163. INT. NANCY’S LIVING ROOM. NIGHT. 163.
NANCY barrels down the stairs and across the darkened living room
to the front door.
It takes her a moment of tugging and fumbling to realize the
deadbolt is locked from inside. And there’s no key in it now.
She races to a porch window and throws it open, shaking and
banging on the bars like a mad woman. But there’s no getting
through. She staggers back, stymied and furious. Then somebody
moves behind her in the dark.
VOICE (OS)
Locked.
NANCY jumps around in shock. Her mother has posted herself on
the couch with her bottle.
NANCY
(furious)
Give me the key, mother.
MARGE
I don’t even have it on me,
so forget it.
The word is final. NANCY runs past the woman to the back door,
to one window after the other, shaking bars and slamming locks
and SCREAMING in teenage fury. But it’s no good. The house is
her prison.
MARGE (CONTD)
(drunk satisfaction)
Paid the guy damn good to make
sure you stayed put. You ain’t
goin’ nowhere, kid. You’re
gonna sleep tonight if it kills
me.
NANCY clenches her fists and screams at the top of her lungs, a
heart-wrenching, eardrum-breaking cry of love in despair —
NANCY
GLEEENNNNNN!
SMASH CUT TO:
164. INT. GLEN’S ROOM. NIGHT. 164.
CLOSE ON GLEN’S FROM DIRECTLY ABOVE. The MUSIC is tinny from the
earphones, the TV SOUND DISTANT AND ECHOED. The boy is breathing
deeply now, slowly and gently. Then, unmistakeably, he begins to
SNORE. Very faintly, far in the background, we can hear NANCY.
NANCY (OS)
Glen!! Don’t fall asleeeeeep!
CAMERA PULLS BACK AND STRAIGHT UP as the SNORES merge with a
weird, unsettling MUSIC CUE. The boy lies sprawled, still
clothed, in the middle of his bed. Save for the bedside lamp,
the room is dark.
FULL WIDE ANGLE FROM THIS HIGH SPOT looking down at him as from
the eyes of some great fly hung on the ceiling. THE MUSIC
REACHES A TERRIFYING PITCH OF ANTICIPATION — THEN STOPS
ABRUPTLY.
There’s a heartbeat’s pause. Then with tremendous force, two
powerful arms shoot up beneath the red and yellow bedspread and
grab GLEN around the waist!
Next moment the young man’s body is dragged straight down into
the bed, as if some huge beast had grabbed him and heaved him
down! His feet and his arms shoot up — there’s another hauling
yank — and the boy disappears except for his hands and fingers
— down into the pit in the middle of the bed! His hands are
last to go, clawing for a hold. But soon they vanish as well,
dragging blankets and bedsheets, wires and stereo across the
caved-in bed and into the abyss.
There’s HIDEOUS SCREECHING of MUSIC jamming in with GLEN’s
ECHOING SCREAMS — then an unholy, sudden silence.
Next moment what’s left of GLEN is vomited up from the pit of the
nightmare bed…a horrible mess of blood and bone and hair and
wires…streaming out and over the bed. Then the pit in the bed
is gone as if it were never there.
Drawn by the terribly screams and struggle, GLEN’s mother bursts
into the room. The women stares for one moment of horrified
disbelief, then reels back and lets out the most god-awful SCREAM
imaginable. The cry splits the night.
165. EXT. ELM STREET. NIGHT. 165.
The SOUND of the SCREAM CROSS-FADES WITH the WAIL of the
AMBULANCE as it screeches to a halt at the curb, followed by two
BLACK AND WHITES and an UNMARKED CAR. Uniformed POLICEMEN spill
out FOREGROUND.
LT THOMPSON and PARKER exit the unmarked car. By habit or by
premonition THOMPSON glances at the house that was his home. His
eye is caught by a movement; his daughter is at her upstairs
window, white-haired, hollow-eyed, looking down on him through
her bars. She gives a little wave.
Unnerved, THOMPSON waves back, then walks rapidly for GLEN’s
home. MR LANTZ, pale as a ghost himself, waits on the porch; we
can hear the mother’s WAILING inside.
166. INT. NANCY’S ROOM. NIGHT. 166.
CLOSE ON NANCY’S BIG OLD WINDUP ALARM CLOCK. Its big and little
hands sweep together at midnight.
