Movie Review: Nightmare (1981/aka Nighmares in a Damaged Brain, Blood Splash), directed by: Romano Scavolini

Despite numerous warning signs (violent hallucinations and persistent visions of dismembered corpses) George Tatum, a dangerous psychotic, is released prematurely from a mental institution and immediately (well, he does make a quick and disastrous stop at a 42nd Street peepshow) flees the state in search of his estranged wife and son. In the meantime, two incompetent doctor's try in vain (mostly, they just yell at each other) to locate George before he can revert to the homicidal tendencies for which he was locked up in the first place. Needless to say, the doctors fail miserably and George leaves a bloody trail of victims from New York to Daytona Beach in his cross-country quest to exorcise the murderous visions that continue to plague his waking nightmares.

You could pan this film for its abysmal "acting", for having a paper-thin plot that merely exists to string together a bevy of mean-spirited murder sequences, for perpetuating negative stereotypes about schizophrenia patients, and for throwing a last minute twist ending at the audience that really isn't much of a twist at all. Sure, you could do that... but, instead, let's focus on what Nightmare excels at: GORE!! Never officially submitted to those wimps at the MPAA, the producers instead opted to self-apply a salacious X-rating based solely on the film's violent content. And, boy, does Italian director Scavolini heap the "red sauce" on extra thick in this film's numerous, unapologetic splatter highlights. I won't ruin it for you, but the climax of Nightmare features a show-stopping spectacle of gushing arterial/cranial grume that truly needs to be seen to be believed! And the grisly makeup effects by Ed French and Leslie Larraine are definitely not to be scoffed at, often rivaling the best work of 80's gore maestro, Tom Savini - who, coincidentally, was credited as the film's special effects technician, even though he only briefly visited the set to offer advice. A sick exercise in bad taste, Nightmare is a gorehound's wetdream and has absolutely no qualms about rebelliously shoving it's figurative middle finger in the face of moral decency. And at the end of the day, it's these simple pleasures that make my job as a Goretician so very fulfilling.