A Nightmare on Elm Street Page #5

TINA:

(sleepily)

Where'd you get this snotty old

thing?

SNORES from ROD. TINA yawns, turns off the light and snuggles

against ROD, pulling the cover gingerly over herself, too.

15. INT. TINA'S BEDROOM. NIGHT 15.

CAMERA MOVES across the room of the original nightmare to find

NANCY alone in TINA's bed, staring at the slanting ceiling above

the bed. Thinking. We can just hear her HEART beating. She

sighs and turns on her side.

Immediately the wall above her head turns a faint reddish hue,

with a broad yellow smear across its center. All unseen by

NANCY, the wall begins to pulse in exact time with her heart's

beat.

CLOSE ON NANCY'S FACE. She closes her eyes.

ANGLE BACK UP ON THE CEILING JUST ABOVE HER HEAD. SOMETHING

presses against the surface from the inside. The plaster buldges

out as if suddenly elastic, taking the shape of the thing

pressing from inside -- taking the shape of a man's face. The

face opens its mouth. The knives rake through the surface.

ANGLE ON NANCY -- as plaster dust snows down on her.

She jerks awake, sitting bolt upright. The face retracts

suddenly -- the wall is normal.

ANGLE DOWN ON NANCY as she looks up to the ceiling, touching her

hair and feeling the plaster dust.

REVERSE IN HER POV TO THE CEILING. There are three parallel cuts

in the plaster there. About eight inches long. As if cut by

sharp knives. Nothing else.

Back on NANCY. She draws the covers around her and shivers.

Eyes wide open.

16. EXT. TINA'S HOUSE. NIGHT. 16.

Not a car or person in sight. A stricken breeze dies in the

trees.

17. ZOOM IN on the window of the room where TINA sleeps. By the time 17.

we're FULL IN CLOSE on it, the air is again still as death. A

moment later a PEBBLE bounces off the pane. The NIGHTMARE THEME

appears in the lower registers and holds its breath.

Another PEBBLE strikes, with a sharper RAP.

18. INT. TINA'S MOTHER'S BEDROOM. NIGHT. 18.

CLOSE ON TINA'S FACE as her eyes open.

19. REVERSE IN HER POV. Another PEBBLE clatters off the glass. 19.

20. TINA raises slowly. 20.

TINA:

ROD...

SNORES FROM ROD. TINA sits up.

PAST HER TO THE WINDOW. The WIND MOVES AGAIN; the trees brush

the window with their shadows. Then another pebble. RAP! TINA

slips to the window.

21. EXT. TINA'S BACKYARD. NIGHT. 21.

She looks out on an old yard with a patch of bananna trees

rattling in the Santa Ana winds. It seems deserted, though the

welling dark won't let her be sure. Then another pebble -- PAP!

-- hitting with a sharp RACK FOCUS.

22. A LOW ANGLE TO WINDOW as TINA jumps back, startled. She hadn't 22.

seen that one coming. But she's drawn back to the glass out of

curiousity, straining to see in the dark. It's as if the stones

are materializing out of thin air.

23. INT. TINA'S MOTHER'S ROOM. NIGHT. 23.

WHAP! This time a heavier stone, and a thin crack bristles

across the glass.

TINA:

(low)

Who the f*** you think you are,

whoever you are?

24. EXT. TINA'S BACK YARD. NIGHT. 24.

WIDE ANGLE ON THE REAR OF THE HOUSE. A LIGHT COMES ON. TINA

appears in the doorway.

TINA:

(listening)

Somebody there?

She can see through the backward to a yawning gate and the back

alley. No one there. But a word is spoken, as if by wind.

VOICE:

(garbled)

Tina.

TINA straightens, unable to swallow. There's a ragged, obscene

GIGGLE. Deep in the throat. Phlegmy.

TINA:

Who the hell is that?

TINA charges across the yard and through the gate, the MUSIC

chasing after.

25. EXT. A SERVICE ALLEY. NIGHT. 25.

She brakes in the middle of the alley and whirls around.

Listening. Shivering in the same thin slashed nightgown.

A sharp crank of METAL, and fifty feet down the alley the lid of

an ash can rolls from the dark like a huge tin coin and spirals

noisily down.

26. LOW REVERSE ACROSS LID TO TINA. Despite herself she comes over 26.

and touches it. She comes up with long worms on her fingers.

Next moment the exact same shambling MAN from her nightmare

staggers into view fifty feet behind her. TINA falls back into

the shadows, shaking the worms off her fingers in repulsion. The

MAN turns and starts directly for her, something shining on his

right hand as he spreads his arms wide. He starts scraping the

steel FINGERNAILS along a cinderblock wall. Orange sparks spurt

out -- his arms elongate until they reach from one side of the

alley to the other -- and TINA is cut off from her home!

CLOSE ON HER as the SCRAPING of the blades gets louder and

closer. She begins to shake uncontrollably.

TINA:

Oh, sh*t, please God...

KILLER:

(softly, approaching)

This is God...

He holds up his steel-tipped hand like a surgical-steel spider.

TINA runs for her life.

27. WIDER ANGLE IN THE ALLEY -- a terrifying, all-out footrace 27.

between the girl and her pursuer. The MAN is fast; the distance

between them closes with each heartbeat. TINA overturns ashcans

-- claws her way through a rotten back fence, hammers against a

window. Ashen FACES appear, recoil, pull curtains closed and

disappear in fright.

28. EXT. TINA'S STREET. NIGHT. 28.

TINA runs out onto front lawns, SCREAMING for help. No help

comes. In fact, the only response is for all the porch lights on

the block to be turned off. The MAN roars out from behind a tree

-- a tree too narrow to have hidden him -- nearly upon the girl!

TINA runs in panic -- at last making her own home, only to be

trapped against its locked front door.

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