BURN ON:
THE NINTH DAY
There’s a BABBLE of POLICE RADIOS, SIRENS WINDING DOWN, RUNNING
FOOT-STEPS, SHOUTS, NEIGHBORHOOD KIDS and DOGS BARKING as CAMERA
LIFTS TO NANCY’S FACE. Set. Unafraid. Ruthless.
The girl pulls the window shade on it all, then looks at her
bed.
NANCY
Okay, Krueger, you bastard.
We play in your court.
167. INT. GLEN’S LIVING ROOM/NANCY’S KITCHEN — INTERCUT. NIGHT. 167.
168. LT THOMPSON is halfway across the living room when he stops. 168.
Something dark and red is welling from a crack in the ceiling.
One of his men is rigging a bucket beneah to catch the leaking.
The telephone rings and PARKER picks it up.
PARKER
Lieutenant. It’s your daughter.
Says it’s urgent.
THOMPSON turns away from the dripping.
LT THOMPSON
(low)
Tell her I’m not here, tell
her…
PARKER
Uh, she just saw you, sir…
THOMPSON nods, crosses and picks up the telephone. SCREEN
SPLITS; we see both.
LT THOMPSON (CONTD)
Hello Nancy.
NANCY
Hi daddy. I know what happened.
LT THOMPSON
Then you know more than I do —
I haven’t even been upstairs.
NANCY
(guessing)
You know he’s dead though, right?
THOMPSON debates, then admits it.
LT THOMPSON
Yeah, apparantly he’s dead.
How the hell’d you know?
A tear coarses down NANCY’s cheek, but her voice remains firm.
NANCY
I’ve got a proposition for
you. Listen very carefully,
please.
LT THOMPSON
Nan, I —
NANCY
Please. I’m gonna go get
the guy who did it and bring
him to you. I just need you
be right there to arrest him.
Okay?
LT THOMPSON
Just tell me who did it and
I’ll go get him, baby.
NANCY
Fred Krueger did it, Daddy,
and only I can get him. It’s
my nightmare he comes to.
The detective flinches at the name.
LT THOMPSON
Where’d you hear about Krueger —
NANCY presses, very firm, very rational.
NANCY
— I want you to come over here
and break the door down exactly
twenty minutes from now — can
you do that?
LT THOMPSON
Sure, but…
NANCY
That’ll be exactly half past
midnight. Time for me to fall
asleep and find him.
LT THOMPSON
Sure, sure, honey. You just
do that — get yourself some
sleep — that’s what I’ve been
saying all along.
NANCY
And you’ll be here to catch
him, right?
PARKER
Lieutenant — they’re waiting
upstairs.
THOMPSON waves curtly, still speaking to NANCY.
LT THOMPSON
Sure, okay, I’ll be there.
Now you just turn in and get
some rest, sweetheart. Please.
Deal?
NANCY
Deal.
NANCY hangs up. LT THOMPSON starts upstairs. But then he stops,
and as an afterthought he could never really explain, turns to
PARKER.
LT THOMPSON (CONTD)
Get outside and watch her house.
If you see anything funny call
me.
PARKER
‘Anything funny’ like what?
THOMPSON shakes his head, embarassed.
LT THOMPSON
I don’t know — but one thing
for sure, I don’t want her
coming over here. She’s way
too far gone to be able to
to handle this.
As PARKER exits, ANGLE CUTS TO NANCY’S KITCHEN as the girl hangs
up and sinks back agiainst the wall, trapped by her own
resolution. She looks at her watch.
169. INSERT — five past midnight. NANCY switches modes to stopwatch 169.
and sets the COUNTDOWN going at twenty-five minutes.
170. INT. GLEN’S BEDROOM. NIGHT. 170.
LT THOMPSON steps into GLEN’s room, anxious to be done with it.
He hits a wall of stench and horror even before he takes it in
with his eyes, and as soon as he sees the bed he claps his hand
over his mouth, pivots and walks right back into the hallway.
171. INT. HALLWAY. NIGHT. 171.
He sags against the wall, unable to look at the COPS who hover
there.
COP
(faint)
What the hell did that,
Lieutenant? There ain’t even
a head left.
LT THOMPSON
Goddamed if I know.
(tries to straighten)
What’s the Coronor say?
COP
He’s in the john puking since
he saw it.
172. INT. CELLAR. NIGHT. 172.
NANCY pulls tools and hardware out with grim resolution. Hammer,
nails, spools of wire, an old square of heavy fishneting, some
old shot gun shells, a file — referring only once to the booklet
in her hand.
