Pesadillas diabólicas

Directed by Joseph Sargent, it's split into 4 unconnected stories: 1) "Terror in Topanga" offers up that old chestnut about a dark night and an escaped killer on the prowl. Featuring Christina Raines and William Sanderson. 2) "The Bishop of Battle" stars Emilio Estevez as a video game expert determined to get to the final level on a new arcade game. Careful what you wish for! Also with Moon Unit Zappa. 3) "The Benediction" is a Duel take-off with Lance Henriksen as a priest who has lost his faith and may have run into the devil in the form of a menacing black truck on the highway. 4) "Night of the Rat" features a suburban family terrorized by, you guessed it, rats. With Richard Masur and Veronica Cartwright.

The effects are chintzy (including some very early computer effects), and a lot of it is one-note. But there's a camp charm to it, and it makes good viewing for those in the mood for some cheesy but not ghastly frights. Featuring some early 80's punk music by the likes of X, Black Flag, and Fear.

I'm a fan of horror as well as the horror anthologies, this anthology is an under the radar and even slightly forgotten gem. Yeah, it's not not one of the best anthologies in my book, but I still think it's a solid and it's true the only weakness for it would be that the first and fourth tale are pretty lame but that what you get with most to all anthologies there's going to be hits and misses. So all isn't lost since there are two that I personally think are memorable and are the ones to watch, so I'm just going to talk about them.

The Benidiction: this one is my second favorite tale. It's pretty much a Christianity version of "Duel" which is cool, the tale is both thrilling but also has a good message at the end about faith. Lance Hendrickson whom is an actor I really like I think is very good as a priest whom has lost his faith after a tragedy which pushed him over the edge.

His character really is sympathetic because the questions he asks and anger with them is the same as ours depending on what faith you serve, on why is there so much suffering and why is God if he/she exists allows it to happen, why doesn't he/she do anything about it. I hate to admit it but sometimes when things don't go my way even I sometimes ask those questions.

And of course his faith is put to the test as Satan comes in driving in, like in "Duel" we never see the driver which is fine by me. But I really like the design even color of the 4 by 4 pickup truck which is just menacing looking, almost made to seem like a rolling beast.

The chase sequences are done very well and very suspenseful, the driving and stunt work is well choreographed. But I also like that it's not just a chase but also a deadly game of hide and seek, as that truck at time just appears out of nowhere and anywhere. Your constantly hopping Lance will find a way to evade and outrun the truck.

But of course the biggest highlight of the film is the second tale which is my favorite "The Biship of Battle". This tale was a dream come true for me since I'm a gamer and I've been to the video arcade myself ever since I was six. In a way this tale is sort of a time capsule since I'll admit seeing those video arcades and the cabinets really made me miss them now that most video arcades has gone extinct like the drive ins.

Anyway, it was a fun and suspenseful tale. This was a first film for Emelo Estavez and all I can say is great start, I like his performance as the character J.J. which I thought was believable, whom at first seems like a cool guy you could almost be friends with but then further on we see he's became or is an addict. I don't know whether the video game put a spell on him as there was some hints from the mom and his best friend saying he's not himself or his own free will all the same from the way he's behaving you already know he's going down. Like for example J.J. ditches a would be date just to play another round of the game; if I had a girlfriend that looked like Emma Watson and she asked me to go for pizza I'd just go because a. want to spend time with her and b. I'm hungry; so yeah J.J. doing that is not a good sign.

However the real star of the tale is of course "The Biship of Battle" game which just looks awesome, it's a shame that video game doesn't really exist. It was the use of 3D and Polygon technology for the programing and design of the game which at the time was revolutionary and was used in video games like "Tempest" and the underrated "I Robot". One of my favorite moments of the game was level 12 which predates the video game "Doom" where the game goes into first person shooter mode and the cinematography is great you really feel like your in the game going thorough the maze and shooting down the minions.

The CGI effects I think are just fantastic because they are an example of the technology used the right way and reasons, and this was way before the technology was common place and they still look great in my opinion. I really love the designs of the minions of the Biship and whey they come out of the game they don't disappoint. Along with the bishop himself voiced well by James Tolken another actor I really like. His voice acting is just excellent it has that detached friendly but also cold and slightly sinister/menacing tone which is the kind of voice I sometimes hear in the pinball games sometimes.

