THE FAN SITE
"It's Night Time:" Final Set of Revisions
These final revisions to the treatment, dated August 23, 1980, change the "white settlers killed by Indians" buried under the neighborhood to simply a regular grave yard that Steven's company decided to build on top of. It also amps up the danger to Nora in the scene where she is attacked by the ghost in her bedroom before running outside and falling into the newly dug pool. Finally, it adds an early scene showing the changing of the TV set channels by unseen forces (and also renames "Lawrence" to "Robbie").
August 23, 1980
Steven Freeling comes from a family of real estate brokers. His father was selling houses when they were going for a thousand to five thousand dollars. Both of his brothers are still in business with their Dad and Steven went out on his own. His reputation locally is one of the best. He now heads up a huge firm responsible for the last five or six major land development in the area. The newest being a housing development designed to handle at least 30,000 people. Ground was broken on the area little over two years ago and families started to move in about 6 months ago. Steven is in charge of showing the houses, clearing escrow, arrangements for personal kitchen designs, etc. Approximately all the houses have been filled-it sits in the middle of several other housing development and is separated by rows of poplar trees. A grave yard had stood here for years which accounts for the delay in developing the area. Through a lot of underhanded payoff with the Planning Commission, etc., Steven's company had gotten the ok to build provided they moved the graves to another location. Realizing this would be wildly expensive, they had publicized transferring the grave yard when in fact they simply moved the grave stones to another location but covered the existing grave site with about seven feet of fill and about a foot of dirt, quickly got the foundations laid and before anyone really knew what happened, installed housing tract. Steven was never involved in the negotiations but served as a representative in the community for the company, therefore becoming a target for the ghosts' retaliation.
This sequence will begin with Nora combing her hair at the vanity-however, no one else is home, Steven is on a business trip and the kids have gone to the movies to give Nora a little peace and quiet.
Fairly deep in thought, Nora combs through her hair in long slow strokes. Then without warning, the brush lifts her hair from one side of her head and lays it down on the other. Nora stares in a state of shock. Indentations from fingers can then be seen as if a hand is grabbing her face and turning. Nora is still in a state of shock, unable to move. We then see her lips press in, her nose shift off to the side a bit and we realize she is being kissed by a ghost. The indentations leave her face and she sits shocked for a few minutes. Then in the mirror, she sees a human form take shape from a smoke and gaseous material. Nora slowly rises from her chair and begins to move toward the door. Staring at the smoke-like shape which is now dissipating, she reaches up to turn on the bedroom light. Just as she switches it on, it immediately goes off. Quickly she turns it on again and again something switches it off. She gasps a little and turns to run down the hall and the stairs to the living room turning lights on as she goes but they go off as quickly as she turns them on. She then turns on the television set which immediately goes off. She runs for the phone, which is invisibly taken out of her hand and hung up. Truly frightened, she runs upstairs again, half way up the stairs as if someone stepped on the back of her dress, she falls. We then see a hand print as if something were gripping her ankle and it begins moving up her leg. Nora stares for a moment in horror and then begins to resist, trying to pull herself up the stairs, reaching desperately for the banister. As she breaks free she runs into the bedroom, the door slams shut moments later and the smokey, gaseous form begins to appear again. We can only see it with the moonlight streaming through the window. Nora sits shivering on the corner of the bed with her hands crossed over her chest holding onto her shoulders. We're then aware of the hand indentations again which grab her wrists and slowly but forcefully uncross her arms and drop them to her side. Nora, under her breath, on the verge of tears says, "No, no please don't hurt me..." As she says this, her night gown is slowly ripped off her shoulders and she is pushed down on the bed. We then see the hand indentations grasp her breast with a strong massaging effect and move down to her underwear which is gradually slipped back on the bed. Not able to grab at any human form she takes hold of the sheets for leverage to try and get out of the ghost's grasp. In the struggle she rolls off the bed, but we're aware that she still can't get up. Her arms are