The Nightmare Gallery

A low budget doesn't have to mean a bad film but this was a bit of a slog. That said, I found the overall production values perfectly fine, to be honest; the problem lay predominantly in the writing / script.

I had my interest piqued as a Buffy The Vampire Slayer vampire by the presence of Amber Benson, unfortunately all this film helped do was highlight her shortcomings as an actress. The acting throughout the film was generally a bit on the amateurish side, the only exception probably being Meiko Hillman who played the wife of Benson's character.

I could be wrong but the film seemed like it was largely populated by queer characters / actors, which is nice to see for a change but it doesn't mitigate the poor end product.

Also, I don't mean to be a cynic but I do wonder how many of these 8, 9, and 10 reviews are from the people who backed the film on Kickstarter (having spotted this detail in the film credits while waiting for the post-credits scene, which was mentioned at the start), as I can't for the life of me see how anyone could rate this film THAT highly.

It was recommended that I watch this by a friend of one of the filmmakers. I don't usually watch a lot of movies as that I'm more of a television series viewer. This very much reminded me of a series you may see on Netflix or Hulu and that's where it may have been better suited. I feel the filmmakers tried to pack too much into an hour and a half film. This content would have certainly been better explored over the course of 10 or so hours. Nonetheless I still enjoyed it and thought that cast did a stellar job. If you like intellectual drama that plays more like a television series than a traditional movie, give this one a go.

This is a film about a college anthropology professor who is on the search for her missing student. She begins following clues received in the mail, which puts her career and marriage in jeopardy. The core problem is we never see the relationship between her and the student, so viewers don't feel connected to the plot. Because of this all we know is the main character is rude, disregards her responsibilities, the feelings of those close to her, and comes off and unlikable and weird. Then as we start to get glimpses of Sanjay the missing student, he is just as unlikable and creepy as she is. To sum it up, the music is generic, the actors chew the hell out of the scenery (so many wide eyed head tilts), the characters are unlikable and un-relatable, and the plot is silly and nonsensical for the sake of sounding profound.

Not going to lie, I was disappointed in this. Not because it was bad necessarily, but like others I was expecting more of a budget and more traditional horror elements. That doesn't mean it was terrible, just that it didn't meet my initial expectations. Unfortunately I think a lot of people are going to end up hating this movie due to its budget restraints and 90s made for TV feel. Seems like with this generation low budget is fine for slasher boob and gore flicks, but not for movies that you actually have to pay attention to details to fully grasp the plot. This movie is more of an existential supernatural crossing of realities kind of story that just isn't going to hold viewers attention if they're going to get hung up on subpar effects and acting. That's not to say the acting is bad, but there are a few good performances (namely Amber Benson, Mieko Hillman, and Mat Devine) and a few that are really not. Admittedly the nots can be distracting while they're on screen though. And some of the writing and dialogue could definitely be better. It feels almost soap opera-ish at times.

But I think if you go in knowing the overall production value is going to be more like an episode of some 80s or 90s horror anthology series (think Amazing Stories, Ray Bradbury Theater, Twilight Zone, or Tales From The Darkside) then you'll be better off and more open minded about it. But don't go in expecting theater quality or even Netflix or cable budget. And don't expect anything fast paced either. It's definitely a slow burn psychological mystery thriller, but it does still qualify for the horror genre, just not the hack and slash, torture porn, or even jump scare supernatural that gets the most attention in the genre these days.

Wow was this a sleeper kind of movie or what?!? Long time since I've seen such a production, taking itself so seriously yet delivering on no levels whatsoever, with actors that tried to show emotions but with no clear reasons to do so, The Nightmare Gallery felt far too long.

I got nothing good to say about it, so I won't bash it but try to present some facts: camera work with acting are quite ok for such an indie movie, there is a plot which is kinda hard to understand how it got green lighted and a final act that came a little too late. It is part horror, part super natural but hard to digest really, so unless you're immune to low budget horrors go try on something else. Nothing to see here really.

Again, I do appreciate the effort put into it, and the fact that it tried, and you can clearly see it, but I do believe it got lost in its own thoughts and came out as boring and confusing.

Cheers!