Nightmare Sisters

Ditzy sorority nerds have a seance with some college boys and end up getting possessed by a succubus who turns them into sex-loving sirens hungry for men and possibly souls.There's not a lot of meat to this story or the characters that inhabit it, but it gets to the point quickly and doesn't overstay its welcome for too long. It's shot in a very bland, workmanlike way, but the script has some amusing moments and the actors appear to be having a good time.

OK, this is a harmless enough movie I guess, but it was one that really helped do in the horror genre by initiating the whole "scream queen" phenomenon where actresses of very dubious talent (Quigley, Stevens, and Bauer) and directors of extremely limited skill (Decouteau, Jim Wynorski, and Fred Olen Ray) started churning out no-budget "horror" movies that were little more than Playboy videos of attractive woman cavorting around in the nude for most of the running time. Of course, sex and nudity have long been an ingredient in horror movies, but they are not the ONLY ingredient. It's pretty cynical to paper over a total lack of talent and production values by cramming in as much T and A as possible and then try to sell it to supposedly maladjusted horror fans who, of course, can't get a date with real women so are going to spend Friday nights renting this crap.

And after doing their part to bring down the horror genre, these same filmmakers apparently decided (perhaps rightly so)that sci-fi fans were even more pathetic, and thus they came up "sci-fi erotica" like "Femalien" and "Emmanuelle in Space" (which even Jaqueline Lovell and Krista Allen couldn't make suck any less). Then there are the "erotic thrillers", but the less said about them the better. All of which begs the question--if the only thing you're really looking for in a movie is sex and nudity, why not just rent an actual porno?

Nightmare Sisters was obviously cobbled together with a little spit and a prayer, but the three leads seem to be having the time of their lives playing both the dorky and sexy sides of each of their characters.

All you really need to know about the story is that there are three nerdy sorority sisters who end up summoning a demon who turns them into sexpots with a literal hunger for boys.

The film is shot without much style with several scenes covered in only master shots, but it somehow works thanks to a charmingly goofy script and campy turns by all the actresses.

Nightmare Sisters (1988)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Linnea Quigley, Brinke Stevens and Michelle Bauer play ugly sorority sisters who are bored one night so they invite over three nerdy guys. As the lame party is winding down they decide to have a séance, which turns the three girls into real beauties looking for sex but they've also become deadly.

NIGHTMARE SISTERS is exactly the type of gold teenage males were hoping for back in the VHS boom days. If you're looking for high art or something that was nominated for an Oscar then you're going to be extremely disappointed. If you're wanting some cheap trashy fun with three beautiful women getting naked then you've come to the right movie.

The Scream Queen legends are in high form here as all three are extremely good in their roles. I thought they were each hilarious early on when we see them in their alternative looks. Quigley steals the film as a buck-tooth nerd. Stevens plays the nerd with big glasses and Bauer is the obese one. All of them are clearly having fun here but they get even better once they turn into the sexual goddesses. Yes, all three are naked throughout including a very memorable sequence where they're in the tub together.

Director David DeCoteau is obviously having a lot of fun with the material and for the most part this is a complete winner. The thing eventually runs out of gas during the final portion of the picture but this is still one of the better titles to come out of the 80s. Fans of the three Scream Queens will certainly want to check this one out.

Nightmare Sisters is a lesser known horror title from David De Coteau who's mostly been known for his homoerotic horror films from the last decade. In this, he gives scream queens Linnea Quigley, Brinke Stevens, and Michelle Bauer some of their most interesting roles to date.

They play three pathetically dorky girls who summon an evil spirit during a seance and turn into sexy sirens who seduce and murder several dumb jocks. It's a really simple premise executed as well as can be expected with the limited resources available.