suddenly thrown back straight over the top of her head and then her legs are pulled apart forcefully, we can see on Nora's face sheer terror beyond the ability to cry. Then the sheet over the top of them begins to rise up and down rhythmically, and several times we see her face being kissed. Then the sheet falls away from her as if someone rolled over and took the sheet with them. Nora, for an instant, stares at the sheet, then jumps up and runs for the door grabbing her robe on the way out. She gets downstairs, grabs her purse and heads for the front door. She takes hold of the handle and finds that she can't turn it. She pulls frantically to no avail. She then runs for the back door, quickly switches on the outside light and runs out on the patio. Finding it difficult to see, she runs into the patio table, and knocks a chair over just as the outside light goes off. Now, truly horrified she starts backing out onto the lawn. A clap of thunder goes off startling her, she turns and steps right into the freshly dug pit for the new swimming pool. Another clap of thunder, a bolt of lightning and a huge downpour starts. The freshly tilled soil turns into a gooey quick sand like mud very quickly. One end of the pool is very steep and as Nora tries desperately to climb out the grade is so steep she slides back each time. After the second or third slide, the mud is now up around her waist, another clap of thunder and suddenly the pool lights come on. Nora looks around for a moment and suddenly we see areas in the mud that start to rise up and then shafts of mud as the pouring rain hits these, we realize they are skeletons, more and more bobbing to the surface, then again a bolt of lightening strikes and short circuits the pool lights, causing a strobe effect. In sheer terror, eyes shut, Nora begins screaming, clawing frantically trying to make her way to the shallow end of the pool. Just as she nears the edge a hand reaches out to help her. With one hand resting on the pools edge and the other in this hand, she looks up into the eyes of her ghost, a smoke like apparition. For the first time, we can make out a human like face. Nora screams and goes sliding down back into the sea of skeletons only to come face to face with the corpse of the ghost she just saw. The last image we see is Nora huddled in the corner of the pool, strobe lights going and a sea of bobbing skeletons, rain pouring down and occasional lightening and thunder.
Another revision page dated August 23, 1980
Steven sits in the living room one evening after a hard day's work watching Monday Night Football with his two boys, Sweeny and Robbie (change name from Lawrence in previous treatment). Just as the touchdown pass is thrown, the television goes to snow. Steven jumps up furious and starts screaming at the neighbors. He runs over to Jim Bender's house, who is also furious and finds that he thinks that Steven's remote control changed the channel on his set. They argue fervently for a few minutes and Steven heads back to the house convinced now that he will just move the TV somewhere else in the house as to avoid the neighbor's remote control. During the night the television set clicks on and starts racing through the channels till it comes to snow. This wakes Steven with a start. He jumps out of bed, throws on a robe and races over to the neighbor's house. After pounding on the door, Jim Bender answers. Steven immediately flies off the handle accusing him of disrupting the household. Jim seems a bit flustered saying he was just about to head over to his house because his set went on voluntarily.
Steven sees this as just an excuse but concedes. This remote control duel continues for a few days, until, one evening while the family is watching a late movie, the channels begin racing around until they come to snow. Steven jumps up and races outside over to their neighbor's house. Peeking through the window, he realizes they are gone. He tries the door several times and walks around to the back of the house. He finds this a bit disquieting and heads back to his house. As he turns his back, we are aware that the TV set in the neighbor's house clicks on, just as we hear a scream from the Freeling home. Nora seems a little more unnerved as Steven enters the house, insisting that some form came out of the television set. Steven passes this off as her imagination, but doesn't let on that the neighbors weren't home to cause the channel changing....thus begins the silent invasion of the Freeling home through the static snow of their television sets.
***************************************
UPDATE: After I sent him a link to this treatment, author James Kahn, who wrote the novelization of the film based on Spielberg's final shooting script, had this to say:
"Interesting treatment. Concurrent (I think) with this was the script by Mark Victor and Michael which was I believe called Poltergeist, and which was merged with the Spielberg version to create the final.
