A Nightmare on Elm Street

MARGE: Oh my god, oh my god...

DR KING: Get the kit!

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 --

MARGE: What happened? That needle sank like a rock.

DR KING: 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. Right now she's like a diver on the bottom of an ocean no one's mapped yet. Waiting to see what shows up.

MARGE: What the hell are dreams, anyway?

DR KING: Mysteries. Incredible body hookus pokus. Truth is we still don't know what they are or where they come from. As for nightmares... Did you know that in the last three years twenty Filipino refugees in California died in the middle of nightmares? Not from heart attacks, either. They just died.

DR KING: Okay, good. She's asleep.

MARGE: Thank God.

DR KING: How long's this been going on?

MARGE: Since the murder. She was fine before that.

DR KING: Not to worry. No signs of pathology in Nancy's EEG or pulse rate. I'd guess what we've got is a normal young girl who just happens to have gone through two days of hell.

MARGE: It's just made her think... her dreams are real...

MARGE: They're just simple tests, Nan. We'll both be right here.

DR KING: Look, I know it's been frightening, I know your dreams have seemed real. But... it's okay. Okay?

MARGE: Please, Nancy. Trust us.

DR KING: Nightmares are expected after psychological trauma. Don't worry, they go away.

MARGE: I sure as hell hope so.

DR KING: Nancy have any severe childhood illnesses? Scarlet Fever? High temperatures -- concussions?

MARGE: No, nothing.

GLEN: Bring him out of what?

NANCY: My dream.

GLEN: How you plan to do that?

NANCY: Just like I did the hat. Have a hold of the sucker when you wake me up.

GLEN: Me? Wait a minute, you can't bring someone out of a dream!

NANCY: If I can't, then you all can relax, because it'll just be a simple case of me being nuts.

GLEN: I can save you the trouble. You're nutty as a fruitcake. I love you anyway.

NANCY: Good, then you won't mind cold-cocking this guy when I bring him out.

GLEN: What!?

NANCY: You heard me. I grab him in the dream -- you see me struggling so you wake me up. We both come out, you cold cock the fucker, and we got him. Clever, huh?

GLEN: You crazy? Hit him with what?

NANCY: You're a jock. You must have a baseball bat or something. Come to my window at midnight. And meanwhile...

GLEN: Meanwhile...?

NANCY: Meanwhile whatever you do don't fall asleep. Midnight.

GLEN: Me!? Why would anyone want to kill me?!

NANCY: Don't ask -- just give me some help nailing this guy when I bring him out.

NANCY: Much better.

GLEN: I heard your ma went ape at the security store today. You look like the Prisoner of Zenda or something. How long's it been since you slept?

NANCY: Coming up on the seventh day. It's okay, I checked Guiness. The record's eleven, and I'll beat that if I have to. Listen, I... I know who he is.

GLEN: Who?

NANCY: The killer.

GLEN: You do?

NANCY: Yeah, and if he gets me, I'm pretty sure you're next.

GLEN: Hello?

NANCY: Hi.

GLEN: Oh. Hi, how y'doing?

GLEN: 'Booby Traps and Improvised Antipersonnel Devices'!

NANCY: I found it at this neat survivalist bookstore on Ventura.

GLEN: Well what you reading it for?

NANCY: And what if they meet a monster in their dream? Then what?

GLEN: They turn their back on it. Takes away its energy, and it disappears.

NANCY: What happens if they don't do that?

GLEN: I guess those people don't wake up to tell what happens.

NANCY: Great.

GLEN: You ever read about the Balinese way of dreaming?

NANCY: No.

GLEN: They got a whole system they call 'dream skills'. So, if you have a nightmare, for instance like falling, right?

NANCY: Yeah.

GLEN: Instead of screaming and getting nuts, you say, okay, I'm gonna make up my mind that I fall into a magic world where I can get something special, like a poem or song. They get all their art literature from dreams. Just wake up and write it down. Dream skills.

