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Revision as of 01:54, 7 January 2021 by MTsocano (talk | contribs) (→The Benediction)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) 1983 American film| Nightmares | |
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 Theatrical poster designed by Design Projects, Inc. | |
| Directed by | Joseph Sargent |
| Written by | Jeffrey Bloom Christopher Crowe |
| Produced by | Christopher Crowe |
| Starring | Emilio Estevez Cristina Raines Lance Henriksen Richard Masur Veronica Cartwright |
| Cinematography | Mario DeLeo Gerald Perry Kinnerman |
| Edited by | Michael Brown Rod Stephens |
| Music by | Craig Safan |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Production company | Universal Pictures |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date |
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| Running time | 99 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $9 million |
| Box office | $6,670,680 |
Nightmares is a 1983 American horror anthology film directed by Joseph Sargent, and starring Emilio Estevez, Lance Henriksen, Cristina Raines, Veronica Cartwright, and Richard Masur. The film is made up of four short films based on urban legends; the first concerns a woman who encounters a killer in the backseat of her car; the second concerns a video game-addicted teenager who is consumed by his game; the third focuses on a fallen priest who is stalked by a pickup truck from hell; and the last follows a suburban family battling a giant rat in their home.
Nightmares was originally filmed as a two hour pilot of a proposed television series to be broadcast by the NBC network during the 1983-1984 TV season.
Plot
Terror in Topanga
During a routine traffic stop one night, a highway patrolman is viciously stabbed multiple times by an unseen assailant leaping from the bushes, who escapes as quickly as they arrived. The perpetrator is identified by various TV and radio reporters as William Henry Glazier, a murderous escapee of a mental institution who is terrorizing the Topanga area, which mention that the cop, currently undergoing surgery, is his fifth victim.
Meanwhile, Lisa (Raines), a housewife and heavy smoker, puts her children to bed as a news bulletin warning about Glazier appears on her television. Lisa discovers that she is out of cigarettes, prompting her to rush to the store for some more. Her husband Phillip (Joe Lambie), knowing about her addiction, forbids her to leave the house at such a late hour with a madman on the loose, advising her to kick her habit instead. Despite this, she writes Phillip a note, then sneaks to her car and drives to the store.
During the drive, Lisa is listens to a radio bulletin warning residents about Glazier, before she is startled by a hitchhiker. Lisa reaches the store and gets some groceries, as well as her cigarettes. The cashier that rings her up warns her about Glazier as well, briefly showing a gun he is carrying for protection. During the drive home, Lisa discovers that she is almost out of gas, and all the local gas stations are already closed for the night. She finally stops at a more out-of-the-way station. The attendant (William Sanderson) who approaches her happens to perfectly match Glazier's physical appearance. Lisa also grows increasingly alarmed as the attendant seems to be studying her car and herself intently. Suddenly, the attendant lunges at the car with the gas nozzle, breaking the window. He drags Lisa out of the car, then draws a pistol and shoots the actual Glazier (Lee Ving), who was revealed to be hiding in Lisa's back seat the entire time. The attendant calms the crying Lisa by offering to call the police.
Sometime later, the police drive the frightened Lisa back home, where she embraces Phillip. Phillip asks if Lisa got her cigarettes, as Lisa responds by showing him her pack, throwing them in a trash can, and answering no, implying that the experience has cured her of her addiction.
The Bishop of Battle
J.J. Cooney (Estevez) is an immensely talented video game wizard and arcade game hustler, hanging out with his bespectacled friend Zock Maxwell (Billy Jayne). The two of them head into an inner-city arcade to challenge a gang of Hispanic players to a few games, offering the winner a dollar per game with a five game minimum. After a few games, one of the gang members recognizes J.J., and tells the others that they are getting hustled, prompting J.J. and Zock to make a run for it.
