Trailer—Twisted Nightmare

source: Twisted Nightmare

'Twisted Nightmare' is a very basic 80's slasher flick with supernatural elements that's unoriginal in almost every way and features terrible acting, poor editing, bizarre plot-holes and lacking any real suspense whatsoever. It's not hard to see why this sat on the shelf for 5 years before being released and why the genre was falling out of favour, this flick is about as run of mill as it gets. The plot = A group of teens win a trip to a summer camp they attended a few years ago, since the tragic accidental death of one of the teens Matthew. Soon after they arrive, they start getting killed off one by one and it becomes apparent that the tragic accident is linked with these recent killings. Almost everything about this is a failure down to the awful special effects, the bad storytelling and lifeless direction that overuses the slow motion for no reason other than to pad out the running time. Despite having a large cast of characters, the murder set pieces are boring and lack any chills with some of the poorest lighting I've ever seen. The only slight entertainment I got out of this is with the character Dean (Kenneth Roper Jr), he's the biggest a-hole you'll ever see, and his antics are a highlight in this film. However, the rest are totally forgettable, and the final twist ending was lame and totally obvious. Overall 'Twisted Nightmare' is about as banal a slasher movie can get without any fun or charm.

Twisted Nightmare (1987) ** 1/2 (out of 4) A group of adults win a weekend pass to the summer camp that they once attended when they were younger. Once there the party starts but before long a death from their past will come back to kill them one by one. TWISTED NIGHTMARE is a slasher film that got a limited theatrically release before hitting VHS where it became a minor cult favorite. The film pretty much went away for a while but it has slowly picked up another cult following thanks to it simply being a slasher as well as it being shot at the same place that Friday THE 13TH PART III was. The barn and house from that Jason movie is used here so it is pretty cool getting to see the same location used. As far as the actual film goes, look, you're dealing with a low-budget horror movie that was made by people just trying to make some money. The Slasher 101 Handbook is pretty much followed throughout as we get the backstory, we get the camp setting, the partying, the nudity and of course a mysterious old man and several bloody deaths. There's obviously nothing new or original here but for the most part it kept me entertained. If anything director Paul Hunt at least got some atmosphere out of the material, which is a plus. The death scenes are decent for what they are as there is at least some blood being thrown around. If nudity is your thing then you'll be happy to know that several of the young ladies here get totally naked. The one major problem with the film is the cinematography. The film's lighting was so poor that often times the scenes are beyond dark. I'm sure this issue was even worse for those watching this on a bootleg or VHS. The Blu-ray has at least been cleaned up but it's still quite dark due to the way the film was shot.

Some old school friends each win a free weekend at Camp Paradise, the place where they all used to go on vacation together when they were younger. While there, a superhuman, growling man-beast bumps them off one-by-one (except for the couple making love outside… he kills both of them at the same time). On the slasher horror checklist, this one ticks all the boxes and then some: you got a group of horny teenagers in a remote woodland retreat, multiple kills, lots of gratuitous female nudity (all the girls gets their clothes off at some point), mullets, an old man who warns the kids "you're all going to die!, a flashback scene, an Indian burial ground and an ancient curse. So why the low rating? Well, there is not one ounce of originality in the whole thing, the kills occur mostly off-screen and are relatively gore-less (the kid having his arm torn off and the cop losing his head being the notable exceptions), the acting is atrocious (the OAP sheriff winning my award for worst performance), and a lot of the action is way too dark (except for some of the night-time woodland scenes which are back-lit with a 10000w blue lamp that can be seen from outer space). At the end, it should come as no surprise to anyone as to who has been behind the killings. 3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for the party scene, which sees our happy campers making merry to some of the worst music imaginable. Those wild and crazy kids.

I've just finished watching this movie with a mate and thought it was so bad it was great. Firstly I thought the overall look of the film as well as the gore were quite good (not great but good). While the plot is very basic and flawed, it is the bad acting that really makes this movie fun to watch. Often you will watch a movie where all the actors are putting in such a bad performance that they have a certain chemistry between them. With this movie not only are they all acting poorly, but they have no chemistry with one another at all. Extra bad points go to the muscle Asian guy Tak who never changes expression or tone, and the aggressive moustache boyfriend with the over the top bad attitude. It is the bad acting that make this film enjoyable. If you want a good and effective horror movie then stay away. If you want a good unintentional laugh, then check it out.

A lot of movies are intentionally dumb for comedic purposes like Troma movies for example, but when a movie that's trying to be legitimately "horror" manages to be dumber than the dumbest of the intentionally dumb, you know you got something special here. It did manage to get some unintentional laughs out of me but the overall result is ultimately extremely boring. Thank god there was some eye candy in the form of some easy on the eye women taking their clothes off for good measure but its still quite the sleeping pill to swallow In the "Slasher horror cliche" department, not a stone was left unturned albeit without the gore. Its all very mild and you don't see any graphic violence on camera. I would never recommend something like this other than if you're actually looking for a very very bad boring film to put you to sleep because nothing else worked.

