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A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Beautiful Dream *ON HIATUS*

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 (Edited)

Needless to say, I’m a huge fan of the Nightmare on Elm Street films Heather Langenkamp was involved in, but I loathe most of the other entries in the series.

To wash the rotten taste of those rotten sequels out of my mouth, I’ve decided to write replacements for them. This will be the first, a direct sequel to Dream Warriors, which reveals the ultimate fate of Nancy Thompson following the events of that film.

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SUPERIMPOSE: “Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens.”

-- CARL YUNG

FADE IN

On a room inside an abandoned, decaying house. With mirrors of various sizes and shapes covering the discoloured red walls from top-to-bottom, it looks like something found only in a twisted dream.

The door into the room opens and FOUR INDIVIDUALS step inside. The four individuals are JOEY CRUSEL, a lanky teenaged boy with dark hair; ROLAND KINCAID, a stocky, muscular black kid clad in an orange muscle shirt; KRISTEN PARKER, a pretty young girl with shoulder-length blond hair; and NANCY THOMPSON, a beautiful twenty-something woman with a gray streak running through her long, brown hair. All four are on-edge, as if pursued by some unseen, lurking presence.

NANCY: (steps inside the room) Let’s try this way.

KINCAID: Kristen, can you pull us out?

KRISTEN: They sedated me. We’re stuck here.

Make their way into the small room, they look around, taking in the sight of all the mirrors adorning the blood-red walls. At the other end of the room is only a full-length mirror; there’s no way out of the room except through the way they came.

NANCY: It’s a dead end.

Without warning, the open door behind them swings shut with a loud BANG. As they spin around, they find the door gone, completely replaced with another full-length mirror.

KINCAID: What the hell!?

Running up to the door, Kincaid begins prying at the edges of the new mirror. Joey is quick to join him, but his added strength doesn’t seem to help any.

Suddenly, a FIGURE manifests within the mirror’s reflection. The figure is a short man, clad in dark brown pants, a red-and-green striped sweater, and a brown fedora. Sporting hideous burns all over his exposed flesh, a tattered glove sporting four razor-sharp blades worn over his right hand, he is a most dreadful figure to behold. He is FREDDY KRUEGER.

FREDDY: Sorry to keep you waiting. Perhaps if there was more of me to spread around

As the young men and women back away from the full-length mirror, visions of Freddy’s face manifest in all the other mirrors. The Freddies all laugh mockingly at these poor, trapped souls. Overwhelmed by the experience, Joey crawls into a corner, curling up into a ball to escape the ghastly laughter.

Nancy, Kristen, and Kincaid are left defenseless when the multiple Freddies lunge out from the mirrors at them. Seizing hold of the three mortals, the Freddies pull them all into their dark mirror world, determined to deal them each a final, grisly fate.

Unwilling to let the burnt phantasms claim his friends, body bristling with rage and terror, Joey climbs back to his feet.

JOEY: (reverberating) No!

Loud and powerful, Joey’s scream causes the mirrors in the room to vibrate. The visions of Freddy, assaulted by the potent sound, bring their hands up to their ears, grimacing in pain. Shattering, the mirrors toss Nancy, Kristen, and Kincaid back out into the room.

Joey stands there, he friends lying prone upon the floor. There isn’t a single sign of Freddy’s presence left in the room.

JOEY: (sighs) Wow. Did I say that?

Freddy’s former captives, quickly recollecting their wits, climb to their feet and move in to embrace Joey.

KINCAID: (grins) You found your dream power, man.

KRISTEN: You saved us, Joey.

Seizing Joey in a tight hug, Kincaid spins him around.

KINCAID: Yeah, you blew him away!

JOEY: (grins) Put me down, man!

NANCY: (to everyone) Are you okay?

KRISTEN: Think so.

Nancy glances about the room, eyes on the search for the malevolent entity which tried to claim their lives.

NANCY: He’s gone. (smiles) It’s over!

