Movie Review: Nightmare Cinema

Number 13 on the Countdown to Halloween

Nightmare Cinema

Movie Review by Siobahn Harris

I have been waiting so patiently to watch Nightmare Cinema and finally I got to watch it! After watching the trailer for this movie, I knew I would love it because it has Maurice Benard in it and I flipping love him. But there are many reasons to love this horror anthology.

Normally I would do a detailed breakdown for each story individually, but in this case I won’t because they’re all kind of linked. So I will just do a quick one for each.

Breakdown:

Five people come across an old theater that has their name on the marquee. Each of them make their way into the empty theater alone, except for one who brought his girlfriend along for the ride. They’re all forced to sit and watch a horrific movie starring themselves. The twisted theater is run by someone who just calls himself The Projectionist (Mickey Rourke). However, he seems more like the Grim Reaper to me.

The first story is about a girl who went to stay at a cabin in the woods with her friends, but everything goes horribly wrong.

The second story is about a girl who lets a facial scar get the better of her, and soon after her fiance offers to get it removed. Unfortunately, she learns the hard way that surgery isn’t always the way to go.

The third story is about a catholic school that is attacked by a dark presence. However, not all is innocent in that school.

In the fourth story a mother takes her two children along as she heads to a doctors appointment. She has begun to see the world around her change and rot, but she’ll soon find out that things are worse than she thinks.

The fifth story is about a young man who is involved in a carjacking gone wrong. However, seeing the horrible things he’s seen won’t measure up to what someone sees when they’ve died for a few minutes.

Thoughts:

I loved this anthology! It had such a dark and twisted set up and the stories were really great! Each of the stories had this creepy vibe to them but there were definitely some that were better than the others. Watching Nightmare Cinema felt like I was watching The Twilight Zone. Each story kind of had that feel to them.

I just wanted to say this about the first story, this one had to be a horror comedy, because I was cracking up watching it. I’d be shocked if it wasn’t meant to be funny. There were so many moments that made me yell and laugh, but it seemed to be the only one that had the funny aspect to it.

I noticed in the second one that the music sounded like it was from Death Becomes Her. It was ever so slightly different, but I’ve watched that movie so many times that I could tell it was from that. I thought that was kind of a cool touch because of the nature of the short. It was about a girl being obsessed with how she looks and the same thing was happening in Death Becomes Her.

While each story was freaky in it’s own way, the fifth story was my favorite. I loved the concept, I loved the execution, I loved the actors/actresses, and it actually scared me.

True Fear:

Depends on the story. I only found True Fear in the third story and the final story. In the third story it was the dark presence and the great makeup that brought the fear. But in the final story it was the situation itself that brought the fear. Because each of the stories are so different, it’s hard to pin point the True Fear for Nightmare Cinema, but that’s where I would put it. What’s great is that they didn’t shy away from blood and gore but they also didn’t over do it. This is a balance that I think many horror film makers struggle with. Overall, I think the movie as a whole was pretty fucking awesome.