These final revisions to the treatment, dated August 23, 1980, change the "white settlers killed by Indians" buried under the neighborhood to simply a regular grave yard that Steven's company decided to build on top of. It also amps up the danger to Nora in the scene where she is attacked by the ghost in her bedroom before running outside and falling into the newly dug pool. Finally, it adds an early scene showing the changing of the TV set channels by unseen forces (and also renames "Lawrence" to "Robbie").
August 23, 1980
Steven Freeling comes from a family of real estate brokers. His father was selling houses when they were going for a thousand to five thousand dollars. Both of his brothers are still in business with their Dad and Steven went out on his own. His reputation locally is one of the best. He now heads up a huge firm responsible for the last five or six major land development in the area. The newest being a housing development designed to handle at least 30,000 people. Ground was broken on the area little over two years ago and families started to move in about 6 months ago. Steven is in charge of showing the houses, clearing escrow, arrangements for personal kitchen designs, etc. Approximately all the houses have been filled-it sits in the middle of several other housing development and is separated by rows of poplar trees. A grave yard had stood here for years which accounts for the delay in developing the area. Through a lot of underhanded payoff with the Planning Commission, etc., Steven's company had gotten the ok to build provided they moved the graves to another location. Realizing this would be wildly expensive, they had publicized transferring the grave yard when in fact they simply moved the grave stones to another location but covered the existing grave site with about seven feet of fill and about a foot of dirt, quickly got the foundations laid and before anyone really knew what happened, installed housing tract. Steven was never involved in the negotiations but served as a representative in the community for the company, therefore becoming a target for the ghosts' retaliation.
This sequence will begin with Nora combing her hair at the vanity-however, no one else is home, Steven is on a business trip and the kids have gone to the movies to give Nora a little peace and quiet.
Fairly deep in thought, Nora combs through her hair in long slow strokes. Then without warning, the brush lifts her hair from one side of her head and lays it down on the other. Nora stares in a state of shock. Indentations from fingers can then be seen as if a hand is grabbing her face and turning. Nora is still in a state of shock, unable to move. We then see her lips press in, her nose shift off to the side a bit and we realize she is being kissed by a ghost. The indentations leave her face and she sits shocked for a few minutes. Then in the mirror, she sees a human form take shape from a smoke and gaseous material. Nora slowly rises from her chair and begins to move toward the door. Staring at the smoke-like shape which is now dissipating, she reaches up to turn on the bedroom light. Just as she switches it on, it immediately goes off. Quickly she turns it on again and again something switches it off. She gasps a little and turns to run down the hall and the stairs to the living room turning lights on as she goes but they go off as quickly as she turns them on. She then turns on the television set which immediately goes off. She runs for the phone, which is invisibly taken out of her hand and hung up. Truly frightened, she runs upstairs again, half way up the stairs as if someone stepped on the back of her dress, she falls. We then see a hand print as if something were gripping her ankle and it begins moving up her leg. Nora stares for a moment in horror and then begins to resist, trying to pull herself up the stairs, reaching desperately for the banister. As she breaks free she runs into the bedroom, the door slams shut moments later and the smokey, gaseous form begins to appear again. We can only see it with the moonlight streaming through the window. Nora sits shivering on the corner of the bed with her hands crossed over her chest holding onto her shoulders. We're then aware of the hand indentations again which grab her wrists and slowly but forcefully uncross her arms and drop them to her side. Nora, under her breath, on the verge of tears says, "No, no please don't hurt me..." As she says this, her night gown is slowly ripped off her shoulders and she is pushed down on the bed. We then see the hand indentations grasp her breast with a strong massaging effect and move down to her underwear which is gradually slipped back on the bed. Not able to grab at any human form she takes hold of the sheets for leverage to try and get out of the ghost's grasp. In the struggle she rolls off the bed, but we're aware that she still can't get up. Her arms are suddenly thrown back straight