Nightmare Sisters

This indie film by the auteur DeCoteau is the single greatest influence for the creation of the Eye Candy Hall of Fame. The cast boasts of three members of the All-Century team: the ever-so-lovely Brinke Stevens, the majestic beauty of Michelle Bauer, and the sultry Linnea Quigley. Each of our extremely fabulous leading ladies give such a high-caliber performance that it sets the standards by how we at the academy judge our potential members. As actors, they strip down to the basics and bare their natural talents unlike any other ensemble in the history of cinema. Memorable performances are the seance-transformation scene, the kitchen scene, and the bathtub scene. The auteur DeCoteau has created a masterpiece that will simply blow you away.

OK, this is a harmless enough movie I guess, but it was one that really helped do in the horror genre by initiating the whole "scream queen" phenomenon where actresses of very dubious talent (Quigley, Stevens, and Bauer) and directors of extremely limited skill (Decouteau, Jim Wynorski, and Fred Olen Ray) started churning out no-budget "horror" movies that were little more than Playboy videos of attractive woman cavorting around in the nude for most of the running time. Of course, sex and nudity have long been an ingredient in horror movies, but they are not the ONLY ingredient. It's pretty cynical to paper over a total lack of talent and production values by cramming in as much T and A as possible and then try to sell it to supposedly maladjusted horror fans who, of course, can't get a date with real women so are going to spend Friday nights renting this crap.

And after doing their part to bring down the horror genre, these same filmmakers apparently decided (perhaps rightly so)that sci-fi fans were even more pathetic, and thus they came up "sci-fi erotica" like "Femalien" and "Emmanuelle in Space" (which even Jaqueline Lovell and Krista Allen couldn't make suck any less). Then there are the "erotic thrillers", but the less said about them the better. All of which begs the question--if the only thing you're really looking for in a movie is sex and nudity, why not just rent an actual porno?

Nightmare Sisters (1988)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Linnea Quigley, Brinke Stevens and Michelle Bauer play ugly sorority sisters who are bored one night so they invite over three nerdy guys. As the lame party is winding down they decide to have a séance, which turns the three girls into real beauties looking for sex but they've also become deadly.

NIGHTMARE SISTERS is exactly the type of gold teenage males were hoping for back in the VHS boom days. If you're looking for high art or something that was nominated for an Oscar then you're going to be extremely disappointed. If you're wanting some cheap trashy fun with three beautiful women getting naked then you've come to the right movie.

The Scream Queen legends are in high form here as all three are extremely good in their roles. I thought they were each hilarious early on when we see them in their alternative looks. Quigley steals the film as a buck-tooth nerd. Stevens plays the nerd with big glasses and Bauer is the obese one. All of them are clearly having fun here but they get even better once they turn into the sexual goddesses. Yes, all three are naked throughout including a very memorable sequence where they're in the tub together.

Director David DeCoteau is obviously having a lot of fun with the material and for the most part this is a complete winner. The thing eventually runs out of gas during the final portion of the picture but this is still one of the better titles to come out of the 80s. Fans of the three Scream Queens will certainly want to check this one out.

"Nightmare Sisters" is a harmless, enjoyable b-movie which is more sex comedy than horror. I don't think it's even intended to be scary, and there is very little violence, but a lot of nudity and humour.

The movie gets off to a shaky start with an obviously Caucasian man playing an Indian fortune teller, and doing the worst Indian accent since Peter Sellers. Why would a fortune teller be Indian, anyway? Somehow the crystal ball gets possessed, and then finds its way into the hands of three dorky sorority sisters.

These three are played by the holy trinity of b-movie scream queens, Linnea Quigley, Michelle Bauer and Brinke Stevens. They begin the movie as stereotypically unattractive college co-eds. Brinke has borrowed Jeffrey Dahmer's glasses, Michelle Bauer is dressed up to look fat, and Linnea Quigley is wearing false buck teeth which actually only accentuate her beauty. Detractors might claim that we're only fans of Quigley, Stevens and Bauer because they're hot and get naked. This movie, along with most of their movies, showcases the charisma and talent they actually brought to the screen. Their portrayals here are funny and likable.

Their nerdy male counterparts come over for a party and the girls are possessed when they use the crystal ball in a séance (don't seances require Ouija boards?) At first the girls turn sexy - and semi naked - but then they get a touch demonic, and a hilarious exorcist arrives to save the day.

David DeCoteau seems to me to be a rarity among b-film makers. Going by any of his recent efforts, a strong case could be made that he is the worst filmmaker who ever lived. However, watching his '80s films like this one, one realises that he actually had some degree of know-how when he started out. I mean, obviously this isn't Citizen Kane, but it's actually pretty good. Now, his movies are just excuses to indulge in his tighty whitie fetish. Who keeps paying him to make movies? Who keeps watching them?

Nightmare Sisters was obviously cobbled together with a little spit and a prayer, but the three leads seem to be having the time of their lives playing both the dorky and sexy sides of each of their characters.

All you really need to know about the story is that there are three nerdy sorority sisters who end up summoning a demon who turns them into sexpots with a literal hunger for boys.

The film is shot without much style with several scenes covered in only master shots, but it somehow works thanks to a charmingly goofy script and campy turns by all the actresses.