Nightmare Nurse

Somewhere in Los Angeles, professional chef Sarah Butler (as Brooke Harmon) gets a promotion. A happy cook, Ms. Butler has just moved in with handsome boyfriend Steven Good (as Lance Boston). An Internet web designer, Mr. Good proposed marriage to Butler. She decided the couple should live together for around three years, before making it legal. That seems reasonable, for our characters. After celebrating her work promotion, they have a tragic accident while driving home. For reasons unclear, a strange man walks into ongoing traffic and is hit by Good. Butler is fine, but Good has a broken leg. He needs a full-time nurse to help him take his medication and go to the bathroom. In walks attractive Lindsay Hartley (as Chloe Spade)...

"Nightmare Nurse" is your average "Lifetime" TV movie. The obvious weakness is a story with plot points that should have been clearer. Jake Helgren's story is implausible, as is necessary for the genre, but you'll see things happening that require further explanation. Most obviously, characters appear in places too unexpectedly...

Relatively new to this sort of movie, director Craig Moss is outstanding. His early hospital scenes capture the mood and characters very well. The shot of Good with his leg raised way up was great. Having the hapless couple wake up in Verdugo Hills Hospital with nurses "Barb" and "Paul" set the stage for a "Nightmare Nurse" adventure. Coming to consciousness with "Barb" and "Paul" in that hospital would make me squeamish. VHH nurses don't look like Traci Lords and Michael Finn. Still, considering the story, they are well cast. The folks who make TV movies should send the director a multi-picture contract, as Mr. Moss keeps the characters engaging with limited sets and budget. Moss should also consider holding out for bigger pictures.

***** Nightmare Nurse (3/5/2016) Craig Moss ~ Sarah Butler, Steven Good, Lindsay Hartley, Traci Lords

Hard to believe any of this. Young Couple have accidentally, killed someone in a car, go to hospital, she's okay, he fractured leg cannot walk and needs a nurse to care for him while girlfriend works. Seems nursie is wacko and wants boyfriend for herself. Feud with couple and she is fired. Boyfriend is just an idiot and without a clue to life and whatever. Seems all the women around him protecting him fighting over him and generally being a nuisance. And boyfriend just lays there helpless. So helpless he can't even take his own meds. Give me a break. It's his leg not his arms, hands, etc. Even the ending is not a surprise as I knew it in the beginning. In the ending boyfriend lies on sofa while all the women are fighting over him. Duh. He can hobble to the door to let people in but can't move when they are having at it around him. Girls, he's not worth it. Move on to a man. This is a boy without any balls.

No pun intended with my summary line above. And I have to admit, I am a bit of a sucker when it comes to Sarah Butler. I could not imagine wanting someone else, if you were her significant other. Espcially when she is as cool as her character here. Of course even her character is not without flaws.

But can you blame her, after what happens with and to her boyfriend? Not really I'd say - but as with other movies/thrillers of this kind, you probably can guess who the culprit is and what their motivation is. So no brownie points for you, for guessing it right. Still if you are either a sucker like I am or just want an easy to digest thriller of the week kind of thing, there are worse options out there.

As a lot of viewers, comments have already pointed out a very predictable lifetime movie, started out interesting enough, but then went downhill and had a rushed ending. I don't like to do spoilers, but I will say, within the first 10 minutes of the movie you pretty much know how it is going to end. A couple of the main characters were very irritating, and like another viewer pointed out, the guy was not injured enough to where He couldn't cook or take his own meds, that was over the top for sure, and took the realness out of the film. He did not need a live-in nanny. And certain things happened in the film to where the nurse should've been fired immediately and jailed. Not given a chance to do more heinous things to the patient. That part of the film really ticked me off. But by then, I went ahead and finished it because I don't like reviewing films that I don't watch all the way through, it's at least one good watch, if you don't have anything else to do, and grabs your attention the first half hour or so, but takes you nowhere the rest of the way... I hadn't seen Tracy Lords in years in films like these, so believe it or not it was refreshing to see her, and she's aged well.

Lifetime movies is usually a simple drama or thriller done for casual night, although there have been some remarkable mentions. "Nightmare Nurse" is not incredibly provoking or terrifying by any means. It plays in safe formula of constrained patient and the reliance on stranger. A couple creepy scenes aside, there's nothing terribly shocking on both acting and presentation.

Lance (Steven Good) is hurt in a bizarre car accident and in need of a nurse. Along comes Chloe (Lindsay Hartley) the odd seemingly too nice of a nurse who has equal dark side. The actors are presentable, all looking like models or beautified young adults. However, there's not much in term of setting the tone for dread, mainly because its runtime is relatively short.

It's a drama at heart, with a little bit of suspense and strange attraction in between. This won't be effective for those craving a solid scare or even jump scare since it's fairly timid. It will do for a popcorn night with basic drama, but one should maintain a manageable expectation since "Nightmare Nurse" won't treat any patient with visceral conviction.