173. INT. NANCY’S LIVING ROOM. NIGHT. 173.
Barely able to control her shaking hands, NANCY starts stringing
off the spool of wire across the living room, crying and swearing
at the same time.
DISSOLVE TO HER HANDS wrapping bare lamp wire around two
thumbtacks stuck into the insides of the pinchers of a common
wooden clothespin. The wire goes OFF SCREEN.
ANOTHER ANGLE as she inserts a Lifesaver between the two prongs.
One end of the fishline is tied to the lifesaver. The whole now
is stretched taut about three inches off the living room carpet.
ON NANCY carefully filing a hole in a LIGHTBULB.
OH HER pouring powder and shot from shotgun shells into the
opening in the bulb until it’s full, then sealing it with tape.
DISSOLVE TO HER screwing the bulb back into the floor lamp, and
placing the thing near the foot of the stairs.
SC 174 (DELETE)
175. INT. NANCY’S UPSTAIRS HALLWAY. NIGHT. 175.
— NANCY completes installing a sturdy sliding bolt to the
outside of her own bedroom door.
— NANCY screws a hinge into the wall directly above her door.
Attached to the hinge is the shank of something — some kind of
tool. We can’t see what it is because CAMERA never quite frames
the whole thing.
— NANCY tiptoes to her mother’s door and peeks in.
176. INT. MARGE’S BEDROOM. NIGHT. 176.
MARGE lies propped in her bed looking back at NANCY. Her
drunkeness has been altered by the SIRENS and BABBLE outside into
a sort of comatose clarity.
MARGE
Guess I should’n’a done it.
NANCY
Just sleep now, Mom.
MARGE
Just wanted to protect you,
Nan. Just wanted to protect
you…
MARGE slides over on her side. NANCY smooths her hair, covers her
as she would a child, then exits the room.
DELETE SC 177
178. INT. NANCY’S ROOM. NIGHT. 178.
The girl enters, turns out her bedside light, slips out of her
dress and puts on her nightgown. Then she kneels by her bed.
NANCY (quietly)
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
She gets into bed and pulls the blankets to her chin.
CLOSE ON NANCY’s face. She stares straight up at the ceiling for
a long moment, then closes her eyes.
CUT TO:
179. INT. GLEN’S LIVING ROOM. NIGHT. 179.
LT THOMPSON trudges down the stais and confronts GLEN’S FATHER.
LT THOMPSON
I know it’s hard to think at
a time like this, Walter, but
can you think of anyone who
could’ve done such a thing?
The father stares away, his voice low and dull.
MR LANTZ
He done it.
THOMPSON looks at the man, baffled.
LT THOMPSON
Who? Who did that?
MR LANTZ
Krueger.
LT THOMPSON
Krueger?
The father gives him the strangest look.
MR LANTZ
Had to’ve done it. No one
else was in there.
LT THOMPSON
How you know that?
MR LANTZ
Cause I thought Glen was
gonna sneak out to see your
lunatic daughter, that’s why.
So I locked him in his room!
(getting control)
Sorry. Anyways, the door was
still locked when we heard the
screams.
He blinks.
MR LANTZ (CONTD)
Maybe god’s punishing us all…
LT THOMPSON
(much lower and hard)
Keep your head — this is a
fucking flesh and blood killer
we’re talking about.
MR LANTZ
Like Rod Lane?
A voice calls down from upstairs.
COP (OS)
Lieutenant Thompson. Coronor
wants to show you something.
THOMPSON gives MR LANTZ one final look, then heads upstairs.
CUT TO:
NOTE: These rewrites of scenes 180 and 180 A replace NANCY
walking through the ‘dream streets’ at night, and NANCY
approaching the huge deserted building at night, prior to her
entering the Boiler Room the final time.
180. INT. DOWNSTAIRS, NANCY’S HOUSE. NIGHT. 180.
LOW ANGLE UP STAIRS as NANCY appears at head. As she comes
downstairs, CAMERA MOVES WITH HER through the hallway to the
cellar door. She opens the door.
180A. INT. NANCY’S CELLAR. NIGHT. 180A.
NANCY appears at top of these stairs, hesitates, then comes down.
WIDER as NANCY approaches center of room, stops in CU, then turns
eyes. We HEAR the distant SOUND of the boiler room now, faint
but unmistakeable. NANCY MOVES, and CAMERA PANS HER to the
cellar’s side WALL, where another, new doorway is REVEALED.
