ANALOG NIGHTMARES
The first time I watched Wes Craven’s seminal masterpiece, I was huddled around a 22’’ tube TV sitting on the shaggy carpeted floor of a friend’s spare bedroom. The room was full of teenagers: some were drinking beverages, that they may or may not have acquired from their parents’ respective stashes, while others merely watched wide eyed as the tracking lines flickered up and down against the image from an old VHS tape that was being played for the two hundredth time.
It was a rental, after all.
I hadn’t seen many horror films then, let alone studied them, and I had certainly never read a script. Of course, I had to use my imagination some and provide the low quality transfer with the benefit of the doubt but, even still, when I saw Tina being slashed by an invisible killer and get dragged around her room… I felt like I imagine Rod did: fucking scared.
It wasn’t until years later that I finally read the pages that produced what I saw on the screen. It was one of the first scripts I read in the very first screenwriting class I ever took. I remember the teacher’s words as she assigned it to us:
“This is one of the scariest things I’ve ever read.”
After I read it I understood what she meant.
A screenplay is to be read and visualized. Its intent is to create a visceral, living story that will be made real. With that in mind, when it comes to genre cinema, the best sequences start with the best words. Visual storytelling is first inspired by a theoretical, practical and imaginative interpretation of the black and white of the screenplay.
In short, when we see something visually striking and think about how it moved us, we must remember: it all started with words.
A Nightmare on Elm Street contains countless standout sequences of fear made real and all are worth exploring. However, in my mind, little compares to Tina’s demise in her bedroom – a sequence I have not stopped thinking about since I first saw it on that old VHS all of those years ago. Terrifying and visceral on the screen and on the page.
THE SCENE
Tina begins to flail in her sleep in bed next to her boyfriend Rod. He witnesses her nightgown torn and her chest slashed open before her body is dragged up the wall and across ceiling by an invisible assailant. The scene climaxes as a lifeless Tina plummets onto her bed in a bloody heap.
THE SCRIPT
THE SCREEN
The cinematic scene opens with Rod leaping out of bed. We read that he is “half-awakened by the tremendous struggle somewhere, somehow inside the dark bed.” Just that phrasing alone evokes a feeling of paranoia. The inexplicable nature of the threat is apparent to the reader, the screenplay dripping with a sense of chaos and danger that permeates the sequence, particularly from the perspective of Rod.
The theme of the unexplained continues as the screenplay describes the attacker as “the MAN — or a shape that could be a man.” The suggestion that what lies in the dark is often personified, assumed human but it also holds the possibility of being something else. The film and screenplay describe Freddy Krueger in detail and showcase the physical attack but none of that is visible to Rod. The text walks a fine line, balancing between the perspective of those that can see the threat and those than cannot.
As Tina’s attack continues, the script seems to mirror the events in the story through its structure, lending itself to the shocking nature of what the audience will see.
“Next instant, her nightgown flies apart and four long gashes chase across her torso. From no visible instruments!”
That last line, containing a sentence break for dramatic effect, accents what the reader already knows but may have easily forgotten. Again, Wes Craven was intent to ensure that his words would build the visceral physicality necessary in the reader’s mind to make the scene come to horrifying life.
The screenplay continues, “…ROD sees TINA sliding up the bedroom wall in a dark smear, dragged feet first!” This is immediately followed by a paragraph break.
“ANGLE ON ROD — paralyzed by terror!”
Then simply:
By shifting back to Rod’s perspective, we are never allowed to forget how the scene should make us feel. Craven continues to insert hyperbolic reactions as though sourced from the audience to amplify the sense of what he would go on to do visually. To be “paralyzed by terror” is to be faced with something unfathomably terrifying, difficult to even imagine.
Craven avoided showing Rod’s face during this portion of the scene instead shooting over Rod’s shoulder as his shaky, outstretched hand reaches toward Tina’s flailing form.
Visualizing it this way accomplishes two things:
- We have no reference for how his fear is manifesting physically on his face which allows the audience is able to project their own fears onto Rod.
- This puts the terrifying practical effect of Tina’s brutal and supernatural murder center stage so that viewers can both cringe and marvel at the horror on display.
Some Action Description seems to have gotten lost or integrated in a more natural way during the filming process. Multiple paragraphs describe what is essentially 20-30 seconds of screen time after all. There are no additional shots of Freddy Krueger dragging her as there are within the screenplay, a decision one imagines was made to preserve the unflinching, visceral terror of the moment which plays out as one shot.
At the end of the scene, the screenplay reads, “… her body suddenly flops loose, hanging for an awful moment by the feet over her bed.” There is a paragraph break and then:
“REVERSE ON ROD — staring like a terrified child.”
He calls out her name and then her body falls “like a sack of rocks.” The wording here is callous and cruel, showcasing not only Tina’s transformation into a lifeless shell but also Rod’s regression from man to boy — his fear reducing him to an infantile state.
In the film, these last few sentences manifest in a matter of seconds and give barely enough time to register facial reactions or to thoroughly interpret what it is you just saw. Still, the screenplay accomplishes what it sets out to beautifully by way of its exposition, creating a devastating sequence designed to crush the boy who is forced to watch.
“A sick, awful GIGGLE floats around the room, then ECHOES off into infinity.”
One final, haunting thought punctuates the terror set forth by the screenplay:
While not present in the film, this concept of the entity finding the events humorous serves to build an important tonal shift following her death; one that carries forward throughout the screenplay. This is a film that will get under your skin, not only because of what you see but because of how it will make you feel.
THE BLOODY CONCLUSION
In a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone titled “Bedtime Stories: Behind the 10 Most Shocking ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ Scenes” conducted by Kory Grow, Amanda Wyss, who played Tina, said that in relation to the scene: “This is how I read the script: ‘I talk. They talk. Screen directions. I talk. They talk. Screen directions.’ I learned the valuable lesson that you have to read every single thing.”
A revolving room was constructed to bring the scene to life. In the same interview from Rolling Stone Wyss described the experience:
“So they spun around with the room, and my perspective kept changing as I crawled along the bottom of this box. The first spin around it felt like I was falling, even though I was on the floor. Then I felt that if I wasn’t falling, everything was going to fall on me. It was terrible. We had to stop. The terror in my death scene was 75 percent real.”
This elaborate, expensive set up stemmed from a few paragraphs on a page. A creative team read the words and collaborated to make the impossible a reality.
I think back again to the words my screenwriting instructor had said when she assigned my class ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’:
“This is one of the scariest things I’ve ever read.”
Screenwriting is about more than structure, dialogue and blocking. It’s about tone. Effortless visual guidance that simultaneously breeds creative thinking while guiding the hand that draws from it.
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I’ll never forget watching that old VHS copy of A Nightmare on Elm Street or the feeling of terror that swept over me during Tina’s demise. And I’ll never forget the epiphany I felt when reading that sequence over the course of several paragraphs, all the while thinking: It all starts as words on a page. |
Brief and simple, lasting only a minute or two, but powerful enough to pervade a lifetime of movie watching.
Like I said before, the screenplay is more than just the skeleton, it’s the life blood. It may not look like it at first but, much like when watching a crummy VHS of an effects heavy movie, if you use your imagination you’ll see what I’m talking about.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984): Written & Directed by Wes Craven
