Nightmare (2005) Online

I had the pleasure of viewing Bank's film at the Boston Underground Film Festival recently. The theater was packed, and the director was on hand for an introduction and Q & A, to which the audience was very receptive. This film is one of the best I've seen in a long time, and for a first feature, this film presents itself as a phenomenal work. The acting is excellent- the leads have won numerous awards at several festivals, as well as the film itself, and of course, Mr. Banks. The film has a touch of Lost Highway as well as American Psycho, and nearly from the start, you descend into a type of madness into which you cannot escape, because reality versus perhaps another plane of existence blur continuously until the bitter end. With a film as strong as this, I was surprised to learn how young the director is- it seems as if he's been doing this for at least a decade. Everything about the production is very professional- I would not be surprised if Lion's Gate picked this up for distribution and released it in theaters. I hope that happens. This is a film that deserves to be seen. It crawls under your skin in a perverse, horrific, and sexually exciting way. And I'm a film programmer myself. I should know. No matter what film snobs may say, this is an audience film and one that's very enjoyable and deserves to put this director on the map.

Nightmare is set in New York where film student director (Jason Scott Campbell) has just turned in a terrific film for his course, at a party he meets a girl named Natalia & they head upstairs to the bedroom to have sex. The next morning & they both wake up next to each other & notice a camcorder at the bottom of the bed pointed straight at them, intrigued they look at whats on the tape inside the camera & are shocked to see themselves brutally kill three women in that room but neither remember doing it & the room is spotless with no blood anywhere. That morning in film class the student has to pitch an idea for a new project & decides to use the scenario he finds himself in, as the events surrounding the tape comes to light he films them as uses his real life situation as a script for his film...

Co-written & directed by first time filmmaker Dylan Blank I will not beat around the bush here & say quite simply that I hated Nightmare, I hated just about everything about it. Currently on the IMDb 'User Comments' section for Nightmare there are 6 comments (this will obviously increase over time...) & four of them give Nightmare 8 stars out of 10, one gives it 9 out of 10 while the only reviewer who has more than one comment (a respected reviewer of horror films in general on the IMDb) gave it a lowly 4, I wouldn't mind putting money on the fact all those comments praising this piece of crap came from people involved in the making of it, why only one comment apiece? I simply can't believe some of the comments here that I read, I think I watched a completely different film. For start those same said comments suggest that Nightmare is surreal, I'm sorry but I just call it an absolutely mess of a film that makes zero sense, no actually it makes less than zero sense & it's incredibly annoying, irritating & frustrating to endure. I don't really know where to begin with Nightmare & about the things which just make no sense of which there are plenty & are seemingly there for random reasons, there's something about tapes which is never resolved, there's apparently a killer going around which is never resolved, there's some out of nowhere scene featuring this guy (we never even find out his name) in a prison cell & then being interrogated & the whole making of a film within a film is just poorly done. The film has no story, it has no conclusion or resolution, the character's are awful & have no background or depth, it makes no sense & it's an incredibly painful experience to sit though in one go. Did the makers even have a script? It feels like sometimes they are just making it up as they go along. The more I think about Nightmare the more I hate it. What's the point of coming up with a potentially interesting story about mysterious tapes which seem to show people killing other people even though they don't remember doing it & then not even bother resolving it or going anywhere with it?

Besides a terrible script that makes no sense, has no story & is just generally all round rubbish I also hated the way it was put together. The whole film being made within a film is just so irritating it's untrue, particularly towards the end your never sure what is is part of the actual film or what is being filmed & frustratingly it's never resolved or explained. There are often long stretches you can't understand what the hell is going on, the end filmed with a camcorder in particular is one of the worst filmed sequences in a professional film I have ever seen, it's literally impossible to figure out whats happening. It's all meant to be surrealistic, trippy & abstract but as I said for me Nightmare just came across as a huge mess from start to finish. At times it felt like Nightmare was randomly edited together by a chimpanzee with a pair of scissors & a roll of sticky-tape. Looking like it was shot in the director's apartment on a camcorder it's quite hard to even categorise this, I certainly wouldn't call it a horror film that's for sure. There's little in the way of gore, there's a bit of fake blood splashed around & a severed hand but nothing else. It doesn't even feel like a horror film, there's nothing scary or creepy or atmospheric here at all. There's a lot of nudity but most of the cast aren't exactly model material if you know what I mean.

