Screenplay Beat Drafts the Kitchen

Screenplay Beat Drafts

The Kitchen Stairs: First Draft

A modern American suburban family is moving into a large, dusty English state house, the three kids complaining.

A window in the attic, at the top of the servant's staircase, seems to break out of nowhere as the family is outside unpacking. It turns out Bobby (six years old) was playing upstairs and broke it with a board.

That night, Alicia (17) investigates a creaking/shuffling outside her door, but finds nothing.

Cooking breakfast in the morning, the eggs explode and splatter all over the kitchen; Mother leaves, screaming.

When she comes back, kitchen is perfectly clean, everything out away, stove cold.

Mother has flashback to her own mother's dementia, which came early in life -- worries about the same thing.

Bobby and Erik (11) are playing with a slinky on the kitchen stairs when doors at top and bottom slam shut, trapping them in the dark with some suddenly furiously fluttering shadows until door slowly creaks open and all is silent.

Alicia is looking for a place to stash drugs in her room and finds a loose floorboard with things from the house's history.

Kids try to convince parents house is haunted; parents won't listen.

Kids confront spirit(s) in the kitchen stairs; sudden evidence of their presence scares them all off.

That night, everyone ends up trapped in the kitchen; it becomes evident that there is a good and bad spirit, one trapped by the bottom door and the other residing primarily in the kitchen, protecting the family.

The family escapes the house and moves back to the States, with the closing shot suggesting that the good spirit has moved with them.

The Kitchen Stairs: Second Draft

An upper-middle class American family is moving into a large, dusty English estate house without the attached land anymore. Alicia, the teenage daughter, is complaining; Erik and Bobby are excitedly exploring.

A window in the attic, at the top of the servant's staircase, seems to break out of nowhere as the family is outside unpacking. Bobby was playing with a broom up there and swears he didn't do it, but no one believes him.

That night, Alicia (17) is on the phone with one of her State-side boyfriends and keeps hearing a creaking/shuffling outside her door. She investigates but finds nothing, and expects Erik is eavesdropping.

Cooking breakfast in the morning, the bottom door of the staircase starts rattling violently, the eggs explode and splatter all over the kitchen; Mother leaves, screaming.

When she comes back, kitchen is perfectly clean, everything is put away (including the pan she was cooking with), and the stove is cold.

Mother has flashback to her own mother's dementia, which came early in life (while Mother was a teenager) -- worries that the same things is happening to her, that she hadn't cooked breakfast in the first place and the whole thing was in her head.

Bobby and Erik (11) are playing with a slinky on the kitchen stairs that afternoon when doors at top and bottom slam shut, trapping them in the dark with some suddenly furiously fluttering shadows until the kitchen door slowly creaks open and all is silent. The boys rush off to tell someone.

Alicia is looking for a place to stash drugs in her room and finds a loose floorboard with things from the house's history. The boys run into her room and though she is initially angry, all are too caught up in learning about the possibility of ghosts, and the death of a btler and maid in an apparent suicide pact.