Someone left the door to HELL open…
Directed by Romano Scavolini
Reviewed by Deep Red
Aka Nightmares in a Damaged Brain aka Blood Splash aka Schizo
Nightmare was one of the 39 ‘video nasties’ successfully prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act in the U.K. in the 1980s. The distributor got 18 months for releasing an unapproved version. Despite the poster’s boast that Nightmare was ‘From the man who terrifed you in “Dawn of the Dead” & “Friday the 13th”!’ Tom Savini was only a consultant on the film, not the ‘special effects director’ as credited; Savini threatened to sue.
Baird Stafford stars as George Tatum, a man plagued by terrible nightmares who escapes from a mental hospital and starts stalking a family, mother Susan Temper (Sharon Smith), son C.J. Temper (C.J. Cooke) and daughters Tammy Temper (Tammy Patterson) and Kim Temper (Kim Patterson) as well as the babysitter Kathy (Danny Ronan). George makes his way to them, killing on the way and becoming more and more deranged as he goes.
Not a great copy of the film; this film needs to be released on Blu-ray for fuck’s sake and fully uncut! Saying that the copy I just watched is fully uncut at least but it’s woeful quality. This is one of the best of the 80s ‘nasties’ in my opinion and I just want to see it in its Sunday best, that’s all. Is that too much to ask?
Look, forget Gandhi, THIS is a true classic. It’s nice ‘n’ sleazy, in places, and delightfully gory, well and truly earns it’s ‘video nasty’ stripes, and to be honest it’s a forgotten gem of a horror. It’s a classic slasher film but it’s significantly darker than most slashers and horror fans need to check it out.
OK, I need to be clear that it is a dated film, although the gore is very good and the atmosphere is great, but it’s classic 80s horror and if you like Fulci or Argento films from that era and so on and so forth I can’t see why you wouldn’t get something from this. Personally, I was very impressed. I saw it before once but this is the first time I’ve seen it uncut and trust me it makes all the difference. It’s not all gore, just has some great moments, what it is is a horror film that matters and a horror film that delivers.
It’s my opinion that if all you can get to see is a woeful copy of a film, that’s OK, not every great horror is available in high definition unfortunately so sometimes we have to put up with a bit. Seeing beyond the scratchy or blurry transfer or poor dubbing even is sometimes a necessary exercise, particularly when you get close to greatness so roll with it and experience the best of the best as best you can. OR you might miss out on some seriously good shit.
