Nightmare Man

I have to say, I have never walked out of a movie before. I've seen some pretty crap movies, too, but I stick around and watch them, and then laugh later.

I can only say that this movie was so horrible (perhaps the reason it made it into the Horrorfest line up, because it was so terrible as to be horrifying?), that I was insulted by it. Heralding back to the days of cheesy 80's horror, this was by far even worse than those amusing flicks.

Bad acting, horrible effects and makeup, terrible filming, irritating music...did I mention the bad acting? There's a place for movies like this...it's called Blockbuster, where you spend $3 to go home and be disappointed. My wife and I spent over $20 on this one movie to end up walking out, it was atrocious.

To the people in charge of selecting the Horrorfest lineup...please bother to pick something a bit more worth our time and money. More selections like this in the future will only land you crappy reviews and less ticket sales. Try living up to at least SOME kind of standards.

To those of you that got through the entire movie, bravo! You have more stamina than I...we seriously had to leave, or I might have hurt myself laughing.

(2006) Nightmare Man HORROR

Co-produced, written and directed by Rolfe Kanefsky that showcases a young woman, Ellen (Blythe Metz) orders a ritualistic mask and it starts to stalk her with her husband, William (Luciano Szafir) telling her at the same time that she's nuts! And while driving her to see a shrink, he conveniently runs out of gas in the middle of nowhere leading to a lot of predictable and more convenient situations once she escapes to an isolated nearby house with a bunch of what else, teens! Immediately when one starts to watch this, the first thing that comes into my mind is "B" king Roger Corman since the budget is rather low and it does has some of the same qualities one would normally find on a Roger Cormon movie which're breasts, beasts and blood and plenty of bad acting, overacting and unconvincing screams! Oh yeah, there's also a twist after the first hour which some viewers might be able to see coming!

I had heard some good things about this Horrorfest film so I decided to give it a shot. I had fun with some parts of it but it's mostly an annoying, typical slasher mess. This is the only film of the 2007 Horrorfest I've seen but I'll probably be checking out the others as well. Though, they're usually pretty bad, to be honest.

The acting was okay, I guess but Tiffany Shepis' character was so extremely annoying that her performance alone could have ruined the whole movie. However, a lot of things did. The script is terrible, I am so tired of "trapped in a cabin in the middle of the woods with a killer on the loose" films. There was also very little suspense whatsoever. One thing I liked was the blood, it seems like a throw back to low budget horror of the 70's and 80's and that made me happy. Unfortunately, it was pretty much the only thing.

If you decide to see this, see it for the blood alone and expect nothing else. It truly is a tedious film that does absolutely nothing we haven't seen a million times before.

Not as wacky/off-kilter as some of his other stuff, but a decent low budget slasher/demon/cabin in the woods tale. I liked that the kid had a There's Nothing Out There t-shirt -- That's self-referential, to a self-referential movie, before there was such a thing as a self-referential horror movie (Have I lost you? I'm referring to There's Nothing Out There, 1991). I got a headache thinking about it. What is it with people complaining about sex and nudity in a B-horror movie? Tiffany Shepis is in this one. She's going to get naked. It's a given. Sheesh, how PC do you have to be to complain about sexual content in a genre flick?

Rolf Kanesky is becoming the most interesting director working in low budget horror. Lord knows there are enough terrible hand-held efforts clogging up the rental shelves, although it's cool that people are getting out there and trying. Anyhow, Rolf seems to have a much lower budget on this one than on The Hazing, be he economises well and the make up and effects are good and it works to the films benefit that they are sparingly used until the climax.

Story concerns an unstable young woman who uses a wacko ancient fertility mask to try and improve her sex life with her husband only to end up having horrific visions of a spirit contained within the mask. The demon seems to come to life while she's stranded in the woods on a ill-fated road trip and ends up running for her life. In to the the mix is Kanefsky regular Tiffany Shepis and her gang of buddies hanging out in a remote cottage. They have their own complicated relationship issues. Shepis is a good actress who seems naturally uninhibited and doesn't look down upon B-movie roles and just has fun with it. She's great here, and has a sexy tough and funny role. Sure, there's nudity and gore, but who would want to see her as, say, Ashton Kutchers girl in a sucky comedy. The rest of cast are variable with the lead actress overplaying at times but improving as the film goes on and her responses look more appropriate.

I digress, sorry, violence and weirdness abound as the "nightmare man " descends upon the cottage, and the newly arrived guest ain't feeling herself. Some odd, surprising twists happen before the climax. Think the The Mask meets The Exorcist and you're there. Kind of..

I was lucky enough to have caught this on The Horror Channel and it's one of their best recent acquisitions. I'm not saying Nightare Man is a stone-cold classic but it is a gem and well executed considering the low budget and resources. I do feel this director will improve with each movie. Kanfesky knows how to be ambitious whilst giving the horror fans what they want.