Tweet
Released by: Umbrella Entertainment
Released on: March 28th, 2023.
Director: John Lamond
Cast: Jenny Neumann, Gary Sweet, Nina Landis, Max Phipps
Year: 1980
Purchase From Amazon
Nightmares – Movie Review:
John Lamond's Aussie slasher Nightmares begins when a young girl named Cathy yells at the man her mother is fooling around with while they're driving in their car. Cathy's outburst inadvertently causes a car crash and her mother is killed.
Cut to the present day where we meet an American stage actress named Helen (Jenny Neuman) looking for work in Sydney. She meets a soap opera actor named Terry (Gary Sweet) who is trying to get a break into stage acting and who is auditioning for director George Dalberg (Max Phipps). They hit it off and before you know it, Helen has landed the female lead in the play. Wouldn't you know it though, once Helen is onboard and the cast and crew start moving full steam ahead in their production, some gruesome murders, all involving shards of glass and most involving sex, start occurring around the theater. Helen starts having vivid nightmares where she's stalked by a young woman.
Complicating matters further is the presence of a lecherous theater critic named Bennett Collingswood (John Michael Howson) who is zipping around backstage basically trying to solicit sex from both Helen and one of her male co-stars, Bruce (Edmund Pegge), in exchange for positive press. When the first reviews of the production hit the streets, Helen is the only one kindly reviewed, which puts her in the hot seat when George and her fellow cast members start to take issue with her - but all the while the bodies keep piling up around them.
Alternately known as Stage Fright (and having nothing to do with Soavi's movie of the same name), Nightmares is a gleefully trashy piece of Ozsploitation that borrows pretty liberally from Italian giallos. Directed and produced by Lamond, best known for sex films like Felicity and The ABC Of Love And Sex, it's a fairly nonsensical slasher chock full of completely gratuitous nudity and plenty of bloody murder set pieces. The fact that it frequently steps in and out of the realm of the logical is secondary, as it moves at such a quick pace and throws in so much sleaze that you don't really need to worry so much about the plot holes and logic gaps. Rather, you just take it all in and enjoy the show.
While it's not particularly difficult to figure out who the killer is and what the deal is behind the murders, there are a few effective red herrings thrown into the film in its final half hour and you've got to give credit to Lamond for managing to make the film look as good as it does. The camera work on display here is top notch and the film does a great job of exploiting its theater location for all its worth. A decent score from prolific composer Brian May, he of Mad Max and The Road Warrior fame, helps give the film some welcome atmosphere and a few of the murder set pieces manage to get a good bit of tension going in the film. Performances are decent (a few familiar faces pop up in the cast as this film shares actors and actresses with films like Long Weekend, The Road Warrior and Felicity among others) and production values are strong - if you don't mind the ropey plotting and wonky storyline, Nightmares delivers, particularly in its longer uncut version as it is presented here.
Nightmares – Blu-ray Review:
Nightmares arrives on a 50GB region free Blu-ray disc with the feature presented in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 2.35.1. There are a few small specks here and there but the vast majority of the picture is nice and clean, showing very little damage but retaining the natural film grain it should. Colors generally look pretty nice, as do skin tones. There’s some very minor crush in a few darker spots but otherwise, there’s little to complain about here. Detail is quite solid and we get nice texture and good black levels as well.
The sole audio option on the disc is a 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track in the original English language. Optional subtitles are provided in English only. No problems to note here, the audio quality is fine. The track is nicely balanced and the score sounds good and there are no problems to note with any hiss or distortion.
Extras kick off with a fun commentary track from John Lamond and the director of Not Quite Hollywood, Mark Hartley. This is a fairly good natured track with a decent sense of humor to it as Hartley pokes fun at some of Nightmares more obvious problems, but there's enough serious information in here courtesy of Lamond to make it well worth a listen for anyone with an interest in the film or Australian exploitation in general. Lamond speaks about casting the film, the script, the effects, the locations used and more and discusses some of the film's more gratuitous qualities quite candidly.
The eight-minute Confessions Of An R-Rated Movie Maker interviews John D. Lamond for a bit about his career in sexploitation pictures. Here he speaks about the success of Alvin Purple and how that sort of helped to launch a naughtier side of Ozploitation. He then shares some stories about some of the product he was responsible for in the seventies and how many of them are quite tame by modern standards, even if they were considered pornographic at the time.
Up next is twenty-eight minutes of extended interviews from Not Quite Hollywood with director John D. Lamond and actress Nina Landis. Lamond talks about the tax deals that made the filmmaking scene in Australia what it was, rushed production schedules, getting good actors to work with, working with Brian May on the score, the specifics of some of the death scenes in the movie, where stunt doubles were used and more. Landis discusses her initial thoughts on the script as well as all the sex and violence in it, choosing to play the part of Judy because "she's the only one who doesn't get killed while screwing," her thoughts on exploitation movies, memories of some of her co-stars and other topics related to this part of her career.
There are also nine minutes of deleted scenes taken from the only existing source, that being an older VHS tape. There's some interesting bits here, including bits from the theater audition, rehearsals for the play and some minor character development bits.
Rounding out the extras are the John Lamond Trailer Reel (which includes trailers for Australia After Dark, The ABC’s Of Love And Sex, Felicity, Nightmares, Pacific Banana, Breakfast In Paris and Sky Pirates), a trailer for the feature and a still gallery. Trailers and chapter stops are also included.
This release also includes some reversible cover sleeve artwork and, if purchased directly from Vinegar Syndrome’s website, includes an embossed slipcover featuring newly created artwork by Black Coffiend limited to 2,000 copies. There’s also color booklet inside the case containing an essay from Alexandra Heller-Nicholas titled ‘Australia Day And Other Nightmares’ that does a nice job of summarizing the film’s history.
Nightmares - The Final Word:
Nightmares may suffer from rather large and frequent logic gaps but it's never less than completely entertaining. Most reading this site will already have an affinity for naked ladies and gore and know right away that this movie delivers both in healthy doses but on top of the more exploitative elements the film also contains a few interesting murder set pieces, some legitimate tension and nice cinematography. The Blu-ray edition from Umbrella Entertainment offers up the film in a very strong presentation and with some solid extra features exploring its origins and the career of the man who made it.