Alice Cooper: The Nightmare

Alice Cooper: The Nightmare (1975)

**** (out of 4)

If you're an Alice Cooper and horror fan then there's no way that you couldn't love this television special. This here was basically a promotional movie for Alice Cooper's first solo album 'Welcome to My Nightmare' and as an added bonus the rock star managed to get Vincent Price on board. If you're familiar with the album then you'll know the songs. The plot here is basically Cooper playing Steven, a young boy who finds himself in a nightmare where Price plays the Spirit.

ALICE COOPER: THE NIGHTMARE is a great, great little movie on so many levels. For starters, the album itself is a terrific one with a number of great and menacing songs. Another major plus is that all of the "videos" are extremely well done and there's just a surreal nature to many of them that really makes this something great to watch during Halloween. Of course, one of the best thing about the special is the fact that you get to see Cooper and Price working together.

If you're a fan of Cooper then you'll already know that he loves horror movies and loved Price. You can just see the joy in him getting to work with someone he admired and this really bleeds into the film and helps the entertainment value. Again, there are some truly great songs on the album including Welcome to My Nightmare, The Black Widow, the wonderful Only Women Bleed and the use of The Ballad of Dwight Frye from the 'Love it to Death' album.

I am not sure how Vincent Price came to be involved with pop/rock music but, apart from his famed contribution to Michael Jackson's song "Thriller" from his eponymous (and top-selling) 1982 record, he appeared in this TV special inspired by Heavy Metal exponent Alice Cooper's concept album "Welcome To My Nightmare". On a personal note, I had long been interested in checking out Cooper's earliest albums, given that they had been produced by Bob Ezrin and featured guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner – all 3 of whom were also involved with Lou Reed's 1973 solo masterpiece "Berlin" and, Hunter and Wagner only, Reed's successive release, "Rock 'N' Roll Animal" – to my mind the best live album ever!

The basic premise here is simple: a man finds that he cannot wake up from his own nightmare. Guiding him through the maze of vaguely surreal visions (clichéd Halloween imagery giving way to a lair of spider/human hybrids, a refrigerator graveyard, and even having a top-hatted Cooper engaged in a tap-dance routine with a trio of likewise-attired skeletons!) is an ageing Price – making intermittent campy appearances to spout unspeakable lines and laugh himself silly – as The Spirit Of The Nightmare. Cooper is shown in and out of (his recognizable face-painted) character, as the young man asleep in bed dreaming and, of course, the protagonist of the "phantasm" (as Price vividly puts it). Throughout, he is also made to reflect on his life – childhood memories evoked by a fairground ride and the recounting of his success story being literally 'torn from the headlines'.

The approach to this early form of (extended) music video is typical of the era: a gaudily elaborate mise-en-scene (exemplified by distracting and pointless choreography, even if the color scheme is imaginatively-deployed) undercut by poor technical quality. On the other hand, the artist's essence emerges well enough (with the outstanding track being the eventual single release "Only Women Bleed"), and he clearly relished the opportunity since he would often return to the screen in subsequent years (albeit mostly in small roles and guest spots)! At 66 minutes, the program is tolerable and even mildly enjoyable for what it tries to do (though, regrettably, it requires Vincent Price to be embarrassed somewhat – in any case, he would re-unite with the same performer on THE STRANGE CASE OF ALICE COOPER in 1979). For what it is worth, Cooper's live staging of the album the following year would also be caught on tape and, since last year, has reportedly been busy at work on a sequel to the original album to be titled "Welcome 2 My Nightmare"!

This is NOT the concert film "Welcome To My Nightmare," but rather a prime-time special from 1975. "The Nightmare" is sort of a revue of the songs from the popular "Welcome To My Nightmare" album within the loose framework of Steven (Alice Cooper) being taken on a tour of his nightmares by The Master Of The Nightmare (Vincent Price).

"The Nightmare" lacks the strong, cohesive plot of "Tommy," "Jesus Christ Superstar," "Hair," and other rock musicals, and some of the "monsters" look cheesy and dated in this day and age, but it's still a lot of creepy fun, like an EC Horror comic book set to music. Linda Googh is frighteningly sexy as Steven's necrophile lover, Cold Ethyl. Perfect for rainy autumn afternoons.

This is by far one of the Great Alice Cooper concerts. If there ever was a showman who was able to cast murder, mayhem and some damn good rock and roll into one thing then Alice Cooper was that man. From Guillotines to stranglings, Alice knows what the crowd is wanting he gives them that ten-fold.

I have had the honor of actually seeing Alice Live not once..but six times in concert. Better to see the show live but video is almost just as good.

Out of 10..........10/10!

I've been looking for this forever and thought it was part of Don Kirshner's Rock Concert or Midnight Special. When friends had Donny on their walls, I had Alice. I was goth before goth was a thing. I would so love to see it again.... so please someone do something to get it out there again