My guess? Not the cat.
Main Cast: Blythe Metz, Luciano Szafir
Director: Rolfe Kanefsky
Each year there are movies produced that are never seen by the public. Their content is considered too graphic, too disturbing, too shocking for general audiences. This is one of those films.
Ellen and William (Blythe Metz and Luciano Szafir, JACQUELINE HYDE and Amore e Intrigas respectively) are having trouble conceiving, so Ellen orders an African fertility mask in hopes of finally getting pregnant. However, when the mask arrives, the demon face is so off-putting she tosses it aside and wants nothing to do with it. But the mask begins to haunt her dreams, and soon Ellen comes to believe the evil spirit in the mask, which she calls the Nightmare Man, is really out to get her. Her belief is so strong, eventually William decides to have her committed.
On the way to the hospital, the car runs out of gas. There’s no cell reception in the woods they’re driving through, but William remembers seeing a sign for a gas station, which is about 10 miles away. He can be back in a few hours. Ellen just needs to sit tight and he’ll return with the gas. But as night falls, Ellen is plagued by the certainty the Nightmare Man is outside, trying to get her. And when he rips through the back seat, from inside the trunk, she’s sure of it.
Ellen takes off into the woods with the Nightmare Man in pursuit, and eventually she makes her way to a secluded cabin where she finds four friends enjoying a weekend getaway.
They save Ellen from being murdered in the woods, but when they get through to William on the phone–who’s suddenly got service, even though he’s back at the car with the gas, where he had no service a few hours ago–he explains to them she’s delusional and is on her way to being committed. But when Ed goes outside to get a smoke and winds up with an arrow in his mouth, maybe there’s someone out there after all.
I had no idea what to expect going into NIGHTMARE MAN, and was less than impressed when it started, but by the end I became a huge fan of this movie. The budget is small, and it shows. The script is bad, the effects aren’t that great, and the acting is, in more places than I’m comfortable with, pretty laughable. But for all these faults, NIGHTMARE MAN is fun as hell.
Rolfe Kanefsky’s (THERE’S NOTHING OUT THERE and JACQUELINE HYDE) script and direction both pay such respectful homage to horror films in general throughout the decades, that it’s going to be almost impossible for fans not to get behind this movie. The plot goes against the grain in so many places, giving the characters weapons to defend themselves, they are able to get through to the police, they don’t split up, or any of the other cheap slasher movie conventions that make the genre so ridiculous sometimes. When the script is good, it’s very good, and those good moments are always the humorous ones, which are never overplayed.
NIGHTMARE MAN is one of those movies that’s self-aware enough, and takes itself just seriously enough without getting into utterly ridiculous nonsense like THE DEATHS OF IAN STONE did. It’s also a movie that gets better on a second viewing. New sights and revelations are opened up, like how beautifully edited the movie is. There’s a scene as the two storylines, the cabin of friends and Ellen in the woods, are coming together that’s just awesome in how it’s constructed. I’m now looking forward to seeing it a third time and picking up on more things I discovered.
NIGHTMARE MAN looks just cheap enough to keep it from gaining the respect it deserves, and there’s still that script and the acting to contend with, both of which are pretty unimpressive in more places than they should. But the end result is, nevertheless, just a really fun movie, well-put-together with care and precision, and while you think it’s totally predictable, and you’re almost right, there are enough surprises–and they’re all handled well enough–you won’t feel cheated or let down.
NIGHTMARE MAN is far from perfect, but, man, I really dug it, and am ready to see it again.
More 8 Films to Die For II
C. Dennis Moore is the author of over 60 published short stories and novellas in the speculative fiction genre. Most recent appearances are in the Dark Highlands 2, What Fears Become, Dead Bait 3 and Dark Highways anthologies. His novels are Revelations, and the Angel Hill stories, The Man in the Window, The Third Floor, and The Flip.
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