over the top of her head and then her legs are pulled apart forcefully, we can see on Nora's face sheer terror beyond the ability to cry. Then the sheet over the top of them begins to rise up and down rhythmically, and several times we see her face being kissed. Then the sheet falls away from her as if someone rolled over and took the sheet with them. Nora, for an instant, stares at the sheet, then jumps up and runs for the door grabbing her robe on the way out. She gets downstairs, grabs her purse and heads for the front door. She takes hold of the handle and finds that she can't turn it. She pulls frantically to no avail. She then runs for the back door, quickly switches on the outside light and runs out on the patio. Finding it difficult to see, she runs into the patio table, and knocks a chair over just as the outside light goes off. Now, truly horrified she starts backing out onto the lawn. A clap of thunder goes off startling her, she turns and steps right into the freshly dug pit for the new swimming pool. Another clap of thunder, a bolt of lightning and a huge downpour starts. The freshly tilled soil turns into a gooey quick sand like mud very quickly. One end of the pool is very steep and as Nora tries desperately to climb out the grade is so steep she slides back each time. After the second or third slide, the mud is now up around her waist, another clap of thunder and suddenly the pool lights come on. Nora looks around for a moment and suddenly we see areas in the mud that start to rise up and then shafts of mud as the pouring rain hits these, we realize they are skeletons, more and more bobbing to the surface, then again a bolt of lightening strikes and short circuits the pool lights, causing a strobe effect. In sheer terror, eyes shut, Nora begins screaming, clawing frantically trying to make her way to the shallow end of the pool. Just as she nears the edge a hand reaches out to help her. With one hand resting on the pools edge and the other in this hand, she looks up into the eyes of her ghost, a smoke like apparition. For the first time, we can make out a human like face. Nora screams and goes sliding down back into the sea of skeletons only to come face to face with the corpse of the ghost she just saw. The last image we see is Nora huddled in the corner of the pool, strobe lights going and a sea of bobbing skeletons, rain pouring down and occasional lightening and thunder.
Another revision page dated August 23, 1980
Steven sits in the living room one evening after a hard day's work watching Monday Night Football with his two boys, Sweeny and Robbie (change name from Lawrence in previous treatment). Just as the touchdown pass is thrown, the television goes to snow. Steven jumps up furious and starts screaming at the neighbors. He runs over to Jim Bender's house, who is also furious and finds that he thinks that Steven's remote control changed the channel on his set. They argue fervently for a few minutes and Steven heads back to the house convinced now that he will just move the TV somewhere else in the house as to avoid the neighbor's remote control. During the night the television set clicks on and starts racing through the channels till it comes to snow. This wakes Steven with a start. He jumps out of bed, throws on a robe and races over to the neighbor's house. After pounding on the door, Jim Bender answers. Steven immediately flies off the handle accusing him of disrupting the household. Jim seems a bit flustered saying he was just about to head over to his house because his set went on voluntarily.
Steven sees this as just an excuse but concedes. This remote control duel continues for a few days, until, one evening while the family is watching a late movie, the channels begin racing around until they come to snow. Steven jumps up and races outside over to their neighbor's house. Peeking through the window, he realizes they are gone. He tries the door several times and walks around to the back of the house. He finds this a bit disquieting and heads back to his house. As he turns his back, we are aware that the TV set in the neighbor's house clicks on, just as we hear a scream from the Freeling home. Nora seems a little more unnerved as Steven enters the house, insisting that some form came out of the television set. Steven passes this off as her imagination, but doesn't let on that the neighbors weren't home to cause the channel changing....thus begins the silent invasion of the Freeling home through the static snow of their television sets.
***************************************
UPDATE: After I sent him a link to this treatment, author James Kahn, who wrote the novelization of the film based on Spielberg's final shooting script, had this to say:
"Interesting treatment. Concurrent (I think) with this was the script by Mark Victor and Michael which was I believe called Poltergeist, and which was merged with the Spielberg version to create the final.