NANCY opens this door and looks down. FIRELIGHT is on NANCY’S
face now, and the SOUND of the Boiler Room is very clear. NANCY
goes through the door.
180B. INT. BOILER ROOM. 180B.
NANCY decends like Orpheus into hell, but without weapon save her
wits.
She decends a steel stair to the lowest level, then hears the
SOUND of the knives from down another shaft. She sees there’s an
even deeper place down there. She starts down.
Again, and then again, NANCY decends, each ladder narrower or
more twisting, each level deeper, wetter, darker, more airless.
Soon she’s gasping for air, but still she pushes herself on. She
doesn’t stop until she breaks out at last at the very bottom of
the place, a wet, firelit sump deep in the bowels of the place.
CAMERA NOW PANS AROUND WITH HER, and for the first time we SEE
the vast maul of the empty boiler behind her.
She stares at it. It’s seething with some dark WIND that soughs
and whines like a huge dying dog.
NANCY crosses to it, touching the pile of old, coal-dusted dirt
at its base. It looks almost like an old grave.
She turns suddenly, listening. Then, hearing nothing, she looks
down.
NANCY’S POV as she picks up GLEN’s earphones.
WIDER as she suddenly drops them, staring at her fingers.
They’re dripping blood.
There’s another BEEP.
180C. INSERT ON NANCY’S WATCH — the COUNT-DOWN a blur of black digits 180C.
counting down to zero. They’ve just crossed the ten minute
warning.
180D. CLOSE ON NANCY’S FACE. She speaks into the night. 180D.
NANCY
(quietly)
Come out and show yourself,
you bastard.
No sooner are these words off her lips than the huge bulk of FRED
KRUEGER lurches up behind her! The man is even more hideous
hatless, his bald head and tormented face veiled in skeins of
ruined flesh, his ragged teeth barred, the great spider of
razor-blades flashing from his fingertips.
He leaps, but the girl leaps just as fast, a fierce jump,
that sends her out over black space and down into a huge, dark
sump of blackness.
180E. EXT. THE HEAVENS. NIGHT. 180E.
CLOSE ANGLE ON NANCY as she curves like a swan though her
apogee, and begins falling, diving, planing through black air,
the wind ripping at her hair and eyes. Suddenly the complex,
glittering skein of light that is the San Fernando Valley seen
from the air slides INTO FRAME, and we see she’s falling from
high, high over the earth.
NANCY falls, falls in slow motion against the spinning lights,
free as a sky diver freefalling — a giddy, acrophobic plunge.
181,182,183,184 OMIT OMIT 181,182,183,184
185. EXT. ELM STREET/NANCY’S HOUSE. NIGHT. 185.
NANCY crashes suddenly out of the night and into a hedge just
outside her own front door, rolling out at its bottom scratched
and bloodied. If she were in any normal reality she’d be a mass
of broken bones — but somehow she’s able to claw her way up and
look at her watch once more.
INSERT. Just a few seconds from zero.
She staggers for her house’s front door — but a moment later
KRUEGER crashes down atop her! NANCY struggles to her knees just
as the man lunges with that godawful handful of blades. But
instead of running, she ducks inside the deadly grab and seizes
him in a desperate bearhug!
The surprise move sends him pitching backwards, her still on him
–and they fall into the jumble of torn-down trellis of roses
beneath her window. Almost at that very second we HEAR the
jarring, deafening RINGING of NANCY’s alarm clock!
SMASH CUT TO:
186. INT. NANCY’S BEDROOM. NIGHT. 186.
NANCY sprawls out of her bed onto the floor, twisting from the
jabs of the already vanished thorns, briars and brush. Gasping,
she takes a second to get her bearings
ANGLE ON THE BED as she recovers quick as she can, snatching up
the net, ready for an assault from any direction.
But the room is empty.
Hardly able to catch her breath, her hair tangled, her nightgown
torn, she drops the net. She sits on the bed, turns on the
bedside lamp and re-examines her room. No one there but herself.
It’s a terrible blow, despite the fact that she’s safe. Her face
is covered with tears, she’s shaking and breathless. She rattles
her head in confusion and despair, realizing her own madness.
NANCY
I’m crazy after all…
At that very instant FRED KRUEGER leaps up from the far side of
the bed with an EXPLOSIVE SHOUT of rage!
