La mirada del diablo

I have been looking forward to Nightmare Man ever since June of 2006, when I had the opportunity to meet Tiffany Shepis at Flashback Weekend in Chicago. She was honestly excited about it, and I found her enthusiasm infectious enough to check out this movie as one of the 8 Films to Die For.

She was right. I really enjoyed this movie. That is not to say that it is, well, really good. At it's core, this film is your classic "boobs and blood" b-movie. You have to go in accepting this. The script is flimsy at times, the dialog is openly bad at times, the characters act accordingly most of the time (few moments you'll ask yourself "is that REALLY the most reasonable reaction" but those moments are uncommon) but overall...I really liked it. What really makes the movie work is Kanefsky's ability to put the viewer in the scene. I haven't seen many films that capture the surroundings better than this one does. The scene at the edge of the road is phenomenal. I can tell you where every tree is in relation to the car. I could feel how far it was from the trunk of the car to the trunk of the really big tree off the rear passenger window. And I knew there wasn't much room for Ellen to move if (when) she needed to. The suspense created is fantastic, and that alone carries this movie. I will be seeking out Kanefsky's other films for that alone.

The acting is much better than I expected, Blythe Metz is a bit inconsistent, but when she's on she's really good. Tiffany Shepis does a good job, but the writing for her character is...confusing at best. Her reactions are not what you might expect to the events that unfold around her. Of the women in the movie, Hanna Putnam puts in the best performance, I hope to see her get some roles with more exposure. The male actors are not as impressive as this is really a movie that highlights the women for more than the obvious reasons. James Ferris is the best of the male actors, but I did like Jack Sway as Ed and Luciano Szafir with the exception of his accent getting in the way a little.

Overall, I do recommend this movie for those that like low-budget horror. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I hope you do to.

I have to say, I have never walked out of a movie before. I've seen some pretty crap movies, too, but I stick around and watch them, and then laugh later.

I can only say that this movie was so horrible (perhaps the reason it made it into the Horrorfest line up, because it was so terrible as to be horrifying?), that I was insulted by it. Heralding back to the days of cheesy 80's horror, this was by far even worse than those amusing flicks.

Bad acting, horrible effects and makeup, terrible filming, irritating music...did I mention the bad acting? There's a place for movies like this...it's called Blockbuster, where you spend $3 to go home and be disappointed. My wife and I spent over $20 on this one movie to end up walking out, it was atrocious.

To the people in charge of selecting the Horrorfest lineup...please bother to pick something a bit more worth our time and money. More selections like this in the future will only land you crappy reviews and less ticket sales. Try living up to at least SOME kind of standards.

To those of you that got through the entire movie, bravo! You have more stamina than I...we seriously had to leave, or I might have hurt myself laughing.

Not that I am saying this movie was all bad, but that was the highlight and if the sexy talk is the highlight of a horror movie then it is not much of a horror film in the end. The story has this woman who seems to be having a bit of trouble on the marital front. Her solution to the problems seems to be to order some love god mask, they instead seem to send her the evil demon love god mask and throughout the movie you wander if this manifest ion is real or not. She is being driven to the mental institution by her husband they break down and she is seemingly stalked and attacked by this person or thing while her husband is getting gas. Meanwhile, somewhere in the woods there is a house with two couples. Two very cute girls who are friends and their boyfriends. They play truth or dare and then the crazy...or not, girl ends up in their care. Well lets just say there is somebody out there trying to get at her as he quickly steals a crossbow and handles the one guy while he is being mooned. However, you still don't know if it is the mysterious nightmare man the girl goes on about or something else. The husband is heading for the cabin though and soon afterward so are the police. This movie had potential as do most horror movies and like so many they just miss some stuff. On the plus side you get to see a couple of good kills, some good nudity, and the end was rather good too. However, I was kind of hoping for something more in the lines of say an Evil Dead movie rather than a typical slasher film with a twist here and there. So far out of the three Afterdark movies in this new batch this is the strongest, sadly though compared to the last batch this one would be tied with Penny Dreadful as the weakest in my eyes.

NIGHTMARE MAN is an above average chiller with some fun, though somewhat predictable plot twists. The pacing is quick, which helps to liven up the rustic setting. There are gallons of blood splashed around as well.

Horror goddess extraordinaire, Tiffany Shepis co-stars as Mia, giving her the chance to do a lot of running around in her underwear.

So, if a movie about a crazed killer and a woman (Blythe Metz) who is either possessed or insane sounds intriguing, then this should satisfy...

(2006) Nightmare Man HORROR

Co-produced, written and directed by Rolfe Kanefsky that showcases a young woman, Ellen (Blythe Metz) orders a ritualistic mask and it starts to stalk her with her husband, William (Luciano Szafir) telling her at the same time that she's nuts! And while driving her to see a shrink, he conveniently runs out of gas in the middle of nowhere leading to a lot of predictable and more convenient situations once she escapes to an isolated nearby house with a bunch of what else, teens! Immediately when one starts to watch this, the first thing that comes into my mind is "B" king Roger Corman since the budget is rather low and it does has some of the same qualities one would normally find on a Roger Cormon movie which're breasts, beasts and blood and plenty of bad acting, overacting and unconvincing screams! Oh yeah, there's also a twist after the first hour which some viewers might be able to see coming!