GLEN: Whenever I get nervous I eat.

NANCY: And if you can't do that, you sleep.

GLEN: Used to. Not anymore.

GLEN: Yeah. So?

NANCY: Just checking -- keep out of sight!

GLEN: Jesus, it's dark in here.

NANCY: Shhh. Now listen, here's what we're gonna do...

NANCY: Okay?

GLEN: Okay, okay. I think.

NANCY: Listen, I got a crazy favor to ask.

GLEN: Uh-oh...

NANCY: It's nothing too hard or anything. I'm just going to... LOOK for someone, and... I want you to be sort of a... guard. Okay?

NANCY: M'god, I look twenty years old. You have any weird dreams last night?

GLEN: Slept like a rock.

NANCY: Well at least I have an objective wall to bounce this off. You believe it's possible to dream about what's going to happen?

GLEN: No.

NANCY: You believe in the Boogey Man?

GLEN: One two, Freddie's coming for you? No. Rod killed Tina. He's a fruitcake and you know it.

NANCY: You believe in anything?

GLEN: I believe in you, me, and Rock and Roll. And I'm not too sure about you lately.

NANCY: Guess I did.

GLEN: Haven't slept, have you?

NANCY: Not really.

NANCY: Sometimes I wish you didn't live right across the street.

GLEN: Shut up and let me in. You ever stand on a rose trellis in your bare feet?

GLEN: You okay?

NANCY: Yeah. Something slippery all over here... Tina?

GLEN: What the hell's going on!?

NANCY: Oh -- jeez -- Glen! Rod's gone ape!

GLEN: Why's she so bothered by a stupid nightmare, anyway?

NANCY: Because he was scary, that's why.

GLEN: Who was scary?

GLEN: So we'll guard her together. Through the night. In each others' arms like we always said.

NANCY: Glen. Not now. I mean, we're here for Tina now, not for ourselves.

GLEN: It's just a stupid cat.

NANCY: Then bring us back its tail and whiskers.

NANCY: Worked like a charm.

GLEN: Jesus.

NANCY: DAD! GET US OUTTA HERE!

LT THOMPSON: Oh, Jesus -- Nancy! Hey! We got a fire!

LT THOMPSON: Sure, okay, I'll be there. Now you just turn in and get some rest, sweetheart. Please. Deal?

NANCY: Deal.

NANCY: -- I want you to come over here and break the door down exactly twenty minutes from now -- can you do that?

LT THOMPSON: Sure, but...

NANCY: That'll be exactly half past midnight. Time for me to fall asleep and find him.

LT THOMPSON: Sure, sure, honey. You just do that -- get yourself some sleep -- that's what I've been saying all along.

NANCY: And you'll be here to catch him, right?

NANCY: I've got a proposition for you. Listen very carefully, please.

LT THOMPSON: Nan, I --

NANCY: Please. I'm gonna go get the guy who did it and bring him to you. I just need you be right there to arrest him. Okay?

LT THOMPSON: Just tell me who did it and I'll go get him, baby.

NANCY: Fred Krueger did it, Daddy, and only I can get him. It's my nightmare he comes to.

LT THOMPSON: Hello Nancy.

NANCY: Hi daddy. I know what happened.

LT THOMPSON: Then you know more than I do -- I haven't even been upstairs.

NANCY: You know he's dead though, right?

NANCY: Dad -- what you doing here?

LT THOMPSON: It so happens I work here, and there's an unsolved murder. I don't like unsolved murders, especially ones my daughter's mixed up in -- what are you doing here at this hour? You're supposed to be getting some sleep.

LT THOMPSON: Only family allowed, Nancy. You know the drill.

NANCY: Just want to talk to him a second.

LT THOMPSON: He's dangerous.

NANCY: You don't know he did it.

LT THOMPSON: No, I know, thanks to your own testimony, that he was locked in a room with a girl who went in alive and came out in a rubber bag.

LT THOMPSON: Decide to take a day off after all?

