Nightmare (1981)

August 6, 2018

Directed by: Romano Scavolini

Written by: Romano Scavolini

Starring:  Baird Stafford, Sharon Smith, C.J. Cooke

Quote: SORRY? You lose a dangerously psychotic patient from a secret experimental drug program, and all you can say is "I'm sorry"?

Trivia: The film's original UK distributor was sent to prison for releasing an unapproved version.





I never heard of this movie but was scrolling through Amazon Prime Video and came across it. It mentioned that it was banned in the UK during the 1980s as part of the the "Video Nasties" censorship movement. I grew up listening to punk rock and remember the Damned had a song called Nasty that talks about "Video Nasties." I didn't know what that meant at the time but after seeing a documentary on Shutter called Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Video Tape I decided that sooner or later I would try to watch them all. The video nasties were 72 films that were deemed offensive by British government organizations and banned. Nightmare is one of the illustrious seventy two. The movie is gory, dark, disturbing, and has a filthiness to it that was no doubt why it was chosen. It could also be that the killer killed a child (off screen), a big no no in movie rules. I loved it.

Nightmare is a slasher film about a man named George who is suffering from schizophrenia but is released from a hospital as "cured." Of course, the man is not cured and begins have horrific nightmares that cause him to wake up screaming. The first five minutes of the film is mostly just this guy screaming. Afterwards, the guy's psychosis begins to take hold and he goes out looking to kill. The first victim is a random lady he sees leaving a bar. The then goes out and kills a couple other people, including a child. While all this is happening he keeps having flashbacks of his childhood when he witnessed his father being hurt by his mother during rough sex and afterward the kid kills his father and mother. Meanwhile, there is a B-story about a mother and her three children, one of which, C.J., seems very disturbed. The killer will eventually begin stalking the family and attacking them in the movie's climax.

In the film there is a lot of sex and violence. The sex and sexuality of the film is not of a titillating nature. Sex has been rendered vile by George and it is unpleasant on the screen. The sexually violent event that George witnessed as a child has forced him to equate the two into a dangerous mashup of power, lust, shame, and regret. A part of him pushes him towards violence and murder, just as our own sexualities push us towards sexual gratification. It is this sexual confusion that makes the killings really repugnant.

The killings also have a very "raw" feeling to them. The film seems very low budget which makes the gore that happens in the film that much uglier and realer. The film doesn't have smooth cuts and crafty special effects but rather it relies on its own brutality to capture the reader's attention. Also, the use of first person heightens the dirtiness of the film. It makes the viewer feel like a voyeur seeing something they shouldn't see.

The killings go beyond the classic butcher knife slasher weapon. George uses whatever is at his disposal to met out his violent urges. Sure, the first killing is a blade, but he does it in a slow penetrating movement through the stomach which looks all to familiar to sexual penetration. Later in the movie George uses some type of hammer that has one end come to a sharp point. At the end of the film, we view the full scene (instead of just in flashback moments) of what helped create George as the person he is, the scene where he kills his parents. Confused about what is happening, George chops his mother's head off with an axe and then uses the axe to kill his father.

   

The filmmakers have a bunch of tricks that they employ throughout the film to make the movie exciting. The initial scenes are a mashup of dreams, dreams within dreams, flashbacks, and George waking up screaming. This makes the beginning very disorienting and the screaming is anxiety causing. Then there is a scene where C.J. is being interviewed and it is shot with harsh lighting that mirrors flashlights which gives the film a documentary feel to it. Finally, in the later suspenseful scenes, the score includes increasingly loud heartbeats and a low shrieking noises. These low budget tools are really effective in the film.

The movie has some really great scenes of early 1980s New York City. One night George walks through New York's famous 42nd Street. I love the lore in regards to this area and time of the world and the amazing movies that came out of it so it was pretty exciting to be able to see it at its peak.

Once again, I don't want to spoil the ending but it has a bit of a twist that is fairly predictable. It isn't the twist that makes the ending great, but how George's life is ended. It is sad, tragic, and leaves an impression. If you haven't seen the film, I highly recommend it!