Pesadilla al amanecer

B movie god Wings Hauser and the always amusing Bo Hopkins are the heroes in this follow-up, of sorts, to the 1984 infection-horror flick "Mutant" (a.k.a. "Night Shadows"). A creepy albino villain (the great screen heavy Brion James) is conducting an insidious experiment on a remote Southwestern town called Canyonlands, contaminating the water supply and turning the citizens into maniacs who attack others and spew green acid instead of blood. Wings is a big city entertainment lawyer who teams up with loner Bo, local sheriff George Kennedy, and Kennedy's hottie daughter / deputy Kimberly Ross to save the day.

Co-written and directed by celebrated cult filmmaker Nico Mastorakis, "Nightmare at Noon" is less of an outright horror film than its predecessor, concentrating mainly on action. And it delivers action in spades: gunfire, explosions, human torches, vehicle stunts, you name it. Overall, it's pretty derivative, but it's also pretty damn entertaining for this sort of low budget fare. It's filmed using gorgeous Utah scenery, has some enjoyably nasty violence, and its story moves along more than adequately. Future "name" composer Hans Zimmer contributes to the score, along with Stanley Myers, and it's good stuff. The final helicopter chase does go on for an absurdly long time, though.

Wings plays a guy who is rather insufferable at first, but he becomes more engaging as he moves into heroic mode. Bo is as watchable as he's ever been. Ever-likable Kennedy, the adorable Ross, "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter" final girl Kimberly Beck gets to chew up some scenery as Wings' victimized wife, and Neal Wheeler is a hoot as local old codger Charley, one of the first on-screen victims of the infection who goes psycho in a diner. James, who never has to utter a word, is a true sight to behold, especially when the albino and his henchmen go on horseback towards the end of the story.

A fun movie with a strong Western influence, "Nightmare at Noon" shows B flick enthusiasts a fairly rousing time.

Seven out of 10.

"Nightmare at Noon" is a very uneasy mixture of high tech sci-fi and standard western shoot em up. Brion James is visually impressive as the albino mute villain, but that's about it. Bo Hopkins and Wings Hauser act like they are in a mismatched buddy cop movie, while George Kennedy plays the local sheriff. There is some dark humor that slightly elevates things, but overall this is simply a B movie. Lots of green goo, gratuitous big explosions, nice scenery, a great number of "F" bombs, and a goes on forever helicopter battle, which incidentally seems like it belongs in a completely different film. Not totally bad, but not even borderline good. - MERK

On the surface, a very bad action adventure film. But, if not taken too seriously, it's a lot of fun. When a mad scientist poisons the water supply of a small Utah town, it's up to a drifter, a celebrity lawyer and two local cops to bring order to a town where the the citizens are now possessed by rage and violence. The last half hour reveals the film for what it truly is: a modern day western, as the good guys mount up to trail the bad guys for a showdown. Filmed with style on a small budget, featuring a score by Hans Zimmer of all people, the story only fails in the last ten minutes where the director just seemed to run out of story.

This is possibly one of the worst films I have ever seen in my life. I could talk about everything from the bad acting to the non-sensical plot, but it'd be a waste of time. You only need to watch the first half-hour of the film to know it really sucks. It doesn't even have any camp value to it! This film was so bad, it hurt my feelings!

No pun intended - this feels like ... I have not seen many Mastorakis movies ... but he is quite infamous. So I expected this to be really over the top. I mean the stabbing incident (I'll call it that) and some other things go an extra mile .. so for people who are sensitive or are way more sensible ... they may feel differently. But everyone else may not be too impressed in the end.

All that said, the story is quite out there (no pun intended). The effects are quite well done too - again not for the faint of heart of course. I almost included this to my Shocktober challenge, but had too many to watch anyway. Some good actors and the one thing that surprised me the most: Hans Zimmer made music for this ... well why not?