Nightmare on Elm Street
NANCY (CONTD) (to herself)
She dreamed this would happen…
LT THOMPSON What?
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)
