script used with courtesey of Daily Script
Wes Craven’s
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
1A. INT. (MONTAGE). 1A.
NIGHTMARE MUSIC THEME begins as we FADE UP on a SERIES OF SHOTS,
all CLOSE and teasing.
— A man’s FEET, in shabby work shoes, stalking
through a junk bin in a dark, fire-lit, ash-
dusted place. A huge BOILER ROOM is what it
is, although we only glimpse it piecemeal.
Then we SEE a MAN’S HAND, dirty and nail-bitten,
reach INTO FRAME and pick up a piece of METAL.
— ANOTHER ANGLE as the HAND grabs a grimey
WORKGLOVE and slashes at it with a straight
razor, until its fingertips are off.
— CLOSE ON SAME HANDS dumping four fishing knives
out of a filthy bag. Their blades are thin,
curved, gleaming sharp.
— MORE ANGLES, EVEN CLOSER. We can HEAR the MAN’s
wheezing BREATHING, but we still haven’t seen
his face. We never will. We just SEE more metal
being assembled with crude tools, into some sort
of linkage — a splayed, spidery sort of apparatus,
against a background light of FIRE, and a deep
rushing of STEAM and HEAVY, DARK ENERGY.
— And then we see this linkage attached to the glove.
— Then the BLADES attached to all of it.
— Then the MAN’S HAND slips into this glove-like
apparatus, filling it out and transforming
it into an awesome, deadly claw-hand with
four razor/talons gleaming at its blackened
fingertips. Suddenly the HAND arches and STRIKES
FORWARD, SLASHING THROUGH a DARK CANVAS, tearing
it to shreds.
1. EXT. LOS ANGELES. NIGHT. (2nd Unit) 1.
A PULSATION OF LIGHT AND SHADOW. MUSIC DROPS AWAY to a hushed
RUSHING OF WIND and DISTANT SIRENS. CAMERA RACKS INTO FOCUS on a
HIGH PANORAMA of the San Fernando Valley, its night sky lit from
within by a strange GREENISH LIGHT. TITLES BEGIN.
CAMERA TILTS DOWN and ZOOMS SWIFTLY into the valley’s web of
light.
CUT TO:
2. INT. CONCRETE PASSAGEWAY. 2.
TITLES CONTINUE as TINA GRAY, a strong girl of fifteen in a thin
night shift, moves towards us down a dark concrete corridor. Her
steps quicken as TITLES appear in the portion of frame she leaves
free.
A subliminal COLLAGE of SOUND threads in and out of the MUSIC.
Distant insane LAUGHTER. Slamming iron DOORS. A bleating animal
CRY. A LAMB, white and blank-faced, skitters across her path and
on into the dark. No reason why it’s there.
Then another SOUND, much nearer — the slithering SCRAPE of
something like fingernails across slate. It sets our teeth on
edge, twists the MUSIC, and sends TINA running.
3. INT. BOILER ROOM. 3.
Suddenly TINA’s a tiny figure running among huge boilers steam
pipes and catwalks — a shadowed forest of iron and stone. She
stops, listening intently as the SOUND of tiny hooves suddenly
turns into the rattle of DISTANT RAIN.
Then she hears RIPPING FABRIC.
Someone is shouldering behind a ragged screen of dirty canvas,
approaching TINA.
CLOSER ON THE CANVAS. The long curved fingerblades suddenly
punch through, flashing in the firelight, and begin ripping
through the thick fabric, as easily as scalpels through flesh.
They make a hideous, extended RIPPING SOUND.
TINA rushes away, hands over her ears.
ANOTHER ANGLE — as the blinded girl stumbles backwards. Then
the canvas flaps free. The blades are gone. The TITLES END, and
everything goes silent.
CAMERA CIRCLES until TINA’s looking right into our eyes. The
light from a nearby boiler pours through her thin night dress,
leaving her naked and vulnerable. Then a deep, ragged VOICE
whispers at her as CAMERA CLOSES IN ON HER FACE.
VOICE (O.S.)
