Better known in the UK as Nightmares In A Damaged Brain, this is one of the more interesting films placed on the video nasty list. Suffering from night terrors, George (Baird Stafford) is released from a mental hospital earlier than was recommended after judging that he is sane enough to separate the real world from his incidents in his nightmares. After realising their error, a doctor, psychologist and the police try to hunt him down before he is tipped over the edge. George wanders the streets looking at strippers before he begins his search for a seemingly random family who have their own troubles with their strange, mischievous son C.J. (C.J. Cooke),
The problem with the film, or should I say main problem, is that it never seems to decide what kind of film it wants to be. What starts out promisingly as a kind of Grindhouse Taxi Driver (1976), soon switches to family drama, to police chase, to all-out stalk-and-slash. The moments when the action focuses on the family, which is the majority of the time, it loses pace and I lost sense of the main characters personal plight. George makes for an interesting 'bad' guy as he is psychologically torn and disturbed by the nightmares of a little boy butchering a man and a woman with an axe. The end, which I obviously won't reveal too much about, begins as a Halloween (1978)-esque set-piece complete with a funny mask which is rather silly and run-of-the-mill, but then suddenly egages again, as a key factor about our protagonist is revealed. Yet the director ruins it all with a rather cringe-worthy last frame, with which I shook my head in bitter disappointment.
Directed by: Romano Scavolini
Country: USA
Rating: **
Tom Gillespie
No comments:
Post a Comment