User reviews

In Texas, seven friends meet in a bar to celebrate the Halloween night before going to a party. Meanwhile, they call the American Nightmare pirate radio for fun and confess their innermost fears. A serial killer, who is listening to their confessions, makes their nightmares come true, killing each one of them in a sadistic way. "American Nightmare" is a weird low budget movie that has a horrible beginning: without any previous explanation, a woman kills two couples in an isolated camping area, as if it were Friday, 13th. Then, the story shifts to a bar, where seven friends are celebrating Halloween. From this moment on, the story has a great potential, and the unknown cast has a very reasonable performance, showing also some beautiful breasts and naked bodies, as usual in this type of C production. However, the end of the screenplay does not provide any explanation for the killing instinct and motives for the behavior of the nurse Jane Toppan, giving the sensation that the budget ended before the finalization of the shooting. With a better beginning and conclusion, this weird story would be a good low budget slasher movie. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Agonia" ("Agony")

When I read the plot for the movie my expectations where pretty high. A bunch of people confessing their worst nightmares to a radio station and then having to live through these nightmares because a psycho murderer overheard their confessions. Wow, I thought this sounded cool, but it wasn't. Well, ok you get scared a bunch of times in the movie, but what really annoyed me is the way the movie is carried out. The scary feel of the movie never comes out due to the tempo of the movie and the constant switching of scenery from scary to safe. I want more scary and less safe! But hey, I think you should see it anyway as it might scare you, and that is what the movie is all about. My rating: 5 out of 10

"American Nightmare" is officially tied, in my opinion, with "It's Pat!" for the WORST MOVIE OF ALL TIME.

Seven friends (oddly resembling the K-Mart version of the cast of "Friends") gather in a coffee shop to listen to American Nightmare, a pirate radio show. It's hosted by a guy with a beard. That's the most exciting aspect of his show.

Chandler, Monica, Joey, and... oh wait, I mean, Wayne, Jessie, and the rest of the bad one-liner spouting gang all take turns revealing their biggest fears to the bearded DJ. Unbeknownst to them, a crazed nurse/serial killer is listening...

Crazy Nurse then proceeds to torture Ross and Rachel and... wait, sorry again... by making their fears come to life. These fears include such stunners as "voodoo" and being gone down on by old ladies with dentures.

No. Really.

This movie was, in a word, rotten. Crazy Nurse's killing spree lacks motivation, there's nothing to make the viewer "jump," the ending blows, and--again--voodoo?

If you have absolutely no regard for your loved ones, rent "American Nightmare" with them.

If you care for your loved ones--even a little bit--go to your local Blockbuster, rent all of the copies of "American Nightmare" and hide them in your freezer.

When it comes to horror movies, I am more than willing to suspend disbelief, ignore sub-par production values, and overlook plot holes in the interest of a good scare. This movies simply has no good scares to offer. It can't even be enjoyed as camp. Bad dialogue, bad acting, bad direction, the kills were predictable and poorly staged, the music was annoying, the camera work was wretched, even the costumes were bad. I felt really bad for the actors, who were obviously trying, but who had to deal with terrible, contrived dialogue and an obvious lack of direction. I doubt they got any rehearsal, either. It's embarrassing to watch, and so boring than making it through to the contrived "surprise" ending requires tremendous endurance. It's quite easily one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

I don't normally write reviews, but this one was so bad that I felt compelled to warn others. This movie is a complete waste of time. If you must watch this movie, don't miss the "Making of"-featurette. The writer/director seems to be under the impression that making the killer a woman was kind of bold, daring move. (Seen it.) He and the cast spend half an hour deconstructing this film as if it's a new-age "Citizen Kane." It's like listening to a group of third-graders take you behind the scenes of their Christmas pageant. They truly think they've created something of substance. It's sad, really… The only reason I gave this movie a "2" is because I think "1" should be reserved for true atrocities, like "Manos: Hands of Fate" and "Space Mutiny." So "American Nightmare" isn't the WORST movie I've ever seen, but I'd have to say that it's somewhere in the bottom fifty.

You can have the shower scene in Psycho, if you want, but I will take Rebecca Stacey anytime. The Psycho scene is her greatest fear and she joins six of her friends who express what they fear the most while a killer (Debbie Rochon) is listening in.

"Don't you get lonely" Sure, I do, Debbie, and you can tie me up and do your stuff and I will die a happy man.

But, I wasn't real happy with what I thought was going to be a slasher flick, and it turned out to just be a mind game.

The ending was weird, too. But Debbie Rochon was pretty much in the whole picture, so it was a treat.

