NIGHTMARES
Australia, 1980, 80 minutes, Colour.
Jenny Neumann, Terry Besanko, Nina Landis, Max Phipps, John Michael Howson, Briony Behets.
Directed by John Lamond.
Nightmares is a macabre, slashing-murder thriller, made by John Lamond who previously had made Australian soft-core pornographic films, Australia After Dark, The A.B.C. of Love and Sex Australia Style, and Felicity. There are traces of this interest in the present film. However, it is a murder thriller in the vein of such late '70s popular B-movies as Friday the 13th., and Silent Scream. It can stand well enough beside these comparisons. The screenplay is by Colin Eggleston who directed such films as Long Weekend. Unfortunately, the leading actress is American - no explanation is given for her accent. The Australian cast performs quite well and there is strength in the performance of Max Phipps as the director. Melbourne critic and TV personality John Michael Howson appears as quite a rancid critic. He also gets violently murdered. (And with John Lamond he was responsible for the original idea of the film.) A passing piece of macabre entertainment - but an illustration that Australian films of the '70s and '80s could compete with overseas productions, whatever the genre.
1. Audience enjoyment of such horror thrillers? The traditions of grand guignol? The emphasis on horror, shocks, violence? The exaggerated gore? The lack of plausibility - but the emphasis on audience identification with shocks? The success of this film within this tradition?
2. Audience response to horror - terror? Identification of men, of women? With a murdering heroine? The possibilities for identification? Nightmares, fright?
3. The quality of the Australian production: the use of Panavision, colour, darkness, the theatre sets? Editing and special effects? The strident musical score?
4. The emphasis on blood, slashing, broken glass, windows and mirrors? Audience response to the slashing and stabbing thriller? The exploitation of violence? The sexuality background of the film? Visual sexuality, nudity - integrated into the film, exploited?
5. The influences of American thrillers like Halloween, Psycho? Psychological studies of multiple personality like Sybil? The focus on the title and its relevance to Helen? Her double personality? The subjective shots, tracking, sounds for her mad personality? How well did the film use its American models?
6. The importance of the prologue: a sufficient explanation for Helen's behaviour, the potboiling exploitive tones? The child, sexuality, voyeurism, protection of the mother, violence? The withdrawing? The significance of the dates? The taking over of an alternate personality? The feeding of vengeance? The importance of the presentation of the mother as promiscuous, the father and his seeing the child off on holidays, his later accusation? Did Helen kill her mother? Dragging her across the glass? Was it the alternate personality? The hospitalisation, the father's accusation? The transition to violent dreams and Helen waking up? Her fears?
7. The visualising of the nightmares - what was real and what was unreal? The alternate personality as the nightmare personality?
8. The character of Helen, the American accent? As a young girl, audience sympathy or not? The aftermath of her father's accusations, the audition, the friendship with Terry? Her growing vengefulness? The murdering of the couple, Helen's violence? Audiences alienated from her? Her acting, the confrontations with the director? The date with Terry and his leaving her in the cafe? The murder of Angela because of jealousy? Killing Bruce and Fay in the costume room? The stabbing of the director? The murder of the critic? The haunting of Susan and her killing? The suddenness of Terry's death? What was the audience left with at the end? Susan and her trying to fight her other self? The fights and sounds in the room and her dishevelled room? The fleeing to Terry for his support? The irony of the police message at the end? A sufficient characterisation for this disturbed character?
9. Terry as hero - the soap opera background, the audition and the director making him speak more loudly, his friendship with Helen, her relying on him and visiting him, the restaurant and his abandoning her and causing Angela's death? The performances in the play? The suddenness of his own death?
10. The various members of the cast and management? How well delineated the characters? Angela and her work, the clash with Helen, her death after the interlude with Bruce? Bruce as a poor actor, exploitation by the critic, his using Fay? The prolonged deaths? Susan and her not acting well? The atmosphere of her death?
11. The portrait of the director - the detail of the auditions, rehearsals. performance, the clash with the critic? The satire on the peevish nature of the director and his egoism? His death?
12. The acid critic and his affectations? Presence in the theatre and attacks on the director, the party and his hosting of it, his harsh review? His salacious attitudes, propositioning of Bruce? His death? The parody in presenting this view of a critic?
13. The slapdash presentation of the police and their investigations?
14. The significance of an absurd play about death? The lack of importance of the content but the emphasis on the style and the rhythms? Was this a theory of how this horror film worked? Did it? The purpose of this film - entertainment, shock? Psychological horror?