He lunges across the table for her, missing by inches as NANCY
pitches backwards and scrambles for the window. But she’s
stopped by the bars.
KRUEGER, incredibly fast, regains his feet and leaps again — the
girl wheels and shatters the coffeepot over his head. As he
crashes backwards NANCY flings open the door of her room and
dives through — only to rebound off someone on the other side —
187. INT. HALLWAY. NIGHT. 187.
MARGE, knocked flying by NANCY’S charge, hits the floor hard,
knocking the wind out of herself. NANCY sees what she’s done,
jumps over the body and slams the door and throws the new bolt
home. Next instant she gingerly ties a string to the door’s
knob, a string that trails down from the ceiling, attached to
something up there that’s still just barely out of sight.
Next instant she’s dragging her MOTHER towards the woman’s
bedroom as fast as she can.
KRUEGER is already splintering the doorway behind her as NANCY
dips and makes it into MARGE’s room, SLAMMING the DOOR behind her
and locking it in a flash.
The MANIAC breaks the bolt and rips open the door.
But the in the very act of doing this he of course unknowingly
pulls the string attached to the outside doorknob with terrific
force.
CLOSE ANGLE ON THE CEILING. The string jerks against a
single-edged razor, which in turn cuts a tight wind of cord
holding a heavy wedge of steel to the ceiling.
WIDER as the thing falls free, pivoting at the hinge at the far
end of its handle, and drives straight into KRUEGER’S groin with
a terrific blow. As he catapaults backwards with an incredulous
shriek, the twenty pound sledge hammer swings back and reveals to
camera just what it is!
ANGLE DOWN ON KRUEGER, clawwing his way up despite his agony,
lurching and cursing forward like an enraged bull.
WIDER ANGLE IN THE HALLWAY as KRUEGER roars out — only to
immediately strike the length of WIRE strung across the hallway,
catching it just above the thigh. He cartwheels head-over-heels
and lands flat on his back!
Instantly the DOOR to NANCY’s MOTHER’s bedroom flies open and
NANCY brings a brass lamp down over KRUEGER’s head with all her
might! It sounds like a line-drive caroming off a metal
flagpole.
NANCY SLAMS the DOOR as KRUEGER struggles up, clutching his
head.
Enraged, the huge man CRASHES against the door with terrific
force, and rears back and starts smashing against the door like
the utter homicidal lunatic that he is.
CUT TO:
188. EXT. ELM STREET/NANCY’S HOME. NIGHT. 188.
HIGH ANGLE at the second floor level. NANCY jerks open the
window to her MOTHER’s bedroom and jams her face to the bars.
The AMBULANCE is pulling away with a tremendous WAIL of its SIREN
as NANCY SCREAMS down, trying to make herself heard.
NANCY
Help! Hey — Daddy — I got
him trapped! Where are you!?
189. ANGLE ON the street. PARKER, assigned to guard the house, sees 189.
NANCY — hair white, eyes wide — pounding on the bars and
screaming like a lunatic. But her meaning is utterly lost in the
noise of the ambulance next to him.
PARKER
(yelling up at her)
Everything’s going to be all
right! Everything’s under
control!
ANGLE at the window. Close on NANCY’s face, incredulous at his
response.
NANCY
Get my father, you asshole!
PARKER does a little take. That almost sounded sane.
PARKER (OS)
You heard what I said! Now get
back inside or I’ll tell your
dad!
191. Behind her the DOOR SPLINTERS. NANCY whirls around just in time 191.
to see KRUEGER bull in! NANCY’s eyes go wide — she’s trapped
against the bars and has nowhere to go. The man bunches his
knives into a single thick blade and rushes her, stabbing. NANCY
closes her eyes —
Then from OUT OF FRAME Marge leaps between the two.
MARGE
No!
She blocks the charge perfectly — blocking the knives.
Both she and NANCY are slammed backwards against the bars
behind.
Drunk though she is, is hanging onto KRUEGER’S weapon hand,
keeping the knives inside herself, away from her daughter!
MARGE
Nancy — for god’s sake’s run!
But NANCY turns to the window instead, screaming for her father.
NANCY
Daddy! Where are you!
192. EXT. ELM STREET. NIGHT. 192.
PARKER, just about to turn back to the business at GLEN’s house,
sees NANCY and SOMEONE else fall just inside the window.
Something begins to dawn on the man. Just a little.
