Nightmare Man

(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!

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?

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 that I am saying this movie was all bad, but that was the highlight and if the sexy talk is the highlight of a horror movie then it is not much of a horror film in the end. The story has this woman who seems to be having a bit of trouble on the marital front. Her solution to the problems seems to be to order some love god mask, they instead seem to send her the evil demon love god mask and throughout the movie you wander if this manifest ion is real or not. She is being driven to the mental institution by her husband they break down and she is seemingly stalked and attacked by this person or thing while her husband is getting gas. Meanwhile, somewhere in the woods there is a house with two couples. Two very cute girls who are friends and their boyfriends. They play truth or dare and then the crazy...or not, girl ends up in their care. Well lets just say there is somebody out there trying to get at her as he quickly steals a crossbow and handles the one guy while he is being mooned. However, you still don't know if it is the mysterious nightmare man the girl goes on about or something else. The husband is heading for the cabin though and soon afterward so are the police. This movie had potential as do most horror movies and like so many they just miss some stuff. On the plus side you get to see a couple of good kills, some good nudity, and the end was rather good too. However, I was kind of hoping for something more in the lines of say an Evil Dead movie rather than a typical slasher film with a twist here and there. So far out of the three Afterdark movies in this new batch this is the strongest, sadly though compared to the last batch this one would be tied with Penny Dreadful as the weakest in my eyes.

NIGHTMARE MAN is an above average chiller with some fun, though somewhat predictable plot twists. The pacing is quick, which helps to liven up the rustic setting. There are gallons of blood splashed around as well.

Horror goddess extraordinaire, Tiffany Shepis co-stars as Mia, giving her the chance to do a lot of running around in her underwear.

So, if a movie about a crazed killer and a woman (Blythe Metz) who is either possessed or insane sounds intriguing, then this should satisfy...