Nightmare looks every bit as low budget as is so obviously was, I just don't see anything here that impressive. The photography is point & shoot stuff, there are no special effects, there's no style or atmosphere & there's nothing here to distinguish it from the hundreds of low budget shot on a camcorder flicks out there. The acting didn't impress me, I thought it was terrible to be honest.

Nightmare is like it's title suggests a bit of a nightmare, to watch that is. Everyone is entitled to an opinion & for those of you who rated this an 8 or 9 that's fine, for me though I thought this was absolutely terrible & an incredibly frustrating mess of a film to watch.

It has taken me a little while to write about this film after I saw what I believe was it's East Coast Premier in Oct. at the Eerie Horror Fest (a new and remarkably well run film fest.) This is the first comment I've made on IMDb and feel this film is important for those who love surreal art, horror films, or the process of creating art -which leads right back into the surreal (secret deep, dark thoughts) anyways and now you're trapped in twisted, fun part of your imagination which is a neat place to be! The film is hard to describe because it deals with human impulses of sex, and drive for success, and violence and all sorts of dormant notions in the quiet places inside all of us - by taking us into an actual nightmare (how can you really describe a nightmare and get all the chilling feelings on IMDb?). It is a film that needs to be experienced.

The acting is great - also it is a film about actors so again the nightmare cycle is already in full swing. Its a story of actualizing your dreams and creating expression - you see the tight interplay of ideas already? Smart, smart pop-psychological masterpiece. The horror aspects are brutal and disturbing (several times during the film I thought 'I'm imagining this whole thing...right?) A certain giddy sense of absurdity and feverish mania is also a strong part of what makes this movie (or film...or movie...or film) so great.

Easily the best part about this film is that it feels like a dream...the sort of dream only hinted at by the title. It is strange, well crafted work that made me quite, quite satisfied.

Oh boy, here we have another over-ambitious young filmmaker who single-handedly intends to restore everything that's wrong with nowadays horror cinema…Pardon my cynicism but we all heard this before and – usually – these youngsters fail to live up to their own expectations. For his debut film, videostore clerk turned director Dylan Bank comes up with a psychedelic but immensely confusing story about a film student who makes a movie about his own nightmare that miraculously appear to be taped on camera every morning when he wakes up. The idea is admirable and the film does feature a handful of nice touches, but Dylan Bank never really seems to realize that his visions and interpretations on horror AREN'T groundbreaking or even that shocking. This type of 'mental assault'-cinema is the territory of genius directors like David Lynch, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Shinya Tsukamoto, only their films are more fascinating and truly a lot more disturbing! The story material has potential but "Nightmare" lacks involvement and commitment with the characters whereas, with Lynch, you pretty much feel like you're inside the protagonists' heads and you fear what they fear! The film often just exists of blurry and roughly edited images that make no sense or add nothing to the basic premise at all, but Bank uses them (as padding?) anyway. New characters and locations are introduced randomly and they simply disappear again without any form of coherence. Also, for being a new type of horror film, "Nightmare" doesn't contain much atmosphere, scary moments or even violent images. There's quite a lot of nudity (the non-artistic kind), the acting performances are acceptable and the use of uncanny music is very good. Worth a look if you're in an experimental mood once.

Twists you will never imagine make every minute of this movie intriguing and fascinating to to watch. The acting is amazing and the director has creating a thrilling masterpiece. As you learn more about the characters in this film, things change, making you wonder if you were paying enough attention. Jason Scott Campbell is an amazing actor who keeps the level of intensity high as he winds his way through the maze of events in this film. You will be going between thinking he is the only sane one in the film to wondering how people could not know he is totally nuts. Or is it him? Or another director? Or the college professor? The cinematographer? Everyone is suspect at some time during the movie. This is one nightmare I would be screaming to wake up from.

