NIGHTMARE

NIGHTMARE

(A.k.a. NIGHTMARES IN A DAMAGED BRAIN; NIGHTMARE IN A DAMAGED BRAIN)

Code Red have finally got round to releasing their uncut Special Edition DVD of Romano Scavolini’s NIGHTMARE: a cause for celebration, surely, for long-term gore fans everywhere.

George Tatum (Baird Stafford) is institutionalized in a hospital for the criminally insane. He suffers from a reoccurring gruesome vision, in which a young boy witnesses his parents being brutally axed to death while in the midst of a spot of afternoon S&M. Despite his violent reaction to the nightmares (only drugs will stop him screaming) and the fact that he is 'inside' for butchering an entire family, the panel of doctors reviewing his psychological profile decide George is no longer a threat to society and his freedom is granted.

And so we join George on The First Night, in New York.

The film is punctuated by these titles on the screen that help the viewer to discern whether it is night or day.

Free at last, George immediately takes a walk down the red light zone and pays his way into a peep show. Lots of pre-silicone nudity on offer here. He's invited into a private booth with Tara Alexander, who he watches through a glass panel as she masturbates with a dildo. The nightmare returns and George is soon reduced to a mouth-foaming wreck, as Alexander continues to moan away. Incidentally, Alexander was once famous for having sex with the most men in one single marathon session (a title since bettered by Annabel Chong et al).

The Second Day

We're introduced to a family in Florida. Susan (Sharon Smith), her boyfriend - who's a dead-ringer for THE BEYOND's Joe The Plumber - the woman's son CJ (CJ Cooke), and his elder sister. Meanwhile George is making his way to Florida and hitches a lift in the back of an unwitting woman's car. Moments later, George has slashed the woman's throat and stabbed her in the stomach. As she lies dead on the floor of her own lounge, George quietly weeps "I'm sorry". Maybe the drugs haven't worked after all.

The Third Day

The doctors that ordered Tatum's release are getting concerned. He hasn't reported to the half-way house that was organised for him. In fact he hasn't checked in with any authoritarian figures. Instead, we're watching him dream about severed heads in his bed while he hides out in sleazy motel rooms. In all fairness, we do see Tatum taking his medication of his own free will. Perhaps it's writer-director Romano Scavolini's intention to blame George’s psychosis on the prescribed drugs, rather than a deviation from the enforced treatment?

We then get to see more of Susan's family, and CJ is established as the token practical joker. Every slasher film needs one. So it's not a case of 'will' the boy-who-cried-wolf scenario arise, but 'when' ... It's at this point we also realise Tatum is heading for this particular family. He rings their house but when CJ answers the phone, George cannot bring himself to speak and hangs up. While Tatum is stalking the family, there is a keen doctor hot on his heels too.

The Fourth Day

CJ's babysitter Kathy (Danny Ronan) threatens to quit because his pranks are 'evil'. The doctors are getting more nervous as they try to second-guess where George is headed by using their hilariously primitive computer. CJ is reprimanded by his mother for lying about seeing the Bogeyman on the beach. Hey, the boy-who-cried-wolf scenario - who would've thought?

The Fifth Day

George contacts Dr Williamson via his hotel room telephone, complaining that the nightmares are becoming more severe. The doctor asks where George is, but thanks to a great bit of overacting his whereabouts remain a mystery. An off-screen murder at least serves to inform us that George has finally landed at Daytona Beach (just in case you didn't believe the lying little brat either) and that CJ's family are going to be in for a hard time.

The Final Day

It’s unfair to give anything further away. But expect a lot of blood.

I love this film. It benefits greatly from strong central performances (though many of the peripheral actors are enjoyably abysmal) and unlike many of the other video nasties of yore is not dubbed. Although low budget, it is well shot and very stylish in many exterior scenes. The violence is filmed in a glorified graphic manner - much like what you would expect from a former pornographer like Scavolini.

Arriving in late 1981 at the back-end of a ridiculously prolific two years of HALLOWEEN and FRIDAY THE 13TH rip-offs, the film was reviled at the time by critics – but stands as a great old-fashioned stalk 'n' slash film with loads of dubious gory violence and stock horror clichés. Fast-paced and unapologetic, while adhering to every convention of the genre – in a knowing way - it's hard to not like.

Ed French’s FX work is agreeably raw and graphic (despite Tom Savini’s day on set in a supervisory role being controversially blown out of proportion during the film’s promotion, prompting the MANIAC maestro to insist his name was disassociated with the production). Even Jack Eric Williams' score is memorable, albeit being obvious and melodramatic at times.

Back at the time of the film’s UK theatrical release, Alan Jones had this to say about it in Starburst magazine: "And the dregs of the down market stalk and slash brigade keep filtering on ... a piece of junk whichever way you look at it ... worthless trash. If you go and see this, you only have yourselves to blame".