And the battle sequence is well chirography, Emelio had LAPD gun maneuver training for two weeks and it shows, he really does it well. It's just one of my favorite battles of all time as the video arcade becomes a battlefield and he's armed with only the laser gun, just blasting away at the minions and they also return fire both causing some explosions to their enviorment, it's just fraking awesome.

If the story has a message it's simply don't let video game be your whole life, unplug once in a while otherwise just like in the video games life will beat you. At least that's what I think.

So just like all the story in an anthology, give this one a try and pleasant dreams.

Rating: 3 stars

Thanks to good writing and excellent casting choices, this is (imho) the best of the "horror serial" movies popularized in the 1980's by films like "Creepshow." Some genuinely creepy moments and quality acting make for an excellent ride, although the first of the four stories is basically a throwaway. The special effects could be better, but this was the early 80's after all. Watch it at night after 1AM for best effect.

8/10

A good horror movie anthology which has four stories about people caught in some of their worst nightmares. The first is about a woman who just has to have a pack of cigarettes late at night and gets chased by a serial killer. The second is about a teen who desperately wants to beat a video game and when he does finds out this video game is alot more then it seems. The third is about a priest being chased by a truck from hell(literally). And the fourth is a family being terrorized by a giant rat. They are all pretty good but is the R rating really necessary?????? I mean with maybe one scene taken out this could have easily been a made for tv movie. Still worth seeing though.

Salvaged from an unsold TV pilot for an untitled horror anthology series for NBC, Nightmares consists of four stories or "chapters" as the film refers to them, of varying degrees of quality.

The first chapter, Terror in Topanga, follows a stressed wife and mother who goes out to get cigarettes while an escaped killer is on the loose. It's based off the old gas station attendant urban legend and will hit all the beats expected, but its competently told if unexceptional.

The second chapter, The Bishop of Battle, follows video game hustler J.J. (Emilio Estevez) as he tries to reach the fabled 13th level of the titular video game, only for said level to be more frightening than he could imagine. It's a fun time capsule showing the 80s video arcade scene and the way it takes the Polybius urban legend and turns it into something that feels like an intverted Tron turned into a horror movie does lead to some fun visuals even if they aren't particularly scary.

The third chapter, The Benediction, follows Frank (Lance Henriksen) a priest who has lost his faith and hits the road abandoning his parish. Once on the road Frank squares off against a jet black pick up truck with tinted windows that is hellbent (quite literally) on killing him. As usual Henriksen delivers a good performance and convincingly portrays a man struggling with his faith. The actual story on the other hand plays like a compressed and sillier version of Steven Spielberg's Duel albeit with a smaller truck and supernatural bent. The short plays itself so over the top in tying itself to Frank's crisis of faith that when the reveal of what the pick up truck is happens I found myself laughing uncontrollably, not only at an over the top symbol telling us, but also an action the truck does that seems like it's "making a wrong turn in Albuquerque". While the short is carried by Henriksen's performance, it undermines itself by going over the top, but its still reasonably entertaining.

The fourth and probably weakest of the chapters, Night of the Rat, follows a family as they're tormented by a giant rat in their home as the father refuses to accept help and insists on handling it himself. Not only is it a repetitive short with the rat bumping objects and messing with the wiring, it's also unpleasant as it lingers on scenes of gross out, mutilated cat corpses, and on more than one instance puts child Brooke (played well by the gone too soon Bridgette Andersen) in mortal danger or situations of distress and terror simply to get cheap knee jerk reactions out of the audience. There's nothing wrong with having children in horror stories face the actual horror, my favorite horror films like The Shining and Something Wicked This Way Comes did that quite well, but here she's not the focus of the movie, the story isn't from her perspective, and there's a genuine nastiness that makes the short a punishing sit. The rat itself is also not that well done as its brought to life with a mixture of unconvincing puppetry and spotty green screen that makes the rat seem like it's floating.

Nightmares as a whole is okay. It's got one good short, two okay shorts, and one bad short. The movie suffers from not having a linking device like other contemporary anthologies of the time like the comic book in Creepshow or General the Cat in Cat's Eye, and while the movie does seem like it's trying to have a "moral" associated with its stories there's no recurring theme passed the first two shorts where characters are ruled by their vices and there's not much cohesion among the film as a whole. With that said I think Nightmares is worth a watch at least once for horror fans if only for curiosity's sake.