A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (Continue)
NANCY
She had a nightmare about somebody
trying to kill her, last night.
That's why we were there; she was
afraid to sleep alone.
A tear splashes off the arm of her chair.
MARGE
She's been through enough for one
night. You have her statement.
The mother and daughter rise; THOMPSON raps on the door and
PARKER opens it.
LT THOMPSON
(to MARGE)
I suggest you keep a little better
track on her -- she's still a kid,
y'know.
MARGE wheels on him.
MARGE
You think I knew there were boys
there!? You try raising a
teenager alone.
Then she and the girl are gone. THOMPSON glares at PARKER.
LT THOMPSON
(low to PARKER)
See they get home okay.
PARKER shoves his hands in his pockets. ON HIS FACE we
FADE TO BLACK
39. INT. NANCY'S KITCHEN. MORNING. 39.
BURN ON
THE SECOND DAY
FADE UP ON MARGE SIMSON opening a new bottle of gin, pouring
herself a careful shot, drinking it, then chasing it with
coffee. Nearby a TV drones the morning news. We can't yet see
the SCREEN.
TV NEWSCASTER (OS/FILTER)
In the headlines this morning --
a local teenage girl was brutally
murdered during an all-night party.
MARGE TURNS, startled, seeing NANCY coming downstairs.
The girl looks a little better than she did in the Police
Station, but her eyes are still red-rimmed, and a vacant stress
masks her face. She looks to the TV. Stops.
TV NEWSCASTER (CONTD)
Police say the victim, fifteen-year
-old Christina Grey, had quarrelled
earlier with her boyfriend, Rod
Lane, a punk rocker with a history
of delinquency. Lane is now the
subject of a city-wide manhunt.
According to --
39A. The TV PICTURE has begun featuring a HANDHELD NEWSREEL SHOT
of a
dark rubber BODY BAG being carried to a CORONER'S VAN. Just
before the thing is lifted inside, TINA'S bloodied, white ARM
slips from its zippered side and lolls into the dark night air.
A man rudely shoves it back inside and pulls the zipper up the
rest of the way.
39B. WIDER -- as NANCY pales visible. MARGE darts to the TV and
slaps
it off, then turning to NANCY. She looks at the girl a moment,
then goes to her and hugs her.
MARGE
(kind)
Where you think you're going?
NANCY
School.
MARGE
I could hear you tossing and
turning all night, kiddo. You've
no business going to school.
NANCY pulls away, determined.
NANCY
I gotta go to school, Mom.
Please. Otherwise I'll just
sit up there and go crazy
or something.
MARGE studies her face a moment.
MARGE
Did you sleep?
NANCY
I'll sleep in study hall, promise.
I'd rather keep busy, you know?
She absently drains the woman's coffee cup -- then pecks her
cheek.
MARGE
Right home after.
NANCY (cont'd)
Right home after. See you.
MARGE watches the girl disappear outside, then lights a cigarette
from the one already burning in her fingers.
40. EXT. STREET. DAY. 40.
MUSIC slips back in, subtle but tense as we TRACK with NANCY as
she walks alone down a sidewalk edged with thick flowering
Oleander. She cocks her head, puzzled, as if sensing something.
MUSIC mounts. NANCY looks across the street.
40A. REVERSE IN HER POV. A MAN is over there in dark clothes, reading
40A.
a newspaper, but really watching her.
40B. NANCY shrugs and continues on, then stops and looks back again.
40B.
40C. IN HER POV we SEE the MAN is gone. 40C.
40D. Next moment -- with a MUSIC STING -- a BLOODIED HAND jumps
out 40D.
from the opposite direction, clamps over NANCY'S mouth and drags
her into the bushes.
41. EXT. BUSHES. DAY. 41.
NANCY struggles, twisting against the powerful assailant.
A WIDER ANGLE REVEALS ROD LANE -- barefoot, clad only in jeans
and leather jacket, still caked with dark blood. The rest of his
skin is pale as a ghost's.
ROD
I'm not gonna hurt you.
He releases her warily. NANCY makes no move to run or scream,
even though several STUDENTS pass on the nearby sidewalk. This
reassures ROD just a little.
ROD
Your old man thinks I did it,
don't he?
NANCY
He doesn't know you.
(eyeing the blood)
Couldn't you change?
ROD
The cops were all over my house.
(shivers)
They'll kill me for sure.
NANCY
Nobody's gonna kill you.
He runs his hands down his face, trying to believe that. The two
study each other.
ROD
I never touched her.
NANCY
You were screaming like crazy.
NANCY says this without accusation, just cool observation.
ROD
Someone else was there.
NANCY
The door was locked from your
side.
ROD grabs her hard. His muscular body tenses.
ROD
Don't look at me like I'm some
kind of fucking fruitcake or
something, I'm warning you.
VOICE (O.S.)