One two, Freddie’s coming for
you…
TINA opens her mouth to scream but only a dry, yellow dust pours
out. And at that precise moment a huge shadowy MAN with a grimey
red and yellow sweater and a weird hat pulled over his scarred
face lunges at her. And it’s his fingers that are tipped with
the long blades of steel, glinting in the boney light and giving
the hulk the look of an otherworldly predator.
TINA dodges away, her legs suddenly elephantine and slow. The
MAN seizes the trailing hem of her nightgown and hauls her back.
The MUSIC shrieks as TINA manages to tear free — the MAN lurches
after her with a hoarse SHOUT as we —
SMASH CUT TO:
4. INT. TINA’S BEDROOM. NIGHT. 4.
TINA convulses in bed with a SCREAM, looking around wildly.
Someone is KNOCKING on her door.
WOMAN’S VOICE (O.S.)
You okay, Tina?
TINA’S MOTHER sticks her head in with a worried look. TINA sits
up and blows out a breath, groggy.
TINA
Just a dream, Ma…
(more to herself)
Damn dream, is all…
The woman, once attractive, ventures a step into the room. A MAN
hovers BACKGROUND. TINA’S mother waves him away without looking,
shoving a strand of bleached hair from her eyes. She appraises
her daughter.
TINA’S MOTHER
Some dream, judging from that.
She nods at TINA’s nightshift.
TINA looks down at her nightgown, only now aware of the chill
penetrating it from the room. There are four long slashes up its
middle, cleanly cut as if by scalpels.
MAN (OS)
(distant, annoyed)
You coming back to the sack or
what?
TINA’S MOTHER
Hold your horses.
(lower, to Tina as she
stands to leave)
You gotta cut your nails or stop
that kind of dreaming, Tina. One
or the other.
The woman shuts the door behind her. TINA looks back to her
nightgown.
TINA
(low)
Oh, shit.
She suddenly snatches up the cross that hangs over her head, her
face white as her sheet.
FADE TO BLACK
BURN ON
5. THE FIRST DAY 5.
CHILDREN (OS)
(singing)
One two, Freddie’s coming for you…
Three four better lock your door
Five six grab your crucifix…
6. EXT. HIGH SCHOOL. DAY. 6.
FADE UP ON SHOT OF this large highschool and its crowds of
STUDENTS. FOREGROUND, TINA climbs out of a cherry-red 1959
Cadillac convertible with two other students, best friend NANCY
WILSON, and Nancy’s boyfriend and owner of the car, GLEN LANTZ.
FOREGROUND several GRADESCHOOLERS are playing jump-rope, and the
old ditty they sing continues unbroken from TINA’s bedroom.
ROPE JUMPERS
Seven eight, gonna stay up late!
Nine ten — never sleep again!
7. MOVING ANGLE FAVORING NANCY. She’s a pretty girl in a letter 7.
sweater, with an easy, athletic stride and the look of a natural
leader. GLEN, holding her hand, wears one of the school’s
football jerseys; a good-natured, bright kid. Tina’s in
mid-conversation.
TINA
(referring to kids’ song)
That’s what it reminded me of —
that old jump rope song.
(shudders)
Worst nightmare I ever had.
You wouldn’t believe it.
Nancy nods.
NANCY
Matter of fact I had a bad dream
last night myself…
TINA turns to NANCY, but before either can say more, ROD LANE, a
lean, Richard Gere sort in black leather and New Wave studs joins
up with them and interupts.
ROD
(to Tina)
Had a hardon this morning when
I woke up, Tina. Had your name
written all over it.
Tina cracks her gum with a look of withering indifference.
TINA
There’s four letters in my name,
Rod. How could there be room
on your joint for four letters?
The guy’s stopped in his tracks.
ROD
Hey, up yours with a twirling lawn
mower!
He cuts off across the lawn.
TINA
Rod says the sweetest things.
NANCY
He’s nuts about you.
TINA
Yeah, nuts.
TINA makes a face and rakes her fingernails across a tree as she
passes.
TINA (CONTD)
(yawns)
Anyway, I’m too tired to worry
about the creep. Couldn’t get
back to sleep at all.
