Saturday

Nightmare Man

(2007)

Nightmare Man was one of the eight films in the After Dark Horrorfest 2 in November of 2007. If you aren't familiar with the concept, it's basically a wide-release film festival in which a slate of low budget indie horror films is released as a package to be run nationwide during a single week. The films run in rotation, and tickets may be purchased for individual films or for the entire line-up. The first Horrorfest was held in 2006 in 488 theaters and the gross ($2.5 million) was successful enough to spur the development of a second group for 2007. The second assortment was, according to most genre experts, a better collection of films, but did not enjoy anywhere near the same financial success. The distributors were able to place round two in only 323 theaters, and the promotion grossed only about a third as much as it had the previous year, leaving the project's future uncertain.

This film begins with a man transporting his wife to a mental institution. Ever since she ordered an African fertility mask to spice up her sex life, she has been haunted by dreams of a powerful being wearing that mask - the titular Nightmare Man. She insists that the dreams are not dreams at all.

As they approach their destination, their car breaks down on a remote part of a rural road, and her husband starts out on a ten mile hike to the nearest gas station while she waits in the car with the doors locked. Night falls and Nightmare Guy shows up to terrorize her. She manages to elude his grasp and makes her way to a remote cabin where four young adults are engaged in dinner, drinking and sexy games. At first, based upon their cell phone conversations with the husband, the people in the lodge refuse to believe that Nightmare Guy is real, but when the first of them dies a violent death, they soon change their minds. As the Nightmare Dude picks them off one by one, the police and the husband make their way to the cabin ...

Despite a sub-5 rating at IMDb, Nightmare Man is not a bad little film at all. It is a classic 1980's style horror film with some grisly deaths, some scares, some humor, some softcore titillation, some interesting plot twists, and some sexy nudity. If you will remember, the original Friday the 13th could be described in about the same terms. Like that film, Nightmare Man offers a logical and a supernatural explanation back-to-back. Most people have forgotten that the actual killer in the first Friday 13th film turned out to be Jason's mother, who was just a crazy mortal assuming the identity of her dead son. But then, just when everything seemed to have a perfectly logical explanation, the real Jason turned up as the November surprise. Nightmare Man has a similar type of approach.

I found only one major problem with it. The success of the premise in the early part of the film hinges upon our not knowing for quite some time whether the Nightmare Individual is a human killer, a supernatural entity, or a figment of the woman's imagination. The answer to that mystery is all too evident all too early, when the Nightmare Fellow chases the lead actress through the woods and catches her twice, only to be foiled by a knee to the crotch or a bite on the hand. In fact, she even manages to take his knife from him at one time. These scenes demonstrate that Nightie is obviously not imaginary, and obviously a very vulnerable human rather than a supernatural force. At least I assume that one cannot stop Beelzebub, for example, with a kick in the nuts. But I'm no theologian, so I could be wrong. When Nightmare Chap's vulnerability becomes evident, the mystery/thriller element of the story loses a lot of its momentum. Since he is established as a normal human, and since no human could possibly have known the precise place where her car broke down except her husband, it is obvious at that point that the killer must either be her husband or somebody in league with him. That all happened early in the film, and the script probably should have done a better job at keeping that a secret.

Having made that point, I'd add that there are more secrets which are not spoiled until the proper moments, and that 80s-style horror films are really about the guilty pleasures, which this film delivers quite effectively. The editing is good enough to deliver the "boo" scares, and genre staple Tiffany Shepis delivers an effective, sexy performance as one of the four people in the cabin, showing some acting chops (unlike the rest of the cast), a good amount of sexy flesh, and even some iconic genre-style bravado whether acting as a topless, helpless victim of an overpowering violation or a bad-ass tough girl wielding a crossbow in her underwear.

Blythe Metz film clips (samples below)

Tiffany Shephis film clips (samples below)

 

 

 

  • * Yellow asterisk: funny (maybe).

  • * White asterisk: expanded format.

  • * Blue asterisk: not mine.

  • No asterisk: it probably sucks.

OTHER CRAP:

Catch the deluxe version of Other Crap in real time, with all the bells and whistles, here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sinful Deeds 2

(2001)

Holly Sampson, Justin Kyle and Dru Berrymore team up to separate men from their money. Dru has the connections, and throws parties. Justin Kyle befriends the mark, and helps make him vulnerable. Then Holly Sampson seduces him, robs him of everything, and leaves a red rose. Justin is invited to a three-way with Dru and Susan Hale, and manages to piss off Dru, who threatens to report him to her FBI friends. Meanwhile, Holly has lost interest in the scam, and has fallen for their newest mark, who happens to be an insurance investigator. I will leave it to you to discover how this all plays out.

Sinful Deeds 2 is evidently an edited softcore version of another film called Carnal Passion, which includes medium-core action. All of the sex and nudity scenes in this edited version seem very badly cut, and some information vital to the plot is missing.  If you are determined to see this one, I suggest looking for the Carnal Passion title. I will say that there is enough plot, however predictable, to make a barely watchable R movie, but Sinful Deeds 2 is not it.

Holly Sampson shows breasts in several scenes. Dru Berrymore shows everything, and Susan Hale shows breasts.

Holly Sampson

Dru Barrymore

Susan Hale

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Hitman

(2007)

From a really bad movie, Death to the Supermodels, we have the only good thing about this flick some nice T & A from Eva Derrek as she poses for two gay photographers. Caps and a clip. The rest  of the movie is pure garbage.

Scoop's notes: My comments on this movie. If anything, Hank was too generous. It is rated appropriately at IMDb with a sterling 2.1, which is good enough to make the all-time bottom 50. I agree completely. If I had to pick the hundred worst movies I have ever seen, this would surely be on the list. It might even be "bottom twenty" material.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes and collages

Invasionmania

 

Brooke Adams in the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers

   

 

Veronica Cartwright the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers

 

Nicole Kidman in the 2007 re-remake, which was simply called Invasion

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pics

Eva Longoria, almost escaping from her dress

Statuesque superduper model Penny Lancaster and her husband Rod Stewart

 

 

Film Clips


Debra Winger - The Sheltering Sky

Leah de Wavrin on a fashion catwalk. If you've ever seen Altman's Ready to Wear, you probably think he was kidding with the totally naked models. Not so, as you'll see at the very end of this clip.

Angel Tompkins in The Teacher

Angie Cepeda in Oculto

Elizabeth Hurley in Rowing With the Wind. You'd think it would be virtually impossible to make a bad movie about Lord Byron. Get a guy like Daniel Craig to play the role, and you can't go wrong because Byron was a crazy dude who lived a wild, lusty life filled with variety. There's pretty much only one way you could fuck up a Lord Byron movie  - cast Hugh Grant as Byron. This film did just that.

Marg Helgenberger in Conundrum

Trysh Jefferson in Colors