the disastrous lighting and overly serious tone make it a frustrating experience that most viewers will end up fast-forwarding through
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"Nightmare Man" is one of the worst low-budget horror films I´ve ever seen released by a "major" studio. It´s so poorly shot and lit that half the time I didn´t know what the hell was going on. One could argue the fact that Lionsgate releases cheesy, low-budget fare such as this to DVD on an almost weekly basis. The main difference here is that they choose to release this film for a minor theatrical run as part of the second After Dark Horrorfest that crept into theaters for a weekend last fall. "Nightmare Man" has no business whatsoever being shown on the big screen, let alone being labeled and promoted as one of the "8 Films to Die For."
Ellen (Blythe Metz) Morris receives a mysterious demonic-looking tribal mask in the mail instead of the fertility mask she had ordered. Later that night she´s attacked and raped by a creature wearing the mask, or was it just a dream? Either way, she´s diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, and after her medication doesn´t help destroy hallucinations of her "Nightmare Man," her husband decides to take her to a mental institution. On the way there the car runs out of gas, and after her husband leaves in search of fuel, the "Nightmare Man" returns to attack her once again. Running for her life through the forest, Ellen happens upon a cabin where two young couples are vacationing. She bursts in on their hot game of "Truth or Dare" to announce that there´s somebody in the woods trying to kill her. But is the "Nightmare Man" real, or is Ellen just as crazy as she sounds?
If parts of the plot line seem familiar, it´s because many moments are blatantly stolen from classic flicks like "The Evil Dead," "Trilogy of Terror," "The Exorcist," "Psycho," and a host of other better flicks. It´s quite possible that the writer/director of "Nightmare Man," Rolfe Kanefsky, intended the film to be an homage to these genre-defining classics. But instead of coming across as a heartfelt love letter to those movies, it reads more like a poorly cribbed cheat sheet.
Of all the eight films included in this year´s Horrorfest, "Nightmare Man" was the one that I was the most interested in. Kanefsky was the only filmmaker involved in the festival who had made more than one or two movies, the premise of this one seemed intriguing, and it´s got my favorite former Troma actress, Tiffany Shepis, in a starring role. I had never seen any of Kanefsky´s prior films, and I was expecting a fun, campy movie, but "Nightmare Man" takes itself far too seriously to be enjoyed as camp. The hackneyed script never evolves past its basic outline and simply recycles familiar moments from better films. And as much as I enjoy watching Tiffany Shepis disrobe on-screen in films such as "Abominable" and "Delta Delta Die!," seeing her try and actually act in "Nightmare Man" was a bit of a stretch.
The terrible acting, pacing, high-school drama-class makeup, and shoddy plot devices in "Nightmare Man" aside, its main problem is the horrible camera work and nonexistent lighting. I understand that the intent was to make a dark film, but there are entire moments of outdoor scenes where all I could see was one dark blob interacting with another dark blob. At one point the killer slinks towards the camera wearing what looks like a black spandex suit and the tribal mask. I thought I had put a horror movie into my DVD player, not a disc of Mumenschantz.
Video:
The widescreen presentation of "Nightmare Man" features a 2.35:1 aspect ratio and looks awful. It may be the worst-looking DVD I´ve ever seen released by a major distributor. The lit interior scenes are passable but everything else (85% of the movie) is simply unwatchable. If I were Lionsgate, I would be ashamed to have this transfer in my collection of releases.