Morning, Mr. Lane.
42. The boy jerks around. NANCY's father, his .38 leveled right
at 42.
ROD's belly, eases out of the bushes.
LT THOMPSON
Now just step away from her, son.
Like your ass depended on it.
I'm warning you.
ROD backs away, looking once at NANCY with a look of terrible
sadness. Then he dives out of the bushes and runs like hell.
THOMPSON snaps his revolver to fire -- but instinctively NANCY
jumps between --
NANCY
No!
THOMPSON jerks his gun into the air, furious.
THOMPSON
Jesus -- are you crazy!?
He plunges past the girl.
42A. EXT. STREET. DAY. 42A.
ROD races like a frightened animal across the lawns -- but is
soon cut off by the PLANECLOTHESMAN NANCY saw watching her before
-- and then TWO UNIFORMED POLICEMAN, who close from another
angle. The chase is short and pitifully off-balance, and ROD is
soon wrestled to the ground. Next moment one of the cops is
holding ROD'S knife into the air for THOMPSON to see. THOMPSON
looks at NANCY, as if to say 'I told you.' Background, ROD'S
SHOUTS can be heard as he's shoved into a SQUAD CAR.
ROD (O.S.)
I didn't do it -- !
(fading)
I didn't kill her, Nancy!
The car's door slams and ROD is gone. NANCY turns to her father,
livid.
NANCY
You used me, daddy!
LT THOMPSON
(exasperated)
What the hell you doing going to
school today, anyway -- your
mother told me you didn't even
sleep last night!
NANCY spins angrily and walks away.
LT THOMPSON
Nancy! Hey!
But she just keeps going.
FADE TO BLACK
43. INT. CLASSROOM. DAY. 43.
FADE UP ON an ENGLISH TEACHER and CLASS, NANCY among the kids,
trying to concentrate.
TEACHER
According to Shakespeare, there
was something operating in Nature,
perhaps inside human nature itself,
that was rotten -- a canker, as
he put it.
The TEACHER'S eyes glance across the room. ANGLE ON NANCY;
yawning but listening.
TEACHER (CONTD)
Of course Hamlet's response to
this, and to his mother's lies,
was to continually probe and
dig -- just like the gravediggers --
always trying to get beneath the
surface. The same was true in a
different way in Julius Caesar.
Jon, go ahead...
She nods to a SURFER who's been waiting uncomfortably in front
of
the class. He squints at his book and begins, the recitation a
struggle between baked and salted brain and the poetry of the
Bard.
SURFER
(reading aloud)
Uh, In the most high and palmy
state of Rome...
WISEGUY STUDENT (O.S.)
California's the most high and
palmy state, man.
The SURFER halts with a grin; KIDS snicker.
ENGLISH TEACHER
Can it.
She glares them back into silence. The SURFER starts over, as
we
CUT TO NANCY.
She's nodding off now, barely able to keep her eyes open in the
warm, close boredom of the classroom.
SURFER (O.S.)
In the most high and palmy state
of Rome, a little ere the mightiest
Julius fell...
(NANCY's head pitches
forward; she jerks it
back up, barely awake)
The graves stood tenantless, and
the sheeted dead did squeak and
gibber in the Roman street...
44. NANCY's head has sunk again, eyelids drawn as if by enormous
44.
weight. By the time her cheek's against the desk, the SURFER'S
VOICE is ECHOED and DISTANT. But another voice, TINA'S, is very
near, very much present. A sad, thin plaint.
TINA (O.S.)
Nancy.
NANCY gives a start. Her eyes lock onto something.
45. REVERSE. TILTED SIDEWAYS, IN HER HEAD'S POV, we look straight
45.
out through the open doorway of the classroom into the hall.
There, standing in a black pool of fluid, is a full-sized rubber
body bag. Dark red and yellow. Weaving slightly, the merest
suggesting of movement within it.
46. BACK ON NANCY, sitting upright, wiping the sleep from her eyes,
46.
shaking her head like a punchy prozefighter. She looks back out
the door.
47. REVERSE IN 'NORMAL' POV -- the hallway is empty. But there's
a 47.
dark smear on its floor tiles.
48. NANCY looks nervously towards the rest of the class. No one
else 48.
has noticed a thing outside the door. All are dumbly spellbound
by the SURFER, who now recites like a deep-voiced robot, his face
wreathed by white hair.
SURFER
O God, I could be bounded in a
nutshell and count myself a king
of infinite space, were it not
that I have bad dreams...
49. ANGLE BACK ON NANCY. She slips from her seat, eye warily on
the 49.
teacher and class. But no one turns as she disappears through
the doorway.
50. INT. SCHOOL HALLWAY. DAY. 50.
NANCY turns and looks both directions. No sign of anybody.
TINA (O.S.)
(distant)
Nancy.