J.J. and Zock head to the arcade at the local shopping mall, with J.J. hoping to use the money he got from hustling to try and beat The Bishop of Battle: a maddeningly difficult video game that centers on players trying to fight off enemies and escape from a 3-D maze that features thirteen different levels. Zock mentions how no one he or Jerry know has made it to the thirteenth level, to the point that he and many others believe it is just a myth. J.J., however, is convinced that the thirteenth level is real, as he heard a kid in New Jersey got to it twice. After an argument about J.J.'s obsession with video games, particularly The Bishop of Battle, J.J. gives Zock his cut of the profits as Zock leaves for home. J.J. receives a warm welcome as he enters the arcade. He inserts a quarter into the Bishop of Battle cabinet, prompting an introduction from the game's villain, a 3-D face known as The Bishop of Battle, who invites players to try and beat all thirteen levels. J.J. repeatedly tries and fails to make it to the thirteenth level, but only manages to make it to level 12. Determined not to give up, even after closing time, J.J. tries to play one more game, only for the owner of the arcade to force him to leave.
At J.J.'s house, his parents also voice their concern with his obsession with gaming, primarily about how it is affecting his performance in school, leading them to ground him until his grades improve. That night, J.J. sneaks out when his parents are asleep and breaks into the mall arcade to finally finish the game. J.J.'s parents are awoken by a call from Zock, who is worried if J.J. made it home or not, leading them to discover J.J. is gone. Back at the arcade, J.J finally manages to reach the thirteenth level. Suddenly, the arcade cabinet's screen begins flickering various colors and shapes, and the cabinet itself begins shaking violently until it collapses. The Bishop of Battle's voice rings out, telling J.J. that he is a very good player and welcomes him to level 13, before the cabinet releases a wave of energy. After the wave passes, the game's 3-D enemies fly out of the ruins of the cabinet, escaping into the real world. The enemies fire lasers at J.J. that manage to do serious damage to the surrounding arcade machines. J.J. manages to defends himself with the gun from the game's controls, which is now able to actually fire lasers as well (Estevez went through a two-week gun training session with the NYPD to realistically perform his gun maneuvers for the scene). Jerry escapes the arcade and flees to the parking lot, but the drops his gun in the process. The Bishop of Battle appears in reality, drawing closer and closer to a terrified Jerry.
The next morning, Zock and J.J.'s parents head to the arcade in search of J.J. They discover the damage the arcade sustained during the previous night's battle, as well as the Bishop of Battle cabinet, having been mysteriously reconstructed. Zock hears J.J.'s voice emanating from the cabinet, reciting the Bishop of Battle's lines from the game. Zock and J.J.'s parents then discover J.J. on the screen, watching as he turns into the sprite of the game's player character, hinting that he is now trapped in the game, ready to be controlled by other players.
The Benediction
Frank McLeod (Henriksen), a Catholic priest, is seen tending a field near the small Hispanic parish where he serves. A doe tentatively approaches him, but it is quickly bitten and killed by a vicious rattlesnake. McLeod attempts to kill the snake, then manages to throw it away, watching as it disappears into thin air, before discovering that it managed to bite him on the hand. He wakes up in bed, screaming, revealing that the experience was a nightmare.
Later that day, Frank directs the funeral of a young boy to a crowd of weeping mourners, but is unable to provide the mourners with comfort. Visiting his Bishop (Robin Gammell), Frank explains how he witnessed the boy's death first-hand and how the experience has given him a crisis of faith, mentioning how he has lost his belief in the concepts of good and evil. Ignoring the advice of his fellow priest, Luis, Frank resigns his position and leaves the rectory with some holy water that he considers mere tap water. He takes off across the desert in his car, searching for a new purpose in life.
He encounters a black Chevrolet C-20 Fleetside with tinted windows on the road shortly after he leaves, and signals for it to pass, but it goes at the same time he does, nearly causing an accident. A while later, Frank has a flashback to the death of the young boy mentioned earlier. The child had been senselessly killed during a robbery of the local grocery store, and while the parents wanted him to administer last rites, Frank wanted to call an ambulance in an attempt to revive the child. Afterwards, the same truck from earlier appears out of nowhere behind Frank and bumps into his car, detatching his rear bumper and forcing him off the road. Frank then has a flashback to his talk with the Bishop, mentioning that he has been plagued with visions of anarchy, his lost faith convincing him that there is no God who would allow such suffering.
