There used to be a time when exploitation films ran amok in the world of cinema. They still appear today, in franchises like Hostel and the Saw. They can be tricky to slap an exact definition on, but you will know an exploitation film if you see one. And if you see one, you'll notice how difficult it is to determine whether or not the filmmaker accomplished his or her goal in making it. I.e., you might be disgusted by the violence in Hostel or Saw, but it's not as if the director accidentally filmed the guy getting his penis chopped off.
Back in 1980, Australian director John Lamond gave us Nightmares, a story about Helen Selleck (Jenny Neumann), a young actress who is struggling to get along in the world having been emotionally crippled as a child. When she was about seven or eight years old, she walked in on her mom doing it. Then a month later, she inadvertently distracted her mom while she was driving the car, and she wound up crashing into another car killing herself and her boyfriend. It might seem crass that I mentioned the fact that Helen walked in on her mom doing it a month before the fatal car accident. Like maybe me mentioning it isn't really relevant. Well, it wasn't relevant in the movie when the director showed us, either.
And that's part of the exploitation so to speak. John Lamond gives no apologies and has no excuses for showing Helen's mom naked and having sex -- it does nothing for the character or story, it's just a reason to show skin. It also serves as a flashback several times during Helen's anxiety-stricken moments, so we get to see Helen's mom doing it over and over again.
As mentioned, Helen is an actress, and the story takes place around her being cast in a fairly big stage production. It's during the days leading up to the opening of the play and the first couple performances that a murderer starts stalking the cast members, killing them off one by one. The murderer's weapon of choice is a shard of glass from whatever window is closest to her that she can break. It's kind of a cool murder weapon, because you never have to have it on you until you murder the victim, but it only works if you murder people around windows or mirrors.
Campy horror or not, this movie fails for a couple of reasons. The biggest being the fact that the movie and camerawork do a lot to imply that the identity of the killer is a mystery. All of the murders happen in his or her POV and the victims never mention the killer's name as they are being slashed to death. So is it a mystery? No. I guess I shouldn't spoil it for anyone, but stupidly obvious who the killer. The fact that it's not a mystery means that we just see Helen's cast members being offed one by one in a very dull fashion for 80 minutes. It's very, very boring.
And when someone does get murdered, it's usually during or after some kind of sexual act, or even the proposal of a sexual act. This gives (I guess) plenty of reason for the director to show more nudity. In fact, the first two murder victims, a man and woman who are doing it in an alley at night, well, I can't even remember their faces, simply because the camera was on the woman's genitals more than it was on her face. It's a close-up vagina for about a full minute, even when she's getting stabbed.
That's what Nightmares is: an 80-minute close-up shot of genitals punctuated by people getting stabbed in the neck with shards of broken glass. It's all in good fun, sure, but if you're looking for a silly horror movie with senseless violence and nudity, there are better options than this.
DVD Extras Features:
There are a lot of trailers, one for Nightmares as well as a few other John Lamond movies. There's an audio commentary with director John Lamond along with another director, Mark Hartley. Then there's a short historical piece called "Going to Pieces: The Rise & Fall of the Slasher Film," which is a sit-down interview with Adam Rockoff, who seems to be a good authority on slasher films. The only downside to this is that the piece is super low-quality -- it literally seems as if it was ripped off of a VHS tape.
"Nightmares" is on sale June 28, 2011 and is not rated. Horror. Directed by John Lamond. Written by Colin Eggleston, John Michael Howson (story), John Lamond (story). Starring Gary Sweet, Jenny Neumann, Max Phipps, Nina Landis.