An impressive first feature with solid acting, lots of nudity, blood and gore and a plot that tumbles under and eats itself in concentric circles. (Whatever that means…). I must admit, I walked in 32 minutes late at the Boston Underground Film Festival screening and but was immediately stuck by the images and action and remained riveted right up until the ending that was handled with the right mix of ambiguity and clarity of 'clues'—to lead you to believe you understood what happened, but was not quite sure. I think that's a good quality to leave an audience with for this kind of picture. I mean, what would life be without mystery?

I particularly liked the bald creepy crew member who, in one shot, looks exactly like Robert Blake in Lost Highway—a film that was definitely an inspiration for this one.

The high def video looks great—just like film--and it's quite a professional piece of work. Plus, this film had the most gorgeous shot of all the films I saw at this years BUFF, but I'm not going to tell you which one.

I didn't see anyone comment on the ending, other than to say it goes nowhere, and I don't really agree with that, so here's my thoughts: the protagonist (Jason Scott Campbell) gets his first clue on how to "end the movie" / "catch the killer" / "end the murders", when his teacher tells him "it's time for the protagonist to take control - everyone's been a victim so far, it's time for him to take control - and time for you to finish the movie." A further clue comes from his classmate, the guy making the other movie: "... there's no villain.. it's almost as if, the director, he's the villain, he's the one putting us through all this." That's when he gets the idea - to end it, he must take control, so he invites Natalia over, grabs a knife, sets up the camera, starts it recording and he and Natalia lay on the bed, the knife hidden beside him. Increasingly certain he's the killer and/or crazy, Natalia starts fighting him, afraid he's going to kill her (or perhaps playing along, understanding his intent).

Then the "movie with a movie" starts happening, and quite simply the protagonist kills the director, or the person filming. Next the scene cuts to the class film set, and the ending of the movie and movie within movie is shown - and then Natalia and protagonist huddle while he says "it's over, it's over".

Who was the director? I think that is left up to the viewer. The literal interpretation could be the person who set everything up entered the room - maybe the janitor, maybe someone else, and the protagonist killed him. Another interpretation, more magical but still inside the movie, is the camera was some kind of window to another dimension, or the mind/dreams of the director, and somehow a magical second reality was interfering, and the act of killing the "director" was a way to pick an ending and stop it. Yet another interpretation is, the whole work is not actually a horror movie but an inside comment on film making of horror movies, and the comment is, in movies such as this, or Blair-witch, etc, the villain is simply the director.

Personally, I think in some cases this type of ending can be brilliant, but in this case we weren't quite there (thus a 6). The viewer wonders, was this an intentional plan of a writer with a message? Or is this just a cowardly way to end a movie from a writer who was unwilling to write an actual ending, or couldn't make up his mind, or ran out of money? And I think that is what bothers so many viewers about endings like this.

What a relief to see that smart movies still exist ! Dylan Bank plays with everyone including himself with a great story about reality and fiction. a great mix full of humor where the only nightmare was the fear to have a trivial ending. But no ! The director doesn't hesitate to put the pressure on his shoulder, using directly his cast to destroy all possibilities of an easy ending. one of the best movies I've seen during the Brussels fantasy Film Festival, for sure: I was so tired of those linear plots, where you can anticipate every move, so exhausted to see exactly the same thing with different actors, that I finally woke up from this awful nightmare with your beautiful independent movie ! And, Dylan, come grab a beer whenever you want at the castle ! John (the beard man)

Whatever the artistic qualities of this film, I have to say that it has (at least) one redeeming point: it is a very interesting watch. One can only wander, what it would look like, had the director secured a hollywoodian budget for this project where poverty is occasionally visible, even though well masked. It is quite lynchian and just like with most every Lynch film, you find yourself enjoying the going-ons immensely, yet at the same time being deeply afraid that the ending will fail to produce a satisfactory solution. In this case, the film doesn't just end in coitus interruptus (a technique that makes Lynch very irritating) but does offer an 'instant satisfaction', that unrolls during the last 1 minute or so. Yet, as with all things instant, after the first rapture has evaporated, the whole thing seems somewhat silly and artificial. Nevertheless, the film captivated me, kept me guessing and was a very good way to spend 1,5 hours.

I rented this film because the blurb said it was a 'thinking man's horror film.' It is neither, definitely no thinking was involved in making this piece of drek, and it's certainly not a horror film. I am writing this to warn any possible renters away from this awful excuse for a film project. I can only believe that the positive reviews here are from people who helped make it.