As Frank attempts to fix the bumper, the truck appears again, nearly running him over. Frank attempts to escape, but the truck manages to catch up with him as he desperately asks its unseen driver what they want, before once again being forced off the road. Frank gets back on the road again, keeping a sharp eye out for the truck. He soon hears an ominous rumbling sound, and discovers a large bulge appearing in the ground, as if something is buried underneath. The truck explodes out of the ground and once again turns to Frank, prompting him to drive away. At this point, it is revealed that the truck is Satanic in origin, has an inverted cross hanging from the rear-view mirror, and is possibly driven by Satan himself. The demonic truck picks up speed and destroys Frank's car in a collision that does no damage to the truck, further proving its supernatural properties. Injured from the crash and left with nowhere to run, Frank climbs out of his ruined car as the Satanic truck closes in for the kill. In desperation, Frank tosses the container of holy water h had been carrying at the truck, vaporizing it, before he falls unconscious. Police and an ambulance crew arrive at the scene, not seeing any evidence that the truck was ever there. Frank has one final flashback of a talk with his Bishop, who mentions that only a very few individuals have been given literal signs that powers that be exist. He requests that the paramedics take him to the hospital located in his parish, having regained his faith after the harrowing experience.
Night of the Rat
In her home, housewife Claire (Cartwright) has been dealing with a recent rat problem as she can hear the rats in the walls and attic, but her husband Steven (Masur) ignores it.
Even though Steven assures Claire that he will take care of the problem with a couple of rat traps in the attic, the disturbances progressively get worse, as objects start falling off shelves and the family cat is eaten from being torn to shreds. Soon enough, Claire calls an exterminator (Albert Hague) who discovers that the creature has gnawed huge holes behind various cabinets and has also chewed on the power cables. Steven comes home, criticizes his wife, and tells the exterminator to leave.
Claire keeps consulting the exterminator and inevitably she and her family are forced into a showdown with a giant rat.
Cast
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Terror in Topanga
The Bishop of Battle
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The Benediction
Night of the Rat
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Production
It has been a long-held belief that the four segments of the film were initially conceived and shot for ABC's thriller anthology series Darkroom, but were deemed too intense for television. However, on the audio commentary on the 2015 Blu-ray release, executive producer Andrew Mirisch clarifies that the film actually began life as a pilot for an unnamed anthology series for NBC before becoming a theatrical feature for Universal Pictures.
Reception
 | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2016) |
Though the poster and trailer boasted that the film would be a 'sleeper' and ' one you won't forget ', the film was not well received on release. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an approval rating of 29% based on reviews from 7 critics.
In her review for the New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote, "Nothing spoils a horror story faster than a stupid victim. And Nightmares, an anthology of four supposedly scary episodes, has plenty of those."
Home video
The film was released on VHS by Universal Pictures in the 1980s. It was later released on DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment in 1999 in "Full Frame (1.33:1) Presentation" and has since gone out of print; this DVD issue of the film became extremely rare, with secondhand prices netting over one-hundred dollars.
On July 10, 2015, Scream Factory announced on their Facebook page that Nightmares was part of their roster of upcoming Blu-ray releases. On December 22, 2015, Scream Factory released Nightmares on Blu-ray.
See also
- Body Bags – A 1993 horror anthology that also was produced for television, and also had major filmmakers attached (John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper).
- Creepshow – A series of anthology horror films helmed by Stephen King and George A. Romero.
References
- https://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=nightmares.htm
- ^ Muir, John Kenneth (2013). Horror Films FAQ: All That's Left to Know About Slashers, Vampires, Zombies, Aliens, and More. Applause Theatre & Cinema Books. ISBN 9781557839503. pp. 332-333.
- ^ Carlson, Zack. "Terror Tuesday: Nightmares". Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. Retrieved October 8, 2016.
- http://www.impawards.com/1983/nightmares.html
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thOncLexWDE
- Nightmares at Rotten Tomatoes
- Maslin, Janet (September 3, 1983). "Nightmares Opens: Collection of 4 Horror Tales". New York Times.
- "Nightmares". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2015-08-18.
- "SCREAM FACTORY: HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT OF 10 UPCOMING TITLES!". Facebook. 2015-07-10. Retrieved 2015-08-18.
External links
- Project to make actual The Bishop of Battle video game
- Nightmares at IMDb
- Template:Amg movie
- Nightmares at Box Office Mojo