A Nightmare on Elm Street Page #12

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.

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.

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