The four embrace each other in a group hug, laughing with triumph and relief.

ETHEREAL VOICE: Nancy …

At the sound of that ethereal voice, they look up. Outside the room of mirrors, glittering sparkles of light descend from the heavens, announcing the arrival of a SPIRIT. This spirit -- a middle aged man with combed over dark hair, clad in a security guard’s uniform -- greets Nancy with a warm smile. Breaking away from the others, Nancy leaves the room of mirrors and slowly approaches the spirit.

NANCY: Daddy?

DONALD THOMPSON (ETHEREAL VOICE): I’ve crossed over, princess.

NANCY: (sad) Crossed over?

DONALD THOMPSON: I couldn’t go without telling you how sorry I am for all the things I’ve done. (beat) I love you so much. I’ll always love you.

NANCY: (smiles) I’ll always love you.

As Nancy embraces her departed father is an intimate hug, the others look upon them, smiling approvingly.

Immersed in the hug, Nancy grins with pleasure. That grin is quickly replaced with a grimace of shock. Crying out in sharp pain, she looks down. There, embedded deep in the flesh of her side, are the blades of Freddy Krueger’s glove.

Taking on his true form, Freddy grabs Nancy by the hair and pulls her head back.

FREDDY: Die!

As Freddy twists the blades, the agony hits Nancy full-force and she SCREAMS and SCREAMS and SCREAMS.

FADE TO BLACK

TITLE CARD: A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET: THE BEAUTIFUL DREAM

CUT TO

Nancy as she bolts upright in her bed, forehead drenched in sweat and blue eyes bulging in their sockets..

NANCY: (screaming) No!

Roused by Nancy’s cries, her husband, GLEN, wakes up.

GLEN: (groggy) Wha …?

Throwing the covers off her, Nancy jumps out of bed. Crossing over to a dressing table, she turns on a lamp and quickly looks at herself in the mirror. Running a hand through her damp hair, she finds no gray streak; looking down to her stomach, she finds no wound or blood there, just the pronounced bump of six months of pregnancy.

NANCY: (sighs) Jesus, God …

Arms braced against the table, head hanging low, Nancy just stands there, not moving. Concerned, Glen rises out of bed and walks up to her.

GLEN: (places his hands on Nancy’s shoulders) You alright? What was it? Another nightmare?

NANCY: (nods) Yeah, another nightmare.

Leaning in close to Nancy, Glen kisses her on the neck. The hairs of his mustache tickling her neck, she smiles lightly.

GLEN: C’mon, babe, let’s get back in bed.

NANCY: (shakes her head) I can’t. (beat) I’m going to take a shower.

GLEN: (scratches his head) Suit yourself. (beat) I’ll wait up for you.

INT. LANTZ HOME/BATHROOM -- EVENING

With the water shooting out hot and fast, Nancy steps into the shower. Letting the streaming liquid hit her, Nancy tilts her head back, allowing it to run down her naked chest. Closing her eyes, she lets the soothing moist heat massage the tension from her body.

INT. LANTZ HOME/BEDROOM -- EVENING

Tying her bathrobe closed, Nancy enters the bedroom. Standing there in the door, she finds Glen fast asleep, collapsed in a tangle atop the sheets, snoring softly.

NANCY: (smiles; shakes her head) Glen …

Walking up to her husband’s side of the bed, she takes hold of the sheets, pulls them out from under Glen, then lays them back down over him. Smiling, she then takes a glance over at the dressing table.

The table’s mirror, tilted at a certain angle, affords a reflection of the open bedroom door. There in the reflection, darker than the darkness surrounding it, is the silhouette of a man wearing a fedora.

Gasping, Nancy spins around. There, in the open door, is no one.

Breathing heavy, Nancy strides up to the door and looks out. Finding no one out there, Nancy steps back. Closing and locking the door, she walks backward back to her bed, cautiously slides under the covers, and desperately tries to go back to sleep.