Not to be confused with the 80's horror flick- which is, amusingly enough, Canadian- or the 2000 documentary about horror movies, this post-Scream slasher revolves around a group of friends who confess their greatest fears to a local DJ on his call-in show on Halloween, only to find a female serial killer has overheard them and is determined to make them all come true in as horrific manner as possible. Well, most of them, anyway, as a few are wisely unwilling to divulge such a thing for all to hear- not that it stops the mysterious woman from stalking them anyway.
As it turns out, all this is not necessarily as random as it seems- there may be more of a motive to her madness than meets the eye. Based in part on the real-life killer Jane Toppan, a nurse who murdered at least 30 people in the New England area, circa the late 19th Century, the filmmakers have updated the material and relocated it to Texas, thus making the infamous Chainsaw Massacre not the only game in town anymore in the process.
Granted, this reasonably entertaining straight-to-DVD slasher doesn't rise to the levels of Tobe Hooper's infamous classic, but then, few horror movies do. What it does have is a decent sense of humor, lots of in-joke references for horror fans, and an indelible performance from classic-era Scream Queen Debbie Rochon, a name which should be readily familiar to horror fans that came of age in the late 80's and 90's, as she was voted "Scream Queen of the Decade" by Draculina magazine (that decade being the 90's), and having won multiple awards for her work over the years, including one for her role here.
Some of you may also know her for her columns for The Joe Bob Report (as in much-beloved "drive-in movie critic" Joe Bob Briggs) and Fangoria magazine ("Diary of the Deb"), and she has also written for Femme Fatales, Gore Zone, Videoscope, Sirens of Cinema and Chiller Theatre, among other magazines. She has also appeared on the covers of many of those magazines, in some cases multiple times, as well as many others, including Rue Morgue, Vampirella, Scream Queens Illustrated, Gotham, Alternative Cinema and The Dark Side.
Her many films (over 200 and counting) include the likes of: Slime City, Abducted II, Santa Claws, Tromeo & Juliet (co-written by director James Gunn, of Guardians of the Galaxy fame), Terror Firmer (ditto), Bleed, Final Examination, Nowhere Man, The Colour from the Dark (based on the tale from H.P. Lovecraft), Tales of Poe (based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe), Mulberry Street, Beg, Psychosamatika, Slime City Massacre, Richard the Lionheart (and its sequel, Rebellion), Dollface, Death House and her directorial debut, 2015's Model Hunger.
Another Scream Queen legend, Brinke Stevens, has a cameo here as the mother of the little girl leading lady Jessie (Brandy Little, Detention (aka Learning Curve), The Life of David Gale) babysits. Stevens, who sports a Halloween costume that should be readily familiar to her many fans, has also been in over 200 films, most of them genre-oriented, including The Slumber Party Massacre, Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama, Nightmare Sisters, Haunting Fear, Bad Girls from Mars, Teenage Exorcist, Jack-O, Mommy, Witchouse 3, Bleed, Cheerleader Massacre, Delta Delta Die, The Ouija Possession and many, many more. In short, if you're a hardcore horror fan, you've heard of them, and if not, you've got some explaining to do- and lots of movies to watch.
The rest of the cast is lesser-known, as tends to be the case with these ultra low-budget flicks (reportedly just $56,000!), but they're reasonably likable, save maybe Bruce (Kenyon Holmes, Pendulum), who seems to be inspired by a Bill Paxton-type, likely Chet from Weird Science, with a dash of Hudson from Aliens thrown in for good measure, so it's clearly by design. He's also among the first to bite it, so you don't have to deal with him long- and given what his stated fear is, he goes in fairly spectacular fashion, albeit more implied than shown- not that most guys would want to see such a thing, mind you.
There are a few exceptions, though. Johnny Sneed, who plays leading man, Wayne, has had a long career in Hollywood that continues to this day, including lots of TV work, including roles on The Guardian (he had a recurring role on that one), ER, Charmed, Friends (interesting in light of his role here, as he and friends spend a lot of their time at a Central Perk-style cafe), American Dreams (another recurring gig), NCIS (plue both of the spin-offs), CSI, CSI: NY, Boston Legal, House, My Name is Earl, Justified, Supernatural (he was "Jimmy Tomorrow" for those who remember that character), Parks and Recreation (another recurring gig, as William Barnes), Masters of Sex, Bones, Criminal Minds, House of Lies, Ray Donovan and 13 Reasons Why. So, if he looks familiar, that's probably why.
Chris Ryan, who plays the mysterious DJ, was, in fact, an actual DJ in Dallas, Texas, so that's why he's so convincing. He also ad-libbed most of his dialogue here, which is fairly impressive. Ryan parlayed his appearance here into other horror flicks, including Suburban Nightmare (also from writer/director Jon Keeyes, and featuring several of the cast members from this film), Fall Down Dead and From the Dark. However, perhaps as to be expected, his bread and butter came from his voice-over work, which includes lots of Anime dubbing, including Tokyo ESP, Ninja Slayer, Fairy Tail and Assassination Classroom.