NANCY wheels and sees the bag, prone on the tiles at the far end
of the hall, at the end of a long snail's trail of slime. A pale
hand thrusts out of it. A moment later, as if pulled by
invisible gravity, the bag slides out of sight into an
intersecting corridor.
NANCY
Tina!
NANCY starts running for it.
51. ANGLE AT THE CORNER as NANCY races blindly around the turn
and 51.
smashes straight into a BODY lunging at her from the opposite
direction! Both go down.
52. ANGLE AT THE FLOOR. A dazed freshman HALLGUARD cranks herself
up 52.
on one elbow. She wears a plastic plaque on her red and yellow
sweater that reads 'Hall Guard'. Her nose is bleeding from the
impact.
HALLGUARD
Y-you're not supposed to run.
W-where's your pass -- you got a
pass?
NANCY leaps up --
NANCY
Screw your stupid pass!
53. She turns -- sees the body bag halfway down this darker, narrower
53.
hall, upright again. But just as she sees it, it tips and
pitches headlong through a doorway -- like some godawful rotten
tree finally timbering down. She can hear the sickening
CRUNCHING of it falling down a long flight of stairs.
NANCY runs for it again. The HALLGUARD staggers up FOREGROUND,
bleeding profusely from her eyes and ears.
HALLGUARD
Hey, no running in the halls!
The HALLGUARD raises her hand and we see it's tipped with long
metal spikes.
REVERSE ANGLE AT THE DOOR as NANCY runs up. NANCY turns to check
out the HALLGUARD. She's vanished. NANCY turns and looks down
through the open door. The MUSIC sweeps through a strange,
brooding movement of strings, mounting towards the NIGHTMARE
THEME.
54. INT. A STAIRWELL. 54.
NANCY edges into the stairwell and looks down. Looks like
there's a fire somewhere down there, from the way the orange
light dances. But there's only a low WHITE NOISE.
NANCY
Tina?
No answer. NANCY starts down the stairs.
55. INT. BOILER ROOM. DAY. 55.
NANCY comes off the stairs into a dank boiler room. The smear
trail is there. It runs behind a cracking, red-hot boiler the
size of a diesel locomotive. Everything about the place feels
dreadfully wrong, and the MUSIC is deep into the NIGHTMARE THEME
when it pauses.
TIGHT ON NANCY. Slow terror moves into her face. There's a low,
sinister GIGGLE.
56. REVERSE IN HER POV -- we see a tangle of pipes, shadows, and
the 56.
tainted fire of the huge boiler. Then from behind this, deeply
shadowed but still identifiable, steps TINA's KILLER. The same
filthy red and yellow sweater and slouch hat, the same melted
face twisting into a smile, the same GARBLED LAUGH as he slides
the long blades from beneath his shirt and fans them on the ends
of his bony fingers.
NANCY
Who are you?
MAN
Gonna get you.
57. The leering MAN brings the bloodied scalpel-fingernails across
57.
his own chest, splitting a nipple. Yellow fluid pours out.
MAGGOTS and WORMS.
NANCY forgets the question -- jerks around and flees in blind
panic into the first opening she sees -- a dark pipe tunnel.
58. INT. PIPE TUNNEL. 58.
ANGLE IN THE NARROW PASSAGEWAY. In the BACKGROUND the killer
shambles towards her; FOREGROUND NANCY breaks into a run.
The killer sprints -- NANCY tears ahead into darkness.
She flees deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of steaming,
SIZZLING pipes, squeezing through smaller and smaller openings.
The killer is just yards behind her, and soon she's trapped, just
as TINA was before her.
She presses her back to the wet bricks. There's no hope of
fighting him off, for NANCY is not as strong as TINA. But she is
smart as hell, and thinking even in this nightmare. So by the
time the creep has raised his knives to strike, NANCY has
realized something. She wheels and shoves her arm against one of
the scalding steam pipes. In the sme split second we HEAR her
flesh scald, we
CUT TO:
59. INT. ENGLISH CLASS. DAY. 59.
NANCY lurches up SCREAMING, arm raised to ward off the invisible
blow, books clattering to the floor -- other GIRLS nearby SCREAM
in surprise as she stumbles over them. Then she stops, confused
and groggy from the nightmare.
WIDER ANGLE. EVERYBODY is staring at NANCY as if she's gone
mad. The ENGLISH TEACHER rushes over, herself frightened by the
terror in the girl's eyes.
TEACHER
Okay -- Okay, Thompson! Every-
thing's all right now -- Nancy!.
60. NANCY jerks around with panicked eyes, expecting the killer
to 60.
leap from any direction. But there's only the sea of staring
eyes.
NANCY begins methodically picking up her books.
TEACHER
I'll call your mother.
NANCY
No! No, really, I'm fine. I'll go
straight home. I'm okay.
She marches for the door.
TEACHER
You'll need a hall pass!
But the girl's gone.
