Wes Craven’s Page #24

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AN ANCIENT STONE FACADE

Heather flies out of a stone flume in this wall amid coursing

water, pitching out into thin air and out of frame!

INT. FREDDY'S BOILER ROOM

UP ANGLE to a toothed rectangle in some ancient ceiling.

Above is darkness, out of which falls Heather/Nancy.

She plunges down into the deep, fetid water of some

horrendous catch of basin. She surfaces, gasping and half

drowned, looking around.

She finds herself lit in hellish hues by the flames licking

through a monumental wall of furnaces behind her.

Galleries of stone and vistas of a city of Night stretch out

in all directions. The heavy drizzle of condensed steam is

everywhere. And there is a palpable feeling of...Evil

HEATHER:

D...Dylan?

Her only answer is the horrific SOUND OF STEEL NAILS

SCRATCHING ALONG STEEL. A sound a thousand times worse than

fingernails on a chalkboard!

She reaches under the red water, coming up with the butcher

knife. Then turns and splashes towards the last sound.

She searches the vast room, then stops, hearing the

faintest...

DYLAN (O.S.)

Mommy?

She races across the chamber towards the wall of flame, and

there at its base is DYLAN. Crouched alone in front of a

huge furnace, backlit by the angry flames. And he's holding

something. A sheaf of papers. And the whole dimension falls

quiet as he holds it out to her...

Heather starts for him, then warily stops, alert for a trap.

HEATHER:

Dylan, where's the man?

DYLAN:

(indicating the sheaf of

papers)

Here.

She splashes to him. Drops the knife on a sill of a furnace

and takes him in her arms.

CLOSE ON THE TWO

a long, tender embrace. Heather looks at his face. He seems

alright. Then she looks at the papers in his hand.

HEATHER:

What...what is that?

DYLAN:

A story?

Heather finds herself seized by the strangest compulsion to

look, despite where she is. She opens a page towards the

back at random. And smiles grimly.

HEATHER:

Yes. It's a story. A story for a movie.

DYLAN:

Read me some?

Heather just shakes her head, incredulous at the eerie

accuracy of the writing...

HEATHER:

(reading)

"At last his mother finds him. She gives

him a long, happy hug. And then looks at

the pages. 'Story?' the little boy asks.

'Yes,' says his mother. 'A story of us.'

And the mother takes the book and begins

to read."

(Heather looks at him and

laughs' reads more)

"And as she begins to read, from behind

her there comes...There comes..."

She stiffens, realizing, twists around and at the same split

second he strikes. The true FREDDY, huge and dark and

incredibly fast. Slamming into her and lifting her up in his

clawed hands. Snatching away the script and flinging it into

the fire.

FREDDY:

Meet your maker!

He lifts his arm to strike, then lets out the most GOD AWFUL

SCREAM IMAGINABLE!

LOW ANGLE ON DYLAN

down there on the deck with the big knife jammed into the

back of Freddy's right knee!

FREDDY:

goes down like a fallen Seqouia clawing for the child.

DYLAN springs backwards barely out of reach of the monster

Heather leaps onto the monster's back, pulling him off. And

Dylan is free.

HEATHER:

Run, Dylan!

And run he does. Freddy twists Heather around and flings her

across the room into a stone pillar. Heather hits hard and

doesn't move. Freddy turns and SEES

DYLAN:

dodging through an archway and disappearing.

FREDDY:

pulls out the knife and flings it away. Takes off after him

like a tiger after a fawn.

MOVING WITH DYLAN

through this lowest level of hell. Fire and steam and

gushing water the only elements, splashing through to a low

staircase, turning to see

FREDDY:

huge and fierce, splashing after him, claws flashing!

DYLAN:

turns and runs deeper into the light of fire, reaching.

A FINAL CHAMBER:

a huge furnace ending the passage. With one last look over

his shoulder telling him he must do something fast. Dylan

climbs like a little monkey and disappears into the maw of

the huge furnace. This one not fired up but still lit from

within by a huge PILOT FLAME.

INT. FURNACE

Dylan jumps the flame and lands singed but safe on the far

side of the fire pit, safe for the moment as Freddy slams

into the opening of the furnace, reaching for him. And

though he's too big to get in fast, his claws are inching

closer and closer, inches now from the boy's body!

INT. FIRST ROOM

Heather drags herself up, half dead, but hearing the SCREAMS

OF DYLAN turning to see Freddy head and shoulders inside the

distant furnace. She races back and retrieves the knife.

INT. FURNACE

Dylan looks behind, spies an access port barely larger than

his head, leading outside the furnace. Knowing it's his only

chance, he instantly squeezes himself into it just as

FREDDY'S CLAW SNAGS HIS PAJAMAS, pulling him back.

INT. MIDDLE CHAMBER

Heather splashes through the ankle deep water, coming fast

with blood in her eye! She reaches the stairs and suddenly

sinks to her knees in sticky goo, flailing and clawing to

pull herself free!

INT. FURNACE

Freddy, lit like a demon in hell by the flame of the pilot,

reeling the kid in inch by inch.

FREDDY:

Gonna eat you up...

He has Dylan now, pulling him up to his face, opening his

mouth wider and wider, unhinging his jaw like some horrendous

snake, when suddenly he

CONVULSES and drops Dylan then lets out a WAIL.

OUTSIDE FURNACE:

Heather has made it there in time and has the knife buried

deep between Freddy's legs, her body blocking sight of

exactly where. But we get the idea. She shoves it hard and

twists. Freddy HOWLS and fills the world.

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