The Haunting (1999)
Catherine Zeta-Jones: Theo
Photos
Quotes
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Luke : Hey, you guys wanna hear something really scary? I just found this out. It turns out there's a more darker chapter in the Hugh Crain fairytale. Remember his lovely wife Renee? Well Renee, the town beauty, she didn't just die, she killed herself.
Theo : Really? He just told you that?
Luke : Yes, but you can't say anything because he actually swore me to secrecy.
Eleanor "Nell" Vance : Why did she kill herself?
Luke : The stillborn children story is more sinister, and maybe Hugh Crain was a horrible monster that drove her to it.
Eleanor "Nell" Vance : Monster? But he built this house with the woman he loved like the Taj Mahal.
Theo : The Taj Mahal wasn't a palace, it was a tomb. And equally overdone.
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Theo : Isn't it based on the Gates of Hell, by Rodin?
Eleanor "Nell" Vance : Well, It's not just hell. You see the children, they're are reaching up for heaven, but their souls are trapped in purgatory. And these are the demons... who can hold on to your soul for as long as they want.
Theo : Did you study art?
Eleanor "Nell" Vance : No, I studied purgatory. I was there once for eleven years. It's when your soul is caught between the living and the dead.
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Eleanor "Nell" Vance : You have trouble with commitment?
Theo : Well, my boyfriend thinks so, my girlfriend doesn't. We could all live together, but they hate each other.
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Dr. David Marrow : Because it was a controlled experiment.
Theo : A controlled experiment? She's in total shock, you can't do that.
Dr. David Marrow : I told you, it wasn't meant to be like this.
Theo : Oh c'mon, you don't care about insomnia, you just wanted to scare the hell out of us to be fit in your little test or model, an end to understand this. You can't do it...
Dr. David Marrow : LISTEN. You listen to me. I am trying to help people. My field of study is the science of fear, I try to understand why people act the way they act, why they feel the way they feel...
[Theo slaps Marrow]
Theo : You don't feel.
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Eleanor "Nell" Vance : This house, who built it? Who lived here?
Dr. David Marrow : Well actually that makes a very good bedtime story. Once upon a time, there was a king who built a castle. His name was Hugh Crain. 130 years ago, towns like Concord and Manchester were the centre of American industry, that's where Crain made a fortune on the backs of workers in his textile mills. Now this man could have anything he wanted, but what he wanted was another thing. It was a house filled with the laughter of children.
Eleanor "Nell" Vance : That's why there are all the carvings.
Dr. David Marrow : He married the most beautiful girl in town, called Renee, and he built her this house, at least some of it.
Theo : God, it sounds like a fairytale or something.
Dr. David Marrow : Well that's where the fairytale ends. Hugh and Renee never had children. They all died at birth. And a few years later, Renee passed away and Crain became a total recluse. But, he kept on building. Building room upon room as if he was building for the familiy he would never have. No one had seen Crain for years. But the townspeople said they could hear sounds coming from the old house. Sounds of children.
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Theo : [Opening up a bottle of wine and begins filling up everyone's glass] You know what? The rest of you may hate your insomnia, but I'm not sure I want a cure for mine. That's when I get all my best ideas when I'm waiting to fall asleep. I'm alone, occasionally, with no distractions, my mind is racing with creative ideas and come 3am, I feel like a genius.
Luke : Are you kidding me? 3am, I start feeling like I'm losing my mind watching those informercials on psychics or... listening to Tony Robbins and the psychic hotlines. Have you ever seen that late night T.V.?
Dr. David Marrow : [laughing] Oh, yeah.
[to Theo, who has just poured the wine]
Dr. David Marrow : Thank you.
Luke : I swear to God, you get a steady diet of that crap and pretty soon, you start thinking about moving to Montana and becoming a survivalist.
Theo : That's why God created barbiturates, honey.
Todd Hackett : Nembutal?
Theo : Mm-mm.
Luke : You know, Todd? I think we have a classic Seconal woman on our hands. In fact, I think I see a little... Jackie Susann in Theo.
[Theo laughs sarcastically, then glares at Luke]
Luke : [Softly] Ow.
Dr. David Marrow : [Finishes laughing] Alright, you two, enough about pharmaceuticals. So, what do we all need in life? What are the basics? Food, water, shelter...
Theo : Sex.
Luke : [Softly] Meow.
Dr. David Marrow : And sleep. Sleep. I'm working on a 5-year study, with the help of Mary here, making profiles of bad sleepers. I'm looking for a common psychological link. I hope that the work we do here will, someday, will be able to help people like yourselves.
Theo : God knows I'm all for helping people, saving the world, but doesn't everyone have a problem sleeping these days? Life's too frantic.