Well, he defends THE CARD PLAYER these days. I’d much rather watch NIGHTMARE, for all its alleged shortcomings.

Disc 1 presents NIGHTMARE (I’m going to use the boring US title because, although it’s much less interesting than the UK video nasty title, it remains the film’s original label) in two versions – both uncensored.

The first is a full-frame 2005 transfer that looks okay aside from its rather washed out colour schemes. It’s certainly clean enough for the most part, and comes with the approval of Scavolini.

The second is a High Definition master from 2008, culled from two 35mm prints. This is battered to fuck. So, despite it being in the correct 1.78:1 aspect ratio and enhanced for 16x9 TV sets offering more info (I think the only moment this becomes relevant is when you realise Tara Alexander genuinely is rubbing her naked twat with that dildo – a fact obscured by previous cropped versions of the film), it doesn’t really do much for the film aside from heighten colour and make images a tad brighter.

Both versions benefit from adequate English mono audio.

An animated main menu page on disc 1 holds no scene-selection menus. Indeed, the 4:3 version of the film contains no chapters whatsoever; the HD master has 20.

Extras on disc 1 begin with an audio commentary track that plays over the HD version of the film. Stafford offers the most info, amongst conversation with the moderator, secondary FX artist Cleve Hall and someone else. The whole thing does offer a wealth of insight, as well as lots of welcome humour.

"Making the Nightmare" is a great featurette that takes in interviews with Stafford, Hall (a made-up Goth!) and ex-distributor Tom Ward. Despite being shot on rough video, this is an unexpectedly engaging watch. These guys are sincere, candid and frank: the best interviewees you could hope for, in other words.

"Constructing the Nightmare" is an interview with chief FX artist French. Windowboxed at 1.33:1, he speaks honestly about how he’d never worked on FX for a film previously (he’s since gone on to work on the likes of VALKYRIE and TERMINATOR SALVATION) and how Savini DID oversee his work to some extent. Again, it’s a thrilling insight for any fans of this film, as its participants have been very quiet previously.

"You’ve got to start somewhere", says French at the close of this 5-minute featurette. Don’t be like that, Edward, the film is better than you are.

Disc 2 houses the version of the film that you really need to be watching: an all-new 2011 telecine transfer from a newly found source that is the best 35mm print seemingly available. And fully uncut, as are the others.

It still looks rough (was this a 16mm film that was blown up onto 35mm for theatrical screenings?): soft, with grain and debris evident for the most part. But blacks and colours are improved, and it’s also the brightest and cleanest presentation of the film in this set. It still looks like good VHS quality to be fair, but there’s no doubt that this is 16x9 enhanced 1.78:1 presentation is taken from a worn film print. The look suits the film perfectly, and I’d be surprised if we ever see it looking better (such is the unkind history this film has on DVD and video).

English mono audio is stable throughout.

A static main menu page does not contain access to a scene-selection menu: there isn’t one (although there are 12 remote chapters).

The main extra on this disc is a 96-minute interview with Scavolini. Unfortunately it’s conducted in Italian and does not have English subtitles. It’s documented online about how Code Red staged this interview for their DVD release but their translation source fell through, and subsequent attempts to get this feature-length extra subtitled proved to be a costly and impractical proposition. It’s a real shame that they couldn’t get this thing subtitled for English-speaking audiences (the vast majority of the film’s cult following, I’d wager), but it’s still good that they’ve included the interview for the sake of completion anyway.

Next up we get treated to the film’s original trailer (2-and-a-half minutes long and trading in rather cheekily on Tom Savini’s name). It’s good stuff, focusing on the gore and sleaze prevalent in the final product. This is followed by two 30-second US TV spots that impress in their snappy conveyance of grindhouse thrills.

Disc 2 opens with a trailer for FAMILY HONOR. It also contains trailers for THE UNDERTAKER, THE VISITOR, THE BLACK GESTAPO, CUT-THROATS NINE, DEVIL’S EXPRESS, BRUTE CORPS and I’M GOING TO GET YOU ... ELLIOTT BOY.

NIGHTMARE comes from Code Red in a definitive (limited edition) 2-disc set. If you’re a fan of the film, or video nasties, or 80s slasher films, you really owe it to yourself to buy this DVD. Code Red are hoping to sell 100,000 copies. This seems unlikely in this day and age, but I for one would be thrilled if they did.

Marvellous stuff, and essential viewing in my eyes for fans of early 80s horror. Incidentally, MURDER-SET-PIECES director Nick Palumbo loves this film. Compare NIGHTMARE to his works and you’ll see how accomplished it really is.

Highly recommended.

Review by Stuart Willis


 
Released by Code Red
Region 1 - NTSC
Not Rated
Extras :
see main review
Back