A Nightmare on Elm Street Page #6

She hammers against its thick wood.

TINA:

Nancy! Open the door -- Nancy!

The MAN slows. He has TINA now and knows it.

MAN:

She's still awake. Nancy can't

hear you.

TINA turns and looks full at the approaching MAN. Smudged by

deep shadow, he's big and hideous. He wears the same dirty

yellow sweater from the first nightmare -- from the wall-hanging

and blanket too -- and has the same sagging hat and leering grin

over his misshapen face. And on his fingers are the steel

talons.

29. CLOSE ON HIM as he takes the blade on the end of his right index 29.

finger and lopes off one of the fingers of his left hand. Then

another. We SEE the PIECES OF FINGERS fall past TINA'S face in

SLOW MOTION.

ANGLE ON THE GROUND of the FINGERS squirming on the ground, one

flopping onto TINA's naked foot.

TINA leaps back, sickened, and begins stamping on then as if they

were huge bugs.

The MAN snaps up his arm and the FINGERS fly back into place on

his hand. He leers at TINA -- then suddenly lunges at her,

sweeping with his cutting hand!

TINA's no weak sister -- blocks his arm, deflecting the spines,

and grabs the MAN's ugly face with her other hand. But the face

only slides off to the bone. The MAN presses in, and TINA

contorts in horror as the knives slash across her shoulder --

cutting her deeply.

29A. TINA staggers backward, GROANING, her foot now inexplicably 29A.

caught in bedclothes! She falls over her bed's conformter, twists

away from the man and, like a child, pulls the cover over her!

The skull-faced MAN crushes down, and there's a fierce grappling

-- punctuated by his GRUNTS and the girl's DEAFENING SCREAMS --

and they both become totally wrapped in the comforter -- until

they're beneath it, fighting for life and death.

30. INT. TINA'S BEDROOM. NIGHT. 30.

ROD lurches up into CLOSE UP in the lightless bedroom,

half-awakened by the tremendous struggle somewhere, somehow

inside the dark bed. ROD grabs groggily, lifting the blanket.

30A. IN HIS POV we glimpse the dark underside of the blanket -- see 30A.

TWO SHADOWY FIGURES flailing and clawing under the bedspread --

TINA and the MAN -- or a shape that could be a man -- raging

against each other.

ROD drops the blanket and leaps from the bed, scared full awake

and terrified. Then the horrible TINA's GASPS change to the

CRIES of a terribly wounded victim. ROD instantly jerks back the

bedspread.

IN HIS POV we SEE TINA struggling and flailing along on the

sheets, the MAN nowhere in sight.

ROD:

T-tina!?

Suddenly TINA -- eyes turned inward to her tormentor -- give an

awful jolt -- her arms and legs are spraddled as if by

overwhelming force and pinned to the bed. Next instant, her

nightgown flies apart and four long gashes chase across her

torso. From no visible instruments! A huge irrigation of blood

floods the bed.

Terrified, ROD dives for the light -- but at the same moment

something invisible grabs TINA, wielding her body in the air and

bringing it around in a swift blow that knocks ROD crashing into

the light -- smashing it to bits.

31. CLOSER ON HIM as he struggles around. In the blue FLASHES OF 31.

ELECTRICITY ROD sees TINA sliding up the bedroom wall in a dark

smear, dragged feet first!

ANGLE ON ROD -- paralized by terror!

ANGLE ON TINA'S DYING EYES -- moving with her up the wall and

bumping around the corner onto the ceiling. She's just looking

at who's dragging her, eyes glazing.

REVERSE IN HER POV -- to the shadowy, horrendously ugly MAN,

dragging her with fierce glee across the ceiling, literally

swabbing the ceiling with her bloody body. SEEN in FORCED

PERSPECTIVE, the SHOT carries her across a great distance without

seeming to get anywhere -- as if the ceiling is an endless

plane.

ANGLE DOWN ON ROD -- on his hands and knees -- the lamp next to

him blurting blue SPARKS and STROBING the nightmare room. ROD'S

screaming up at TINA'S invisible tormentor.

ROD:

What the hell's going ON here!

Tina!

ANGLE ON TINA -- upside down, clawing at the hanging swag lamp

above her mother's dressing table -- desperate for some anchor.

But she's dragged away from it. The lamp swings back, it's wires

gushing more SPARKS.

CLOSER along the ceiling as TINA rakes a long furrow in the

ceiling with her fingernails. But her eyes are glazing,

glazing. And then they fall closed.

WIDE, UP ON THE CEILING, as her body suddenly flops loose,

hanging for an awful moment by the feet over the bed.

REVERSE ON ROD -- staring like a terrified child.

ROD:

Tina --

REVERSE IN HIS POV -- as the body falls like a sack of rocks onto

the devastated bed, in SLOW MOTION, striking with a huge splash

of blood. A sick, awful GIGGLE floats around the room, then

ECHOES off into infinity. ROD staggers up, staring around as if

hoping to see this phantom.

ROD:

You motherf***er! I'll kill you

for that!

32. INT. TINA'S BEDROOM. NIGHT. 32.

NANCY is sitting straight up in bed, terrified. The CRIES of ROD

are ringing through the whole house. She forces herself to move

-- bolting from the bed despite her terror and sense of dread.

33. INT. HALLWAY. NIGHT. 33.

NANCY flies into the dark hall -- crashing directly into SOMEONE

who lurches out of the dark before her. She SCREAMS and jumps

back --

GLEN:

What the hell's going on!?

NANCY:

Oh -- jeez -- Glen! Rod's

gone ape!

ROD (OS)

(sobbing)

I'll kill you!

NANCY grabs the door; it's locked; she pounds on it. BAM! BAM!

BAM!

Things fall into sudden, awful silence on the other side. GLEN's

voice cracks with fear.

GLEN:

Rod?

(silence)

Rod, you better not hurt Tina...

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