American Nightmare

I've always considered this film a sleazier low-budget Canadian version of director/writer Paul Schrader's HARDCORE (1979) and once you watch it, I think you will see the similarities, too. Just like Schrader's film, this one is about a man completely out of his element, who makes some surprising choices along the way in search of someone he loves. The film opens with stripper/hooker Isabelle (Alexandra Paul; SPECTRE - 1996) in a cheap motel room, naked in bed and smoking a joint. She is talking to a man in the bathroom (we never see his face or hear his voice), who is washing his hands and putting on a pair of surgical latex gloves. Isabelle is apologizing about some videotapes being made and swears she didn't know anything about it. The man comes out of the bathroom dressed in nothing but a towel, mounts Isabelle and then graphically slits her throat with a straight-razor. We are then introduced to Isabelle's brother Eric (Lawrence S. Day), a Classically-trained pianist and best-selling recording artist (he has the gold records hanging on his walls to prove it!), as he knocks on Isabelle's apartment door (he hasn't talked to Isabelle in quite a while, but she sent him a letter saying that she was in big trouble and needs his help), but gets no answer. Her cross-dressing across-the-hall neighbor Dolly (Larry Aubrey; THE VINDICATOR - 1986) informs Eric that Isabelle is a stripper that uses the name "Tanya" ("They always change their names when they do it.") and that he hasn't seen her in a couple of days. This leads Eric on an odyssey of the seedier side of life, where the streets are full of strip clubs, porno stores, porno theaters and prostitutes. He is truly a stranger in a strange land. When Isabelle, a.k.a. "Tanya", doesn't show up for her normal stripping gig, club manager Wally (Peter Lavender) asks the off-duty Tina (Lenore Zann; HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME - 1980) to fill in for her (Wally says about "Tanya": "S**t, she's probably so spaced out on 'ludes, she can't dial a phone!"). Tina agrees because Tanya is a friend and doesn't want her to be fired, so she goes on stage (she wears a Devil costume and dances provocatively with a pitchfork), much to the dismay of her boyfriend Mark (Page Fletcher; HUMONGOUS - 1981), who would rather Tina come home with him. Eric confronts his estranged father, Hamilton Blake (Tom Harvey), the owner of the huge corporation Blake Industries (who are holding some kind of telethon called "UNI Saves" in the very near future), with the note Isabelle sent him and asks for help in finding her, but Hamilton says it was her and Eric's choice to leave the family and he wants nothing more to do with her. When Eric leaves, Hamilton pulls a photo of Isabelle out of his desk and fondles it, so we know there is more to the story. Eric starts interviewing "Tanya's" friends: strippers Louise (Lora Staley; THIEF - 1981) and Andrea (Claudia Udy; NIGHTFORCE - 1986), but comes away with little information. He then goes to the police, where he talks to Sgt. Skylar (Michael Ironside; SCANNERS - 1980; here billed as "Mike Ironside"), who tells Eric that he doesn't have much faith in what strippers say, but he will look into it. Meanwhile, the faceless killer murders Andrea by slitting her wrists and drowning her in the bathtub, making it look like a suicide. As the killer is exiting the building, he bumps into the cross-dressing Dolly and he gets a good look at the killer's face. Louise doesn't believe that Andrea committed suicide and Eric asks her for help at Andrea's funeral. At first she turns him down ("You're asking me for help at a funeral?!?"), but when the killer tries to murder her and fails, she forms an uneasy alliance with Eric to discover the truth. Hamilton's right-hand man, Tony Shaw (Neil Dainard), asks Eric to play the piano at his father's telethon, but Eric tells Tony to tell his father to go to hell (clue alert!). Eric thinks he can trace Isabelle/Tanya's whereabouts by finding out what telephone calls she received from her answering service (the same service Louise uses). Eric and Louise get a list of numbers after bribing the lady at the answering service and notice there were several calls made by someone known as "The Fixer" at a cheap hotel. Dolly decides he is better off leaving town for good, but he chooses too late, as the killer grabs him in an alley and stabs him in the heart. Eric and Louise are nearly mugged, until Eric intervenes and turns the table on the mugger (I guess playing the piano gives you strong hands!). After Louise witnesses Eric saving her life, they become lovers and have sex at Eric's palatial apartment. While Louise is sleeping, Eric sneaks out and heads to the cheap hotel and strong-arms the hotel manager (Paul Bradley). The manager tells him that The Fixer videotapes all the girls having sex with their tricks, but only The Fixer has the videotapes and he has no idea where he is. Eric and Louise look through the slimier streets of town (where we see a theater marquee advertising the porn film THE SECOND COMING OF EVA - 1974) looking for The Fixer (this is after Louise goes through an embarrassing "audition" for a role in the UNI Saves telethon, but she has a callback) and when Louise goes home because she is tired, Eric finds The Fixer (Mike Copeman) in a porno theater and uses The Fixer's own gun to force him to tell Eric where the videotapes are (at a bus station locker). While Mark is being sweated by Sgt. Skylar as the possible killer, the real one shows up after hours at the strip club and slices Tina's throat with a knife. When Eric watches the videotapes, he sees a familiar face on one of the tapes and it ain't his sister's (well, half of it is)! It's Hamilton screwing his own daughter and when Eric confronts him with the evidence (Hamilton says he been screwing his own daughter since their mother died!) and says he is going to turn it over to the Press and the police, Hamilton commits suicide by shooting himself in the head. As you can guess by now, Hamilton is not the killer; it was Tony (Eric also discovers it is him when he finds Dolly's body and he is holding a key piece of evidence in his dead, clenched hand), who was trying to keep his boss squeaky clean by burying the evidence and the people involved. Eric must race to the UNI Saves auditions, where Louise is "rehearsing" for Tony. Can Eric save Louise in time before Tony takes her life? This is a cheap, tawdry look at a slice of life that most of us never see and, therefore, is must viewing for people interested in the subject matter. It is full of tits and ass (but no bush) and has enough bloody violence to satisfy early-80's gorehounds, too. Director Don McBrearty is better known for directing episodes of Canadian TV series and TV movies (such as THE HAUNTING OF LISA - 1996), which he is still doing at the time this review was written. Screenwriter John Sheppard (BULLIES - 1986; Dolph Lundgren's DETENTION - 2003) definitely got the impetus for this film from Schrader's movie, except it is much more down and dirty than the George C. Scott-starrer. I actually prefer AMERICAN NIGHTMARE over Schrader's film because it is able to go places and show things not acceptable in a big-budget film. Producer Ray Sager got his start as an actor in a few films by goremaster H.G. Lewis (eventually appearing in the title role in Lewis' WIZARD OF GORE - 1970), before becoming a respected Producer of Canadian genre films, including all three sequels to PROM NIGHT (1980), as well as many Canadian TV movies and television series up to this day. This film was his first as a Producer. One of the Executive Producers was Paul Lynch, who also has a healthy career as a director, making the aforementioned PROM NIGHT, HUMONGOUS and BULLIES, as well as one of my favorite 90's action films NO CONTEST (1994). He is still very active today, especially on Canadian TV. Both Michael Ironside (who is given very little to do here) and Lenore Zann would appear together in the horror film VISITING HOURS, made the same year as this film. Lead actor Lawrence S. Day (who is not bad here) did one more film in 1992 before retiring from acting. Keep your eyes peeled for a juggling stripper and a poster for SCORCHY (1976) in one scene. Originally released on fullscreen VHS by Media Home Entertainment that was much too dark, with a budget VHS from Interglobal Home Video to follow (which was even worse to watch). Be aware that the DVD offered by Scorpion Releasing is also a fullscreen print and was taken from a less-than-pristine negative. There is a disclaimer before the film starts that says this was the only element of the film that could be found and is not up to Scorpion's usually great quality, but it is still better than the VHS print because you can see what is going on in some of the darker scenes. It is full of grain, dirt and emulsion scratches, but I think it adds just the right amount of ambiance to the film's subject matter. Also starring Bunty Webb, Nancy Oliver, Martin Doyle and Don MacQuarrie as the mugger. A Scorpion Releasing DVD Release. Rated R.