1st watched 11/07/2004 - 1 out of 10(Dir-Jon Keeyes): Over-the-top rehash of 70's supposed horror flicks like Friday the 13th(versions 1 thru whatever…). I can't think of much redeeming here except(or can I think of anything?)…The story revolves around a bunch of stupid people listening to a radio program one year after some kids were slayed in the woods as an 'homage' to this, supposedly. But, lo and behold, one of the stupid people, have connections to the actual event because her sister was one of the ones murdered(again, how stupid is this that she would even be a part of this). Guess what? The murderer is at it again and we're tipped off from the very beginning who it is(so there goes any mystery whatsoever). And besides all this, where are the 'cops' and why doesn't someone call them. I can't believe this movie was financed by someone and made. You would think that by now the American people would be judged a little higher, at least in their movie-going experience, but not so by this filmmaker.

Horror film buffs are very clear about what we expect. We don't expect Academy-Award acting or intricate plotting. So when a movie like American Nightmare comes along that gives us much more than we were expecting, we are very pleasantly surprized. Traditionally, Slasher films give us characters that are one-dimensional and only there to be killed off. "American Nightmare" breaks this taboo by giving us several likeable characters that we actually care about, making it that much scarier when they come face to face with the maniacal Jane (played wonderfully by Debbie Rochon). In addition, the actors all give 110% in their performances. Brandy Little is so believable, it's shocking to me that I haven't seen her somewhere else. As good as Debbie and Brandy are, my favorite performance has to be from Heather Haase as Melanie. My only major qualm is that some of the actors weren't given as much on-screen time as I would have liked. The movie is very masterfully plotted and directed. My only complaint is that there were too many times Jane should have been captured, yet no one pursued her. Also, I didn't much care for the very end, as it seemed rather illogical, almost as if it was just thrown in for shock value. Still, after providing me with 90 minutes of solid entertainment, I can't complain too much about the weak 30-second ending...

This film is by no means a great film. What it is, however, is bordering on some of the best you can get in its genre with its budget (just $56k!), and I marvel at just how well-conceived this film is.

A lot of the dialogue is pretty cornball and self-referential to the point of nauseating, but the self-referential crap runs dry about a quarter of the way through as our slasher goes on the move. Where most good Hollywood films are just consistently witting and entertaining the whole way through, spread out evenly, this one moves almost in fits. There are lulls in the dialogue, and then absolute sparks of brilliance and a lot of tongue-in-cheek laughs.

The directing style is fairly utilitarian, which may or may not be your cup of tea, but suits me just fine. Some of the edits are poor, but most of it is dead on, and a scene where a character begins to space out and freak out is shot very well.

The script itself? Apart from the sometimes stupid dialogue, there are a lot of shining gems in the dialogue and indeed, while some of the characters may not be perfectly fleshed out, they're very realistically written. We don't really have stupid characters in this movie, surprisingly enough. They speak intelligently, and act intelligently and realistically, and I appreciate that.

In terms of gore - 'cause I know that's what all the rest of us horror fans are after - there isn't much. T&A? A decent share.

What's really on parade here is how well-written a lot of it is and how well-acted the film is as a whole. The plot has a lot of tweaks of inventiveness (a genuine female slasher!), a couple grisly scenes...the movie just works.

If you think you can get past its stumbles, I would strongly suggest you check it out. This film's a must-see for horror buffs.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this. The first 30 minutes of the movie were somewhat boring, and the lighting during the movie just seemed way too bright and detracted from it appearing like a horror film. It got some better in the last hour, but the ending was out there and hard to make any sense of. The acting was mid-line quality, not great but not horrible. I think some of the characters could have been cast better. It must be said that the movie did contain a few really unique things in the script. All in all, not a bad movie per se as far as low-budget goes, but not a "scary" horror film for most viewers.

I don't really feel how you can justify stating this film is of good quality. It's pretty damn awful, I totally disagree with those that say the acting is good - I've seen better acting from Family Affairs on Channel 5.

After reading a brief introduction to the story I was genuinely intrigued and really interested as the plot sounded half decent. This film could have been so much more but was really let down by the boring characters and the dull story line.

The overall corny feel to the film really didnt do it for me. Sorry but if this is the directors first film there is still alot to learn. Not gripping whatsoever.

