Nightmare Man
Tags: paranormal, insanity, violence

Plot synopsis:
Ellen believes there is a supernatural creature trying to kill her named the "Nightmare Man". However, her husband and doctors believe she is a paranoid schizophrenic.
On the way to a psychiatric ward, the Morris' car breaks down. When her husband goes to get gas, Ellen stays behind and is attacked by the mysterious, horrifying enemy, the Nightmare Man. Escaping into the nearby woods, Ellen stumbles upon a country house where two young couples are spending the weekend. They do not know if the killer is real or just a figment of Ellen's tortured mind nor if the killer is outside or already inside the house.
As people start dying, nobody knows whom they can trust. Near the end of the film, the killer is revealed to be a hitman hired by Ellen's husband to kill Ellen before she discovers his affairs. Ellen reveals she is possessed by the real Nightmare Man, a demon who enters a female body first by getting them to wear his mask, then he rapes them. As the Nightmare Man, she kills the hitman and her husband. She sets her sights on Mia, the survivor, who kills Ellen, but is stripped and raped by the Nightmare Man's spirit. She is left in an institution, where the doctor decides to take her off her medication, which are the only things that keep the demon asleep.

Review: Anyhow, Rolf seems to have a much lower budget on this one than on The Hazing, be he economises well and the make up and effects are good and it works to the films benefit that they are sparingly used until the climax.Story concerns an unstable young woman who uses a wacko ancient fertility mask to try and improve her sex life with her husband only to end up having horrific visions of a spirit contained within the mask.
Shepis is a good actress who seems naturally uninhibited and doesn't look down upon B-movie roles and just has fun with it.
The rest of cast are variable with the lead actress overplaying at times but improving as the film goes on and her responses look more appropriate.I digress, sorry, violence and weirdness abound as the "nightmare man " descends upon the cottage, and the newly arrived guest ain't feeling herself.
The script is flimsy at times, the dialog is openly bad at times, the characters act accordingly most of the time (few moments you'll ask yourself "is that REALLY the most reasonable reaction" but those moments are uncommon) but overall...I really liked it.
I will be seeking out Kanefsky's other films for that alone.The acting is much better than I expected, Blythe Metz is a bit inconsistent, but when she's on she's really good.
James Ferris is the best of the male actors, but I did like Jack Sway as Ed and Luciano Szafir with the exception of his accent getting in the way a little.Overall, I do recommend this movie for those that like low-budget horror.
I've seen some pretty crap movies, too, but I stick around and watch them, and then laugh later.I can only say that this movie was so horrible (perhaps the reason it made it into the Horrorfest line up, because it was so terrible as to be horrifying?), that I was insulted by it.
Heralding back to the days of cheesy 80's horror, this was by far even worse than those amusing flicks.Bad acting, horrible effects and makeup, terrible filming, irritating music...did I mention the bad acting?
My wife and I spent over $20 on this one movie to end up walking out, it was atrocious.To the people in charge of selecting the Horrorfest lineup...please bother to pick something a bit more worth our time and money.
However, I was kind of hoping for something more in the lines of say an Evil Dead movie rather than a typical slasher film with a twist here and there.
The script is terrible, the characters are morons, the acting is mostly bad (especially the Spanish husband of the main character - I have no idea why anyone would put him in front of a camera), there are several really bad continuity errors (like the cut on the woman's leg that magically disappears), the make-up is cheesy, and there really aren't any scares.
Not Gonna Lie, This Was Bad. I had heard some good things about this Horrorfest film so I decided to give it a shot.
Though, they're usually pretty bad, to be honest.The acting was okay, I guess but Tiffany Shepis' character was so extremely annoying that her performance alone could have ruined the whole movie.
After receiving a wrong mask, Ellen insists that the demon Nightmare Man is attacking her and she needs pills to keep him under control inside her, but the doctors diagnose her as paranoid schizophrenic.
Ellen is attacked by the Nightmare Man but she escapes through the woods, reaching the house of Mia (Tiffany Shepis) that is receiving her boyfriend Ed (Jack Sway) and the friends Trinity (Hanna Putnam) and her fiancé Jack (James Ferris).
Sooner they discover that the deadly Nightmare Man is outside threatening their lives and they realize that Ellen was telling the truth."Nightmare Man" is a good low-budget slash movie with many twists in the story.
this movie some how gained enough notoriety to be in "Horror fest," and i'm confident that it couldn't get a passing grade in an undergrad, beginning-film-making course.
This movie was my first experience with "Horror fest" ever, and because of it, I feel an overwhelming obligation to myself to never watch another "Horror fest" film again."Nightmare Man," you've tickled my gag reflex like no other movie before.
I really wanted to see this film for the Tiffany Shepis acting (and nudity) as well as the Rolfe Kanefsky writing and directing.
I've heard it compared to "The Exorcist" (which is an amazing stretch), and there is one subtle and one not to subtle reference to Kanefsky's earlier film "There's Nothing Out There".What is bothersome about Rolfe's movies is how he has big ideas but small budgets.
His writing is much better than the average horror writer's and his directing is quite exquisite (as my friend Hannah keenly pointed out, he has that 1980s sense of where to put the camera while chasing a girl through the woods).