Mary Lambetta : What about you, Nell?
Eleanor "Nell" Vance : Um, well... it seems that you all have trouble sleeping because your... lives are exciting and it's complicated and you think about it when you go to sleep. But, um, I don't know, nothing's ever really happened to me, so I don't have a reason to sleep badly.
Dr. David Marrow : But in your application, you said you had trouble sleeping.
Eleanor "Nell" Vance : Um, yes, but it's not like them. It's because... there was always somebody calling me, there was always somebody banging. Ever since I was little, well, I took care of my Mother and... she would wake up in the middle of the night. She would bang, with her cane, on the wall. And it was just this relentless... it was a relentless banging all through the night. That's weird because... even though she's dead, I still hear it when I wake up.
Dr. David Marrow : Well, that's why we're here, Eleanor, to try and help you.
Luke : Yeah, Nell, I think what Dr. Marrow is trying to say is that you're a basket case just like the rest of us.
[They all laugh, including Nell]
Luke : .
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Dr. David Marrow : Let me explain what's happening here. You're participating in a study on group fear and hysteria.
Luke : What? That's it, that's what this was all about?
Theo : You brought us here to scare us, is that it?
Dr. David Marrow : Yes.
Luke : And you were just waiting for her to have a total nervous breakdown before you said it? I mean, what is your problem?
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[looking at the "Door of Hell"]
Theo : You don't get this from the Martha Stewart catalog.
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Eleanor "Nell" Vance : Have you ever kept something for yourself because you were afraid?
Theo : All the time.
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Dr. David Marrow : Eleanor, none of this is real.
Eleanor "Nell" Vance : Yes, it is real.
Dr. David Marrow : It's not real.
Eleanor "Nell" Vance : You have to go look for the bones in the fireplace.
Dr. David Marrow : It's not real.
Eleanor "Nell" Vance : I saw... I saw his wife hanging in the greenhouse. I know, I saw it.
Dr. David Marrow : No, we'll be all gone, and the Dudleys will arrive in the morning and we can go. All of you.
Eleanor "Nell" Vance : I can't believe you're not gonna look.
Theo : Okay, that's enough of you. I'm taking her upstairs. I think you've done enough.
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Eleanor "Nell" Vance : You'll never gonna believe how I found them.
Theo : How did you find them?
Eleanor "Nell" Vance : The blood led me to the bookcase.
Theo : The blood?
Eleanor "Nell" Vance : Little footprints in blood.
Theo : Nell, I'm worried about you.
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Eleanor "Nell" Vance : I love your boots.
Theo : Oh, you do? Thanks! Prada; Milan, not New York. But they're killing me... Small price to pay for such savage kicks!
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Theo : We can't get out. Why won't he let us leave?
Dr. David Marrow : What do we do, Eleanor?
Eleanor "Nell" Vance : He played hide-and-seek with them; that's why he built the house. You have to hide.
Dr. David Marrow : Hide? What does he think this is, a game?
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Theo : Hi. Don't worry, I'm not an obsessive packer, it's just a cheap and exploitative way of making new friends, I'm Theo.
Eleanor "Nell" Vance : Eleanor, but everybody calls me Nell.
Theo : Well, "Everybody Calls Me Nell," don't you love it here? It's like Charles Foster Kane meets the Munsters.
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Theo : [about Purgatory] I've been there. It's when you're on an 18-hour flight from L.A. to Paris and you're stuck in coach.
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Theo : [as Nell sits in front of her mirror, combing her hair and humming, Theo walks in] I like the way you comb your hair like that.
[Nell turns around, facing Theo, who walks in with a red velvet blanket as a gift for Nell]
Theo : This is for you.
Eleanor "Nell" Vance : For me?
Theo : Mm-hmm.
Eleanor "Nell" Vance : [Theo goes to put it around Nell's shoulders, but Nell hesitates, knowing Theo is bisexual] No...
Theo : ...it's okay.
[She lets Theo put the blanket around her shoulders, but then feels slightly uncomfortable as Theo plays with her hair a little from behind as Nell continues to look at herself in the mirror]
Theo : Looks good on you. You've been out of the world a long time, haven't you?
[Nell, slight uncomfortable, nods her head; Theo then lowers next to Nell's the two of them still looking into the mirror]
Theo : Well, the world's missed you. Happy tossing and turning.
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Dr. David Marrow : The gate is still locked; we have to wait until the Dudleys arrive.
Luke : What? That's really compassion. Yeah, "let's wait until the morning, so tomorrow I have time to write a few more Welcome Home Eleanors."
Dr. David Marrow : Luke, I didn't write that stuff, okay?
Luke : Of course you didn't, that wouldn't be ethical, would it doc...
Theo : Would you guys just shut up?
