 think we got one on
tape. Yes. Yes.. .we got it recorded!!!
WE MOVE from the faces of the Freelings and Lesh to:
We SEE the empty hallway and staircase in black and white on one screen. On the other a spectroscopic breakdown of color patterns in infrared.
The picture on the screen becomes grainy, smoky. A bright glowly substance begins to form into tendrils that move down the stairs and very close to the cameras. The black and white monitor shows what the human eye witnessed. The color infrared showed what the technology captured.
MOVE IN TO HER as she watches the color monitor.
The smoky substance twists and melts and forms what appears to be the shape of a man’s back. The shape moves in front of the CAMERA and we see what could be an OLD MAN looking over his shoulder with a suspicious expression, and then walking past a little girl, not Carol Anne, holding a ball. She wanders through the living room as if lost. Suddenly, the living room is filled with manifestations. FOUR MEN in burlap type coats, floppy hats, denim and boots face away from the CAMERAS, a WOMAN dressed in the style of the 1920’s moves through the room, tears on her face--people of all ages and descriptions wander aimlessly, lost and sad through the living room.
No manifestation makes contact with any other. They don’t even seem to be aware that others exist -- an OLD WOMAN g1ances at the CAMERAS disinterested1y--and a YOUNG BOY moves toward the CAMERA and evaporates.
The screen suddenly becomes BLACK, filled
by two glowing beams -- the beams pull back
and we realize that they are EYES of a scary
old man. It is the face of pure chaotic horror.
A vision of madness and murder.
96 ON DIANE AND ROBBIE - NIGHT
She covers Robbie's eyes and SCREAMS continuously, out of control, for this is the pit of her nightmare.
DIANE
That thing is in there with my baby! That
thing! That thing!
DR. LESH (O.C.)
My God! There are hundreds.
ANGLE - FULL
Steve is holding Diane now, stroking her hair until her SCREAMS turn into SOBS. Lesh and the technicians look on silently. Steve leads Diane and Robbie back into the living room. Dr. Lesh takes out the two tapes and puts them into a briefcase and locks it with a key.
DISSOLVE TO:
CLOSE - DUST PAN
Crowded with a mixture of filled and decayed teeth from last evening’s hailstorm. Steve closes the trashcan and wipes his hands against his shirt. The portable TV is on, turned, as usual, to a static channel.
FULL SHOT - ROBBIE
Dressed to travel with little suitcase in hand. At his side is E. BUZZ on leash.
DIANE
Tell Grandma to call the very second you
walk in.
STEVE
Taxi’s here.
DIANE
Don’t be scared of the taxi man, he’s a friend
of Daddy’s and mine.
ROBBIE.
(agitated at all this fussing)
I'm seven years old, gimme a break.
STEVE
That’s what I like to hear. Let’s move out!
...You’re about to have yourself a real adventure.
ROBBIE
(acting grown up)
I don’t need no more adventure. I need to
get some sleep.
Diane and Steve watch Robbie and E. Buzz go out the door. Steve starts to follow, reaching out to help with the bag. Robbie waves him of f.
ROBBIE
I can do it myself. Bye.
DIANE
(tearful, but holding back)
Bye, sweetheart. Call us.
Robbie and E. Buzz climb into a taxi. It pulls away from the curb.
Dr. Lesh sorting through the brooches, stickpins, hail combs and cameos. Brass buttons, pocket watches and cufflinks.
DR. LESH
This cameo. One hundred years old.
Diane returns from the door and cocks her head to examine the jewelry.
DIANE
Some haul, huh?
(gestures upstairs)
Maybe they fear a lawsuit and want an out
of court settlement.
Dr. Lesh holds up a twist-o-flex digital wristwatch.
DR. LESH
And then this enigma...probably a couple
years old and not your husband’s?
DIANE
He said it wasn’t.
DR. LESH
I’ve heard about jewelry or perfume disappearing
from a vanity in one room later to reappear
in another, but...but this doesn't fit into
any construct I've ever experienced.
DIANE
Has anything lately?
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