Maybe I needed a beer (Regal Cinemas is lacking in the booze department).Of the four films I've seen so far this year, I'm ranking "Nightmare Man" my second favorite (behind "Tooth and Nail").
Well, I've seen some movies from "After Dark Horrorfest" and over all, they've been pretty good.
Personally, I love low budget movies and they can be pretty amusing and it's okay if the effects aren't the best, but hey..
this was a pretty decent little low budget horror flick,, reminds you of the b movies of the 70's and 80's.
the car breaks down , husband leaves to get gas, doesn't return,, this is where the fun starts,, Nightmare Man comes after her, and she manager to get to a cabin with a bunch of other people who have their own little issues.
It takes its form from a fertility mask and when she's left alone by her husband when they run out of gas the demon comes after her and chases her to a house in the woods.Awful just really awful.
You know a movie is bad when all I can say nice about it is that the women look good and some of them disrobe.
This movie is worth a watch.I think this movie is one of the best from the horrorfest in terms of some good thrills and scares.I particularly liked the beautiful Blythe Metz.
I suppose this movie got her a big break what she might have been looking for, hope to watch more of her...The other actors were fine...I would rate the movie as follows; Scares - 7 Gore - 5 Acting - 5 Nudity - 6 Innovative Concept - 8 Overall - 7The Director did a reasonably good job.
When she puts it on, she believes herself to be possessed by a demon spirit that she keeps seeing, and she calls it the Nightmare Man. Now her husband is taking her to a clinic to help her get over her condition, and their car runs out of gas, and he takes off to find gas, but she starts seeing the Nightmare Man, and runs into the woods being chased and comes across a cottage where two sexy couples are having a party.
BUT, is it really a demon, and what about the husband returning with the gas, he is on his way to the cottage, is he really the Nightmare Man trying to scare his Wife.
Really, the only reason I rate this film so high (and 4 out of 10 isn't exactly a good rating) is because of the fine buttocks and overall body of Tiffany Shepis.
It takes forever before anyone gets killed, and all the annoying exposition spells out the whole movie, well except for the plot twist in the third act.By far the worst actor is the husband of the crazy women.
The way he gets killed is great, and I hope to never see him in another movie ever again.There is an attempt at an actual plot in Nightmare Man, and thats kind of refreshing for these types of horror movies, but then again, it really isn't that great - the special effects are at about the level they had in 1985.
Smoother and much more competent than Argento though...I'm glad to have found this new director of Horror films (new to me, that is) and I very much look forward to seeing more of his work as time goes on.
It was basically an eighties slasher; except it was (slightly) more intelligent than the usual fodder as rather than just having the characters at the isolated retreat where the film takes place being picked off one by one; there was a bit of psychological horror thrown in as the psychopath was a part of the lead character's nightmares.
The plot focuses on Ellen; a woman who gets a fertility mask from Africa that, rather than fertilize her husband, fertilizes her head with the 'Nightmare Man' - a vicious psycho in a mask.
The husband is driving the wife to the nut house one day when the car breaks down and the Nightmare Man comes after her...As a film in its own right, Nightmare Man is pretty poor.
I liked the twist in the movie when i found out that Ellen's husband was behind the whole idea.
Nightmare Man starts as Bill (Luciano Szafir) is driving his wife Ellen (Blythe Metz) cross country to a mental institute, apparently Ellen thinks she's possessed by some sort of demon from an Afican tribal wood carved face mask, obviously she isn't & that's why she's on her way to a loony bin.
It turns out though Ellen may not be as mad as originally anticipated as the Nightmare Man (Aaron Sherry) becomes a living reality that wants to kill her, she runs away into some wood where she stumbles upon a log cabin with four friends inside who all become potential victims for the Nightmare Man...Written, produced & directed by Rolfe Kanefsky this low budget teen slasher isn't quite as bad as I had feared & isn't too bad if you have low enough expectations.
To be positive at least it moves along at a nice enough pace, there might have been a couple more murders but I wasn't bored with it, the character's are actually a lot better than I thought with reasonable decision making like actively trying to stick together & deciding not to go out in the woods alone or split up which is a nice change & generally speaking I thought it was a painless if undemanding & forgettable enough way to pass 90 odd minutes.
The other thing that I liked about this film is Tiffany Shepis who I have seen in several other low budget horror films but didn't particularly know her in the sense if I saw a picture of her I wouldn't recognise her, here though she's probably the best thing about Nightmare Man as she runs around in her extremely mini skirt & boots holding a huge hunting rifle spouting mildly amusing one-liners, hey I'm easily pleased OK?Director Kanefsky does alright on a low budget but it's not stylish & it all rather flat & bland.
I've just realised that I've seen every horror film Kanefsky has directed to this point (lucky me, not), The Hazing (2004) which is pretty good, Corpses (2004) which is not so good, Jacqueline Hyde (2006) which is terrible & this which is OK.
There's not much gore here, an arrow fired into someones mouth, a knife stuck under someones chin & a bit of blood splatter & not much else.Withn a supposed budget of about $250,000 this is as well made as you could expect, it's certainly glossier & nicer looking than many low budget straight-to-video/DVD horror film crap that's out there.