61. EXT. THE SCHOOL. DAY. 61.
NANCY walks out of the building, shaken. Then she pauses at one
of the big pine trees out front, stops and rests her head against
its bark, teeth set. NANCY starts to shake, and next second
she's sobbing like a broken-hearted, frightened child. OMIT 61A.
OMIT 61A.
62. But she shakes herself silent. Wipes the tears away with a slash
62.
of sleeve. She rubs her arm absently, lost in thought, then
reacts in surprise and pain. She lifts her arm and stares at the
spot she's touched.
INSERT ON HER ARM and the BURN there; about the size and shape
of
a half-dollar.
WIDER ON NANCY. Utterly, chillingly confused.
62A. TINA, against the tree inches from NANCY, (SC 7) -- turns
to her and
says --
TINA
Couldn't get back to sleep
at all.
(beat)
What you dream?
63. EXT. A BUSY STREET. DAY. 63.
NANCY is walking quickly, head erect, jaw set. Then she enters
her father's Police Station.
64. INT. VAN NUYS POLICE STATION. DAY. 64.
NANCY crosses directly to the GARCIA.
NANCY
My dad here?
GARCIA looks up from his paperwork.
SERGEANT GARCIA
Lieutenant.
LT THOMPSON emerges from another room, uneasy to see NANCY.
LT THOMPSON
Decide to take a day off after
all?
NANCY
Dad, I want to see Rod Lane.
THOMPSON doesn't miss a beat.
LT THOMPSON
Only family allowed, Nancy. You
know the drill.
NANCY
Just want to talk to him a second.
LT THOMPSON
He's dangerous.
NANCY
You don't know he did it.
LT THOMPSON
No, I know, thanks to your
own testimony, that he was
locked in a room with a girl
who went in alive and came
out in a rubber bag.
NANCY flinches; her father shows the first signs of color in his
neck.
NANCY
I just want to talk to him.
(beat, lower)
Please, Dad.
THOMPSON shifts almost imperceptibly towards GARCIA, then turns
back to NANCY.
LT THOMPSON
Make it fast.
DISSOLVE TO:
65. INT. CELL AREA. DAY. 65.
A GUARD exits pushing a cart of food trays. NANCY waits warily
until he's gone, then looks back to ROD LANE. ROD looks more
like a captured coyote than a human; haggard, ribbed, expecting
poisoned bait. His hair is wet, his clothes are borrowed jeans
and work shirt.
NANCY
(low)
And then what happened?
ROD
I told you.
(reluctantly)
It was dark, but I'm sure there
was someone else IN there, under
the covers with her.
NANCY reacts.
NANCY
How could somebody get under
the covers with you guys
without you knowing it?
ROD
How the fuck do I know?
(beat)
I don't expect you to believe
me.
NANCY studies his encrypted eyes. Surprisingly, she looks like
she just might believe him. She leans closer with a new
thought.
NANCY
What he look like? You get
a look at him?
He looks away.
ROD
No.
NANCY
Well then how can you say
somebody else was there?
ROD
Because somebody cut her. While
I watched.
Now the place is so quiet you can hear heartbeats.
NANCY
Somebody cut her while you watched
and you don't know what he looked
like?
ROD smiles an insane smile, stuck with a reality no one will
buy.
ROD
You couldn't see the fucker.
You could just see the cuts
happening, all at once.
NANCY gives a twitch.
NANCY
What you mean 'all at once'?
ROD
(low)
I mean, it was as if there were
four razors cutting her at the
same time. But invisible razors.
She just... opened up...
By now he's picking at a clot of dark blood on his jacket, as
if
it was a scab on his own body. Then he catches NANCY watching
and turns away to the back of the cell. He smashes his fist into
the wall -- bone-crushing blows that scare the wits out of
NANCY.
NANCY
Rod!
He stops, and his fist is dripping blood as he says in a small,
sad voice.
ROD
I probably could've saved her
if I'd moved sooner... But I
thought it was just another
nightmare, like the one I had
the night before.
(beat)
There... was this guy who had
knives for fingers...
CLOSE ON NANCY, unable to swallow the gorge rising in her
throat. ROD turns to her, and to his surprise she's ashen.
ROD (CONTD)
Do you think I did it?
NANCY
No.
FADE TO BLACK
66. EXT. ELM STREET / NANCY'S HOME. NIGHT. 66.
FADE UP ON ESTABLISHING SHOT as a spooky WIND sets a DOG BARKING
down the block. A CAR goes by, then this pleasant residential
street falls into silence. CAMERA has MOVED IN on NANCY's
well-tended two-story home.
67. INT. NANCY'S KITCHEN. NIGHT. 67.
The house is in shadow. Alone, MARGE scrapes the last of the
evening's dishes and slips them into the dishwasher. Neither she
nor her daughter has touched the food. But MARGE is well into a
bottle of gin; her appetite for that is growing, right along with
her dread. She turns and looks up the stairs, calling.
