The Nightmare Gallery

It's a cheap movie nobody should spent time on.

Theoretically, there's somewhere a potentially interesting story, but that's absolutely not enough to endure everything else, like a lousy screenplay, characters you don't care for, and acting that's, while not totally bad by some, quite poor.

Oh, and to the person who that said that Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans would love this: What the heck??? I liked Buffy the series, freaky action with humor and actually good acting. Buffy the Movie was pretty bad as I vaguely recall, yet it rocked compared to this one. There's simply no whatsoever similarity detectable, apart from tiniest fractures regarding one certain and only minor supernatural aspect, and no, it's not vampires...

"The Nightmare Gallery" came without as much as a fanfare, and it will leave without as much as a whisper. I hadn't heard anything about this movie prior to finding it one year after it was initially released. I was lured in by the movie's cover/poster, because it seemed rather interesting.

And I was even more intrigued when I noticed that the Rand family lived on Innsmouth Ave., so I thought maybe I was going to be in for some Lovecraftian inspired horror. Instead, I suffered through one hour and six minutes of sheer self-inflicted torture by watching this movie, as I should have given up after thirty minutes. But I thought the movie would pick up and become interesting. I just never did. And I didn't even finish the movie, having about thirty minutes left or so, and having no intention of returning to finish it.

Why? Well, because the storyline was tedious and utter rubbish, to be bluntly honest. It made no sense and it seemed more like the work of several directors whom had no collaboration and were told to direct individual segments with the same character, then piece it together afterwards. The script was just boring and all over the place. So not a great accomplishment by writers Jhan Harp and Rob Stith.

Director Gene Blalock didn't really have much to work with, and it was definitely reflected on the screen.

The characters in the movie were fairly adequate, they were not overly interesting, but served the story well enough. And while not being in the lead role, then it was actually Mieko Hillman (playing Dawn Rand) whom carried the movie with her performance.

I have no idea what this was supposed to be, but an hour and six minutes of nothing happening was not my sense of entertainment. And with no interest in the remaining thirty minutes "The Nightmare Gallery" was exactly what the name is; a nightmare gallery.

There is nothing I could or would recommend in this movie, so it is not worth the effort.

This picture is all about dialog and there is lots of it. The weakest part about this is the writing. It seems the authors suffer from the word salad affliction that a lot of new scriptwriters do, but the director and talent surprisingly make it work. Great creativity and framing. Purposeful and focused camera work. A valiant attempt at an indie production. Carry on, lads.

I think horror is probably the wrong category for this movie. It's more of an intellectual thriller and I think that's why so many people seem disappointed by it. Yes, it's a bit long and you have to pay attention to everything that's said for the movie to make any sense, but I think that's kind of the point. Like all indy movies, there are problems, but f you like cult movies that make you think, this is a good watch.

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.