source: Nightwish

"Nightwish" is an interesting mishmash of a movie. Part supernatural horror, part sci-fi / horror, and part backwoods horror, all assembled into a muddled but interesting whole. Written & directed by Bruce R. Cook, it's nothing if not amusing, and this viewer thinks that it does succeed in creating atmosphere and a sense of weirdness. It's highly likely that Cook intended to smooth over any gaps / flaws in his narrative with that standard "it's all supposed to take on the tones of a nightmare" approach. All in all, it's a respectable, fun, but not great attempt to play in the sandbox created by Wes Craven a few years previous. The parapsychology students of a reckless professor (actor / film director Jack Starrett, whom you'll know as Gabby in "Blazing Saddles" and the vicious Deputy Galt in "First Blood") head for the California wilderness. There they intend to explore / exploit the spook house value of a residence with a history. As the story plays out, the character of Kim (Alisha Das, "Firepower") thinks that she has everything figured out. But will she, or ANYBODY, survive to tell the tale? Aided by a shuddery score by Mark Ryder & Phil Davies, as well as the guaranteed-to-gross-you-out gore effects by the KNB guys, "Nightwish" is pretty entertaining for the 80s horror-loving crowd. The cast - Elizabeth Kaitan ("Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2"), Clayton Rohner ("I, Madman"), Artur Cybulski ("The Hunt for Red October"), Brian Thompson ("Cobra"), Robert Tessier ("The Longest Yard"), Tom Dugan ("Hellraiser: Bloodline") - is entertaining to watch, although Starrett's ill health is apparent. He would die a year after filming, but before the movie saw a release. Cook begins right away with unreality, with his Dutch angles adding to the dreamlike quality of the opening sequence. He takes us on a pretty strange trip; while the movie isn't altogether successful, it at least stands out in a decade full of slashers. Seven out of 10.

Several grad students and an obsessive professor (well played with sinister aplomb by 70's drive-in cinema fave Jack Starrett) get together at a remote cabin in the woods to conduct experiments on dreams and paranormal activity that naturally get nightmarishly out of hand. Writer/director Bruce R. Cook relates the compellingly oddball story at a steady pace, ably crafts a super strange, spooky, and skin-crawling off-kilter atmosphere, makes nice use of the decrepit old house main location, delivers several nice bits of icky gore (excellent early work by KNB), tosses in everything from creepy ghost kids to invading alien parasites, and concludes things on a chilling downbeat note. The sound acting by the capable cast helps a lot: Clayton Rohner as the affable Jack, Elizabeth Kaitan as the sweet Donna, Brian Thompson as obnoxiously macho jerk Dean (the highway's his, so watch out all you cute bunny rabbits on the road!), Alisha Das as perky thrill-seeker Kim (she seems to get turned on by the professor's experiments), Arthur Cybulski as the nerdy Bill, Robert Tessier as hulking brute Stanley, and Tom Dugan as the dim-witted Wendell. Sean McLin's slick cinematography provides a pleasing polished look. The special f/x are pretty gnarly, too. As a tasty plus, fetching femmes Kaitan and Das both look mighty yummy in wet t-shirts -- and show some delicious bare skin, too. Recommended viewing for fans of offbeat and obscure fright fare.

I enjoyed the whole concept of this movie and by the end you start to see what it is about. But it is very confusing throughout. At parts it doesn't even make sense. With better writing, this movie could of been great. The cast was pretty bad. Clayton Rohner seemed to be the only one who knew how to act. Robert Tessier's character made no sense. He was suppose to be all messed up and kind of dumb. But he just talked normal and it did not fit his character. Now Brian Thompson was in this film and his character was pretty funny just for the fact that the acting was so bad. It wasn't so much how he acted, but what the writers wanted him to say. The film has some gore and some interesting parts, but with the way the movie was shot, it just didn't work enough to make it good.

