Twisted Nightmare

Twisted Nightmare (1987)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A group of adults win a weekend pass to the summer camp that they once attended when they were younger. Once there the party starts but before long a death from their past will come back to kill them one by one.

TWISTED NIGHTMARE is a slasher film that got a limited theatrically release before hitting VHS where it became a minor cult favorite. The film pretty much went away for a while but it has slowly picked up another cult following thanks to it simply being a slasher as well as it being shot at the same place that Friday THE 13TH PART III was. The barn and house from that Jason movie is used here so it is pretty cool getting to see the same location used.

As far as the actual film goes, look, you're dealing with a low-budget horror movie that was made by people just trying to make some money. The Slasher 101 Handbook is pretty much followed throughout as we get the backstory, we get the camp setting, the partying, the nudity and of course a mysterious old man and several bloody deaths. There's obviously nothing new or original here but for the most part it kept me entertained. If anything director Paul Hunt at least got some atmosphere out of the material, which is a plus.

The death scenes are decent for what they are as there is at least some blood being thrown around. If nudity is your thing then you'll be happy to know that several of the young ladies here get totally naked. The one major problem with the film is the cinematography. The film's lighting was so poor that often times the scenes are beyond dark. I'm sure this issue was even worse for those watching this on a bootleg or VHS. The Blu-ray has at least been cleaned up but it's still quite dark due to the way the film was shot.

We don't look for great scripts or direction with a slasher movie, but this movie's screenplay and direction are SO BAD, it's enough to change your opinion and make you seek out an art movie instead. Sure, there's a big body count, but the killings for the most part are either not explicit, or too dark to see. In fact, almost all of the non-slasher scenes are equally as dark! There are also some really big holes in the script that will even have the most forgiving fan of slashers groaning in disbelief. It's no wonder this movie was shelved for five years, then dumped quietly on video.

Paul Hunt's "Twisted Nightmare" was actually made in 1982 and in the same setting of "Friday the 13th Part III".The film was withheld until 1987.It's easy to see why.A group of teenagers go to a lakeside camp named Camp Paradise built on an ancient Indian burial ground.Two years ago mildly retarded and virginal Matthew was burned alive in the barn.His charred body was never found.Two years later the teens are invited back to camp where demonic killer starts slaughtering them."Twisted Nightmare" rips off "Friday the 13th","The Ghost Dance" and "The Burning" and offers plenty of clichés.There is nudity galore and the bodycount is quite high,but all sixteen killings are shown mostly off-screen.The acting is pretty amateurish too.6 out of 10.Now let's go and explore the barn.

I had reasonably high hopes when first watching this "horror" of a movie, based on other IMDb users' reviews. I was quickly disappointed. After the ridiculous "firefly" opening credit sequence (or flaming ashes or whatever the hell they were supposed to be), we get to see the bulk of the cast preparing to head back to an old summer camp they used to frequent, having all won a free trip. None of them seem very enthusiastic due to events past, but since it's free and they can all catch-up with each other after a year or so they decide to go for it.

Later, when they're all there, tensions start building and people are at each other's throats over the "death" that happened last time they stayed at camp. The main character's boyfriend knows nothing of it, so some girls explain it to him - his girlfriend's mentally-challenged brother was burnt to death in a barn out front. We get a nice flashback that tells the whole story, except what the hell actually caused him to self-combust. The brother wanders into the shed in a sulk and inexplicably looks up to see a flashing red light, which makes him scream. Why? Next thing you know he bursts out of the barn on fire, and his sister appears from nowhere screaming in slow motion. Reeling from the news, the boyfriend is wary of the days ahead...

A few minutes later one of the couples is murdered in the same barn; no one notices. The next morning, more are murdered - no one notices. Each time a character disappears and is killed, no one knows they are gone, and when someone is asked of their whereabouts, they reply with some noncommittal answer. Some friends, eh? The killer is exposed as some half-human, half-beast creature that growls like a drowning zombie. Tracking him (apparently he's been there the whole time the group were last at camp) is the ground's caretaker, an Indian descendant who's ancestors were burned at the stake by Civil War soldiers. He claims one of them put a curse on the campground, and thinks this thing is the result. The film makes great play of hiding his motives... is he actually the killer or is he just out to stop the real one? He spends all of his time screaming and threatening the group and at one point nearly bursts into tears in front of one couple about his kittens - "I NEED 'EM!" he shouts.

