A Nightmare on Elm Street Page #19

113. ANGLE ON A NEEDLE on an EKG dipping to a lower reading. 113.

114. WIDER ANGLE -- the mother and DOCTOR watching. 114.

MARGE:

What happened? That needle

sank like a rock.

DR KING:

(quietly)

She's entering deep sleep now.

Heart rate's a little high due

to anxiety, but otherwise she's

nicely relaxed. All normal.

She could dream at any time now.

(beat)

Right now she's like a diver

on the bottom of an ocean no

one's mapped yet. Waiting to

see what shows up.

115. INT. THE SLEEPING ROOM. 115.

We can see NANCY drift from the initial stage, over the

brink into deep sleep. Her hair falls into her eyes; her face

relaxes; her shoulders curl round her like comforters. THE MUSIC

DEEPENS, and begins to hint at the tones of the NIGHTMARE THEME.

116. INT. CONTROL ROOM. DAY. 116.

DR KING and MARGE watch the instruments' every move.

One of the machines begins a slight CHIRPING. KING scans it,

liking what he sees.

DR KING:

Okay, she's started to dream.

He leans forward in his chair, like a pilot starting an

instrument approach. MARGE THOMPSON licks her dry lips, fighting

a turn of nausea.

MARGE:

How can you tell?

DR KING:

R.E.M.'s. Rapid eye movements.

The eyes follow the

dream -- their movement picks

up on this --

He prods a dial with his pencil and scribbles the time on a note

pad.

DR KING (CONTD)

Beta Waves are slowing, too.

She's dreaming, all right.

A good one, too.

MARGE watches the TV MONITOR. It's in extra-close on NANCY's

eyes -- and they're darting beneath the lids, reacting to events

lost behind a skein of flesh and neurons.

KING points to a moving graph. A needle's begun waving lazily

between plus and minus three. The DOCTOR nods, assured.

DR KING (CONTD)

Typical dream parameter. A

nightmare, now, would be plus or

minus five or six; she's just

around three point --

He stops. Outside, visible through the glass, NANCY twists

around. Eyes still closed, she's nevertheless holding her head

in the attitude of prey listening to the first faint sound of the

predator's approach.

MARGE looks from her daughter to the DOCTOR, color draining from

her face.

MARGE:

What the hell's this? She

awake or asleep?

The needle of the graph gives a jagged pitch up, plunges, then

surges well above the eight mark. A strange MUSIC CUE --

disonant and threatening, creeps in -- the NIGHTMARE THEME

slurred into awful minors and weird disonance. KING stares at

the gauge in disbelief, rapping his finger on its glass.

DR KING:

Can't be. It never gets

this high...

The needle swings even higher, benind.

DR KING (CONTD)

Jesus H. Christ.

He's cut off by the high-pitched KEENING of the girl, the SOUND

cutting through the double thickness of the glass like a lasar.

A warning BEEPER has begun, the instruments light up like a

Christmas tree -- and outside in the sleeping room, NANCY is

contorting as if shot through with a thousand volts. KING knocks

over his chair in his sprint for the door.

117. INT. SLEEPING ROOM. 117.

The DOCTOR and MARGE come in on the run -- NANCY's flailing and

screaming as if the devil himself were after her. KING grabs her

to shake her awake;

ANGLE ON NANCY (eyes open) -- looking in terror -- SOUND ECHOED

STRANGELY.

IN HER POV -- dressed in KING'S clothes -- the horribly scarred

MAN reaches out.

WIDER -- (NANCY'S eyes closed in sleep) as the girl's fist shoots

out with incredible force and knocks DR KING flying!

The NURSE and MARGE both descend on her --

and again in her SLEEPING POV we see the MAN stagger for her.

WIDER ON NANCY -- (still in her nightmare) -- fighting like a

tiger with both MARGE and the NURSE -- sending the NURSE

sprawling -- leaving MARGE hanging on for dear life.

ANGLE on the stunned DOCTOR fumbling with a hyperdermic needle,

spilling most of the stuff on himself with his shaking hands --

the SCREAMS AND CURSES of NANCY are deafening and worthy of a

stevador fighting off his worst enemy. Stranger still, her hair

is electrified, standing on end and greying before their very

eyes!

MARGE screams at the top of her lungs.

MARGE:

NANCY!!! IT'S MOM -- NANCY!!!!

Some deep bolt of psychic power smacks through the girl, and her

eyes flap open -- they're glazed with terror and fury, but open.

NANCY's awake.

She stares around like a cornered animal in the middle of the

bed, her purple face gasping out gut-wrenching SOBS. The NURSE

and MARGE dare to go back in and hold the sweat-drenched girl as

DR KING comes for her with the needle.

DR KING:

Now, this is just going to let

you relax and sleep, Nan --

With incredible swiftness, NANCY backhands the hypodermic into a

far wall, shattering it into a million pieces.

NANCY:

No. That's enough sleep.

Her eyes are windows straight into white fire as she locks into

KING'S face. He dabs his split lip, swallowing painfully.

DR KING:

Okay, kid. Okay. Fair enough.

He holds out his hand. NANCY at last takes it, and sags back

into her pillow, exhausted. Then KING comes up with blood on his

hand.

He stares at it, dumbfounded, then at the girl. Across her left

forearm, a deep gash is bleeding freely, as if made by a very

sharp instrument.

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