Nightmare on Elm Street
(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.
