The Haunting

Dr. John Markway:
It was an evil house from the beginning - a house that was born bad.

Eleanor Lance:
Can't you feel it? It's alive... watching.

Luke Sanderson:
I haven't seen a damn thing! I just don't like the way it looks.

Eleanor Lance:
I'm still so terrified from last night.

Dr. John Markway:
You shouldn't be. It's silly to be frightened...

Eleanor Lance:
Silly? You haven't been through it! This horrible unknown thing!

Dr. John Markway:
'Unknown.' That's the key word. 'Unknown.' When we become involved in a supernatural event, we're scared out of our wits just because it's unknown. The night cry of a child. A face on the wall. Knockings, bangings. What's there to be afraid of? You weren't threatened. It was harmless, like a joke that doesn't come out.

Eleanor Lance:
But the child...

Dr. John Markway:
There was no child, remember? Just a voice.

Eleanor Lance:
A voice.

Dr. John Markway:
Look, Eleanor, put it this way. When people believed the Earth was flat, the idea of a round world scared them silly. Then they found out how the round world works. It's the same with the world of the supernatural. Until we know how it works, we'll continue to carry around this unnecessary burden of fear.

Eleanor Lance:
Supposing it is in my imagination. The knocking, the voices. Everything! Every cursed bit of the haunting. Suppose the haunting is all in my mind.

Dr. John Markway:
Well, you can't say that, because there are three other people here. We all resist the idea that what ran through the garden that first night was a ghost. What banged on the door was a ghost. What held your hand was a ghost. But there is certainly something going on in Hill House. We're getting closer, very close to finding out what it is.

Mrs. Dudley:
[Eleanor has just been shown her room after she arrives] I can't keep the rooms the way I'd like, but there's no one else they could get that would help me.

Eleanor Lance:
How very nice.

Mrs. Dudley:
I set dinner on the dining room sideboard at 6. I clear up in the morning. I have breakfast for you at 9. I don't wait on people. I don't stay after I set out the dinner, not after it begins to get dark. I leave before the dark.

Eleanor Lance:
Your husband?

Mrs. Dudley:
We live over in town, miles away.

Eleanor Lance:
Yes.

Mrs. Dudley:
So there won't be anyone around if you need help.

Eleanor Lance:
I understand.

Mrs. Dudley:
We couldn't hear you. In the night.

Eleanor Lance:
Do you have any idea when Dr. Markway...

Mrs. Dudley:
[cuts her off] No one could. No one lives any nearer than town. No one will come any nearer than that.

Eleanor Lance:
I know.

Mrs. Dudley:
In the night. In the dark.

[Mrs. Dudley grins and leaves]

Mrs. Sanderson:
The dead are not quiet in Hill House.

Dr. John Markway:
Ghosts make the papers along with celebrities every day of the week.

Dr. John Markway:
Look, I know the supernatural is something that isn't supposed to happen, but it does happen.

Theodora:
Haven't you noticed how nothing in this house seems to move until you look away and then you just... catch something out of the corner of your eye?

Theodora:
Is this another one of your crazy hallucinations?

Eleanor Lance:
I'm not crazy!

Theodora:
Crazy as a loon! You really expect me to believe that you're sane and the rest of the world is mad?

Eleanor Lance:
Well, why not? The world is full of inconsistencies. Unnatural things. Nature's mistakes they call you for instance!

Luke Sanderson:
Doc, I'll let you have the house cheap!

Dr. John Markway:
When people believed the earth was flat, the idea of a round world scared them silly. Then they found out how the round world works. It's the same with the world of the supernatural. Until we know how it works, we'll continue to carry around this unnecessary burden of fear.

Eleanor Lance:
God! God! Whose hand was I holding?

Dr. John Markway:
Now. Which door?

Theodora:
[pointing to her right] That one.

Dr. John Markway:
Wrong. I've studied the map, it's this one. [goes to his right and walks straight into the broom cupboard]

Dr. John Markway:
It has taken 60 million years to develop the carnivorous biped you see before you, Luke Sanderson.

Theodora:
Let's see what kind of martinis it makes.

Luke Sanderson:
They should be pretty good. I majored in them at college.

Theodora:
What would you call this place? Fun-o-rama?

Theodora:
I don't think you killed your mother.

Dr. John Markway:
That's very good, Eleanor. You catch on quickly.

Theodora:
[gets jealous and stands up] I'm hungry. Let's go.

Luke Sanderson:
[when the group compares themselves to four statues] Which one am I?

Theodora:
You're the dog.

Theodora:
Poor Nell. You look like Death.

[after either nearly falling off a high balcony - or being pushed off - she is saved by John Markway]

Eleanor Lance:
Oh! This house! You have to watch it every minute!

Eleanor Lance:
Human nature could certainly stand some improvement.

Eleanor Lance:
What scares you, Theodora?

Theodora:
Knowing what I really want.

Dr. John Markway:
You wait here, Grace. I'll go in and get your things, and then call the police.

Grace Markway:
No, no, no! No one must go back into that house again. Whatever's there might...

Dr. John Markway:
I'll be all right. The house has what it wants... for a while.

