A fun, but not very scary, Nightmare

Nightmare Man
After Dark Horrorfest 2007
Directed by Rolfe Kanefsky
Paradign Pictures

In November of 2006, After Dark Films began a horror film festival that put 8 independent movies into theaters so the masses could experience something different from the Hollywood drivel that's been released recently. Unfortunately, as they only released certain films to certain theaters and all on the same week, I was unable to see or choose any. I was elated when they were released on DVD the following March. I purchased them all and enjoyed them quite a bit. This past November of 2007, After Dark repeated the festival with a new crop of Films to Die For...and released them on DVD March 18th. Being the resident horror geek, I'm on the job.

Nightmare Man is my first After Dark 2007 film. It stars Blythe Metz as Ellen, a woman who orders a fertility mask from Italy (which imported said mask from Africa) and is appalled to discover that the thing is hideous. She tosses it aside and plans to later call the shipping company, certain that there's been a mistake. The audience is then treated to an unsettling scene in which the power goes off in her home and she is stalked by someone in the dark. This stalking culminates in an attack on Ellen by what appears to be a frightening demon.

Now, rest easy, these are not spoilers...this, in fact, only described perhaps the first 7min of the film. The rest of the movie focuses on Ellen's fear of the demon that attacked her and her husband's (Luciano Szafir) disbelief in the monster. Bill, Ellen's oh-so-supportive husband, is driving her to a hospital where she can get some rest and help. Unfortunately, he forgot to fill the gas tank and the car runs out of fuel...shocking, I know. What ensues after he leaves to get some gas is another attack by the demon who supposedly exists only in Ellen's head and a chase through the woods (what, you thought they stalled out on a main road?! Pssh.) to a house where four friends unsuspectedly play Truth or Dare. They are attacked by Ellen's demon and a fight to protect themselves becomes the new focus of the film. There are a few twists and turns in the movie, but nothing we haven't seen before. The end of the film will definitely get you laughing, though - an amusing sequence AND a cameo by Richard Moll of Night Court fame!

Nightmare Man is certainly not a high-caliber horror flick. The chase scene through the woods is far too long and you start hoping the demon would just catch up with her already to end the agony...your agony, not hers. The Truth or Dare friends, led by Mia (Tiffany Shepis), are both amusing and annoying, depending on what dialogue escapes their lips. In fact, Shepis is really the only entertaining actor in the entire film. Her sarcasm isn't witty, that's for sure, but you definitely chuckle at most of her lines. She becomes the tough girl of the film while Ellen is subdued on the couch. Metz's performance as Ellen is rather dry and goofy - like I said earlier, you don't really want her to survive, but her character delivers some seriously funny situations toward the end of the film. The focus of the film shifts too frequently for you to really take it seriously, and the dialogue is certainly not Pulitzer-Prize winning material. In general, the movie is more like a late-night Cinemax film than something Fangoria would rave about. Probably fitting, as Tiffany Shepis has been in a number of Emmanuelle movies. Hrm.

Bottom line, Nightmare Man is a fun horror movie to watch for some empty laughs and entertainment, but will not give you nightmares.


Available on DVD now.