Nightmare Cinema

While horror anthologies usually disappoint because of the uneven quality of their parts, Nightmare Cinema doesn’t perform any better, in this case because its parts invariably revolve around the average. One thing that is dragging the film down is its frame story The Projectionist (Mick Garris): A dreadful projectionist (Mickey Rourke) decoys (non-) random passers-by into his cinema. This theme only serves a necessary unifying purpose and consolidates otherwise unrelated stories; it doesn’t offer any other idea and ends up feeling disappointing to the viewer. 30%. And here are the individual parts: The Things in the Woods (Alejandro Brugués): A deliberately over-elaborate and light-hearted ‘camp/country house’ slasher parody which feels somewhat unfocused and which would benefit from a bigger dose of humour. Still watchable fun, though. 55%. Mirari (Joe Dante): A simple tale with a clear message – ‘plastic surgery is evil’. With the charismatic Richard Chamberlain shining in the role of a surgeon with demon-like kindness and Dante’s apt direction, this part is probably the most decent of all. 60%. Mashit (Ryûhei Kitamura): A demonic rampage in a Catholic school and a massacre of possessed children. A shallow gory stupidity with relatively badly performing child actors. 40%. This Way to Egress (David Slade): The most interesting part visually speaking. Affected by some kind of disorder, the main heroine perceives her surroundings in a terribly distorted manner. If this black-and-white part was just a bit more sophisticated, it would definitely end up as the highlight of the film. 60%. Dead (Mick Garris): Within minutes of being clinically dead, a boy who has been shot starts to see dead people inside the hospital – which turns out to be fairly irrelevant to the story since the lad will have to fight against the killer who came to finish him off. It’s a bit of a mix between The Sixth Sense and Flatliners without any added value whatsoever. 40%. Overall, Nightmare Cinema is too heavy and lacks humour; some parts take themselves way too seriously. On similar themes, I enjoyed Trapped Ashes slightly better. [Sitges 2018] (15.10.2018)

In the end, this anticipated anthology is just an average. The first short story by Alejandro Brugués (Juan of the Dead) is a parody of camp slashers with proper gore, decent make-up effects and an unexpected ending, but is marred by amateurish performances, ear-splitting dialogue and a great deal of naivety. The second story is by Joe Dante (Gremlins) and unexpectedly it is the best. It deals with a twisted plastic surgeon who is commissioned by his fiancé to fix her face. Great make-up effects, plenty of tension and a decent twist. 75%. The third story by Ryuhei Kitamura (The Midnight Meat Train) is a splatter in a Catholic school with possessed kids. Decent gore, a sexy nun, but again, it's marred by unconvincing performances and it's pretty overwrought. 60%. The fourth story is by David Slade (30 Days of Night) and is surprisingly the weakest. It's in black and white and is about a woman who wanders corridors and sees disfigured people. Again, decent make-up effects, but very uninteresting and rather boring. 50%. The fifth story, by Mick Garris (Sleepwalkers), is a chase on the grounds of a hospital where a psychopath goes after a little boy who also sees the dead. Probably the second best story with plenty of suspense and a dose of violence. 65%. Rather disappointing in the end. I definitely enjoyed the gore that features in almost every story, but it's very poorly and unconvincingly acted and the back story isn't worth much either. It was alright, but given the cast of directors, more could have been made of it. 60% (21.06.2019)