10/30/06: Nightmare (1981)Today’s entry is dedicated to
this teenager.
As noted in
our entry on
Shaun of the Dead—and
our interview with its director—most horror films are inherently right-wing. There are few threats that can’t be taken care of with a gun in the house. This includes zombies and
giant spiders and especially crazed psycho killers who aren’t invincible like
Jason Voorhees.
The psycho killer in
Nightmare is no Jason Voorhees. He’s just one of the greatest creations of sleazoid ’80s slasherdom. The same can be said of
Nightmare as a whole. This forgotten low-budget masterpiece is a bigger deal in the UK, thanks to a pivotal role in an old scandal over “video nasties.” Here in America, we had Siskel & Ebert trying to ban mainstream slasher films and
I Spit On Your Grave. We can’t recall them even noticing
Nightmare.
Too bad. The film could’ve used the publicity.
Nightmare begins with crazy George Tatum being declared cured by a bunch of egghead government types. They don’t seem bothered by Tatum’s tendency to wake up screaming. Obviously, we’re dealing with holdovers from the Carter administration. So off Tatum goes to a halfway house—except, in a shocking twist, the maniac doesn’t do as he’s told.
(Tatum, incidentally, is played by Baird Stafford. As with most of the
Nightmare cast, this was pretty much the beginning and end of his career.)
Tatum does us a favor and stops by Show World in Times Square, giving us a glimpse of the good old days. His violent flashbacks kind of screw up his enjoyment of the strip show. Tatum takes that as a sign to drive down to Florida. That’s where we see young C.J. Temper (we checked twice; that’s the character’s name) enjoying a happy childhood spent terrorizing his family with bloody pranks.
Nobody believes C.J. when he says that there’s a creepy guy hanging around outside the house. His mother and boyfriend go off on a trip, and they leave C.J. with a babysitter who takes lots of showers. The usual tension builds, but
Nightmare is innovative in its simple ending. This isn’t one of those films where you wonder why the terrorized victims don’t leave the house. C.J. has a good reason to keep close to home.
Here’s another of those 25-year-old spoilers: Tatum is running around in what seems to be a
Sid Haig mask. The babysitter has already encountered the business end of his pick axe. Our pal C.J., however, is ready to wrap up this horror movie. Tatum ends up banging on the wrong bedroom door. C.J. is inside, and he knows something that Tatum doesn’t know. Mainly, he knows where Mom keeps the firearms.
Few horror movies offer anything more fun than C.J. putting an end to both Tatum and
Nightmare. The kid calmly starts out with Mom’s revolver, and upgrades to the family rifle. C.J. handles the whole affair like it’s another evening of taking out the trash. Then we get a final twist where
Nightmare turns out to have equally influenced
Falling Down and
Sling Blade—but everyone would’ve figured that out an hour earlier.
Make it your own: We’ll have to send you to the UK to
buy a copy of
Nightmare—or, as it’s known there,
Nightmare in a Damaged Brain. At least the used DVDs are cheap, while crappy old VHS copies are overpriced.