American NightmareThe "Katarina's Nightmare Theatre" range of DVD's from Scorpion Releasing has brought new life to some long forgotten horror gems from the video era, and I for one am very happy about that. I genuinely feel that - despite some snoozers and losers - their overall range is one of the most fan-friendly and interesting on the market today. This film hasn't been available in my neck of the world since the days of videotape, so it's a welcome addition to my collection."American Nightmare" is an early-eighties Canadian tax-shelter production from Paul Lynch, the man behind "Prom Night" and "Humongous". It's a grimier film than either of those, and deliberately so. It's not "Maniac" level grimy, and there are some occasional light moments, but overall an attempt has been made here to deglamourize the big city and emphasize its potential to degrade and dehumanize. The story revolves around a murdered young woman from a good family who had fallen into a life of prostitution and general seediness. The subsequent attempt by her brother to solve the mystery of her death sees him navigating through a sordid milieu of drugs, death and degenerates (and startling videotapes). The denizens of this underworld are mostly unsympathetic (except the obligatory stripper with a heart of gold who assists him with his quest), and everybody is motivated by the desire to extract whatever they can from absolutely anybody else. Perversion lurks everywhere in this urban nightmare and nobody can be trusted, not even dear old Dad. Yikes.This is a worthwhile viewing experience if you come to it knowing what to expect. Things aren't bright and pretty here, and I'm not just talking about Michael Ironside (playing a detective, and very well too). The city is grey and dangerous, the strippers are past their prime, the cops don't know things they should, the pimps aren't pleasant, nobody is helpful and street life has consequences. (It almost sounds like a documentary). There are points in the film when the killer could conceivably be almost any member of the cast, some genuine suspense is generated (at times), and the conclusion isn't what you might have anticipated. When it comes to watching this type of movie, you could do much worse than this.There is one major negative with this DVD - it is full-frame. A title card prior to the commencement of the film indicates that only fullscreen elements were available from the distributor (probably a video master). It's better than having nothing of course, but I would love to have this in widescreen. Colours are muted, but that just adds to the atmosphere in my humble opinion. Extras include a feature commentary with Paul Lynch and Katarina (as well as a very informative interview with him), an audio interview with writer John Sheppard, and some trailers for other films in the product line.Overall, this is an interesting diamond-in-the-rough DVD and I for one will be looking out for more resurrected gems from Katarina in the near future.

