The Haunting (1999)
Todd Field: Todd Hackett
Photos
Quotes
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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 : .