Fantastic!

Admirable film.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

I finally got the chance to watch Nightmare thanks to Amazon Prime, and boy was it a treat for anyone who likes classic slasher films. The film follows a mentally ill killer as he escapes from an experimental mental hospital and travels down the US coast to Florida, killing many people along the way. Its a very simplistic plot, which is common among 70's/80's slasher films. But thats ok because nobody in their right mind would see a movie like this for strong story telling and intelligent writing. We come to this film for the gore.When I saw that Tom Savini did the practical effects for the film, I instantly knew that this would be a bloody roller coaster ride, and it sure was. Ferocious, violent, and brutal, this film will be a true treat for any fan of gory slasher films from the 80's. Enough gore to satisfy the majority of splatter film fans. The film also delves into the character of the killer, which is less common among films like this of the time. He feels bad for killing but still has the uncontrollable urge to kill. The acting is moderate, not as bad as many other films like it. But again, I didn't come here for the acting.In all, this film is an absolute must-see for horror movie fans and people who enjoy a blood fever dream of a film.

When I was a kid our friends would be raving about the latest Bond film or Ghostbusters, Gremlins, Back to the Future or Indiana Jones. However there was always one lad raving about the video nasty he just watched and go into detail the gruesome scenes in the film.Nightmare from 1981 would be that type of film. It has some nasty murder scenes of several women getting their throats cut or heads decapitated.This is a low budget horror film featuring George who as a child saw his father having S&M sex with a prostitute and killed them both. Now as an adult he is supposedly cured after taking a new experimental drugs. However George has disappeared somewhere along the Florida coast but not before he visits the then seedy Times Square of New York and goes to some sex shows. Of course his psychotic, murdering urges get the better off him.There is another storyline of a family with a small child who plays pranks on his family. Eventually you know George and this family will collide especially at the end scenes where we have a clearer picture of what George did as a child and why he might had been stalking this family.It is an ultra low budget, seedy film but also dull. The prankster kid is the best thing in it and it's no surprise that he still works in the film industry. A lot of it is just boring with the older George in white underpants distressed and having bouts of screaming. In fact there are a lot of guys in white underpants in this film, you actually think if some of the actors just walked off from some porn set.The film has elements of Taxi Driver, The Shining and the fairy tale of The boy who cried wolf but with some bad acting. Apart from the gore and its reputation as a video nasty there is very little that is good about the film. Although I liked his doctors using early 1980s computers trying to track him down. Of course the young lad we knew back in the day will regard this as a classic but compare this to John Carpenter's Halloween and it is a no contest.

The infamy of "Nightmare" no doubt largely centers on the fact that the film's distributor faced prison time for refusing to cut down one scene from the film for its release in the United Kingdom. I mean, after all, how many horror films have that under their belt? The plot follows a disturbed schizophrenic who escapes from his experimental psychiatric hospital in New York City and heads down the coast to Florida, where his wife and children reside, killing along the way before making an attempt at his final hometown hurrah. With "Halloween" and "Maniac" being obvious influences here, "Nightmare" feels much more like a '70s picture than it does a product of the '80s, and its confluence of influences might be precisely why. The film's formula is fairly straightforward, although its subject matter is remarkably dark, insofar as it has to do with a man who can't help but want to slaughter his own children— it's a macabre affair all around, and the grindhouse aesthetic only bolsters the film's sinister tone. It's part slasher film and part psychosexual thriller, with leading man Baird Stafford playing the villain who's entire distorted existence seems to hinge on his childhood experience of witnessing his father's affair (and subsequently slaughtering both parties in their bed). The film does meander a bit between the realms of dramatic thriller and splatter epic, but it's an engaging watch none the less.I'd be lying if I said that the real attraction here for most people is the remarkable gore effects, which were controversially credited as being the work of Tom Savini— turns out Savini was apparently just a friend of the effects director and didn't actually work on the film, but regardless, the film showcases a plethora of elaborate murders with some remarkably nasty special effects; throats are slashed, people are stabbed, and heads roll, and Romano Scavolini makes sure his audience has front row closeups to all the nitty gritty details. The special effects work, though dated in some regards, is still surprisingly effective. Overall, "Nightmare" is a deserved cult classic that would appear to have come from the drive-in era of the late '70s; despite the fact that the film was made in the following decade, it retains a gritty exploitation feel in which violence is the central spectacle. Like I said, it's a dark movie— and a gratuitously violent one. It's the kind of thing you watch and then want to shower after. Like after a humid Florida evening, the film leaves you feeling slightly grimy, but that's what it sets out to do from the first reel. 7/10.

in 1981 i remember seeing this either at the cinema (doubtful) or on a VHS tape.due to its nature these types of films-video nasties-proved very popular amongst me and my horror film loving friends.here in the uk some of these films were easier to get hold of than others.this was a film i only vaguely remember seeing and its notoriety was not known to me at the time.so its been almost 30 years since i last saw it and last night i sat down to watch it once more..film stock is not very good so the picture is not perfect,in fact in some places its pretty awful....which just about sums the film up..the box has a quote on the front which reads.."the most repulsive,offensive,degrading,gory,depraved and horrifying movie ever made"..HAH !! only if you are a five year old child.like the evil dead and driller killer,its just terrible.it strives for horror but instead it bores you rigid.bad acting,some OK make up effects and hardly any gruesome deaths just make it tiresome...why this was EVER banned really is beyond me...