6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Mentally unbalanced patient, George Tatum, is released from a New York mental hospital, slums it up on sleazy 42nd Street, and then travels to Florida to terrorize an unsuspecting family. Brutal, uncompromising, and graphic, this is one NIGHTMARE that you'll never forget! Originally released unrated to theaters during the height of the slasher craze in the early 1980s, this slasher-splatter classic has garnered a huge cult horror fanbase in the years since.
Starring: Baird Stafford, Sharon Smith (I), C.J. Cooke, Mik Cribben, Danny RonanHorror | 100% |
Video codec: HEVC / H.265
Video resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Three-disc set (3 BDs)
4K Ultra HD
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 5.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Severin Films has released Romano Scavolini's NIGHTMARE (1981) in a three-disc set. The limited edition includes two archival audio commentaries, a long interview with Scavolini, both vintage and new cast/crew interviews, a locations tour, a feature-length documentary on the film's British distributor, excised scenes, galleries, and trailers. The UHD and two BD-50s are region-free.
The production of Nightmare is a case where director Romano Scavolini's unorthodox storytelling approach clashed with a more conventional approach favored by his producers. Scavolini brought a European sensibility to this film predicated on ambiguity and open-ended plot lines. By contrast, producer John Watkins and one of the picture's executive producers advocated an explanatory model which clearly delineates the characters' motives and happenings in the story. The resulting film is a hodgepodge of the two approaches. Scavolini's original screenplay was 167 pages. He wanted the movie to run at least two hours, but as he explains in a new interview on the second disc of this set, he was compelled to trim it down to around an hour and a half so New York exhibitors could fit in more daily showings. Scavolini always wanted the film titled Nightmare, but it was changed to Dark Games during production, only to revert back to the original title when the film opened domestically in October 1981.
Nightmare was part of the early cycle of slasher films. It takes on a different angle than many of them. As Scavolini explains so well in the interview, the story is inspired by the CIA's MKULTRA program in which experimental subjects were given psychotropic drugs. George Tatum (Baird Stafford) is one of the guinea pigs in a government agency's program. He's been locked up ever since committing a most heinous act during his childhood. George's psychiatrist Paul Williamson (Bill Milling) and the program's top brass are convinced that a wonder drug is working on their patient. Quite inexplicably, George gets out. He travels from New York down to South Carolina and all the way to Florida. George has an idée fixe for attacking beautiful ladies. No one is safe around him. He sets his sights on a lower middle-class suburban home in Cocoa Beach where single mom Susan Temper (Sharon Smith) lives with her three children, including miscreant C.J. (C.J. Cooke). As the narrative unfolds, it becomes clearer why George is targeting this family.
George confronts C.J.
Severin Films' three-disc package includes an embossed slipcover with reversible cover artwork. We did not review Code Red's "35 Anniversary Edition" Blu-ray, which is struck from a 2103 master. The feature presentation on the UHD and the first Blu-ray disc were "scanned from the internegative and various foreign print sources to create the most complete version ever assembled." This 99-minute cut is longer than any of the release prints shown in the US that I am aware of. For its extended run in New York, Nightmare played at 97 minutes. It had an identical runtime in Virginia-area theaters. When the picture was exhibited in Los Angeles theaters in 1982, it had the shorter length of 94 minutes. The Severin transfer is a composite, consolidating missing frames extant on other prints shown in international markets.
Nightmare was shot on Arriflex 35 mm film and appears in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. It boasts a very rough and gritty texture typical of film stocks used for '80s indies. Grain is omnipresent. Severin has done a commendable job of cleaning up dirt and excess artifacts. Some ultra-thin vertical tramlines remain. For example, see one present on Susan's left cheek in Screenshot #3. In Screenshot #s 25-26, during another phone scene (Nightmare has lots of them), there are strange halo spots directly above Susan's hair. You'll notice them more in motion. Their presence probably has something to do with the grain pattern and the hues. But they don't mesh well. It likely was difficult for Severin to remove them unless it resorted to blatant DNR. Thankfully, noise reduction has not been used.
The HDR10 on the 4K enhances detail on faces and skin complexions in general. I feel the HDR brings out the lighting effects in the psychiatric clinic rather well. Ditto for the street lamps and neon lights illuminated on storefronts along 42nd Street. The HDR also deepens the blacks but also accents murky characteristics in the image. The HDR only occasionally stands out. A film like Nightmare transfers to 2K resolution just as well, if not better. The addition of more pixels on a dark movie like this can tend to thicken the textures, which sometimes creates a swarm effect in the grain field. It's nice to have Nightmare on 4K but I will likely return to the standard Blu-ray more often.
The BD-66 sports an average bitrate of 74.0 Mbps and an overall bitrate of 83.0 Mbps. Severin's Blu-ray for Nightmare (disc size: 33.60 GB) has a superior encode compared to Code Red's. Severin's MPEG-4 AVC encode for the feature carries a mean video bitrate of 36764 kbps, which is an upgrade over Code Red's quite meager bitrate of 19000 kbps.
Screenshot #s 1-10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, & 40 = 4K Ultra HD (downsampled to 1080p)
Screenshot #s 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, 37, & 39 = Blu-ray (2023 Severin Films BD-50)
A dozen chapters accompany the 99-minute feature.
Severin has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 remix (3384 kbps, 24-bit) and a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo track (2040 kbps, 24-bit). It seems that the stereo track is merely a downmix of the 5.1. Spoken words are widened to the front left and front right channels instead of focalized to the center speaker. Disappointingly, the film's original mono has not been included on either disc. Still, the master used for this release is in reasonably good shape. On the 5.1 track, I can pick out low-end sounds well. The satellite speakers occasionally deliver on musical score, street noises, and jet sounds of a commercial airplane. Jack Eric Williams's score is long overdue for an album release. His main theme is built around bass guitar and harmonica. He also incorporates a pan flute for scenes involving C.J. and other scenes that gradually build suspense. Williams's bass guitar flanger effect for the extended scene inside a derelict Florida house was no doubt influenced by the flanger Harry Manfredini uses quite memorably in Friday the 13th (1980).
I watched Nightmare a second time with the optional English SDH on. Severin did a practically flawless job with the dialogue transcriptions.
Disc 1: UHD
Nightmare works well as a pathological study of a violence-prone, traumatized individual and the pernicious effects hallucinatory drugs have on his psyche. The film also delivers a critical examination of George's ambivalence towards sexuality since he was a youngster and how his complete bewilderment to S&M games has a lasting impact on his temperament. I would consider Severin Films' deluxe edition definitive if only it had included the film's original mono mix, which is unfortunately not here. The transfer look aptly grainy and authentic. The extras are superabundant. Scavolini's interview is outstanding. If you picked up Vinegar Syndrome's phenomenal release of Silent Madness (1984) from a few years ago, you're sure to love this package as well. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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