PARKER
Poor woman’s got her hands full
with that kid. Maybe I better
tell the lieutenant.
He turns and jogs towards GLEN’s house.
193. INT. MARGE’S BEDROOM. NIGHT. 193.
ANGLE ON KRUEGER, hauling MARGE up in rage, knocking her
senseless across her bed and climbing after her with his knives
raised. NANCY wheels behind him and whams him in the kidneys
with her fists, spilling him back off the bed, then running past
him for the door. She makes it to safety,
then turning back. She flips the monster the bird, her eyes wild
with pain and fury.
NANCY
Hey fuckface — can’t catch me!
The bait works — KRUEGER leaves MARGE and howls after NANCY.
194. INT. UPSTAIRS HALLWAY. NIGHT. 194.
As NANCY clears the hall and makes the stairs, KRUEGER lurches
through the shattered doorway after her.
195. INT. LIVING ROOM. NIGHT. 195.
The girl careens down the stairs, across the room and to the
front door, banging against it with terrified fury.
NANCY
(screaming)
Come on — he’s in here!
Daddy! Don’t let him kill
me too!
Behind her the huge MAN is thumping down the stairs, KNOCKING
THINGS OVER, SCRAPING his LONG STEEL FINGERNAILS along the wall
with a horrible sound!
NANCY flings a heavy ash tray through the porch window and
screams through the bars.
NANCY (CONTD)
HEELLLPPP!!! Daddyyyyyyy!!!!
KRUEGER, bloody and spewwing threats, staggers for her — NANCY
dives behind the couch.
CLOSE ON KRUEGER’S FEET as they hit another wire.
CLOSE ON the Lifesaver jerking out — the clothespin snapping
together, completing the circuit with a CRACKLING SPARK.
WIDER ON THE EXPLOSION that rips out of the floor lamp next to
KRUEGER and knocks him sprawling across the room.
NANCY peeks out from behind the couch. The man lies in a smoking
heap. NANCY runs to the windows and screams out again.
NANCY (CONTD)
Hey — Daddy! Hey! I got the
bastard!
KRUEGER roars up behind her — she throws herself sideways — he
crashes into the window frame, smashing glass and wood to bits.
NANCY turns SCREAMING and runs deeper into the house.
196. OMIT 196.
197. INT. CELLAR. NIGHT. 197.
She careens down the stairs, throwing on the lights, the man
thundering after her.
ANGLE AT THE FAR END OF THE CELLAR. NANCY brakes at the wall.
Nowhere left to hide.
THE SCRAPPING of the blades against brick turns her to see the
huge killer holding his knife-laden fingers up for her.
KRUEGER
Ready for these?
198. ON NANCY — she ducks behind the furnace — comes out the other 198.
side with the big jug of gasoline and lets KRUEGER have it
straight over the head. The heavy container shatters, showering
its contents over every square inch of the man.
He staggers backwards with a ROAR of fury, NANCY screaming after
him with a box of kitchen matches. Before the man can realize
what she’s up to, she ignites the whole box and throws it in
KRUEGER’s face.
There’s a blinding WHOOSH — and KRUEGER goes up in a terrific
BALL OF FIRE. Faster than a flash the girl runs past the howling
maniac and makes for the stairs, KRUEGER after her in full
pyrrhic rage.
199. INT. NANCY’S KITCHEN. NIGHT. 199.
NANCY holds the heavy door until the precisely right moment.
Just as the burning, blind monster tops the stairs, NANCY brings
the heavy oak door round with all her might and catches him in a
great RINGING CONCUSSION. It sends him windmilling backwards and
down the stairs in an ass-over-teakettle sprawl of sparks and
flames.
NANCY slams the door and throws the deadbolt home.
No sooner does she accomplish this than the man is SLAMMING again
and again against the door from the cellar.
The terrible SCREAMS and CURSES PEAK,
THEN GROW WEAKER AND MORE GARBLED. Then there’s just silence.
NANCY staggers, half blind, from the kitchen.
As the room begins seething SMOKE from every pore, we
CUT TO:
200. INT. GLEN’S UPSTAIRS HALLWAY. NIGHT. 200.
The CORONER steps out of the bathroom peeling bloody rubber
gloves. Pale and sweating.
CORONER
Found you something, Donald.