"Twisted Nightmare" follows a young woman who is invited to her childhood summer camp for a free weekend getaway along with a large group of her old friends. Once there, the campers start to die off rather briskly, and it may have something to do with the camp's situation on sacred Native American land. This obscure supernatural slasher is an admitted mess of a film--a cobbled-together amalgam of slasher tropes that rips off everything from "Friday the 13th" to "Silent Night, Deadly Night," and attempts to explain itself (sort of) via supernatural mythos that frankly makes no sense. In retrospect, it's obvious that "Twisted Nightmare" was a troubled production, a case of too many cooks in the kitchen, if you will. And while most of it is trite and badly-acted, there is a considerable amount of fun to be had here, especially (or perhaps only) for fans of '80s slasher films. The film, for all its misgivings, is quite atmospheric, and the set (which you may recognize from "Friday the 13th Part III" lends some nice ambiance. The cinematography is also, though inconsistent, fairly moody, and there are some fantastic silhouette shots of the hulking, growling villain, backlit with cold blue light. The characters (and there is a large number fo them) are more or less disposable, and the actors are inexperienced and most can hardly deliver their lines, but this weirdly adds to the charm. I think the main problem with "Twisted Nightmare" is that it doesn't have its own mythos properly worked out, and conclusion is as utterly confounding as what precedes it. There is no throughline and little consistency to speak of, but there are some atmospheric moments, a fairly creepy killer, and enough murder scenes to keep diehard genre fans amused. A mess, but an offbeat and fairly amusing one. 6/10.

"Twisted Nightmare" won't pull out any surprises as it's a deranged, if run-of-a-mill camp-based slasher, but it does have some interesting novelties ranging from the fact it was filmed around the same time as "Friday the 13th Part 3" (to only be released a couple years later) and that in was shot in the same area as that film too. Those would remember the barn of doom (and again it seems to hold some sort of attraction). A group of old friends are mysteriously invited back to Camp Paradise, but no one has been there since the strange death of Matthew (a simple kid who was picked on by them). His death was unexplainable as he was turned into a scorching human torch and the body was never found. So the friends are together again along with Matthew's sister, but not too soon one-by-one the group start getting picked off. For being a low-end slasher it has its recycled conventions, but it was a competently done (on the technical side) for what it is. A quickie, but well delivered slasher that reminded me of a cheaper version of woodland slashers "The Burning" and "Madman". The killer is pretty much in the same mould as "Madman" --- an unstoppable scruffy brute that's disfigured and who likes to growl. The story is old-hat (despite an interesting back-story about how the campsite is cursed) with a sluggish beginning before getting on with things before leading onto a insanely predictable revelation, the forced dialogues are lame and the acting for most part is bad (leaden or ripe). However it does bestow a healthy body count throws about the nudity quite freely and has its nasty moments. Junky and cheesy, but entertaining. Director Peter Hunt uses the locations rather well, but it seems to work better during the night sequences with the cat and mouse chases between the bulky killer and self-obsessed victims. There are some atmospheric touches with beaming blue lighting and mist, but even then the vision can become quite murky and editing rather jerky (like the first death sequence). The death scenes are hit or miss, some coming off while others not so. Moments do become laughable, like the use of slow-motion. The music is an unhinged, but mangled mixture sounding ominous but then breaking into something sunny and bright.

Strictly speaking in terms of 80's slashers, "Twisted Nightmare" really isn't as bad as some of my fellow reviewers make it out to be. Admittedly the plot is overly simplistic, the pacing is a bit slow and the acting performances are humiliatingly bad, but there are also a handful of good aspects. The body count, for example, is quite high (around 12) for a low-budget slasher and practically all the female cast members go topless. And yes, they're all quite pretty. The murder sequences are also reasonably gruesome and the set pieces are guaranteed to be good as well, since the film used the exact same sets as one of the earlier "Friday the 13th" sequels. Two years after her brother died in a horrible camping accident, Laura and all of her high school friends return to the Camp Paradise site where they used to spend all their holidays together. The site is build on an ancient Indian burial ground, however, and Laura's mentally retarded brother died because he wandered off in the barn all by himself and spontaneously caught fire. On their first night already, some members of the group encounter a savage and forceful beast that clearly intends to slaughter the entire gang. Luckily the script doesn't elaborate too much on the whole Indian curse/desecrated burial ground aspect, because I'm quite allergic to Indian spells and gibberish after too many movies like "The Dark Power", "Poltergeist" etc… In fact, the script doesn't elaborate too much on anything. With all the butchering going on, there isn't much time left for plot development, tension building or surprise twists. The only sub plot centers on the "rescue attempt" of the local Sheriff who looks approximately 105 years of age. The acting performances are hilariously bad! Especially the beefcake Asia guy and the arrogant mustache bloke easily rank among the worst slasher victims in 80's horror history. "Twisted Nightmare" honestly isn't a complete waste of time. It's reminiscent to decent slashers like "The Burning", "Night of the Demon", "Madman" and it features a really cool axe-through-back-of- the-head kill. PS: the cover illustration on the IMDb page is NOT from "Twisted Nightmare", but from some David DeCoteau flick about an Aztec Mummmy