MARGE
Nancy, don't fall asleep in
there.
NANCY (OS)
I won't.
MARGE
Get into bed.
68. INT. UPSTAIRS BATHROOM. NIGHT. 68.
NANCY
I will.
NANCY'S in the tub, so drowsy she can hardly rinse without
falling asleep. The water in the tub is opaque with suds.
Luxurious.
CLOSER ANGLE, AT WATER LEVEL ON NANCY. Her eyes droop. She
slides closer to the surface of the water, letting its heat sooth
her nerves. Her eyes stare straight up, glazed; her breathing
deepens.
REVERSE, across to her legs, crooked, one knee on each side of
the tub. There's a ripple in the water between. Then something
tiny and shiny breaks the surface between them. It pops up with
a slithering MUSIC CUE and catches a sliver of light. Then it
begins to rise.
Higher and higher it rises, soon accompanied by another, then
two
more shining, gleaming blades, and then the full glove and dark
hairy hand and then the wrist and arm, straight up light an evil
sapling between the girl's knees, the knives bloosoming into a
bright flower of razor sharp steel in the air, moving over the
girl's belly. The hand rears back, the claws arch to strike.
MARGE (OS/APPROACHING)
Nancy?
MARGE raps on the door. The instant she does NANCY jerks up,
opening her eyes groggily. The dark wet arm, hand and knifes are
gone.
NANCY
What?
MARGE (OS)
(through the door)
You're not falling asleep,
are you? You could drown,
you know.
NANCY
Mother, for petesakes.
MARGE (OS)
It happens all the time.
(brighter)
I've got some warm milk all
ready for you. Why don't you
jump into bed?
(fading)
I'm gonna turn on your electric
blanket, too. C'mon, now.
(then she's gone into
another room)
NANCY
(low)
Warm milk. Gross.
She slides down to water level again, and sings softly,
thoughtfully to herself.
NANCY (CONTD)
One, two, Freddie's coming for
you, three four, better lock
your door, five six, grab your
crucifix, seven eight gonna
stay up late, nine ten, never
sleep again...
The next instant she's jerked with incredible violence straight
down beneath the surface of the tub -- as if the bottom had
suddenly dropped out and she was in a bottomless well!
68A. EXT. UNDERWATER SHOT. NIGHT. 68A.
LOOKING UP PAST HER ANKLES we SEE NANCY pulled sharply down into
really deep water, the dim light of the surface and bathroom
beyond receding with each yank. And yet she somehow flails and
gasps and struggles back towards the surface, managing by pure
panic to break the surface with her hands!
68B. INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE BATHROOM. 68B.
MARGE rushes to the door and listens, alarmed at the wild
SPLASHING audible through the locked door.
MARGE
Nancy! NANCY!
68C. EXT. UNDERWATER SHOT. NIGHT. 68C.
MARGE'S VOICE reaches to the girl, who thrusts up through main
force and breaks the surface with her head and shoulders.
68D. INT. BATHTUB. 68D.
Gasping and choking, NANCY breaks the surface of her bathwater,
like a drowning sailer getting one last chance. Her mother's
VOICE booms over her, ECHOED and frantic -- and the loud BANGING
on the door finally opens her eyes. She turns and calls gasping
to her mother --
NANCY
Mommy!
REVERSE ON THE DOOR -- as MARGE, using the old hangar through
the
doorhandle truck, makes it into the room. She rushes across to
the tub. NANCY is staggering up in the bathwater, again with
solid porcelain beneath her feet.
MARGE
I told you! Hundreds of people
a year drown like that!
The mother throws a towel around the gasping girl, helps her from
the tub and begins drying her like a child. NANCY looks like
she's likes paralized with some sort of weird dread.
MARGE
You okay?
NANCY
Great
MARGE
(not believing it for
a minute)
To bed with you, c'mon.
MARGE rushes out to get the room ready. NANCY turns and looks
at
herself in the cabinet mirror, then opens the medicine chest and
begins a quick, furtive search.
CLOSER as she takes out the box of No Doz and slips it into her
robe.
OMIT SCS. 69 & 70------------------------------- OMIT SCS. 69
& 70
71. INT. HALLWAY. NIGHT. 71.
NANCY emerges from the bathroom yawning. MARGE follows as the
girl plods obediently to her room.
MARGE
No television, forget the
homework, no phone calls.
NANCY
No, Mother. Yes, Mother.
No, Mother.
72. INT. NANCY'S ROOM. NIGHT. 72.
MARGE
And no school tomorrow, either.
you take a little vacation, relax
and rest for a change.
NANCY
Yes, Mother. G'night.
MARGE offers a smile, and a little yellow pill.
MARGE
Take this, it'll help you sleep.
NANCY
Right.
