NIGHTMARE (1981), aka NIGHTMARES IN A DAMAGED BRAIN

Director: Romano Scavolini

Writer: Romano Scavolini

Producers: John L. Watkins, William Milling

Cast: Baird Stafford, Sharon Smith, Mik Cribben, C.J. Cooke, Danny Ronan, John Watkins, William Milling, Tammy Patterson, Kim Patterson, Kathleen Ferguson, Scott Praetorius, Christina Keefe, William S. Kirksey, Tommy Bouvier, William Paul, Geoffrey Marchese, Candese Marchese, Michael Sweney, George Kruger, Lonnie Griffis, Tara Alexander, Danielle Galiana, Ray Baker, David Massar, Carl Gifford

Psychiatric patient George Tatum (Baird Stafford) is tormented by a recurrent nightmare involving a young boy (Scott Praetorius), a couple indulging in sadomasochistic sex games (Christine Keefe and William S. Kirksey), and a woman’s severed head. Tatum had been committed to a psychiatric hospital for the killing of a Brooklyn, New York family. Tatum’s treatment involved experimental drug therapy sanctioned by the U.S. government. It seemed that the behavior-altering drug had rehabilitated Tatum and he was released. However, as an outpatient, George Tatum continues to have nightmares and seizures. A visit to a New York City peepshow prompts a psychosexual fit in Tatum. He goes on a southbound road trip and commits murder. Now that Tatum has gone missing and begun to kill, his handlers are trying to track him down before more killings occur and they are exposed.

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

According to Italian director and writer Romano Scavolini, Nightmare was based on some articles detailing the CIA using psychiatric patients and prison inmates to experiment on with behavior-altering drugs. In the course of this film’s story, these experiments do not seem to be the reason George Tatum becomes a dangerous schizophrenic. He has already been implicated in violence that has rendered him suitable as a subject for experimentation by the U.S. government. It is the negligence and ambitions of Tatum’s doctor (William Milling) and government project supervisor (John L. Watkins) that allows Tatum to be considered “rebuilt” and safe to enter society again. We never find out the endgame for this project as it applies to Tatum, only that the military may have some further use for him. Once Tatum gets out of control, all that the people involved in his case are concerned with is finding him and covering their asses.

Although Scavolini states that he did not conceive of Nightmare as a genre piece, it surely must have gotten green-lit to become yet another bloody reveler in the slasher film craze of the early 1980s. It is one of the most simplistic and nasty of the lot. We are provided with protagonist George Tatum who we know from the very first scene is deranged. As we follow Tatum’s journey, we see him commit murder. There will be no whodunit intrigue in this film. Perhaps this movie should be considered a “whydunit.” There are only a handful of continuing characters to follow in the story, yet we know very little about them. We simply see them going about their routines for the six days that this film’s story unfolds. Along the way, there are moments of sexual titillation and bloody murder. If ever a movie seemed designed for the early ’80s grindhouses, it was Nightmare. Fittingly, an early scene shows George Tatum wandering around New York City’s once infamous Times Square sex shops, peepshows, and movie theaters that probably exhibited this film.

Baird Stafford stars as the murderous George Tatum. His nightmares seem linked to a psychosexual hangup that can induce epileptic fits and homicidal acts. He is not romanticized, stylized, or glorified in anyway. Tatum is not a mythic menace in the Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees manner. George Tatum is just one very pathetic, anguished, and dangerous person. We learn very little about him, and it is perhaps that remote aspect of this character that lends his presence a bit of extra power. His anonymity also provides a payoff in the end.

Sharon Smith plays single mother Susan Temper whose Florida household becomes the focus of Tatum’s attention. She displays the frazzled emotions of parenthood very honestly. The focus of her life seems to be the relationship she is having with mellow and supportive Bob Rosen (Mik Cribben). Like all the characters in this film, we only learn anything about her from the way she behaves. There are no backstories or character arcs provided. This may not qualify as great drama, but there is a humdrum intimacy here that may make the horrific events feel more disturbing.

Susan Temper’s homelife had its share of stress long before the psychotic George Tatum started making creepy phone calls. Her son, C.J. (C.J. Cooke), is a morbid, little brat who delights in pranks that scare the shit out of his family and babysitter (Danny Ronan). As a result, he becomes a classic case of the boy who cried wolf when he tries to tell anyone about seeing creepy George lurking about.

The interplay between George Tatum’s nightmares and reality is well done. His nightmares drive him to acts of violence, and many things can trigger his sporadic nightmare visions. Neither Tatum nor his doctor was able to understand the significance of the nightmares that might reveal the root of Tatum’s psychosis. This provides some intrigue as a replacement for the usual mystery killer element in many other slasher horror films. Once Tatum’s nightmare fully plays out, it completes the film’s most notorious scene. It is also used to suggest an unsettling “passing of the torch” for further potential maniacal mischief.

Director Scavolini refused to make cuts to his naughty and nihilistic flick for any major film distributor to release it in the U.S. Nightmare received an X rating for its New York release, which kept it grinding away for 24 hours in the New York City grindhouses before getting some regional releases in other states. At the height of the “video nasties” hysteria in the United Kingdom, Nightmare had the distinction of being the one film that resulted in criminal prosecutions for those distributing it on video cassette.

Among horror buffs, Nightmare achieved a controversial status due to the film’s promotional credit of “Special Effects Director” given to makeup artist Tom Savini, the ’80s king of splatter. Savini denies involvement with the film and resents the movie trying to cash-in on his name and reputation. Others involved in the production say that Savini was involved in an advisory role for some of the film’s gore effects. There is one famous photo of Savini on the set seeming to demonstrate just how an axe should be handled in a scene. To judge from the bloody results, I would say it appears that the splatter maestro’s coaching paid off.

Nightmare is a very minimalist horror film that keeps things simple, sleazy, and gory. Its directness contributes to the grittiness that helps to distinguish it from the rest of the slasher pack, and Tara Alexander’s peepshow penetration demonstration is an unexpected horror film highlight making the bloody Nightmare a wet dream in more ways than one. George Tatum ain’t the only one drooling.