Ditto Robert McCollum, who plays Tony. Indeed, McCollum was already a fairly established voice-over actor by the time he did this film in 2002, having done work for the popular Dragon Ball-Z, as well as B'T X and Detective Conan. Though he continued to work sporadically in film and TV, notably in Saving Jessica Lynch and the aforementioned Suburban Nightmare, far and away most of his credits lie in Anime, notably Attack on Titan, Psycho-Pass, Black Clover, Fairy Tail, Dragonaut, Soul Eater and Full Metal Alchemist- though there are plenty more where that came from.
Robert was married to co-star Kristin (who played Cynthia) at the time, which explains their easy chemistry. She also did a little voice-over work, though nowhere near as extensively as Chris Ryan and McCollum. She continues to work sporadically as an actress, having appeared in TV's Walker, Texas Ranger and Prison Break, as well as the critically-acclaimed TV movie Temple Grandin.
Kimberly Grant, who plays Jessie's ill-fated sister, Trisha, who bites it in the first scene, also has done a fair amount of Anime voice-over, notably Dragon Ball, Yu Yu Hakusho: Ghost Files and Fruits Basket. Cutie Hayden Tweetie, who plays Deanna, the other girl in the opening sequence, was also in Suburban Nightmare, Living & Dying (also with Little and from director Keeyes), Doom Room, The Harrowing and Dude, but may be best-known to you parents of a certain age as Sarah on the kids' show, Barney & Friends.
That's about it for semi-familiar faces, but it's par for the course for low-budget horror. I will say that the main cast really do seem like friends, and have solid chemistry, even if some of the pop-culture references seem a bit forced into their conversation, but that was de rigueur for horror at the time, thanks to Scream and Tarantino and the like, so it is what it is. Also notable is that, as in the last section of Scream, a clip from the classic Halloween appears. The other film shown on TV is Haunting Fear, a cute nod to Brinke Stevens, as she is in the film and her "daughter" in the film is shown watching it.
Between this, and the party the main cast attend, complete with an appearance from "shock-a-billy" band Ghoultown (who you might know from their song about horror hostess, Elvira), the Halloween vibes are strong with this one, though the beginning and end could have withstood a bit more of it. A small quibble, though, in the grand scheme of things, as the bulk of the film is heavy on the Halloween and features lots of horror references, notably nods to Flesh for Frankenstein, Psycho, The Vanishing, From Dusk til Dawn and When a Stranger Calls.
While the killer's motive is admittedly a bit muddled- she was formerly a nurse who lost her job because of complaints of erratic behavior by Trisha McClain (Kimberly Grant), hence her coming after Trisha, as well as her sisters Jessie and Misty- overall, this is a fairly effective slasher that has a solid score by Peter Gannon and David Rosenblad and decent cinematography by Brad Walker, who also did the honors on Keeyes' follow-up feature, Suburban Nightmare.
According to the behind the scenes doc, the idea was to always show the main cast in bright colors and Rochon's character bathed in darkness, so as to reflect their respective moods. As the film goes on, darkness takes over, for all the characters, in light of what they've all gone through. A pretty nifty idea, though it helps if you know both this and the killer's motives going in, as it makes all the difference. The first time I saw it, I didn't realize Jessie and Misty were sisters until after the fact, which would have made one of the twists at the end that much better.
Though a few have grumbled about the very end of the film, which sees Jane somewhat abandon her quest prematurely, clearly having an emotional breakdown, for me, it's saved by the fact that we not only see just how troubled she is- note all the medication- but that she has a previously unseen connection to another one of the characters, which makes a previous development in the film all the more chilling on re-watch, given that one of the characters trusts said character enough to leave a child with them.
Sometimes subtlety doesn't pay off as much as one hopes, but it can reward those paying close attention, so there's that. I noticed a lot of derogatory remarks about the film on IMDb and Amazon and the like, but it's clear a lot of what I just discussed got by them, as most of them missed the killer's motive altogether and clearly didn't watch the making of, which explains the stuff I mentioned really well, which, in turn, rewards future viewings, which I like. Anytime I can re-watch a movie and catch new things, I really dig that.
American Nightmare isn't perfect. The editing is choppy, some of the performances are a bit wooden at times, and, as I mentioned, you really have to pay attention or you won't quite get what is going on. In this day and age, people have a tendency to half-watch things while they check their phones and the like- those who do so during this film will likely be unimpressed and dismiss it as just another by-the-numbers slasher, but there's more going on here than meets the eye- you just have to work for it a little.
The film is readily available on DVD and on various streaming services, including Amazon- just make sure you have the right one, given the multiple films and TV shows with similar titles! Definitely worth a watch, especially around Halloween time, and Rochon is alone worth the price of admission, with Stevens a nice bonus. By all means, check this one out. 🎃
No comments:
Post a Comment