NANCY pops it in her mouth and swallows obediently. MARGE leans
to her with a kiss.
MARGE
Sleep tight, don't let the
bedbugs bite.
MARGE goes out, relieved. NANCY closes the door, leans against
it and spits the pill into her hand. She tosses it straight out
her window and takes a NoDoz.
FADE TO BLACK
73. OMIT OMIT 73.
74. FADE UP ON INSERT OF TELEVISION SCREEN. 74.
A MONSTER MOVIE in BLACK AND WHITE. NO SOUND from the set.
75. PULL BACK to REVEAL NANCY propped up in bed, furtively watching.
Or 75.
is she just thinking? A bedside CLOCK reads 12:45 pm.
The girl YAWNS. She shakes herself violently and sits up
straighter, forcing herself to concentrate on the movie.
75A. ON THE TELEVISION SCREEN. A DIVER struggles to keep facing
a 75A.
large circling shark.
75B. ON NANCY. Her eyes droop shut -- then she jerks awake, rattling
75B.
her head as if it were a radio drifting off station. She tumbles
out of bed, throws open the window and takes a deep breath of the
cool night air.
76. EXT. NANCY'S HOUSE AND STREET. NIGHT. 76.
HIGH ANGLE, AT SECOND-STORY LEVEL. NANCY looks directly across
the street to a lighted, open window. Its curtains, sucked out
and waving in the night breeze, give the only motion to the
deserted street.
Then someone pitches out of the dark at her. NANCY gives a YELP
-- then clamps her hand over her mouth as she recognizes GLEN,
balanced precariously on the rose trellis outside her window.
GLEN
Sorry! Saw your light on.
Thought I'd see how you were.
She gets herself together, barely.
NANCY
Sometimes I wish you didn't live
right across the street.
GLEN
Shut up and let me in. You ever
stand on a rose trellis in your
bare feet?
76A. INT. NANCY'S ROOM. NIGHT. 76A.
NANCY looks over her shoulder to make sure her mother hasn't
heard. GLEN's already through her window and planted on her
bed. NANCY points to a chair.
NANCY
If you don't mind.
GLEN crosses to the chair and plops down.
GLEN
So. I heard you freaked out
in English class today.
There's no maliciousness in his voice, and the familiar frankness
is actually comforting to NANCY.
NANCY
Guess I did.
GLEN
Haven't slept, have you?
NANCY
Not really.
NANCY tries to smile, but can't fake it very well. GLEN looks
her over.
GLEN
You look dead and rained on, if
you want the ugly truth. And
what you do to your arm?
She shrugs, trying to keep it casual.
NANCY
Burned myself in Englsh class.
She hazards a look in the mirror, and her jaw drops.
NANCY
M'god, I look twenty years old.
(turning back to him)
You have any weird dreams last
night?
GLEN
Slept like a rock.
NANCY
(pleased)
Well at least I have an objective
wall to bounce this off.
(off)
You believe it's possible to dream
about what's going to happen?
GLEN
No.
NANCY
You believe in the Boogey Man?
GLEN
One two, Freddie's coming
for you? No. Rod killed Tina.
he's a fruitcake and you know it.
NANCY
You believe in anything?
GLEN
I believe in you, me, and
Rock and Roll. And I'm not
too sure about you lately.
NANCY thinks.
NANCY
Listen, I got a crazy favor
to ask.
GLEN
Uh-oh...
NANCY
It's nothing too hard or anything.
(beat)
I'm just going to... LOOK
for someone, and... I want
you to be sort of a ...guard.
Okay?
GLEN makes the Twilight Zone sound.
NANCY
Okay?
GLEN
Okay, okay.
(beat)
I think.
She comes very close to him.
NANCY
You won't screw up, right? I
mean, a whole lot might depend
on it.
The way she's looking at him gives him the creeps.
GLEN
Okay, I won't screw up.
77. Nancy takes a deep breath. Then without another word turns
off 77.
the TV and the light.
GLEN (IN DARK)
Jesus, it's dark in here.
NANCY
Shhh. Now listen, here's what
we're gonna do...
78. EXT. ELM STREET. NIGHT. 78.
FADE UP ON NANCY, still in her pajamas, walking through the
shadowy streets near her home, listening for the slightest
sound. We MOVE with her. But nothing, not even the dog barking
earlier, is there now. NANCY peers into the darkness of lawns
and trees behind her.
NANCY
(stage whisper)
You still there?
Across the street and a distance away, GLEN steps from behind
a
tree.
GLEN
Yeah. So?
NANCY
Just checking -- keep out of
sight!
GLEN throws up his hands in exasperation and walks back out of
sight. NANCY turns and looks down between the houses, deep into
a dark alleyway. Then she forces herself to walk into it.
