Nightmare (PAL VHS)
(aka. Nightmares in a Damaged Brain / Blood Slash / Dark Games)
 (1982)
review by Krug Stillo

SPOILERS ALERT!

Anyone who may have seen this will know that it belongs to the nasty trend of slasher films that emerged in the early eighties. These films have no mystery concerning the identity of the psycho killer. Others in this subgenre include Maniac (dir: William Lustig), Don’t Answer the Phone (dir: Robert Hammer) He Knows You’re Alone (dir: Armand Mastrianni), Don’t Go in the House (dir: Joseph Ellison)…etc.

This unpleasant film, by an Italian director, concerns George Tatum, a psychopath who is ostensibly cured of his homicidal outbursts through drug therapy. Unfortunately, after visiting a local sex show, nightmares involving the mutilation of a couple engaged in bit of bondage turn him back into his foaming-at-the-mouth, axe-swinging self. He traces down his ex-wife and three children, killing a few people en rout, and begins terrorizing the family. To cut a long story short, after George has killed the babysitter, his son, C.J. picks up a rifle and blows the nutter away. Very nasty stuff indeed.

Why bother reviewing this film? Well, as you may or may not know, there are stories concerning Tom Savini’s involvement on the project, which he denounces, and in Britain the film’s distributer was given a sentence for issuing a version sixty seconds longer than the X-rated version. This version itself was also cut, removing some of the gore and a guitar solo in a club (?). All versions remain banned in the UK today. Leniency at the BBFC began when new management took over in the nineties after James Ferrman's
retirement. Having recently released I Spit on Your Grave and The Driller Killer for public consumption, we might see a legitimate release of both The Last House on the Left in Britain alongside this nasty bit of work, known as Nightmare. The film is unbelievably gory and as offensive as they come. Definitely one you’d want to prevent Granny from watching.

WHAT OTHER'S HAVE SAID -

"...a fearful film” ( Daily Star)

“90 minuets of total terror...” (Variety)

“ The dream you can’t escape alive...!”

“NIGHTMARE has been hailed as the American Cult Terror Film of 1882. It begins with a very bloody NIGHTMARE that triggers George Tatum’s journey into madness and an axe-swinging insanity that doesn’t stop for 90 minutes....”

“A terrifying look inside the mind of a possessed psychopathic killer|. Contains sexual situations and scenes of explicit horror not suitable for children....”

“Not for the faint-hearted, NIGHTMARE is a very terrifying film that
explores the violent, twisted workings of the mind of an uncontrollable psychopathic murderer....”

“Maybe the goriest, bloodiest thriller-chillier yet with a homicidal maniac doubling with gruesome acts...Among the goose-pimple classic-horrors like “Friday the 13th” - “Down of the Dead” and “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (Archer Winsten, N.Y. Post)

“The most gory and horrifying movie ever made” (Bill Carlton, Daily News)

“Graphically convincing depiction of murders and, mayhem combine with numerous sexual situations to make this film a thriller you won’t want to watch just before bedtime.” (N.Y. Times)