Should remind you of something…
The man shoves out his hand to LT THOMPSON. THOMPSON stares at
it without touching it. A long, thin steel blade, razor sharp,
attached to some sort of ring and armature — broken off…
The CORONER gives a sweaty, grim smile.
CORONER (CONTD)
Only place I ever heard of such
a thing before was ten years
ago. Remember that fucker
Fred Krueger?
LT THOMPSON has just knocked PARKER sprawling in his race to the
stairs.
PARKER
Hey — your daughter’s acting
kinda — !
(THOMPSON’S gone)
Strange…
201. EXT. NANCY’S HOME. NIGHT. 201.
CRASH as NANCY breaks another window and presses against the
bars. The house shudders and glows orange behind her. She sees
her father bursting out the front door of Glen’s house!
NANCY
DAD! GET US OUTTA HERE!
LT THOMPSON
Oh, Jesus — Nancy!
(to his men)
Hey! We got a fire!
202. ANGLE ON NANCY’S FRONT DOOR. Many MEN batter the door down as 202.
black smoke pours from the windows and NANCY’s SCREAMS and SHOUTS
fill the air. Within moments they’ve destroyed the door and LT
THOMPSON has pulled his daughter into the safety of his arms.
But NANCY immediately fights free and darts right back to the
front door — beckoning him to follow — gesturing like a wild
woman.
NANCY
I got him — I got Fred Krueger!
THOMPSON stares at his wild little girl in astonishment, then
runs in after her. The others follow, coughing and choking.
203. INT. LIVING ROOM. NIGHT. 203.
THOMPSON collides with NANCY as she brakes, frozen. THE SMOKE IS
BELCHING OUT OF THE CELLAR, but whoever was locked in there
certainly isn’t now. The door is flat on the kitchen floor.
LT THOMPSON
What the hell are you talking about,
Nancy?
NANCY wheels without answering. A series of tiny, isolated fires
burn across the living room and up the stairs. Firesteps.
NANCY (CONTD)
He’s after Mom! Come on!
She darts across the living room, following the flaming
footprints of FRED KRUEGER up the stairs before THOMPSON can stop
her.
LT THOMPSON
NANCY!
204. INT. MARGE’S BEDROOM. NIGHT. 204.
NANCY STOPS IN THE SPLINTERED DOORWAY — a ragged gold-red light
splashing her horrified face.
205. REVERSE IN HER POV — FRED KRUEGER, literally a man of fire, has 205.
a screaming MARGE pinned to the bed and is crawling all over
her! NANCY gives a banshee’s howl, snatches up a chair and
brings it down over the back of the firey beast, stunning him.
By the time LT THOMPSON races into the room NANCY’S seized a
heavy blanket has thrown over both of them, fighting the flames.
The father joins his daughter without a second thought, heaving
another blanket over the bed and smothering the last of the
flames.
NANCY
He’s under there! Watch it!
206. THOMPSON pushes the girl back — yanks out his .38 and pulls off 206.
the first cover. No movement. He pulls back a second one,
ready to fire. But the only thing he sees is the blackened
half-skeleton of his ex-wife, smoking and seething and sinking
into the fluid-like mattress, sinking right down through it as if
she were sinking into a lake. A blackened, gnarled hand goes
last, then the bed solidifies over the place she’s disappeared.
And it’s as if no one was ever there.
NANCY turns and looks at LT THOMPSON, her face white as her
ghostly hair. THOMPSON shoves his .38 back in its holster and
finds a cigarette, his hands shaking so badly he can barely
manage.
NANCY
Now do you believe me?
PARKER barges in. The room is filled with smoke, the bed is
stripped, but other than that, the place seems normal.
PARKER
You find him?
(looking closer
at THOMPSON)
Sir?
LT THOMPSON just walks by him. PARKER chases after.
PARKER (CONTD OS)
(fading)
Sir — here, let me light that
for you — Lieutenant? What
happened?
(gone)
WIDER, ON NANCY alone in the room. She turns and looks at the
bed. MUSIC slips in and builds. The bed has changed color.
It’s now an ash-darkened red and yellow.
207. CLOSER ON NANCY from the direction of the bed. MUSIC SUDDENLY 207.
STOPS, and the surface of the red and yellow bed gets a bump in
its center that keeps raising, raising until it’s a hump that’s a
head and shoulders, still raising until it looms over NANCY.
Then FRED KRUEGER’s entire shape sweeps up into the yellow and
red mass — and the garish head, smoking and seething, pops
through.