Luke Sanderson:
[referring to Hill House] It ought to be burned down... and the ground sowed with salt.

[first lines]

Dr. John Markway:
[voice-over] An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted, is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there... walked alone.

[last lines]

Eleanor Lance:
[voice-over] Hill House has stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Within, walls continue upright, bricks meet, floors are firm, and doors are sensibly shut. Silence lies steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. And we who walk here... walk alone.

Luke Sanderson:
Only one way to argue with a woman Doc... Don't.

Eleanor Lance:
[panicking] But where?

Dr. John Markway:
Home of course.

Theodora:
Back to your little apartment, where all your things are.

Dr. John Markway:
A closed mind is the worst defense against the supernatural... If it happens to you, your liable to have that shut door in your mind ripped right off it's hinges!

Theodora:
Here you are. Okay, Isolde. Tristan wants you inside.

Eleanor Lance:
Leave me alone.

Theodora:
Stop trying to be the center of attention, Nell. Come inside.

Eleanor Lance:
[swipes Theodora's hand off her shoulder] Don't touch me, Theo! You revolt me!

Theodora:
Whoa, can't you take a joke? I didn't know you were serious about Markway.

Eleanor Lance:
Of course you did.

Theodora:
I'm not jealous. I'm actually flattered that you have feelings for him. But he shouldn't be allowed to get away with it.

Eleanor Lance:
Get away with what?

Theodora:
You're making a fool of yourself over him.

Eleanor Lance:
Suppose I'm not, though? You'd mind terribly if you turned out to be wrong for once, wouldn't you?

Theodora:
You poor stupid innocent.

Eleanor Lance:
I'd rather be innocent then like you!

Mr. Dudley:
You'll be sorry I ever opened the gate.

Eleanor Lance:
The house... it's alive!

Dr. John Markway:
[walks towards the door] Let's see if there's a tiger behind this one.

Theodora:
You see? You haven't a ghost of a chance.

Eleanor Lance:
I got dizzy.

Luke Sanderson:
Dizzy like a fox, hmm?

[the group is huddled in the conservatory, Nell, Theo, and Markway are asleep as Luke enters and takes a drink from a liquor bottle, when the door suddenly slams shut by itself... waking everyone up!]

Dr. John Markway:
[to Luke] Why aren't you upstairs?

Luke Sanderson:
I needed a drink.

[suddenly there are sounds of wind blowing and then distant yet distinct footsteps are heard]

Dr. John Markway:
Grace!

Luke Sanderson:
Wait a minute! It's nowhere near the nursery... it's down here,

Theodora:
Seems we've been on this kick before.

Eleanor Lance:
Next vacation I must really go somewhere else!

[the pounding becomes louder and closer]

Eleanor Lance:
[thinking; voice-over] It knows my name, this time it knows my name!

Dr. John Markway:
I have to go out there.

Eleanor Lance:
[shouting] No, No! It hasn't hurt me. Why should it hurt her?

Dr. John Markway:
She might try to do something about it!

[the pounding stops]

Eleanor Lance:
Is it over, Theo? Is it?

Theodora:
No, I'm still cold. It's going to start everything all over again!

[the pounding resumes violently and loudly against the closed door]

Eleanor Lance:
[screaming] It can't get in! It can't get in! Don't let it get in!

[the pounding stops and the door knob jiggles]

Eleanor Lance:
[whimpering] God, it knows I'm here!

[the door begins to buckle and bend in on itself, Luke in his horror drops his bottle]

Luke Sanderson:
Doc... I'll let you have the house cheap!

[the bulging door returns to normal, the wind is heard blowing again. Soon the pounding footsteps resume and head upstairs]

Eleanor Lance:
[thinking to herself; voice-over] Go on and on and come back again until it finds me! On and on and on until it finds me!

[the group in the conservatory room hears the pounding and breaking glass and furniture from the unseen phantom]

Dr. John Markway:
It's in the nursery!

Luke Sanderson:
[stops Markway from opening the door] You must be crazy!

Dr. John Markway:
I'm going out there!

Luke Sanderson:
Oh, no you don't! Not with that thing out there!

Eleanor Lance:
[intervenes] Luke, we must find Mrs. Markway to find out if she's there!

[Luke shoves Eleanor aside and continues to try to stop Markway from leaving the room]

Luke Sanderson:
No! Don't be crazy!

Dr. John Markway:
I've got to get out of here! I've got to find out if Grace is all right.

Luke Sanderson:
Look, I don't know what that is out there, but I don't want to find out!

Dr. John Markway:
Get away from me! I've got to get out of here! I've got to find out if Grace is all right!

Eleanor Lance:
Everybody has a right to run away.

Dr. John Markway:
Did something happen?

Eleanor Lance:
[she and Theodora start laughing hysterically] No, nothing in particular, just someone banging on the door with a cannon ball!

Grace Markway:
Didn't you see me?

Dr. John Markway:
No, but Eleanor did and it nearly killed her.

Theodora:
It DID kill her, seeing her's what made her crash the car.

Dr. John Markway:
[voice-over] The story goes that the old lady died calling for help in the nursery upstairs; while the companion fooled around with a farmhand on the veranda.