The Haunting (The Haunting of Hill House)

THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE By David Self Revisions by Michael Tolkin Based on the Novel by Shirley Jackson 11/10/98 Initial Shooting Script NOTE: THE HARD COPY OF THIS SCRIPT CONTAINED SCENE NUMBERS. THEY HAVE BEEN REMOVED FOR THIS SOFT COPY. BEGIN MAIN TITLE SEQUENCE. At the very edge of hearing, the tone of human VOICES. Unintelligible, babbling, eerie.Then a loud FLAPPING SOUND.It shifts from one side of the theater to the other, like something moving among the wall hangings. As the TITLE appears, the noise mounts, drowning out the VOICES, agitated, becoming violent, banging... inhuman. FADE IN: EXT. HOUSING PROJECT, CHARLESTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS - DAY ON a housing project in the industrial outskirts of Boston.The BANGING seems to flutter away, leading us along, searching... to a tiny balcony, one of dozens, ten stories up.And there, the source of the sound -- -- A SHEET, snapping in the wind.The umbrella-like clothes line on which it hangs bangs against a dirty glass door as if trying to get in. THROUGH THE GLASS DOOR a woman paces inside, agitated.The VOICES rise over the banging, becoming intelligible -- INT. LIVING ROOM, NELL'S APARTMENT - DAY -- becoming a fight.JANE, 30s, dark-haired, furious, wheels across a diminutive, neat, but poor living room. JANE It'll take a month to probate the will, Nell!A month!Even if Mother left you something, you won't get it in time to pay the rent.