79. EXT. ALLEY. NIGHT. 79.
MOVING WITH HER as she makes herself go deeper and deeper into
shadows. Each time she pauses and waits, the MUSIC grows more
threatening and expectant. The feeling is of immense tension --
we're sure the killer will come screaming out on her at any
second.
But he doesn't. In fact absolutely nothing happens, and NANCY
emerges from the far end of the alley unscathed. The only thing
strange is that she now finds her self looking across the mall to
80. EXT. POLICE STATION. NIGHT. 80.
The Police Station. It takes her a little by surprise, it just
seems to have appeared.
MUSIC creeps into the NIGHTMARE THEME as NANCY whispers hoarsely
back down the dark alley.
NANCY (CONTD)
Still there?
81. EXT. ALLEY. NIGHT. 81.
We only HEAR the DISTANT VOICE, slightly ECHOED.
GLEN'S VOICE (OS)
(yawning)
Still here!
NANCY
On your toes, right?
NANCY stares into the dark trying to see him, but she can't. She
turns back and makes up her mind to move without him in sight.
82. EXT. POLICE STATION. NIGHT. 82.
MUSIC MOUNTS as we MOVE WITH NANCY across the lawns to the police
station, creeping to the first lighted window she sees. It's a
low, barred basement window, and NANCY reacts as soon as she
looks through it.
83. INT. ROD'S CELL. NIGHT. 83.
NANCY'S POV down into ROD LANE's cell. The boy is on his rough
cot, twitching in disturbed sleep. And a long SHADOW is sliding
across the wall.
A big SHAPE appears in the shadowed corridor outside the boy's
cell, and as IT walks closer NANCY can barely see it's the
shambling, grimly scarred man with the filthy red and yellow
sweater and strange slouch hat pulled across his brow. The
KILLER from all of their nightmares.
And this giant shadow of a man passes through the bars of the
cell, like so much evil Jello. Halfway through he pauses,
turning to check over his shoulder. We see the bars clearly
penetrating his body, going in his head, passing out his ankles.
Then he turns back to ROD and moves forward, and within another
heartbeat is beside the boy.
84. EXT. POLICE STATION. NIGHT. 84.
NANCY draws back sharply, swallowing in terror. She looks behind
her for help.
NANCY (CONTD)
Glen.
No answer.
NANCY (CONTD)
(louder)
Glen?!
The street is absolutely deserted. There is no motion, and no
sound save one: the distant but unmistakeable sound of GLEN
SNORING.
NANCY (CONTD)
GLEN!
A beat of silence after the shout's echoes die, then the steady,
boyish SNORES again. NANCY swears under her breath and jerks
back around, forcing herself to look again into ROD's cell.
85. INT. ROD'S CELL. 85.
IN HER POV -- the killer picks up ROD's bedsheet and tests it
between his powerful hands. Without thinking, NANCY bangs
against the glass.
NANCY (CONTD)
Rod! Look out!
The KILLER wheels around, locking eyes with NANCY. The girl goes
white. The man's face is in the light, and it's horrible --
seething with hatred and a twisted, insane intelligence.
The hold of those eyes is only broken when ROD rolls up on an
elbow with a deep, troubled GROAN. The instant ROD does this,
the KILLER fades into the shadows in the cell. But even then his
eyes hold on NANCY's until the last second he's visible.
ROD looks around the cell groggily, runs his fingers through his
matted hair, then collapses back on his pillow. No matter how
hard NANCY screams, ROD never once looks at the window. He just
pulls the twisted covers about his shoulders and succumbs once
more to sleep.
And now the bed sheet is no longer on the bed. The KILLER,
materializing out of the shadow again, is holding it between his
hands like a garrote. He looks up and leers at NANCY, then moves
for ROD.
86. EXT. POLICE STATION. NIGHT. 86.
ANGLE BACK ON NANCY. She pounds on the window, then turns in
frustration and yells into the night.
NANCY
Glen!!
She turns back to the cell in desperation.
87. OMIT OMIT 87.
88. INT. ROD'S CELL. 88.
IN NANCY'S POV we look into a cell that is quite deserted save
for ROD. Sleeping peacefully.
89. EXT. POLICE STATION. NIGHT. 89.
NANCY pulls back from the window, stunned.
NANCY
I swear...
Suddenly NANCY feels utterly exposed. She shivers, chilled and
vulnerable to the bone in her thin night clothes. She can't
move. It's as if some great nerve between her instincts and body
had been severed. And she hears the SOUND behind her. A sort of
filling-vibrating Scrriiitchh.
MUSIC sneaks in -- the unmistakeable NIGHTMARE THEME, creeping
over her. NANCY forces herself, by sheer will, to look.
90. Ahead of her perhaps twenty-five feet, covered with a thick
90.
plastic body bag through which we can barely see her face, is
TINA. Standing square in the middle of the street. A dark ooze
of BLACK EELS roil out of its bottom, and at its top, the zipper
CHATTERS down and the greenish-white face of TINA lolls out. She
gestures, supplicating, her watery eyes desperate to convey some
desperate message.