(beat)
So what you dream?
NANCY
Forget it, the point is, every-
body has nightmares once in a while.
No biggy.
GLEN
Next time you have one, just
tell yourself that’s just all
it is, right while you’re having
it, y’know? That’s the trick.
Once you do that, you wake right
up. At least it works for me.
TINA looks at GLEN sharply. He kisses NANCY and darts off for
class.
TINA
Hey! You have a nightmare too?
But GLEN’s gone.
TINA (CONTD)
Maybe we’re gonna have the Big
Earthquake. They say things get
weird just before that…
BELLS ARE RINGING, and STUDENTS crowding; TINA and NANCY are
drawn into the crush.
FADE TO BLACK
8. EXT. A VALLEY STREET. NIGHT. 8.
ANGLE ON A MODEST HOME; no car, just a couple of BIKES in the
drive. Every light in the house and yard is turned on. We HEAR
the rock group MADNESS played at a ‘No adults home’ volume.
9. INT. TINA’S LIVING ROOM. NIGHT. 9.
ON GLEN, dialing. Nancy and TINA are watching, giggling.
TINA
I can’t believe his mother let him
come over here.
NANCY
Right. Well, she didn’t, exactly…
GLEN shoves a cassette into TINA’s Ghetto Blaster.
GLEN
(to TINA)
See, I got this cousin who lives
near the airport, that it’s okay
for me to stay with, right? So I
found this sound effects tape at
Licorice Pizza, and…
The phone is answered. GLEN jerks the tone arm off the record
with a SCRUUPT!!
GLEN (CONTD)
Hello, Mom?
(pushes the ‘play’ button)
Yeah, out here at Barry’s.
A JET PLANE begins to make itself heard on the tape. GLEN moves
the machine closer to the phone. It’s a big plane — sounds like
a 747 coming in for a landing.
GLEN (CONT)
Huh? Yeah, noisy as usual. Glad
we don’t live here — huh? Yeah,
Aunt Eunice says hello.
The Jet is SCREAMING IN now, full flaps and howling like a
monstrous banshee. NANCY and TINA dissolve into muffled
giggles.
GLEN (CONT)
(shouting over the din)
Right, right — I’ll call you in the
morning! Right! Huh? Yeah, sure,
I, huh?…
Suddenly the tape goes silent. GLEN blanches. Next moment
another ENGINE is heard, but this one is a FORD LOTUS screaming
by at 180 mph.
GLEN (CONT)
(reacting to his mother’s
reaction)
Uh… some kid’s drag racing
outside, I think…
The sound effect changes abruptly to a SPEEDING SEDAN — and the
ages-old SCREECH of BRAKES, last-second SCREAM and horrible
COLLISION. NANCY gamely tries to find the right button to turn
it off, but misses. There’s a loud SCREEK of fast-forward mayhem
— Glen improvises desperately.
GLEN (CONT)
Listen, Mom, I got to go — I
think there’s been an accident out
front — I —
NANCY jumps back from the cassette player — WORLD WAR II bursts
out at top volume — MACHINE GUNS, HAND GRENADES, DIVING BEARCATS
and SHOUTS of charging Huns. GLEN makes a last-ditch dive and
flings the cassette out of the machine.
Blessed silence at last.
GLEN (CONT)
Right. I’ll call the police. No,
just some neighbors having a fight,
I guess. I’m fine, I’m fine!
Call you in the morning!
He hangs up and sags back.
NANCY
Worked like a charm.
GLEN
Jesus.
TINA shoves another cassette in, and MICHAEL JACKSON’S ‘THRILLER’
blasts from the STEREO. The kids relax, the CAMERA GLIDES PAST
THEM TO THE WINDOW.
The WIND is moving the bare TREE BRANCH outside. CAMERA PANS
BACK to the comfortably threadbare room, uneasy. We see NANCY
poking at a flame in the hearth as TINA comes FOREGROUND to draw
the drapes.
NANCY
Nice to have a fire.
TINA
Really. Turn ‘er up a little.
NANCY turns a nearby valve handle, and the gas fire climbs
brightly over its artificial log. TINA joins her, heartened.