Also coming on the scene later is the town sheriff, whom one of the girls manages to call before getting killed. He arrives in his old, '50s-vintage rust bucket that he had to get his granddaughter to help him fix in an earlier scene while a random African-American man sat watching in disbelief! I couldn't help but join him! Didn't the County Sheriff's department see fit for him to have a proper police vehicle? He's also very old and spends nearly a minute examining two victims in the dark before deciding to do something about it. He doesn't do much. At the end the killer is exposed as someone we know and the lead female character has something to do with it. Can her new boyfriend and the miserable old caretaker stop them in time before all are lost? Barely. The film also fails to tie up all loose ends, such as motive and what the hell exactly happened to the brother. Was it the old Indian curse or what that made him self-combust? This kind of writing affects the film badly. It is a shoddy mess, with what looks like a lot of ad-libbing and last-minute ideas. How someone could fund such a screenplay is beyond me. The characters are typical wannabees who think they're all so cool and spend their time doing nothing but drinking and moaning. I did like that older, mustached guy though. Can't remember the name. He drove the silver Ford Thunderbird that had sugar in the gas tank (another lame plot point). A lot of his lines are actually genuinely funny, although the scene where he snaps at the cabin and goes off at everyone, screaming "You're an asshole! F@#% you! And your brother was an asshole too! I'm glad he's dead!", etc is unintentionally hilarious. I was rolling around at that scene. The other actors just stare at him and you can tell one girl is trying not to laugh. Great stuff.

The same unfortunately cannot be said for the technical side of the film. The direction is uninspired and dull. Lighting in a lot of the scenes is poor and I don't know what was going on with the music, I don't even remember it. The gore scenes were fairly effective, though some parts defy belief (the first victim flying up in slow motion in the barn). There was quite a bit of blood and also some nudity, which never hurts. I also have to say that the acting is pathetic, although it looks like some of them really did try. It just didn't make a difference. The script however was the worst, and the fact that the director didn't do anything about it and fix the mistakes ruined the film. Not as bad as some of them, but not the best of the '80s slashers either. You can do much better in terms of sheer entertainment value.

Oh yeah, that ice shed was pathetic, too. Stocked year-round when no one has been there for over a year and ice is still in large, perfect blocks even with a hatch in the roof wide open and no obvious refrigeration source. The girl who is trapped in there also goes into hysterics after ten seconds, even though she thinks her friends did it... See what I mean about the acting?

I found this movie way back on a shelf in my closet. I had to blow the dust off the video box to read the title. With our curiosity aroused my wife and I sat down to watch it. When it was finished she made me promise to clean out the closet more often!

Among the slasher sub-genre this is a forgotten film; and perhaps we'd all be better off if it stayed that way. It is certainly disjointed enough to seem like a dream and there are plot points which we think will be important but which are forgotten immediately after they are introduced. The film begins with an American Indian Medicine Man being burned at the stake by Cavalry troops for allegedly practising black magic. He vows to return from the dead for revenge. Flash forward 200 years (give or take a decade) to some college pals returning to a campsite where they spent a summer holiday a few years before.

Now here is where the plot gets going. The retarded brother of one of the kids was burned to death in an accident, after which the group all went their separate ways; apparently through a collective feeling of guilt. Hardly has night fallen before someone starts getting rid of the visitors one by one in increasingly gory ways. Is it a resurrected Indian spirit? Has the burned boy come back from the dead? Does the dead boy's sister know more than she is saying about what is happening? Will you hit the fast forward button on the remote? Only the answer to the last question is obvious!

The plot is so full of holes even the minimal gore cannot save the plot. In fact the few bloody moments are photographed so dark you can barely see what is happening. The "tearing an arm out by the roots" scene was done much better, and clearer, in the equally obscure Bigfoot movie NIGHT OF THE DEMON.

This one is for lovers of obscure movies only . . . and even they will come away from it scratching their heads in disbelief.