Eric is a young and wealthy concert pianist who travels to an unnamed city looking for his missing sister, Isabelle. Eric starts his search in a rundown building where the inhabitants are strippers, prostitutes and transvestites. He's told by a transvestite that his sister works in a strip club, he then goes to see his dad and gets into an argument, plays on the piano a bit and then goes back to the building where his sister was living. It's here that he meets Louise, a friend of his sister who also works at the same club. Eric goes to the police and speaks to Sergeant Skylar, who starts an investigation. As Eric and Skylar are looking for her seperately, a murderer is killing off a lot of people that knew Isabelle. An attempt is made on Louise's life, so her and Eric join forces to try and find out what happened to Isabelle. They uncover a trail of prostitution, incest, blackmail and murder.Michael Ironside gets top billing despite the fact he isn't in the film for that long, apparently the film was shot in 1981 but wasn't released until '83. It's quite possible that Ironside shot this before Scanners and the hugely underrated Visiting Hours, otherwise I'm sure his role would have been made larger. Ironside is probably best known to most people for his performance as Richter in Total Recall. Lawrence Day was quite likeable as Eric, he gives a good performance but only ever made one more film appearance after this, he looks a bit like David Cronenberg. Lenore Zann was good as a stripper, I recognised her straight away from her roles in Happy Birthday To Me and again, Visiting Hours. There's also a small role for Alexandra Paul who made her film debut as Isabelle, she later went on to make John Carpenter's Christine and spent five years on Baywatch.It's directed by Don McBrearty, a director that has gone on to have a very long career directing TV shows. The film was originally supposed to be directed by one of the producers, Paul Lynch. Lynch had already directed Prom Night with Jamie Lee Curtis and went on to make another underrated horror film called Humongous. The music composer was Paul Zaza, most famous to me for his several excellent scores on Bob Clark's movies, he had earlier done the music for Prom Night and produced another effective score for this. He also did the music for My Bloody Valentine and yet another underrated horror film called Curtains. American Nightmare is definitely one of the sleazier early '80s slashers, every opportunity to show nude women is taken, and the film goes to many seedy places like strip clubs, porno cinemas, and rundown apartments. The murders are actually quite bloodless for a film of this type, but there's enough suspense to compensate.The DVD from Scorpion Records is part of their Katarina's Nightmare Theatre series, and as usual they've done a good job. The picture quality has been criticised by some, and although it isn't great, it's more than watchable. I'm just happy that this obscure early '80s slasher is now on DVD, especially considering there's quite a few extras. You can play Katarina's Nightmare Theatre where she introduces the film, and gives us some brief history, like confirming that it's actually a Canadian film, not American. There's an audio commentary with producer Paul Lynch moderated by Katarina Leigh Waters, an audio interview with the writer John Sheppard conducted by Katarina, it lasts nearly twenty minutes, Kat's Eyes: Interview with Paul Lynch, there's also trailers for the films Humongous, Death Ship, The Pyx, Double Exposure and The Incubus. There are no subtitles, it's region 0 and will play on any UK player.

Der Titel des Films, die Beschreibung und das Cover lassen einen spannenden Thriller erwarten ("... ein psychopathischer Killer verbreitet Angst und Schrecken..."). Der Film ist aber eher langweilig und handelt von der Suche eines Bruders nach seiner verschwundenen Schwester. Michael Ironside spielt nur eine Nebenrolle als Polizist, ansonsten mir unbekante Schauspieler in dieser kanadischen Produktion aus dem Jahre 1983.Das Bild des Films liegt - wie bereits beschrieben - in schlechter Vollbildfassung (4:3) und in schlechter VHS-Qualität vor (zum Teil auch am oberen und unteren Bildrand "Grünstich").Aus meiner Sicht ein Fehlkauf. „Der 1. Film, der keine Rücksicht auf den Zuschauer nimmt…“ (so die Beschreibung auf Amazon) trifft leider zu.

Trotz eines jungen Michael Ironside, kann dieser Film nicht überzeugen. Übliche Story: Killer tötet nackte Frauen, recht blutig. Aber auch die Effekte sind nicht wirklich überzeugend, auch nicht für die Zeit der Entstehung des Films. Bild (4:3) in schlechter VHS-Qualität, Ton ist ok...