NANCY: Dad, I want to see Rod Lane.

NANCY: You used me, daddy!

LT THOMPSON: What the hell you doing going to school today, anyway -- your mother told me you didn't even sleep last night!

NANCY: She dreamed this would happen...

LT THOMPSON: What?

NANCY: She had a nightmare about somebody trying to kill her, last night. That's why we were there; she was afraid to sleep alone.

NANCY: Rod's not a lunatic.

LT THOMPSON: You got a sane explanation for what he did?

LT THOMPSON: How you doing, pal?

NANCY: Okay. Hi, dad.

LT THOMPSON: Get outside and watch her house. If you see anything funny call me.

PARKER: 'Anything funny' like what?

LT THOMPSON: Tell her I'm not here, tell her...

PARKER: Uh, she just saw you, sir...

PARKER: Looks like her boyfriend did it. Rod Lane. Musician type, arrests for brawling, dope --

LT THOMPSON: Terrific. What the hell was she doing there?

PARKER: She lived there.

LT THOMPSON: I don't mean her --

LT THOMPSON: What's the Coroner got to say?

PARKER: Something like a razor was the weapon, but nothing found on the scene.

PARKER: Lieutenant Thompson. Sorry to wake you, but --

LT THOMPSON: I'd've canned your ass if you hadn't. What you got?

MR LANTZ: Maybe god's punishing us all...

LT THOMPSON: Keep your head -- this is a fucking flesh and blood killer we're talking about.

MR LANTZ: Like Rod Lane?

MR LANTZ: Had to've done it. No one else was in there.

LT THOMPSON: How you know that?

MR LANTZ: Cause I thought Glen was gonna sneak out to see your lunatic daughter, that's why. So I locked him in his room! Sorry. Anyways, the door was still locked when we heard the screams.

LT THOMPSON: Who? Who did that?

MR LANTZ: Krueger.

LT THOMPSON: Krueger?

NANCY: Feeling better?

MARGE: They say you've bottomed out when you can't remember the night before. No more drinking, Baby, suddenly I just don't feel like it any more.

MARGE: Guess I should'n'a done it.

NANCY: Just sleep now, Mom.

MARGE: Just wanted to protect you, Nan. Just wanted to protect you...

NANCY: Give me the key, mother.

MARGE: I don't even have it on me, so forget it.

NANCY: All these years you've kept those things buried down here? In our own house?

MARGE: Proof he's declawed. As for him, we buried him good and deep.

MARGE: Bunch of us parents tracked him down after they let him go. Found him in an old boiler room, just like before. Saw him lying there in that caked red and yellow sweater he always wore, drunk an' asleep with his weird knives by his side...

NANCY: Go on...

MARGE: Oh lawyers got fat and the judge got famous, but someone forgot to sign the search warrant in the right place, and Fred Krueger was free, just like that.

NANCY: So he's alive?

MARGE: Your father the cop. That's a good one. Forget Fred Krueger. You don't want to know, believe me.

NANCY: I do want to know. He's not dead and gone -- he's after me and if I sleep he'll get me! I've got to know!

NANCY: Mom, I want to know what you know about Fred Krueger.

MARGE: Dead and gone.

NANCY: I want to know how, where -- if you don't tell me, I'm going to call daddy.

NANCY: What's with the bars?

MARGE: S'curity.

NANCY: Screw sleep!

MARGE: Nancy!

NANCY: It's real, Mamma. Feel it.

MARGE: Put that damned thing down!

NANCY: What I learned at the dream clinic, that's what I'm trying to prove. Rod didn't kill Tina, and he didn't hang himself. It's this guy -- he's after us in our dreams.

MARGE: But that's just not reality, Nancy!

NANCY: Go even crazier?

MARGE: I don't think you're going crazy -- and stop drinking that damn coffee!

NANCY: Did you ask Daddy to have the hat examined?

MARGE: I threw that filthy thing away -- I don't know what you're trying to prove with it, but --

MARGE: You okay?