NANCY
Maybe we should call Rod, have him
come over too. He might get jealous.
TINA
Rod and I are done. He’s too much
of a maniac.
GLEN
He should join the Marines, they
could make something out of him.
Like a hand grenade.
TINA laughs despite herself. NANCY brightens.
NANCY
See? You’ve forgotten the bad
dream. Didn’t I tell you?
TINA shakes her head, wishing she had forgotten.
TINA
All day long I been seeing that
guy’s weird face, and hearing
those fingernails…
NANCY looks up with a flinch.
NANCY
Fingernails?
(blinks, laughing)
That’s amazing, you saying that.
It made me remember the dream I
had last night.
TINA looks up.
TINA
What you dream?
NANCY
I dreamed about this guy in a
dirty red and yellow sweater;
I dream in color, y’know; he
walked into the room I was in,
right, right through the wall,
like it was smoke or something,
and just stared at me. Sort of
…obscenely. Then he walked
out through the wall on the
other side. Like he’d just
come to check me out…
The story has left the room deathly quiet. Especially TINA seems
effected.
TINA
(quietly)
So what about the fingernails?
NANCY remembers, imitating the frightful coincidence.
NANCY
He scraped his fingernails
along things — actually, they
were more like fingerknives or
something, like he’d made them
himself? Anyway, they made
this horrible nose —
(imitates)
sssssccrrrtttt….
TINA pales.
TINA
Nancy. You dreamed about the
same creep I did, Nancy…
The girls stare at each other.
GLEN
That’s impossible.
They look at him. He looks away, as if suddenly listening.
TINA
What?
GLEN
Nothing.
TINA
There’s somebody out there,
isn’t there…
NANCY
I didn’t hear anything…
Then there’s an unmistakeable SOUND. A distinct SCRAPING against
the house, just outside the window. Something multiple, thin and
sharp. Something like metal fingernails. NANCY’s mouth opens a
fraction of an inch.
10. EXT. FRONT OF HOUSE. NIGHT. 10.
CLOSE ON FRONT DOOR as a BOLT UNLOCKS, a KEY TURNS, a CHAIN is
REMOVED. At last the door swings open and GLEN swaggers out.
GLEN
I’m gonna punch out your ugly
lights, whoever you are.
No answer but a slight RUSTLE in the bushes. GLEN does a 180 and
walks right back inside. The girls prod him right back out,
giddy with giggling fear.
GLEN
It’s just a stupid cat.
NANCY
Then bring us back its tail
and whiskers.
The girls push him farther. GLEN edges towards the shadows.
Then the SCRITCHING again. GLEN stops; TINA edges back into the
house.
TINA
Anyway, I don’t have a cat…
ANGLE INTO THE SHADOWS. Turned from the girls, GLEN sobers,
listening. IN HIS POV we see the street. Silent houses.
Motionless trees on empty lawns.
GLEN
Kitty-kitty? Chow chow chow?
Not a living, or dead, soul. GLEN turns back to the girls with a
shrug. Instantly, a large FIGURE pounces and throws him to the
ground with a shout.
The girls SCREAM in panic and run for the house.
11. REVERSE — ROD leaps up and shouts like a sportscaster — 11.
ROD
And it’s number thirty-six, Rod
Lane, bringing Lantz down just
three yards from the goal with a
brilliant tackle! And the fans
go wild!
ROD dances into the light, flashing a wild gypsy’s grin at TINA.
The girl’s relieved and frightened at the same time.
TINA
What the hell you doing here?
ROD
Came to make up, no big deal.
Your ma home?
TINA
Of course. What’s that?
ROD takes the spindly hand rake he’s found and scraps the house’s
wall. It makes a terrible SCRIIITCHING SOUND. He grins and
tosses it aside.
ROD
Intense, huh?
(sizes up the three)
So what’s happening, an orgy or
something?
GLEN
Maybe a funeral, you dickhead.
ROD wheels, a knife suddenly in his hand, as if ready to take
Glen’s throat out. NANCY breaks between —
NANCY
— Just a sleep-over date, Rod.
