Nightwish - Out of Control

Journeying to a house in the countryside, a group of parapsychology students and their professor find the area's past as a home for demonic entities has been unleashed and causing them to wonder if what they see is really there.

This here is a rather enjoyable and somewhat entertaining effort that has some rather impressive moments but still has some minor flaws present. Among the good parts is the fact that the film clearly has a lot of ideas present about what it really wants to be, and that manifests itself in a really chaotic framework here with all sorts of creepy things going on. From the drive out into the hillside with a decrepit, run-down house that really should not be visited by anyone, the creepy procedures that must be followed before the séance scenes, all sorts of rather freaky scenes being utilized before getting into the twist involving the real reason they're there and the ensuing reactions they have because of this, which really drives this one all over the place but really remains quite level-headed about itself. There's never any real sense about this being too confusing or obscure in what it does to really hinder it all that much during these scenes by keeping the story lines going rather well, never really putting itself in place to become too confusing since the streamlined second-half keep their actions on target with how the rest of the movie has been going along, and this in turn forces the stories into pretty entertaining versions. By doing these different stories, it also brings about the enjoyable manners of forcing them into the story, so there's all sorts of rather creepy hallucinations and different settings about this being utilized for maximum effect, including the scenes down in the underground tunnels and the whole final half being a fine action-packed race to keep things on track as this heads into a rather inventive twist that really sells this quite well. However, there's still a few problems with this one in the fact that, despite how well it handles things, the film never really can settle on what it really wants to be because it has so many different elements wrapped inside it. Being a film about a creepy old house that was used to summon satanic demons first, then it turns into a demented captor forcing his students to do what he pleases and then finally an alien pod story that gets shoehorned into the film in an attempt to showcase a few nasty special effects scenes and then tries to make all these story lines make sense and it does so only through the finale's twist so this can get a little confusing with all the different elements in here. As well, the film does take a while to get going with there being quite a lot of useless time leading up to the house visit and forcing this to take a long time really getting going. Otherwise, this one wasn't all that bad.

Rated R: Language and Graphic Violence.

I enjoyed the whole concept of this movie and by the end you start to see what it is about. But it is very confusing throughout. At parts it doesn't even make sense. With better writing, this movie could of been great. The cast was pretty bad. Clayton Rohner seemed to be the only one who knew how to act. Robert Tessier's character made no sense. He was suppose to be all messed up and kind of dumb. But he just talked normal and it did not fit his character. Now Brian Thompson was in this film and his character was pretty funny just for the fact that the acting was so bad. It wasn't so much how he acted, but what the writers wanted him to say. The film has some gore and some interesting parts, but with the way the movie was shot, it just didn't work enough to make it good.

A group of paranormal investigators venture into an abandoned house in an area with the perfect history for their needs. After setting up their equipment, the otherworldly madness begins... sort of.

Cheap and absurd, NIGHTWISH saves all of it's real "surprises" for the big finish. The first hour or so is pretty bland, with little in the way of action or suspense. In the end, it's mostly nonsensical malarkey, held together by a heavy, gooey layer of cheeeze.

Still, the last few minutes are suitably icky / entertaining, and it's always fun to witness the musclebound Robert Tessier lumbering around!

Also, Brian Thompson is hilarious as the eternally-disgruntled, Dean!...

Stupid as it may sound, I still think the best sequence of "Nightwish" plays rather early at the beginning, when this excessively muscled but dim-witted idiot named Dean deliberately drives over a cute little bunny rabbit with his ramshackle van. The other passengers are shocked and upset, but Dean just laughs hysterically and speaks the immortal words: "The fields is his, the highways is mine". Dean, played by Brian Thompson who previously demonstrated his acting talents in the Stallone vehicle "Cobra", isn't even one of the lead characters in "Nightwish", but he most definitely steals the show! There's more random footage of him sitting at the wheel of his beloved van and laughing out loud for no particular reason, or him toying around with the mentally disabled caretaker Wendall. "Nightwish" is a pretty ambitious and convoluted scientific/supernatural thriller, with decent performances and solid peaks of tension, but the only thing I'm most likely to remember is a beefcake in his minivan. It's sad, really...

For the record, "Nightwish" truly is a more than adequate late 80s genre effort, and I can certainly understand why the film has a fair share of loyal admirers. In terms of atmosphere, structure and script aspirations, it's somewhat comparable to David Cronenberg or perhaps some of John Carpenter's more complex movies (like "Prince of Darkness" or "In the Mouth of Madness"). There is a good amount of genuinely uncomfortable moments, explicit gore and overall absorbing weirdness. Jack Starrett is excellent as the obsessive university professor who lures four of his students to a remote mansion with a dubious past, and subsequently manipulates them to dream their own deaths as realistically as possible. The students are confronted with sadist monsters and ghostly hallucinations, but it's their own damn fault for volunteering to partake in extracurricular activities!

The script is ambitious but makes very little sense in the end, and even though the very last shot is surprisingly clever, the film continuously drags towards a predictable and clichéd finale. The two lead actresses, Elizabeth Keitan and Alisha Das, are stunningly beautiful and show a modest (but nevertheless welcome) bit of nudity.

That was totally screwed-up!? What this junky cheaply made b-grade production covers ranges from the premise looking into subconscious dreams, paranormal activity and Extra-Terrestrial involvement. Oh man everything (done in a very uncertain tone) but the kitchen sink in chucked into this one! The concept is original and strange, but it never truly comes together leaving the continuity being a complete jumble of unrealized ideas and far-fetched twists. It's illogically questionable, but maybe it's supposed to be so due to the bewilderingly tricksy context and one of those twisted endings. Love or hate it. But I found it rather effective.

How to give an outline of the story without revealing too much. Tough one. But here goes. A couple of grad students along with their professor head to an abandoned cabin to record and study some paranormal/otherworldly disturbances that plague the area. Not too long the indescribable occurrences begin to take its toll on the group.

It's silly, wild and campy (just look at those gooey, rubbery make-up FX and colourful optical special effects). Even then a dread-like atmosphere smothers proceedings and the growing paranoia is exceptionally pitched, as it's so hard to tell what's real or just hallucinations due to the genuine nature. As each others fears are conjured up. Trying to unsettle and overcome their senses. Amongst the sequences are some gruesomely icky deaths and titillatingly erotic inclusions.

Writer/director Bruce R. Cook erratically puts it together with some professional tinge and inserts few unusual imagery and experimental lighting composition, but at times it did drag. All talk (mainly uncanny babbling), little headway up until the last half-hour. The elastic script has some witty pitch black humour abound, but also random scientific theories. The off-kilter score is vibrantly rich and served up is a credible theme song of the same title.

There's a curious cast on hand. Straight performances between quirky ones. Jack Starret is deliciously malevolent and glassy (like out of some sort of mad scientist) as the professor with a hidden agenda. The beautifully magnetic leads Alisha Das and Elizabeth Kaitan are soundly good. Robert Tessier is enjoyable, but it's a testosterone imposing Brain Thompson ("the highway is mine!") that's a complete blast.

A fascinatingly nightmarish head trip in to the weird, which doesn't pull out any stops.