NANCY: Yeah. Just had a little dream. I'm falling right back to sleep.

MARGE: Okay... You need anything, just call.

NANCY: Okay.

NANCY: I must be going nuts...

MARGE: Nancy?

MARGE: Take this, it'll help you sleep.

NANCY: Right.

MARGE: No television, forget the homework, no phone calls.

NANCY: No, Mother. Yes, Mother. No, Mother.

MARGE: And no school tomorrow, either. You take a little vacation, relax and rest for a change.

NANCY: Yes, Mother. G'night.

MARGE: You okay?

NANCY: Great

MARGE: To bed with you, c'mon.

NANCY: What?

MARGE: You're not falling asleep, are you? You could drown, you know.

NANCY: Mother, for petesakes.

MARGE: It happens all the time. I've got some warm milk all ready for you. Why don't you jump into bed? I'm gonna turn on your electric blanket, too. C'mon, now.

NANCY: Warm milk. Gross.

MARGE: Nancy, don't fall asleep in there.

NANCY: I won't.

MARGE: Get into bed.

NANCY: I will.

MARGE: Right home after.

NANCY: Right home after. See you.

MARGE: Did you sleep?

NANCY: I'll sleep in study hall, promise. I'd rather keep busy, you know?

MARGE: Where you think you're going?

NANCY: School.

MARGE: I could hear you tossing and turning all night, kiddo. You've no business going to school.

MARGE: Apparently he was crazy jealous. Nancy said they'd had a fight, Rod and Tina.

NANCY: It wasn't that serious...

MARGE: Maybe you don't think murder's serious --

ROD: Do you think I did it?

NANCY: No.

NANCY: What you mean 'all at once'?

ROD: I mean, it was as if there were four razors cutting her at the same time. But invisible razors. She just... opened up...

ROD: No.

NANCY: Well then how can you say somebody else was there?

ROD: Because somebody cut her. While I watched.

NANCY: How could somebody get under the covers with you guys without you knowing it?

ROD: How the fuck do I know? I don't expect you to believe me.

NANCY: And then what happened?

ROD: I told you. It was dark, but I'm sure there was someone else IN there, under the covers with her.

ROD: Someone else was there.

NANCY: The door was locked from your side.

ROD: I never touched her.

NANCY: You were screaming like crazy.

ROD: Your old man thinks I did it, don't he?

NANCY: He doesn't know you. Couldn't you change?

ROD: The cops were all over my house. They'll kill me for sure.

NANCY: Nobody's gonna kill you.

ROD: We got her mother's bed. You two got the rest.

NANCY: We should get her out of here...

TINA: What you dream?

NANCY: I dreamed about this guy in a dirty red and yellow sweater; I dream in color, y'know; he walked into the room I was in, right, right through the wall, like it was smoke or something, and just stared at me. Sort of... obscenely. Then he walked out through the wall on the other side. Like he'd just come to check me out...

NANCY: Maybe we should call Rod, have him come over too. He might get jealous.

TINA: Rod and I are done. He's too much of a maniac.

NANCY: Nice to have a fire.

TINA: Really. Turn 'er up a little.

TINA: I can't believe his mother let him come over here.

NANCY: Right. Well, she didn't, exactly...

TINA: Anyway, I'm too tired to worry about the creep. Couldn't get back to sleep at all. So what you dream?

NANCY: Forget it, the point is, everybody has nightmares once in a while. No biggy.

TINA: Rod says the sweetest things.

NANCY: He's nuts about you.

TINA: Yeah, nuts.

TINA: When did you have a nightmare?

ROD: Guys can have nightmares too, y'know. You ain't got a corner on the fucking market or something.

ROD: You feel better now, right?

TINA: Jungle man fix Jane.

ROD: No more fights?

TINA: No more fights.

ROD: Good. No more nightmares for either of us then.

TINA: What the hell you doing here?

ROD: Came to make up, no big deal. Your ma home?

TINA: Of course. What's that?