Frightmare

Conrad, a legendary star of classic horror films, is a narcissistic killer as monstrous in reality as he is on the screen. Shortly after his death, his corpse is stolen by a group of young cinephiles(among them is horror linchpin Jeffrey Combs in an early role). This prompts his devoted widow to enlist the aid of a mystic in retrieving the evil actor's soul from the fire-pits of Hell. Once reunited with his body, Conrad proceeds to wreak bloody vengeance against the young graverobbers.

FRIGHTMARE is a largely unimpressive and routine supernatural slasher with atrocious editing and exanimate characters. To the film's credit, however, it does manage to serve up sporadic atmospheric moments which are effectively punctuated by the creepy sound of multi-layered echoes and whispers. It's a prescriptive and nonessential 80s chiller overall, but it might suffice as a tolerable time-filler when nothing better is at hand.

4/10.

My review was written in September 1983 after watching the film on a Vestron video cassette.

"Lensed in 1981" with the more appropriate title "The Horror Star", "Frightmare is an off-putting combination of homage, satire and shocks. Pic is already available in the home video market ahead of its theatrical release, at which time its new moniker is bound to create confusion with Pete Walker's 1974 unrelated British feature "Frightmare".

A very well-cast Ferdinand Mayne (better known in his billing in earlier films as Ferdy Mayne, e.g., Roman Polanski's nemesis in "Fearless Vampire Killers") toplines as Conrad, a classic horror film star modeled after Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee and others.

Idolized by the college film society led by students Saint (Luca Bercovici) and Meg (Jennifer Starrett), Conrad starts the picture off in a promising vein reminiscent of the Vincent Price black comedy "Theatre of Blood", as he kills two of his directors, announcing "Take 19...take 20", a riposte to their demands upon him as an actor.

Screenwriter Norman Thaddeus Vane (adding a director's cap on this one) quickly loses his way with an uncomfortable mixture of mockery and the standard gore saturate "teens in jeopardy" horror format. Giving an explicit credit to the Errol Flynn-John Barrymore incident, the film society teens steal Conrad's corpse from his mausoleum after he has died of a heart attack. Conrad's widow, Etta (Barbara Pilavin), brings him supernaturally back to life through the aid of a spiritual medium, Mrs. Rohmer (Nita Talbot), and Conrad follows her wishes to destroy the body snatchers. Quite improbably, the surviving teens remain rooted in a spooky mansion with Conrad, even though they are aware that their peers are being brutally killed right and left.

Vane encourages eye-popping overacting, ensuring that his film will be taken as black humor rather than straight horror, but it is as unfunny as any of the numerous flop spoofs of the genre made in recent years.

Though there are some marketable extreme gore effects on display (kid beheaded or having a tongue torn out by Conrad), tech credits are subpar, with smeared, whited-out window and sky shots and annoying, almost nonstop use of thunderstorm sound effects.

Let's be honest; there's nothing really exciting about 'Frightmare'. It wasn't scary. It wasn't memorable. The premise itself is a bit absurd.

The film revolves around horror movie star Conrad Radzoff (Ferdy Mayne) who dies soon after planning his own funeral. He even plays his own home made film at his funeral, telling everyone he will be watching them.

A Group of drama students steal his body from his elaborate tomb and take him to 'party' with them at an old mansion. There, Conrad is brought back to life through a séance performed elsewhere by his wife trying to find out what happened to his body. She asks that he send the people responsible for stealing his body, to hell.

So, one by one Conrad starts killing off the group of students. It was nice seeing Jeffrey Combs here, although in a small role, but a good performance nevertheless. There honestly is nothing memorable about this supernatural slasher - not even the kill scenes. The script itself had me raising an eyebrow on more than one occasion.

And I'm not sure what message the film was really trying to convey with the weird ending...

Frightmare obviously will never win an academy award, but it is something that most low-cost horror movies aren't--scary. The star, an aging horror film actor, gets posthumous revenge on those who decide to kidnap his corpse. The sequences of their murders are suspenseful and chilling as they get picked off one by one. The easiest death is by gas chamber and the worst is by live cremation. For those who like mindless entertainment, tey may not like this movie. But for those who like movies about retribution getting served for a bunch of grave robbers, this would be up their alley. Though not the best horror film ever made, but it certainly isn't the worst either. It's worth the 99 cent rental fee.

I suppose I am a bit partial to Frightmare because I first saw it on television late at night about 15 years ago (back when ABC did Fright Night Theatre-anyone remember that?) and it did give me the creeps. Even though a lot of the film's aspects are a bit amateurish, it's still chilling and fun to watch, and I really loved the scene where the teenagers are dancing with Mayne's dead body around the dinner table. The film has a very unusual atmosphere and horror buffs should enjoy it, it's got a little bit of everything (i.e. gore, creative deaths, chills, spooky settings and locations). Mayne really hams it up in the film's opening sequences, and it fits here. Rent (or buy-I did) this one from your local video store. You'll have a blast. My rating: 6/10