Day of the Nightmare

"Day of the Nightmare" is a dandy psycho picture. Now I am not saying it's a great film, but in light of the very low budget, it's awfully entertaining.

The film begins with two strange events. The first is when a couple are heard arguing violently in their apartment and the police are called. The couple is gone, but their dog has been viciously kicked to death--and the police assume the woman was murdered since some neighbor saw a man hauling away a large trunk nearby. The second involves a woman stalking another lady--you think there's going to be a murder, but a friend shows up and frightens away the attacker. The problem is, that the intended victim doesn't know she was almost killed. How does all this fit together? See the film for yourself to find out.

For 1965, this is a rather scandalous film and must have caught audiences by surprise. I guessed the surprise twist--but that is because now in 2013, practically anything goes on TV and in films! My only serious complaint is that this twist was revealed a bit too early and impaired the suspense just a bit. Still, worth seeing and really strange for the time in which it was made.

Contrary to what the plot summary says, this is NOT about a woman returning from the dead! The story concerns Jonathan Crane, an artist with a decidedly sick way of getting his models in the mood to pose. The movie opens with Jonathan having a topless lovely lay across a couch, then binding her ankles and wrists and beating her back with a belt while wailing, "Unclean!Unclean!" Ooohkaaay. To top THAT off, Jonathan's wife is being stalked by a mysterious woman who slips into the house and chases the wife out and through some woods. The wife is baffled as to who the woman is, but she's someone closer to Mrs. Crane than she realizes . . .

A weird psychosexual drama with all kinds of dysfunctional kinkiness. In between the story concerning Jonathan's kinkiness and the mystery woman are some sleazy scenes including an orgy and a flashback revealing an adolescent sex encounter between Jonathan and an older woman that indicates where he got his taste for whipping from. Grotesquely fascinating.

The film I saw was neither the one described in IMDb's synopsis nor that described in the other reviews. I watched it on Netflix and assume the more lurid scenes were cut. This is a shame. Although I don't particularly enjoy watching depictions of sadism, etc, I see no reason for a movie not to be shown in its entirety, especially on a site which is generally not so squeamish. That being said, I enjoyed the movie despite its bad acting and lack of continuity (the cars driven by the characters, especially the hero/heroine's station wagon, varied in age and marque.) The subject was interesting and the central character well played. There was an inventive use of cheap sets, and the actors seemed to have been chosen from the director's friends and acquaintances, much like in an Ed Wood production. If you enjoy watching Ed Wood's movies, you won't want to miss Day of the Nightmare. It is one step up and quite a bit darker.

Nice locations and decent "daytime" cinematography in La Jolla, but a terrible low-grade exploitation flick..YUCK! Lots of booze bottles and tacky paintings in this movie. The father and son look to be the same age. The cross-dressing psycho is completely idiotic..he has such a pretty wife. What's his problem? Best line of dialogue - "People go crazy...every day people go crazy". What is John Ireland doing in this one? I know he made some bad flicks, but this is too much. Some nudity. A 2 out of 10. Best performance = Beverly Bain. Ms. Bain plays the attractive and very normal wife of the crazy. Elena Verdugo from MARCUS WELBY, M.D. has a small role as does Liz Renay from John Waters flicks.

The Good Deed Mission guys are right out of the Bowery Boys. Not much to recommend here with the acting low-grade and repellent passivity of most of the characters, especially Mr. Ireland as the world-weary detective. Terrible!

There seemed to be two purposes to this little oddity - firstly, a rather flat and ham-fisted attempt (surely shot on a miniscule budget) at a 'psychological thriller' and secondly (and far more interestingly) what was basically a promotional reel for lead actress Beverly Bain.

Ms Bain occupies about 40% of the screen time and when I say 'occupies', I mean she gets sole use of the camera's time. We see her go to bed, get up, tidy up in the kitchen, walk round her house, ascend the stairs, descend the stairs. All with no one else in shot.

IMDB states that she had never made a movie prior to this one and never made a movie after this one so, for me, the real mystery here is not who was the mystery blonde (a 5 year old could have sussed that one out in 2 minutes) but what was the real story behind Ms Bain's one and only role?

And, yes, I agree with the previous reviewer who aligned this film to something Ed Wood would have released. There are plenty similarities, especially the cod-psychiatry and Paul Marco-like cop who plays John Ireland's stooge.

By the way, one or two of BB's scenes must have been very close to being cut as she's showing quite a bit more than her acting chops as she bends over to make the bed!