As I said Tiffany Shepis is the best thing about Nightmare Man, she's a really hot looking chick with a great body & she actually gives a decent performance here which I'm sure no one was expecting to hear.
The rest of the cast do OK & all of the girls find themselves in some degree of undress at one point or another.Nightmare Man isn't anything particularly special, in fact it's nothing more than OK but even that's still a hell of a lot better than I was expecting.
After ordering an African mask (from Italy?) that promises increased fertility, Ellen (Blythe Metz) begins to experience demonic visions of a 'Nightmare Man' attacking her.
It wasn't COMPLETELY bad: The Nightmare Man was pretty cool-looking, even though he looked like Howie Mandel in Little Monsters ("Got 'em, got 'em, need 'em, got 'em").
All these years later, Nightmare Man had nice opening credits, and the rest the same old thing of girls naked or wearing nothing much and no scares at all.
Bad lighting, extreme acting, lazy dialogue and plot -- man, did that first chase through the woods go on forever, with so many chances for Ellen to get caught.
She cries out to her husband, William(Luciano Szafir)that a "Nightmare Man", this type of evil(..or perhaps even a demonic force)within her that won't cease since receiving a hideous tribal mask(..she was supposed to get a "god of fertility" mask, but was sent the wrong one)in the mail.
On the way to that hospital, their car runs out of gas, William tells Ellen to stay in the car as he goes after some more, and she is "confronted" by the Nightmare man.
The film alternates between a revealing game of "Erotic Truth or Dare" with the cabin gang and poor Ellen fending off the Nightmare man as he playfully exposes his knife to her.
The final portion of the film REALLY gets wacky as we find out who the REAL Nightmare man is, veering into "Night of the Demons" territory.The film is a bit this and a bit that:psychological thriller(Is Ellen crazy?Is there truth to what she is saying?), slasher flick(the Nightmare man outside the cabin picking off members inside one by one when he gets a chance), and demonic horror comedy(..when the evil takes control and runs rampant).
The first part of the film singularly focuses on Ellen, in a car terrified at out her wits, as she hears noises and the viewer sees a masked man running outside..we are part of this nightmare, whether it be real or imagined.
You could tell that he was putting 00001% into what he was trying to portray as a foreign and caring husband.For a low budget movie, the manipulation of the sets was very well done.
With a very low money pile, this movie succeeds in set, camera work and lighting.I will admit, the scares make up, in part, for the bad acting and the very stale plot.
Nightmare Man almost spoofs on itself in a way, but despite the amusing deaths and dialogue, it's still just dark and creepy enough to give a decent scare for some.I definitely recommend this movie to anybody who is a fan of good movies on low budgets, or to those of us who appreciate the B-movie genre.
~Spoiler~Rolfe Kanefsky makes bad horror movies, but at least they are usually fun.
It's about a couple who receive a foreign fertility mask that the wife thinks is haunted by the titular Nightmare Man. She becomes increasingly paranoid that the creature is going to kill her and the husband eventually has no other choice but to commit her.
While the husband heads out on foot for the gas station, the wife is attacked by the Nightmare Man. She has many narrow escapes before reaching a secluded home where we meet more cannon fodder characters for the slasher to maim and kill.
I thought that since this was a Horrorfest film, that the production values might look better than Kanefsky's other flicks.
However, I wasn't totally satisfied.Acting in horror films doesn't have to be at Oscar caliber but it has to be believable and for me the only believable people here were Tiffany Shepis and maybe James Ferris.
But music in movies has to help the story - it certainly didn't here.The plot was good, and that twist at the end with the demon actually coming out was great.
This movie starts off featuring Ellen, a woman who receives an African mask of a fertility deity she ordered to help her and her husband with their sex life, only it looks nothing like what she expected—a all-too- classic devil/demon looking face, which she insists leads to an actual demon taking over her body and mind (and haunting her dreams).
It pursues her to a house where four young adults are having a small party, and people start dying.There's so much I wasn't expecting from this film (due to the level of professional cinema making I've come to expect from the movies distributed by After Dark) that I was already disappointed three minutes in.
So, if you're really in the mood to watch something that's so bad that's it becomes all too easy to make fun of it during the entire ride, you could give "Nightmare Man" a try.
"Nightmare Man" is an enjoyable, if slightly flawed entry.**SPOILERS**After receiving a new fertility mask, Ellen Morris, (Blythe Metz) suddenly starts having strange nightmares and visions, which her husband William, (Luciano Szafir) immediately writes off.
When it starts getting worse, she begins to feel like she's being stalking by a figure known as The Nightmare Man, who is represented by their mask.
The movie opens with her receiving the mask before getting the effects of that, and within a matter of six minutes in, the film is ready to have her dropped of at the asylum.
Otherwise, this one wasn't bad at all.The Final Verdict: A lot of good points mixed in with some minor flaws really helps this one out, making it a highly enjoyable and entertaining film.
Perhaps I'm jaded and have seen too many horror films, but I wasn't scared by this one at all.