I checked the spoiler alert but there's nothing to spoil: the movie doesn't make any sense. It is stupid in the extreme. The only spoiler I can think of: don't see this movie, it will ruin your day! Okay. A guy and a girl wake up in a room with a video camera parked at the foot of their bed which wasn't there the night before. They play the video in the camera and it looks like something shot by a chimpanzee--you see flashes of naked bodies and fake blood but it's all too jerky and blurry to make out anything. Maybe you can see flashes of faces and two of them might be the very guy and girl who are viewing the tape. Though the film in the camera is blurry and jerky we are meant to see that it shows the guy and the girl killing a nude woman or two. Did the two of them murder someone during the night and they can't remember it? There are no clues in the room, no blood or weapons anywhere. The experience is strange and disturbing but they don't tell anyone about it.

Now get this: the guy is a student film maker and the mysterious camera at the foot of the bed that morning inspires him to come up with a brilliant idea for his film project-- he'll make a movie about a guy who wakes up with his girlfriend from a night of sex and finds a video camera pointed at the bed and so they view the tape...and of course the film class (full of total nerds and halfwits) thinks that's a wonderful idea for a movie. So the guy goes around finding some people who are willing to pose naked in a sort of soft- core gore romp with a lot of fake blood. Lucky filmmaker, he gets to work with naked girls! The fact that none of them can act doesn't matter because nothing else matters in this sorry excuse for a story. But the actor who plays the filmmaker guy plays him as a brain-dead zombie most of the time who has no idea what to do from one moment to the next. But maybe he's not acting, maybe that's how he really is. Certainly it never occurs to him to call the police.

I could go on, but you get the point. Not really a spoiler alert but a DUMB alert.

First of all, a quick message to the crew of the movie. When you go onto a site like IMDb, where people can click on the user-name you made up in two seconds by mashing on the keyboard to make up good reviews for your own movie, it is a good idea to maybe review some other titles first? Just so you don't, you know, look like you are shamelessly self-promoting. Because that makes you look like a scab.

Anyway, I digress.

Our hero of the story, a film student who is celebrating his latest well-received project, goes to a party and meets a girl. Within about an hour of meeting the girl, the two bump ugly for most of the night. Waking up the next morning, they find a mysterious camcorder. And on the camcorder is what appears to be the two of them committing a murder. Rather than do the logical thing and either turn it in to the police or destroy it, our hero decides to use not just the concept, but the camera its self for his latest script.

Now. This is the best way I can describe the movie: naked. This movie is very naked. Softcore porn naked. In fact, this movie could pretty much be described as such with a violent bent. Nearly every character in the movie struts about naked, with most of the primaries including the two protagonists strutting about in their birthday suits for at least a quarter of the movie, in many scenes to where it becomes farcical. In one instance, the main character goes out into a hallway and strikes up a conversation with another character in the buff for no apparent reason.

But then again, a lot of things in this movie seem to happen for no apparent reason. Once you get past the point where they discover the camera and tape, the film begins to get shaky. And by the middle of the film, the plot completely derails. Where the main characters are and what their motivations are become fuzzier and fuzzier. And that is if they make it to the end of the movie without completely vanishing. Character development, save their development towards an inevitable nude scene is practically non-existent. And where it does exist, it goes off into irrelevant tangents and confused "twists". Ultimately, little if anything gets resolved. Even the initial plot starter--the mysterious tape--is never explained or largely even touched upon.

Another core aspect of the movie is the violence. Just as prevalent as the nudity and often accompanying it are violent scenes that are literally senseless. This is not at all enhanced by poor effects that often seem better suited for some D-grade slasher or monster movie. It contributes nothing to the plot and is clearly made only to shock and disturb.

Nightmare is, in summation a pretentious and cheap shlock film. It almost seems as if it were written and directed by a pubescent pre-teen, claiming some shaky premise of artistic merit and using his time behind the camera to get as much fake blood and as many people naked on-screen as possible. If you want to watch a movie in the style this attempts, go watch Jacobs Ladder. It is in far, far better taste.