Just Tina and me. Glen was just
leaving.
ROD eyes GLEN, laughs and flips the knife closed and away,
putting his arm around TINA’s shoulder and laughing as if it’s
all a great joke.
ROD
You see his face?
(lower)
Your ma ain’t home, is she?
(to Nancy & Glen)
Me and Tina got stuff to discuss.
He pulls TINA inside without further ceremony.
NANCY
Rod…
But ROD’s already got himself and TINA halfway through the living
room, heading into the darker part of the house.
ROD
We got her mother’s bed.
You two got the rest.
ANGLE BACK ON GLEN AND NANCY.
NANCY
We should get her out of here…
TINA darts to the front door, her blouse half out.
TINA
Hey — you guys’re hanging around —
right?
(fake laughing/whine)
Don’t leave me alone with this
lunatic — Pleeeeze, NANCY!
She disappears. GLEN looks at NANCY. Too innocent.
GLEN
So we’ll guard her together.
Through the night.
(moving closer)
In each others’ arms like
we always said.
NANCY
Glen. Not now. I mean,
we’re here for Tina now,
not for ourselves.
She kisses him lightly, then pushes him back.
GLEN
(frustrated)
Why’s she so bothered by a
stupid nightmare, anyway?
NANCY
Because he was scary, that’s
why.
GLEN
Who was scary?
NANCY turns and looks at him.
NANCY
Don’t you think it’s weird, her
and me dreaming about the same
guy?
(GLEN looks away;
NANCY stares closer)
You didn’t have a bad dream
last night, did you?
GLEN gives her a funny look.
GLEN
Me? I don’t dream.
He takes her inside. Over the SOUNDS of locks falling shut we
FADE TO BLACK
13. INT. TINA’S LIVING ROOM. NIGHT. 13.
FADE UP ON an old 50’s CLOCK, one of those set into the black
plaster body of a stalking panther. It’s just past 2 AM.
PAN the cold hearth and darkened living room to REVEAL GLEN on
the couch, cacooned in sheets. He’s listening miserably to the
SOUNDS OF LOVEMAKING coming from the next room. TINA peaks, ROD
howls. Then silence.
GLEN
Morality sucks.
CUT TO:
14. INT. TINA’S MOTHER’S BEDROOM. NIGHT. 14.
This is a slightly larger room than TINA’s. Adult. Female.
Spare in its appointments. The streetlight throws the narrow bed
into broken shadow and light. TINA AND ROD lie in each other’s
arms in the middle of the big bed. Satiated.
TINA
I knew there was sometihng
about you I liked…
ROD yawns into the pillows, happy.
ROD
You feel better now, right?
TINA
Jungle man fix Jane.
ROD
No more fights?
TINA
No more fights.
ROD
(sleepily)
Good. No more nightmares for
either of us then.
He pulls the covers over his head. He’s almost out already.
TINA
(beat)
When did you have a nightmare?
ROD
(under the blankets)
Guys can have nightmares too,
y’know. You ain’t got a corner
on the fucking market or something.
He rolls over, practically snoring, and pulls another cover over
his head. A dirty red and yellow cover.
TINA
(sleepily)
Where’d you get this snotty old
thing?
SNORES from ROD. TINA yawns, turns off the light and snuggles
against ROD, pulling the cover gingerly over herself, too.
15. INT. TINA’S BEDROOM. NIGHT 15.
CAMERA MOVES across the room of the original nightmare to find
NANCY alone in TINA’s bed, staring at the slanting ceiling above
the bed. Thinking. We can just hear her HEART beating. She
sighs and turns on her side.
Immediately the wall above her head turns a faint reddish hue,
with a broad yellow smear across its center. All unseen by
NANCY, the wall begins to pulse in exact time with her heart’s
beat.
CLOSE ON NANCY’S FACE. She closes her eyes.
ANGLE BACK UP ON THE CEILING JUST ABOVE HER HEAD. SOMETHING
presses against the surface from the inside. The plaster buldges
out as if suddenly elastic, taking the shape of the thing
pressing from inside — taking the shape of a man’s face. The
face opens its mouth. The knives rake through the surface.