Where can you start with Nightwish? For a 96 minute long film it packs in a lot of elements from numerous scifi/horror titles. It will at one point seem like a haunted house flick and then switch to an alien flick and then switch to a mad scientist flick. The film never really finds its identity and the continuity is all over the place. But the point is is that it all works. The film has to do with parapsychologists that are researching how to die in your dreams. They head out to an old abandoned mansion that is said to be haunted to continue their research only to find out there is a lot more going on then just a haunting. The movie kind of plays out like a nightmare. Nothing is ever how it actually seems and there are many moments that just seem too dreamlike to be considered plausible for logic. Acting though is a mixed bag. You have a hilarious character of Dean played by Brian Thompson that is noteworthy along with Jack Starret and Robert Tessier but the dialog itself is probably to blame for any of bad performances. Some characters will blurt out some really inane dialog. Special effects are hokey but they still work. When you see the alien worm like creature it doesn't actually look that bad. And one characters demise at the end of the film is particularly disgusting. And for those that look for it there is a fair bit of nudity in the film from a very good looking blond! And the film does touch on some eroticism in the second half. It is worth the watch but I don't think there is any American dvds of the movie so you will probably have to search out the VHS.

This movie has some undefinable atmosphere which I liked a lot. I know it is maybe B movie, or even lower, but performances were good. Especially of Jack Starrets´ in whom I saw genuine university professor of mine :). The scene when he comes after Stanley punishes students was great, his face expression was priceless :D truly proffesorish, i would say he taught in school :)

This is a unique one. I really enjoyed the twisted ending even though most other reviewers did not. Alisha Das is the highlight of this movie, along with the two villains. I'm surprised no one mentioned the awesome bondage scene where all the students, including Alisha, are handcuffed for a long time. One of the best scenes of its type. There are a lot of twists and turns and , yes, it is a low budget flick, but even after seeing this movie a number of times I'm not exactly sure what the director had in mind EXACTLY as to what happened in the end. I've seen much worse. Give it a try.

A professor (Jack Starrett) and four graduate students journey to a crumbling mansion to investigate paranormal activity and must battle ghosts, aliens and satanic entities. While there is no star in the cast, no famous writer or director or producer, it is worth noting that the special effects are from KNB, probably the best guys in the business. Somebody knew somebody to get those guys on board with this project. I do like in the opening that the students try to dream of things that terrify them -- such as cannibalism -- and are attempting to project their own death. This plays off the old idea that you cannot die in your dream without dying in real life. Is it true? Maybe, maybe not. But it makes a good background to build off of. Bonus: When one student screams, "The doctor is an alien!"

"Began to control you, and the moment you gave up, your fear took over and you were no more use to yourself or to me. All of you must learn to accept the idea of death. That moment when the grim reaper's cold mouth presses against yours. You must welcome death out of curiosity." - The professor (Jack Starrett). There are some really great lines in this nicely aging horror flick. The green theme is in my opinion the give away as to what is really happening. I thought everyone in the cast was well fitted to their roles and did a convincing job. I loved the musical score and the unexpectedly good special fx for a B grader of its time. I have watched this movie a good number of times as it as earned its place in my top 20 horrors of all time and I am an aging horror buff. There isn't one thing in this movie I would change. Its perfect the way it is, especially the ending. Its a rare movie that carries a great story arc then ends so well as this one does. You just don't want it to end which is probably the irony of it all. It does for some reason remind me of a recent movie called Extraterrestrial (2014) by The Vicious Brothers. I can't exactly put my finger on why or how it does, it just does. One can only wish for more ghoulish movies like this. Beautiful, Awesome, Excellent!

You gotta give "Nightwish" credit for originality. It depicts some college students who go to a cabin for an experiment, and get more than they bargained for. It does have the sorts of thing that one can expect in this sort of movie, but the scene with the tunnels was the really cool part. The professor looked kind of like Christoph Waltz. I guess that, once you get beyond the whole horror plot, the movie deals with the human subconscious (along with conspiracy theories about aliens). "Nightwish" is mostly your typical horror flick, but does contain some original stuff. It's definitely fun to watch. So remember what Wendell and Stanley said.