“Look, let’s just put the knife down, okay?”
“Yeah, we have a gun, it’s better. ”
The next movie in our look at the 2007 After Dark Horrrorfest Movie series, is one that tries to combine horror with humor without sliding into camp. It’s time to review Nightmare Man
TITLE:
NIGHTMARE MAN
Director:
Rolfe Kanefsky
GENRE:
Horror, Comedy
RATING:
Rated R.
SUMMARY:
When she receives a strange fertility mask in the mail, Ellen is attacked by creature she calls The Nightmare Man. Her husband William does not believe her. Worried about her sanity, he drives her up to a clinic when their car runs out of gas. After he leaves her get more gas, Ellen is attacked again by the creature this time bent on killing her, not merely raping her.
The Nightmare Man toys with her like a cat playing with a mouse until she manages to find refuge in an isolated cabin where Mia and her friends are spending the night. Mia and Ed are having a party for Mia’s best friend Trinity and her soon-to-be husband Jack. The problem is that Mia doesn’t approve of Jack — she wants the old friends with benefits relationship with Tiffany back.
Ellen stumbles upon this group of friends. They give her shelter within the house and call the police. Unfortunately, the police are hours away and the creature ends the cat and mouse game to begin the killing in earnest — starting with the friends who rescued Ellen.
APPEAL:
I enjoyed some parts of this low budget movie. Surprisingly, I was more interested in the dynamics of the two young couples than in Ellen and her creature. Unfortunately, those stories were never able to be resolved.
The writer/director Rolfe Kanefsky has said that this movie was a horror-comedy. It did have moments of humor — the moment when Mia blurted out the secret about her physical relationship with Tiffany to Jack, for instance — but the movie didn’t feel like a comedy to me. The twist ending was marred by campy acting which spoiled my enjoyment of the scenes. If you are a uber-dangerous demonic force but you smile like Caesar Romero’s Joker in the campy Batman series of the 1960s, then you just won’t be taken as a credible threat.
This was a disappointing movie in that it wasn’t very funny nor very scary. It was, however, so bad that bad movie aficionados will enjoy watching it.
WATCHALIKES:
If you enjoyed Nightmare Man you might want to try Wrong Turn
You can order either the 2006 After Dark Horrorfest: 8 Films to Die For
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