Nightmare on Elm Street

Higher and higher it rises, soon accompanied by another, then two more shining, gleaming blades, and then the full glove and dark

hairy hand and then the wrist and arm, straight up light an evil sapling between the girl’s knees, the knives bloosoming into a bright flower of razor sharp steel in the air, moving over the girl’s belly. The hand rears back, the claws arch to strike.

MARGE (OS/APPROACHING) Nancy?

MARGE raps on the door. The instant she does NANCY jerks up, opening her eyes groggily. The dark wet arm, hand and knifes are gone.

NANCY What?

MARGE (OS) (through the door) You’re not falling asleep, are you? You could drown, you know.

NANCY Mother, for petesakes.

MARGE (OS) It happens all the time. (brighter) I’ve got some warm milk all

ready for you. Why don’t you jump into bed? (fading) I’m gonna turn on your electric blanket, too. C’mon, now. (then she’s gone into

another room)

NANCY (low) Warm milk. Gross.

She slides down to water level again, and sings softly,

thoughtfully to herself.

NANCY (CONTD) One, two, Freddie’s coming for you, three four, better lock your door, five six, grab your crucifix, seven eight gonna

stay up late, nine ten, never sleep again…

The next instant she’s jerked with incredible violence straight down beneath the surface of the tub — as if the bottom had suddenly dropped out and she was in a bottomless well!

68A. EXT. UNDERWATER SHOT. NIGHT. 68A.

LOOKING UP PAST HER ANKLES we SEE NANCY pulled sharply down into really deep water, the dim light of the surface and bathroom beyond receding with each yank. And yet she somehow flails and gasps and struggles back towards the surface, managing by pure panic to break the surface with her hands!

68B. INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE BATHROOM. 68B.

MARGE rushes to the door and listens, alarmed at the wild SPLASHING audible through the locked door.

MARGE Nancy! NANCY!

68C. EXT. UNDERWATER SHOT. NIGHT. 68C.

MARGE’S VOICE reaches to the girl, who thrusts up through main force and breaks the surface with her head and shoulders.

68D. INT. BATHTUB. 68D.

Gasping and choking, NANCY breaks the surface of her bathwater,

like a drowning sailer getting one last chance. Her mother’s VOICE booms over her, ECHOED and frantic — and the loud BANGING on the door finally opens her eyes. She turns and calls gasping to her mother —

NANCY Mommy!

REVERSE ON THE DOOR — as MARGE, using the old hangar through the doorhandle truck, makes it into the room. She rushes across to the tub. NANCY is staggering up in the bathwater, again with solid porcelain beneath her feet.

MARGE

I told you! Hundreds of people a year drown like that!

The mother throws a towel around the gasping girl, helps her from the tub and begins drying her like a child. NANCY looks like she’s likes paralized with some sort of weird dread.

MARGE You okay?

NANCY Great

MARGE

(not believing it for a minute) To bed with you, c’mon.

MARGE rushes out to get the room ready. NANCY turns and looks at herself in the cabinet mirror, then opens the medicine chest and begins a quick, furtive search.

CLOSER as she takes out the box of No Doz and slips it into her

robe.

OMIT SCS. 69 & 70——————————- OMIT SCS. 69 & 70

71. INT. HALLWAY. NIGHT. 71.

NANCY emerges from the bathroom yawning. MARGE follows as the girl plods obediently to her room.

MARGE No television, forget the homework, no phone calls.

NANCY No, Mother. Yes, Mother. No, Mother.

72. INT. NANCY’S ROOM. NIGHT. 72.

MARGE

And no school tomorrow, either. you take a little vacation, relax and rest for a change.

NANCY Yes, Mother. G’night.

MARGE offers a smile, and a little yellow pill.

MARGE Take this, it’ll help you sleep.

NANCY Right.

NANCY pops it in her mouth and swallows obediently. MARGE leans to her with a kiss.

MARGE Sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite.

MARGE goes out, relieved. NANCY closes the door, leans against it and spits the pill into her hand. She tosses it straight out her window and takes a NoDoz.

FADE TO BLACK

73. OMIT OMIT 73.

74. FADE UP ON INSERT OF TELEVISION SCREEN. 74.

A MONSTER MOVIE in BLACK AND WHITE. NO SOUND from the set.

75. PULL BACK to REVEAL NANCY propped up in bed, furtively watching. Or 75. is she just thinking? A bedside CLOCK reads 12:45 pm.

The girl YAWNS. She shakes herself violently and sits up

straighter, forcing herself to concentrate on the movie.

75A. ON THE TELEVISION SCREEN. A DIVER struggles to keep facing a 75A. large circling shark.

75B. ON NANCY. Her eyes droop shut — then she jerks awake, rattling 75B. her head as if it were a radio drifting off station. She tumbles out of bed, throws open the window and takes a deep breath of the

cool night air.

76. EXT. NANCY’S HOUSE AND STREET. NIGHT. 76.

HIGH ANGLE, AT SECOND-STORY LEVEL. NANCY looks directly across the street to a lighted, open window. Its curtains, sucked out and waving in the night breeze, give the only motion to the

deserted street.

Then someone pitches out of the dark at her. NANCY gives a YELP — then clamps her hand over her mouth as she recognizes GLEN, balanced precariously on the rose trellis outside her window.

GLEN

Sorry! Saw your light on. Thought I’d see how you were.

She gets herself together, barely.

NANCY Sometimes I wish you didn’t live

right across the street.

GLEN Shut up and let me in. You ever stand on a rose trellis in your bare feet?

76A. INT. NANCY’S ROOM. NIGHT. 76A.

NANCY looks over her shoulder to make sure her mother hasn’t heard. GLEN’s already through her window and planted on her bed. NANCY points to a chair.

NANCY

If you don’t mind.

GLEN crosses to the chair and plops down.

GLEN So. I heard you freaked out in English class today.

There’s no maliciousness in his voice, and the familiar frankness is actually comforting to NANCY.

NANCY Guess I did.

GLEN

Haven’t slept, have you?

NANCY Not really.

NANCY tries to smile, but can’t fake it very well. GLEN looks her over.

GLEN You look dead and rained on, if you want the ugly truth. And what you do to your arm?

She shrugs, trying to keep it casual.