ANGLE ON NANCY — as plaster dust snows down on her.
She jerks awake, sitting bolt upright. The face retracts
suddenly — the wall is normal.
ANGLE DOWN ON NANCY as she looks up to the ceiling, touching her
hair and feeling the plaster dust.
REVERSE IN HER POV TO THE CEILING. There are three parallel cuts
in the plaster there. About eight inches long. As if cut by
sharp knives. Nothing else.
Back on NANCY. She draws the covers around her and shivers.
Eyes wide open.
16. EXT. TINA’S HOUSE. NIGHT. 16.
Not a car or person in sight. A stricken breeze dies in the
trees.
17. ZOOM IN on the window of the room where TINA sleeps. By the time 17.
we’re FULL IN CLOSE on it, the air is again still as death. A
moment later a PEBBLE bounces off the pane. The NIGHTMARE THEME
appears in the lower registers and holds its breath.
Another PEBBLE strikes, with a sharper RAP.
18. INT. TINA’S MOTHER’S BEDROOM. NIGHT. 18.
CLOSE ON TINA’S FACE as her eyes open.
19. REVERSE IN HER POV. Another PEBBLE clatters off the glass. 19.
20. TINA raises slowly. 20.
TINA
ROD…
SNORES FROM ROD. TINA sits up.
PAST HER TO THE WINDOW. The WIND MOVES AGAIN; the trees brush
the window with their shadows. Then another pebble. RAP! TINA
slips to the window.
21. EXT. TINA’S BACKYARD. NIGHT. 21.
She looks out on an old yard with a patch of bananna trees
rattling in the Santa Ana winds. It seems deserted, though the
welling dark won’t let her be sure. Then another pebble — PAP!
— hitting with a sharp RACK FOCUS.
22. A LOW ANGLE TO WINDOW as TINA jumps back, startled. She hadn’t 22.
seen that one coming. But she’s drawn back to the glass out of
curiousity, straining to see in the dark. It’s as if the stones
are materializing out of thin air.
23. INT. TINA’S MOTHER’S ROOM. NIGHT. 23.
WHAP! This time a heavier stone, and a thin crack bristles
across the glass.
TINA
(low)
Who the fuck you think you are,
whoever you are?
24. EXT. TINA’S BACK YARD. NIGHT. 24.
WIDE ANGLE ON THE REAR OF THE HOUSE. A LIGHT COMES ON. TINA
appears in the doorway.
TINA
(listening)
Somebody there?
She can see through the backward to a yawning gate and the back
alley. No one there. But a word is spoken, as if by wind.
VOICE
(garbled)
Tina.
TINA straightens, unable to swallow. There’s a ragged, obscene
GIGGLE. Deep in the throat. Phlegmy.
TINA
Who the hell is that?
TINA charges across the yard and through the gate, the MUSIC
chasing after.
25. EXT. A SERVICE ALLEY. NIGHT. 25.
She brakes in the middle of the alley and whirls around.
Listening. Shivering in the same thin slashed nightgown.
A sharp crank of METAL, and fifty feet down the alley the lid of
an ash can rolls from the dark like a huge tin coin and spirals
noisily down.
26. LOW REVERSE ACROSS LID TO TINA. Despite herself she comes over 26.
and touches it. She comes up with long worms on her fingers.
Next moment the exact same shambling MAN from her nightmare
staggers into view fifty feet behind her. TINA falls back into
the shadows, shaking the worms off her fingers in repulsion. The
MAN turns and starts directly for her, something shining on his
right hand as he spreads his arms wide. He starts scraping the
steel FINGERNAILS along a cinderblock wall. Orange sparks spurt
out — his arms elongate until they reach from one side of the
alley to the other — and TINA is cut off from her home!
CLOSE ON HER as the SCRAPING of the blades gets louder and
closer. She begins to shake uncontrollably.
TINA
Oh, shit, please God…
KILLER
(softly, approaching)
This is God…
He holds up his steel-tipped hand like a surgical-steel spider.
TINA runs for her life.
