It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Came across this really by accident as something that might be slightly different to watch. It turned out to be one of those 'video nasty' films that we used to rave about on Beta or VHS in the early 80s. At the time (and our age then) we thought these films were pushing boundaries and giving us what we wanted - a new wave of gory horror.These films are all now dated and look cheap, nasty, and plastic. However, some of them still work because of this punk aesthetic. This is one of them and is worth watching. It isn't a classic or must see by any means but is a good watch. This is probably because, rather than despite, the basic amateur nature of the sets, the acting and the story. If you don't compare it with horror films made over the last thirty years and all the advantages those movies have in terms of technology then this is something to still sit back and get scared by.As a side note I often wonder what happened to the people involved in making these pictures. Did the actors think they had a career in film or where they just friends of the director? Where are they now and do the wear their badge of genre horror proudly or would rather that people they know now don't know the sort of film they starred in? then.

The infamy of "Nightmare" no doubt largely centers on the fact that the film's distributor faced prison time for refusing to cut down one scene from the film for its release in the United Kingdom. I mean, after all, how many horror films have that under their belt? The plot follows a disturbed schizophrenic who escapes from his experimental psychiatric hospital in New York City and heads down the coast to Florida, where his wife and children reside, killing along the way before making an attempt at his final hometown hurrah. With "Halloween" and "Maniac" being obvious influences here, "Nightmare" feels much more like a '70s picture than it does a product of the '80s, and its confluence of influences might be precisely why. The film's formula is fairly straightforward, although its subject matter is remarkably dark, insofar as it has to do with a man who can't help but want to slaughter his own children— it's a macabre affair all around, and the grindhouse aesthetic only bolsters the film's sinister tone. It's part slasher film and part psychosexual thriller, with leading man Baird Stafford playing the villain who's entire distorted existence seems to hinge on his childhood experience of witnessing his father's affair (and subsequently slaughtering both parties in their bed). The film does meander a bit between the realms of dramatic thriller and splatter epic, but it's an engaging watch none the less.I'd be lying if I said that the real attraction here for most people is the remarkable gore effects, which were controversially credited as being the work of Tom Savini— turns out Savini was apparently just a friend of the effects director and didn't actually work on the film, but regardless, the film showcases a plethora of elaborate murders with some remarkably nasty special effects; throats are slashed, people are stabbed, and heads roll, and Romano Scavolini makes sure his audience has front row closeups to all the nitty gritty details. The special effects work, though dated in some regards, is still surprisingly effective. Overall, "Nightmare" is a deserved cult classic that would appear to have come from the drive-in era of the late '70s; despite the fact that the film was made in the following decade, it retains a gritty exploitation feel in which violence is the central spectacle. Like I said, it's a dark movie— and a gratuitously violent one. It's the kind of thing you watch and then want to shower after. Like after a humid Florida evening, the film leaves you feeling slightly grimy, but that's what it sets out to do from the first reel. 7/10.

Mental patient George Tatum (Baird Stafford) is set free after it is assumed that the treatment and the experimental drugs that he received have been successful. Of course, the assumption is entirely wrong, and the genuinely insane George, a man who's had severe psycho-sexual issues since a traumatic childhood incident, ultimately embarks on a road trip. While Georges' story is going on, a Florida mother named Susan Temper (Sharon Smith), a woman who REALLY lives up to her name, is having to deal with a brood of kids including C.J. (C.J. Cooke), a trouble maker with a macabre sense of humour. Eventually these two stories come together, as George terrorizes the Temper family.Writer / director Romano Scavolini's notorious 1981 slasher is a true shocker, the kind of movie certain to please those whose tastes tend towards the sordid, trashy, brutal, and disturbing. And once we see in its entirety the flashback to Georges' childhood, the images of which often appear briefly, you'll see what I mean by disturbing. The blood may be of the bright red movie variety, but the ample gore - the work of Cleve Hall and Edward French, and not Tom Savini as some prints still claim - is still quite a hoot to behold. The movie starts off on exactly the right foot with, appropriately enough, a nightmare sequence, and establishes a certain very grim and very gritty feel; this is the kind of movie some people may feel dirty watching. George's 42nd Street adventure merely adds to this atmosphere.The meek looking Stafford does an excellent and all too convincing job; his character, despite his savage acts, actually comes off as more sympathetic than the Susan character. He really is the best performer in this whole thing. A particular pair of shock moments that mirror each other are set up extremely well.Overall, "Nightmare", much like other movies from the same period as "Don't Go in the House" and "Maniac", achieves a true, amazing creepiness and nastiness that lingers after the movie is over. Some viewers may find the final story twist not too hard to figure out, but the true experience, as they say, is the journey, not the destination. And "Nightmare" gets high marks for being a truly morbid journey.Eight out of 10.

Trying to bring the Italian giallo genre into the then-popular American slasher genre, Nightmare is a half-clever attempt. Those two extremes don't seem like a good fit, with the typical slash-and-hack, one-by-one structure of the slasher genre mixing a bit awkwardly with the more flamboyant, open-ended and director-focused giallo film movement. "Nightmare" isn't particularly coherent and can feel a bit half-hearted at times, but it has enough startling moments and a truly twisted (and brutal) view of sexuality to at least be interesting beyond it's initial viewing.Often considered a Grindhouse staple, it shares the qualities of many other films of that "genre": lousy dubbing, horrid acting, completely conspicious continuity blunders, a soundtrack and film print that makes the viewer feel like their head is being held under muddy water. It's also unusually bleak and morally ambiguous for an American film, a telling sign that this was directed by an European. There's also a sense of the American-slasher puritanism, as noticed by the Killer's view of promiscious adults around him, but it's not quite as black-and-white as many of the like-minded films at the time. Largely because we're asked to look at the film's largely unseen killer with a more subjective eye."Nightmare" may be poorly made, although a few cat-and-mouse sequences are well-staged and engaging enough, but it's far from useless. It's cross between American DIY ethos and lavish, fetishitistic European flavoring is uneven and sloppy but always weird and alluring enough to keep you watching. The film's modest cult following is understandable.