Nell starts seeing the ghosts of children in curtains and sheets, and a large portrait of Hugh Crain morphs into a skeletal face and is vandalized with the words "Welcome Home Eleanor" written in blood. During a heated argument, Theo and Luke deny any involvement in these events. They accuse Nell of being an attention seeker, but she denies it. Nell becomes determined to prove that the house is haunted. She finds Crain's hidden office and learns that Crain used extensive child labor in his cotton mills. He took several orphans into his home, tortured and killed them, and then burned their bodies in the fireplace. Their ghosts are trapped in the house, providing Crain with an "eternal family". Nell also learns that Crain had a second wife named Carolyn, from whom she is descended. Marrow is skeptical of Nell's claims, and soon reveals his true psychological fear study to the group. After a statue tries to drown him in a pool of water in a greenhouse, Marrow realizes Hill House is haunted after all and a danger to everyone. After several more terrifying events, Nell insists that she cannot leave the ghosts to suffer for eternity at Crain's hands. Theo offers to let Nell move in with her, but Nell reveals that she is related to Carolyn Crain and claims she must help the children to "move on" to the afterlife. Marrow demands that everyone leave Hill House, but as they attempt to flee, Hugh Crain's ghost seals the house, trapping them inside. Luke defaces a portrait of Hugh Crain. Crain's enraged spirit drags Luke to the fireplace where he is decapitated. Marrow and Theo flee the house while Nell distracts Crain. Realizing that Crain thrived on the fear he created in children, Nell declares she is not afraid of Crain any longer. Nell's declaration weakens Crain's ghost, and he is pulled into a decorative bronze door. Crain tries to drag Nell with him, but the children's spirits help her to fight him off. As Nell dies, an image of her, posing as a motherly figure, is left in the bronze door, surrounded by many happy children. The Dudleys approach at dawn. Dr. Marrow and Theo silently walk away from Hill House. Steven Spielberg talked to Stephen King about doing a haunted house movie, and the two agreed that Robert Wise's 1963 film "The Haunting" was a benchmark of cinematic house horror, but after they started writing, the two had creative differences.