The MUSIC FALLS TO A HUSH.
91. NANCY backs away, eyes streaming tears. 91.
NANCY
Glen, where are you! Wake up!
Glen!
DEEP RAGGED VOICE
I'm here.
NANCY twists around in horror at the same instant the KILLER
grabs for her face with his knife-fingers! The girl
intinctively pitches back, then scrambles up and runs like
hell!
NANCY
Glen! Glen!!!
92. EXT. ELM STREET. NIGHT. 92.
MOVING WITH NANCY at full gallop, running blind. She crashes
through a sawhorse into a new sidewalk, sinking into the wet
cement over her ankles. The stuff sticks to her legs in long
gluey globs and she can barely pull her feet loose.
The KILLER looms nearby,
mocking her -- his scalpel claws gleaming in the streetlight. He
just misses the girl as she wrenches free and flees again, now so
winded she can only stagger.
MOVING WITH THEM. Time after time NANCY just barely manages to
elude the shadowy form, leaping from his reach by inches and
pouring on more steam. It's too close to even bother screaming
now; and besides, that would take breath she doesn't have. The
only SOUND is of RUNNING FOOTSTEPS, RASPING BREATH and the
KNIFE-FINGERS WHISTLING through the air.
93. EXT. NANCY'S HOME. NIGHT. 93.
NANCY tears across her front lawn and into the open front door
of
her home, SLAMMING it with all her might. There's a tremendously
satisfying CONCUSSION of wood against doorframe, and the LOCKS
fall shut.
94. INT. NANCY'S LIVING ROOM. NIGHT. 94.
NANCY
Glennn!!!
But her voice is garbled as if she's under water, and there's
no
answer. The only clue to Glen being there at all is his distant
SNORING. Innocent. Persistent. Deep.
NANCY stops, breath in shreds, face smeared with dirt and tears.
Something is clawing the window in the dark of the kitchen.
NANCY looks and catches the MAN prying at the glass with his big
knife-fingers, the sharp blades SIZZLING against the edges of the
glass as they crack it away from the frame. NANCY runs upstairs
in blind panic.
95. INT. NANCY'S ROOM. NIGHT. 95.
NANCY darts into her unlit bedroom, slams the door and locks it.
Safe at last.
She listens at the door. Nothing. She crosses to her bed. Next
second the KILLER dives through her window and seizes her in a
shower of shattered glass!
NANCY twists and manages to grab the wrist of his knife hand with
both of hers, barely keeping the blades from her throat.
The two fall backwards in a terrible, gasping struggle, crashing
onto NANCY's bed. Her grip is broken -- the MAN stabs -- NANCY
twists away, backed into a corner of bed and walls. Defenseless,
she snatches a pillow up; the KILLER lashes out -- disemboweling
the pilow and sending a great gush of feathers flying. NANCY
dives for escape in a virtual blizzard.
The KILLER manages to snare her with his other hand, and the two
crash across the bedside table to the floor, the table and all
its contents cascading around them in a whiteout of feathers.
ANGLE AT FLOOR LEVEL -- CLOSE ON NANCY'S AND THE KILLER'S HEADS.
The blades inch towards the girl's face -- the drool of the
grizzled shadow with the horribly scarrred face spills into her
eyes. Feathers are everywhere; MUSIC is absolutely insane!
But just when the points of steel are less than an inch from her
eyes, the old fashioned alarm clock thrown to the floor next to
NANCY's head goes off with a jarring RINGGGGGGG!
96. Instantly the MUSIC STOPS. And a moment later the room is 96.
light.
WIDER as NANCY reels up, blinded by the sudden light, SCREAMING
AND FIGHTING on her bed.
ANGLE ON GLEN, lurching from his own sleep at the frightening
noise. He discovers NANCY pressed in terror against her
headboard, clutching a pillow like a drowning woman would a
straw.
It's an intact pillow, and there isn't a feather in sight.
NANCY stares incredulously at GLEN, then around the room,
untangling herself from her bedclothes. Wary and furious, her
voice hoarse.
NANCY
Glen, you bastard...
The boy looks at his friend in groggy alarm. She's absolutely
livid, more angry than he's ever seen her, and more strange.
GLEN
What I do?
He reaches for her -- she flattens against the wall, eyes hard,
and terribly hurt, too.
NANCY
(low)
I asked you to do just one thing.
Just stay awake and watch me --
Just wake me if it looked like
I was having a bad dream.
(eyes wild)
But you. You shit -- what do
you do -- you fall asleep!
She stops herself, wiping a bit of spittle off her lip, alarmed
at how out of control she's become. And suddenly she breaks,
sinking into her torn bedclothes and rubbing her head.
NANCY (CONTD)
(mostly to herself)
I must be going nuts...
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