When I read the back of the DVD case, I thought that it sounded really interesting... so... I had my mom throw it into the pile of movies in the "4 for 20 dollars" section at Blockbuster. When we got home and popped in the movie... twenty minutes into it, we found ourselves turning to each other going "this sucks. Let's put in something else." I'll admit, a few of the lines from the friends at the café made us smile a little bit. But come ON, at least get some decent actors! Every once in a while in a movie, if the acting is bad and the movie isn't going at a painfully slow pace and actually seems interesting, I can gut it out and get a few laughs at how they're over(or under)doing their lines. But I can only take so much. Crying scenes looked like the actors were having hysterical fits of laughter, there was no delivery for their lines... amateur doesn't even come close to the acting in this film.

Anyone who came on here saying that this film was good had to have been on some REALLY good drugs while they were watching the movie. It's the most pointless thing I've ever had the displeasure of watching. DO NOT WATCH OR BUY THIS MOVIE!!!!!

This movie had to be the worst horror movie I have ever seen. The acting was terrible, Horrible and cheesy and talk about a predictable plot! I will never watch this movie again nor will I recommend this movie to anyone. What a waste of time! First, as soon as the movie began I realized what I got myself into. All they did for this movie was copy scenes from many other horror movies out there and bunched them all into this one movie. The prank phone calls, halloween night, a psycho, and one knife! Its absolutely ridiculous. I was not scared at all during the movie, which I thought horror movies were supposed to do. As for the making of the movie, its pretty hilarious how they all talk about how this movie was so great and so scary. I mean how do you not realize that the movies is a cheap rip off of "Scary Movie" for example. At least get some good actors in there and then maybe it would have been pulled off as a good horror movie.

this movie is outrageous. by outrageous, i mean awful. i had more fun watching the paint dry at my local hardware store on an august day while suffering from a migraine and heat stroke. the acting got progressively worse as the "movie" advanced, and the directors use of euphoric drugs became apparent as the final scenes approached. when misty was shot to death she decided that it would be prudent to blink post mordem. that was not intelligent. truthfully, stevie wonder could have caught that with his eyes closed. if you are deciding between playing with a nail gun while intoxicated and watching this movie, bear in mind that the nail gun will probably give you a better story to tell your friends.

This piece ain't really worth a comment.. It's simply the worst "horror" movie i have ever seen. The actors are bad as bad can be and the whole plot is so silly it nearly made me cry. Shame on you I say!!

Without a doubt this is one of the worst films I've ever wasted money on! The plot is, erm sorry, did I say there was a plot? The scariest moment was when..., nope can't think of one! The best special effect that had me hiding under the bed covers was..., nope can't think of one for that either. You knew who the killer was right from the start. There was nothing scary about the whole movie, in fact the only two vaguely interesting bits were when you saw the kid sister, Misty, in the shower and when you saw Nurse Toppan take her top off. This film should only be watched to get an idea of how NOT to make a horror movie!!!

This is one of a very few movies where the acting was so believable that I was scared. The serial killer listens to fear confessions on a radio talk show and then fulfills their fears!

The acting made this movie! Where other horror movies rely on makeup or special effects to create scary scenes, the acting especially by the lead who played the serial killer made me afraid! American Nightmare is a perfect example of how you don't need special effects to create a scary movie, just great actors and a great story!

Overall, I was very impressed with American Nightmare, especially considering it was the director's first movie. Great storyline and great concept, with the killer using her victim's greatest fears against them. The movie had a great creepy atmosphere all the way through.

That's not to say the movie was perfect. Most of the characters are under-developed (not that this is unusual in a slasher film) and there are some gaping holes in logic (the killer has a tendency to just walk away after terrorizing someone, with no one ever trying to stop her.) Also, I wasn't overly impressed with the acting from the heroine and the killer was a little too over the top for me.

Still, the movie set out what it was trying to do. "American Nightmare" isn't out to win any Academy Awards, it simply wants to scare us, and it does that quite well.

This movie can cause spontaneous narcolepsy in all viewers. The only thing this movie does that is scary is present itself for rental at your local video store. If your ideal of horror is watching a couple of T&A shots, and a chick that can masturbate with a knife then it is for you!

There is no story line at all: supposed crazy nurse likes to kill folks on Halloween and do lots of drugs, ranting, and slink around looking good (with the obligatory tit shots). Even attack of the killer gummy-worms had more of a story line. No motivation for the killing, what few shots of them are supposed to be done. Very bad fake blood shots, and an ending that is as boring as the start. The nurse goes home and cries ? what, she wanted her mommy ?

Actors: What actors, someone mentioned K-Mart, and I guess that is where you find bad actors? Although I must say that with no more of a story line than this movie had, and no on set drugs, then the only smell of fear I could sense from them was the fact that people were going to see them in this movie.

Overall: this movie should be shown to film students to give exact and precise examples of the things you SHOULD NOT do in a movie.