Verdict
Summary
Similar to the previous year’s Maniac in a lot of ways but not quite as weird or discomfiting, Nightmare is basically the same sort of thing, but rehashed for gore hounds and grindhouse connoisseurs, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you’re the audience for that. It’s skeezy, sleezy, and has some pretty gnarly violence and gore, much of it involving a child, which is disturbing in itself, and it sort of sets itself up for icky feelings.
Severin’s recent two-disc 4K Ultra HD / Blu-ray set for Nightmare upgrades the film to 4K, presenting the “never before seen, most complete restored version ever assembled,” so fans can relish in the film’s audaciousness in crystal clarity forever after. I can put my Code Red DVD to rest now. Thanks, Severin!
Plot:
A lunatic goes on a killing spree over the course of a week.
Review:
As a child, George committed an atrocity on his parents, slaughtering them with an axe, thinking he was doing something right, but it was all so horribly wrong, and the double murders landed him in a mental institution where he’s spent the last 25 years, suffering from schizophrenia and amnesia. As an adult, George (played by wide-eyed Baird Stafford) has been a guinea pig for an experimental drug trial in the mental institution, and an oversight allows him to be released on the streets before the medical board realizes what they’ve done. Scrambling to apprehend George before he goes on another killing spree, the doctors have no idea where he is, but they’ll soon find out because indeed he does go on a killing spree. Walking the streets of New York on 42nd street where the porno palaces and grindhouse theaters glitter sex and kung fu movies, George almost immediately finds himself totally enchanted and disgusted by the free or cheap flesh on display, getting an eyeful of nude dancers, hookers, and pornography, which sends him staggering around the boulevards in search of someone to punish. He sets his sights on a suburban family, whose young son’s babysitter is attractive enough to get George’s attention. Meanwhile, the little boy (who resembles George as a child, which is part of his attraction to him) pulls weird pranks on the babysitter, which will become relevant later on. The mother is a single lady who’s dating a guy with a yacht, so her future should be bright, but because George, the homicidal maniac, is lurking around her future might very well be cut short …
Similar to the previous year’s Maniac in a lot of ways but not quite as weird or discomfiting, Nightmare is basically the same sort of thing, but rehashed for gore hounds and grindhouse connoisseurs, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you’re the audience for that. It’s skeezy, sleezy, and has some pretty gnarly violence and gore, much of it involving a child, which is disturbing in itself, and it sort of sets itself up for icky feelings. The climax has the creepy killer with a mask on, basically doing what Jack Nicholson did in The Shining with the axe (“Here’s Johnny!”), but then the little boy is forced to defend himself with a gun, shooting the guy more than a half a dozen times – twice with a shotgun! – and yet the “nightmare” only seems to be getting started. It’s disturbing and gross but, again, there’s an audience for this, and I have a high threshold for ’70s and ’80s slasher horror films, and this one definitely earns its grimy reputation with a downbeat grind and its lack of playfulness. It just goes for the lowest common denominator and has the audacity to wink at the audience in the last moment. Kudos! Filmmaker Romano Scavolini didn’t make too many other notable films (Dog Tags, a Vietnam war movie was next for him, but years later), but he certainly made his mark with Nightmare.
Severin’s recent two-disc 4K Ultra HD / Blu-ray set for Nightmare upgrades the film to 4K, presenting the “never before seen, most complete restored version ever assembled,” so fans can relish in the film’s audaciousness in crystal clarity forever after. I can put my Code Red DVD to rest now. Thanks, Severin!
Bonus Materials
- Audio Commentary With Star Baird Stafford And Special Effects Assistant Cleve Hall Moderated By Lee Christian And David DeCoteau
- Audio Commentary With Producer William Paul
- Kill Thy Father And Thy Mother – Interview With Director Romano Scavolini (71 mins)
- Dreaming Up A Nightmare – Cast And Crew Interviews
- The Nightmare Of NIGHTMARE – Interview With Erroneously Credited Special Effects Director Tom Savini
- The Stuff That Nightmares Are Made Of – Interview With Makeup Artist Robin Stevens
- A Nightmare On Many Streets – Locations Tour With Rue Morgue Writer Michael Gingold
- Open Matte Peep Show Sequence
- Deleted Scenes
- Still Gallery
- Trailers
