Nightmare on Elm Street
TEACHER I’ll call your mother.
NANCY No! No, really, I’m fine. I’ll go
straight home. I’m okay.
She marches for the door.
TEACHER You’ll need a hall pass!
But the girl’s gone.
61. EXT. THE SCHOOL. DAY. 61.
NANCY walks out of the building, shaken. Then she pauses at one of the big pine trees out front, stops and rests her head against its bark, teeth set. NANCY starts to shake, and next second she’s sobbing like a broken-hearted, frightened child. OMIT 61A.
OMIT 61A. 62. But she shakes herself silent. Wipes the tears away with a slash 62. of sleeve. She rubs her arm absently, lost in thought, then reacts in surprise and pain. She lifts her arm and stares at the spot she’s touched.
INSERT ON HER ARM and the BURN there; about the size and shape of
a half-dollar.
WIDER ON NANCY. Utterly, chillingly confused.
62A. TINA, against the tree inches from NANCY, (SC 7) — turns to her and says —
TINA
Couldn’t get back to sleep at all. (beat) What you dream?
63. EXT. A BUSY STREET. DAY. 63.
NANCY is walking quickly, head erect, jaw set. Then she enters her father’s Police Station.
64. INT. VAN NUYS POLICE STATION. DAY. 64.
NANCY crosses directly to the GARCIA.
NANCY
My dad here?
GARCIA looks up from his paperwork.
SERGEANT GARCIA Lieutenant.
LT THOMPSON emerges from another room, uneasy to see NANCY.
LT THOMPSON Decide to take a day off after all?
NANCY Dad, I want to see Rod Lane.
THOMPSON doesn’t miss a beat.
LT THOMPSON Only family allowed, Nancy. You know the drill.
NANCY
Just want to talk to him a second.
LT THOMPSON He’s dangerous.
NANCY You don’t know he did it.
LT THOMPSON No, I know, thanks to your own testimony, that he was locked in a room with a girl who went in alive and came out in a rubber bag.
NANCY flinches; her father shows the first signs of color in his neck.
NANCY I just want to talk to him. (beat, lower)
Please, Dad.
THOMPSON shifts almost imperceptibly towards GARCIA, then turns back to NANCY.
LT THOMPSON Make it fast.
DISSOLVE TO:
65. INT. CELL AREA. DAY. 65.
A GUARD exits pushing a cart of food trays. NANCY waits warily until he’s gone, then looks back to ROD LANE. ROD looks more like a captured coyote than a human; haggard, ribbed, expecting
poisoned bait. His hair is wet, his clothes are borrowed jeans and work shirt.
NANCY (low) And then what happened?
ROD I told you. (reluctantly) It was dark, but I’m sure there was someone else IN there, under the covers with her.
NANCY reacts.
NANCY How could somebody get under the covers with you guys without you knowing it?
ROD How the fuck do I know? (beat) I don’t expect you to believe me.
NANCY studies his encrypted eyes. Surprisingly, she looks like she just might believe him. She leans closer with a new thought.
NANCY What he look like? You get a look at him?
He looks away.
ROD No.
NANCY Well then how can you say
somebody else was there?
ROD Because somebody cut her. While I watched.
Now the place is so quiet you can hear heartbeats.
NANCY Somebody cut her while you watched and you don’t know what he looked like?
ROD smiles an insane smile, stuck with a reality no one will
buy.
ROD You couldn’t see the fucker. You could just see the cuts happening, all at once.
NANCY gives a twitch.
NANCY What you mean ‘all at once’?
ROD (low)
I mean, it was as if there were four razors cutting her at the same time. But invisible razors. She just… opened up…
By now he’s picking at a clot of dark blood on his jacket, as if it was a scab on his own body. Then he catches NANCY watching
and turns away to the back of the cell. He smashes his fist into the wall — bone-crushing blows that scare the wits out of NANCY.
NANCY Rod!
He stops, and his fist is dripping blood as he says in a small, sad voice.
ROD I probably could’ve saved her if I’d moved sooner… But I thought it was just another
nightmare, like the one I had the night before. (beat) There… was this guy who had knives for fingers…
CLOSE ON NANCY, unable to swallow the gorge rising in her
throat. ROD turns to her, and to his surprise she’s ashen.
ROD (CONTD) Do you think I did it?
NANCY No.
FADE TO BLACK
66. EXT. ELM STREET / NANCY’S HOME. NIGHT. 66.
FADE UP ON ESTABLISHING SHOT as a spooky WIND sets a DOG BARKING down the block. A CAR goes by, then this pleasant residential street falls into silence. CAMERA has MOVED IN on NANCY’s
well-tended two-story home.
67. INT. NANCY’S KITCHEN. NIGHT. 67.
The house is in shadow. Alone, MARGE scrapes the last of the evening’s dishes and slips them into the dishwasher. Neither she nor her daughter has touched the food. But MARGE is well into a
bottle of gin; her appetite for that is growing, right along with her dread. She turns and looks up the stairs, calling.
MARGE Nancy, don’t fall asleep in there.
NANCY (OS) I won’t.
MARGE Get into bed.
68. INT. UPSTAIRS BATHROOM. NIGHT. 68.
NANCY I will.
NANCY’S in the tub, so drowsy she can hardly rinse without falling asleep. The water in the tub is opaque with suds. Luxurious.
CLOSER ANGLE, AT WATER LEVEL ON NANCY. Her eyes droop. She
slides closer to the surface of the water, letting its heat sooth her nerves. Her eyes stare straight up, glazed; her breathing deepens.
REVERSE, across to her legs, crooked, one knee on each side of
the tub. There’s a ripple in the water between. Then something tiny and shiny breaks the surface between them. It pops up with a slithering MUSIC CUE and catches a sliver of light. Then it begins to rise.