NEW ANGLE — KRUEGER, a burned, sizzling black hump of a killer,
clumps onto the floor between NANCY and the door.
NANCY falls absoltely still, and her face goes through a
strange, almost sublime transformation.
NANCY
(quietly)
I know you’re there, Krueger.
She turns and faces him.
FREDDIE
You think you was gonna get
away from me?
NANCY shakes her head.
NANCY
I know you too well now,
Freddie.
KRUEGER smiles bitterly. Coming closer.
FREDDY
And now you die…
There’s a SLICKERING RATTLE at his side, and he raises the only
thing on him not charred — the gleaming steel talons.
208. NANCY simply shakes her head again, as if seeing a light at the 208.
end of her long, long tunnel. And the way she says the words,
they might be appearing on the inside of her eyes.
NANCY
It’s too late, Krueger. I
know the secret now — this
is just a dream, too — you’re
not alive — the whole thing
is a dream — so fuck off!
I want my mother and friends
again.
KRUEGER grins insanely, confused and amused at the same time.
FREDDIE
You what?
NANCY
(even, firm)
I take back every bit of
energy I ever gave you.
You’re nothing. You’re
shit.
And then she turns her back on him. KRUEGER bunches his
fingers, producing a single ragged bundle of razor talons and
raises his hand over the back of her head and neck.
NANCY closes her eyes and steps to the door.
CLOSE ON HER HAND, touching the door knob.
CLOSE ON KRUEGER’S KNIFE-FINGERS poised.
MUSIC BUILDS then SHRIEKS as KRUEGER stabs down, right through
NANCY — as if she were an optical illusion — loosing his
balance and falling down, down, down… And he’s gone.
CUT TO:
209. EXT. ELM STREET. DAY. 209.
CLOSE ON NANCY’S FRONT DOOR AS NANCY jerks it open and blinks in
the bright, diffused light. The MUSIC FADES on a transitional
note, into light.
We hear BIRDS.
CHILDREN playing.
Early morning SOUNDS.
NANCY
(to herself)
God, it’s bright.
MARGE sticks her head out, squinting, and nods. Sober.
MARGE
Gonna burn off soon or it
wouldn’t be so bright.
NANCY turns and looks her mother over.
NANCY
Feeling better?
MARGE
They say you’ve bottomed out
when you can’t remember the
night before.
(shakes her head)
No more drinking, Baby, suddenly
I just don’t feel like it
any more.
She touches NANCY.
MARGE (CONTD)
Didn’t keep you up last night,
did I? You look a little
peeked.
NANCY smiles.
NANCY
Nah. Just slept heavy.
The girl gives a wave and goes off. MARGE calls after.
MARGE
See ya.
NANCY turns and waves.
NANCY
See ya.
210. WIDER ON NANCY as she walks to the curb. The whole scene is 210.
wrapped in an unseasonal tule fog, bright yet diffuse. We notice
that NANCY’s house no longer has bars on its windows. Then we
see a familiar convertible pull up at the curb, top down. TINA
and ROD are in the back seat. They all wave to MARGE as NANCY
climbs in.
GLEN
(calling)
You believe this fog?
MARGE
(laughs)
I believe anything’s possible.
TINA slaps five with NANCY.
TINA
Lookin’ good, girl!
ANGLE INSIDE THE CONVERTIBLE. GLEN slips into the seat next to
NANCY. Someone else is driving, it seems. NANCY looks up to the
DRIVER. The big MAN turns and grins at NANCY, a terrible,
scarred, hideous leer of a grin — FRED KRUEGER’S grin!
ANGLE BACK OUTSIDE THE CONVERTIBLE as its top clamps over the
kids within — a bright red and yellow top that closes as fast
and hard as a beartrap! NANCY’S frightened face flies to the
window, pressing against the thick glass as the car roars away
from the curb and into the thick fog.
211. CAMERA PANS TO a group of LITTLE GIRLS, half-hidden by the fog, 211.
jumping rope and singing gayly.
GIRLS
One two —
Freddy’s coming for you!
Three four —
Better lock your door!
Five six —
Get your Crucifix
Seven eight —
Gonna stay up late!
Nine ten —
Never sleep again!
MUSIC CROSSFADES WITH THIS SONG, expanding the simple tune to
symphonic, boundless dimensions as the little girls fade into
thin air, and we
FADE TO BLACK
ROLL END TITLES.
