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!

I have been looking forward to Nightmare Man ever since June of 2006, when I had the opportunity to meet Tiffany Shepis at Flashback Weekend in Chicago. She was honestly excited about it, and I found her enthusiasm infectious enough to check out this movie as one of the 8 Films to Die For.

She was right. I really enjoyed this movie. That is not to say that it is, well, really good. At it's core, this film is your classic "boobs and blood" b-movie. You have to go in accepting this. The script is flimsy at times, the dialog is openly bad at times, the characters act accordingly most of the time (few moments you'll ask yourself "is that REALLY the most reasonable reaction" but those moments are uncommon) but overall...I really liked it. What really makes the movie work is Kanefsky's ability to put the viewer in the scene. I haven't seen many films that capture the surroundings better than this one does. The scene at the edge of the road is phenomenal. I can tell you where every tree is in relation to the car. I could feel how far it was from the trunk of the car to the trunk of the really big tree off the rear passenger window. And I knew there wasn't much room for Ellen to move if (when) she needed to. The suspense created is fantastic, and that alone carries this movie. I will be seeking out Kanefsky's other films for that alone.

The acting is much better than I expected, Blythe Metz is a bit inconsistent, but when she's on she's really good. Tiffany Shepis does a good job, but the writing for her character is...confusing at best. Her reactions are not what you might expect to the events that unfold around her. Of the women in the movie, Hanna Putnam puts in the best performance, I hope to see her get some roles with more exposure. The male actors are not as impressive as this is really a movie that highlights the women for more than the obvious reasons. James Ferris is the best of the male actors, but I did like Jack Sway as Ed and Luciano Szafir with the exception of his accent getting in the way a little.

Overall, I do recommend this movie for those that like low-budget horror. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I hope you do to.

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?

Really, the only reason I rate this film so high (and 4 out of 10 isn't exactly a good rating) is because of the fine buttocks and overall body of Tiffany Shepis. Although her hair looks like crap in this movie. I'm a big fan if Ms. Shepis, so she is the only reason to even attempt to watch this movie. Oh, and there is the discussion of a lesbian tryst between the two female leads, but do we get to see any of that? No, and that sucks.

The only other possible positive thing I could say about this movie is that sometimes, some scenes build tension well, but thats it. In horror movies like this it doesn't matter who the actors are, they can be the greatest actors in the universe and they will still suck, and this movie is no exception.

The first half of this movie is horribly s l o w!!!! It takes forever before anyone gets killed, and all the annoying exposition spells out the whole movie, well except for the plot twist in the third act.

By far the worst actor is the husband of the crazy women. Apparently, he styles himself as kind of an Antonio Banderas type of person. What he obviously is a ridiculous looser in a bad horror movie. Man does he sound stupid every time he opens his mouth! The guy who plays Tifanny Shepis' boyfriend is also a moron. The way he gets killed is great, and I hope to never see him in another movie ever again.

There is an attempt at an actual plot in Nightmare Man, and thats kind of refreshing for these types of horror movies, but then again, it really isn't that great - the special effects are at about the level they had in 1985. But overall I did enjoy the gore, right when I was getting sick of this stupid movie, someone would get an arrow through the face and that made up for it. Still, Rolfe Kanefsky should never make a movie ever again. How do people like him find the will and money to continue? Rolfe, Uwe Boll and Ulli Lommel form the triumvirate of the worst filmmakers of the 21st century. All three of them apparently have tons of money to waste of awful movies that should have never been made. There are so many other worthwhile places in the world their time and money could go. I would say talents as well, but its clear that they are 100% talent-free.

I have to say, I have never walked out of a movie before. I've seen some pretty crap movies, too, but I stick around and watch them, and then laugh later.

I can only say that this movie was so horrible (perhaps the reason it made it into the Horrorfest line up, because it was so terrible as to be horrifying?), that I was insulted by it. Heralding back to the days of cheesy 80's horror, this was by far even worse than those amusing flicks.

Bad acting, horrible effects and makeup, terrible filming, irritating music...did I mention the bad acting? There's a place for movies like this...it's called Blockbuster, where you spend $3 to go home and be disappointed. My wife and I spent over $20 on this one movie to end up walking out, it was atrocious.

To the people in charge of selecting the Horrorfest lineup...please bother to pick something a bit more worth our time and money. More selections like this in the future will only land you crappy reviews and less ticket sales. Try living up to at least SOME kind of standards.

To those of you that got through the entire movie, bravo! You have more stamina than I...we seriously had to leave, or I might have hurt myself laughing.