Nightmare on Elm Street
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.
