{"id":3429,"date":"2024-08-28T15:34:30","date_gmt":"2024-08-28T15:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3429"},"modified":"2024-10-14T14:47:22","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T18:47:22","slug":"nightmare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/28\/nightmare\/","title":{"rendered":"Nightmare"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Nightmare<\/strong> (1981)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 21st Century Film Corporation\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 97 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No MPAA Rating (strong graphic violence and extreme gore, nudity, strong sexual content, disturbing images\/behavior, language, drug use)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Romano Scavolini\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Romano Scavolini\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jack Eric Williams\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Gianni Fiore\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 23, 1981 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Baird Stafford, Sharon Smith, C.J. Cooke, Mik Cribben, Danny Ronan, John Watkins, William Milling, Scott Praetorius, William Kirksey, Christina Keefe, Tammy Patterson, Kim Patterson, Kathleen Ferguson, William Paul, Tommy Bouvier, Candy Marchese, Geoffrey Marchese.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0Yes, you’re reading it right; I\u2019m giving Nightmare<\/strong> a four-star rating. I know, it’s a low-budget slasher movie with terrible acting, a loopy script and goofy dialogue. It also features awesome gore effects. It\u2019s a splatter movie right to its core! Although writer-director Romano Scavolini makes a stab at psychological horror, it doesn\u2019t hide the true purpose of Nightmare<\/strong>. It exists for no other reason than to throw gallons of blood and gore at the audience. I see nothing wrong with that, do you?<\/p>\n

\u00a0The killer in Nightmare <\/strong>is a former mental patient named George Tatum (Stafford) who’s undergone an experimental process designed to cure him of his psychosis. It\u2019s part of a secret government program, but never mind that. The movie certainly doesn\u2019t. George, who experiences vivid hallucinations of a child murdering a couple with an axe while they\u2019re having kinky sex, is released from the hospital only to have an instant relapse after visiting a peep show in Times Square. He jumps into his car and embarks on a road trip to Daytona Beach, FL for a reason you\u2019ll likely guess long before it\u2019s revealed by the screenplay.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As George makes his way to his destination, we meet a clearly disturbed young boy named C.J. with a penchant for wild stories and morbid practical jokes. His mother Susan (Smith) is at wit\u2019s end. Her boyfriend Bob (Cribben) tries to talk sense into him to no avail. His teenage babysitter (Ronan) quits after the boy goes too far with one of his pranks. Because he cries wolf once too often, nobody believes C.J. when he tries to tell them about the strange man- i.e. George- that\u2019s been following him. Meanwhile, George\u2019s doctors try to pinpoint where he is. He\u2019s too important to their work; he\u2019s their first success and if the treatment doesn\u2019t take…. well, it would be bad for them.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Although the makeup effects in Nightmare <\/strong>are often credited to Tom Savini (Friday the 13th), they\u2019re actually the work of other special effects artists. Savini contends he merely gave them advice over the phone. Either way, they\u2019re GREAT! George\u2019s visions of the double axe murder are shown often and in full gory close-up. Blood spurts and squirts from his other victims. This one more than earns its \u201cNo One Under 17 Admitted\u201d classification. Yeah, like most theaters even enforced that policy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I could comment on the acting in Nightmare<\/strong>, but what would be the point? It\u2019s not great or even particularly good. Character development isn\u2019t high on Scavolini\u2019s list of priorities. The closest it comes is explaining that George\u2019s abhorrent behavior is the result of childhood trauma. His attempt to add a note of realism to a slasher flick is undermined by the utter senselessness of a potentially dangerous mental patient being released with minimal supervision after undergoing an untested procedure. Shouldn\u2019t there be a period of close observation first? It\u2019s all academic anyway. As far as I know, there is no cure for psychosis, not in \u201981 and not now. You know what, who cares about any of that? The audience for which Nightmare<\/strong> is clearly intended certainly doesn\u2019t. They\u2019re there to witness a bloodbath and Scavolini gives them one.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I could ask several questions about the characters\u2019 behavior in Nightmare<\/strong>. For example, is everybody so dense that they don\u2019t see Susan is a bad parent? She\u2019s neglectful of her three young children. Instead of being there when they get home from school, she\u2019s screwing Bob on his boat. Upon realizing C.J. has serious issues, she should be thinking about taking him to a child psychologist. Instead, she yells at him and confines him to his room while the rest of them go out to dinner. That\u2019s not the way to solve the problem, lady.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Admittedly, Nightmare<\/strong> is as far from an art film as any movie can get, but who says that every movie has to be a work of art? I\u2019d say it\u2019s its own kind of art. As you all know, I have a weakness for splatter flicks. \u00a0I just love a good gory movie. The more blood, the bigger the body count, the better. It\u2019s what splatter is all about. On top of that, you have both a psychotic killer AND a child who might grow up to be a psychotic killer. In addition, the whole dated nature of the movie adds a level of fun. Check out the ancient computers the doctors use to locate George. On a local level, a station ID for the long-defunct radio station Easy 101 (they specialized in Muzak or \u201celevator music\u201d) is heard as George drives through Philadelphia. It brings back memories of being in my then-girlfriend JB\u2019s parents\u2019 car when they picked us up someplace.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Shall we circle back to my four-star rating for this movie? While Nightmare<\/strong> definitely has its flaws, it delivers on its promise of a bloodbath. It\u2019s one of the goriest movies I\u2019ve ever seen. PLUS, it\u2019s old school fake blood NOT that CGI crap. For a confirmed gorehound like me, Nightmare<\/strong> is pure nirvana. I\u2019d say it earns all four stars.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nightmare (1981)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 21st Century Film Corporation\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 97 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No MPAA Rating (strong graphic violence and extreme gore, nudity, strong sexual content, disturbing images\/behavior, language, drug use)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Romano Scavolini\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Romano Scavolini\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jack Eric Williams\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Gianni Fiore\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 23, 1981 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Baird Stafford, Sharon Smith, C.J. Cooke, Mik Cribben, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scary-gory-wild-i-love-it"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Nightmare-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3429"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5137,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3429\/revisions\/5137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}