‘When night falls the hunt begins’
Nightmare Man is a 2006 comedic horror film about a woman who receives an African fertility mask which makes her delusional.
The movie was written, directed and co-produced by Rolfe Kanefsky (Art of the Dead; Sunset Society; Bus Party to Hell; The Black Room; Nightmare Man; Jacqueline Hyde; Corpses; There’s Nothing Out There). Also produced by Esther Goodstein, Victor Kanefsky and Frederico Lapenda.
The Paradign Pictures-Delusional Films co-production stars Tiffany Shepis, Blythe Metz, Luciano Szafir, Aaron Sherry, Jack Saalfield, Johanna Putnam, James Ferris, Victor Kanefsky, Alice Glenn, Richard Moll, Gwen Davis and Robert Donavan.
Plot:
After receiving an African fertility mask, Ellen (Blythe Metz) tells her husband Bill (Luciano Szafir) that she’s been attacked by a masked phantom called ‘the Nightmare Man’. As Ellen’s paranoia increases, Bill takes Ellen on a road trip to a clinic, only to have their car break down. When William goes off, Ellen is attacked for real by the Nightmare Man.
Fleeing through the dense woods, Ellen seeks shelter in the remote cabin home of Mia (Tiffany Shepis), with her friends Jack, Ed, and Trinity, who shelter her, but are soon besieged in their home by Nightmare Man. But the real horror comes when Ellen slowly reveals to harbour a more evil and deadly thing within her which could spell death for everyone involved.
Collated external reviews:
“The moments with the unstable woman are darker and more in line with what one expects from a slasher film. While the initial moments with the four friends are laced with humor that is sometimes laced with sexual innuendos, fortunately, once all these characters are together, all the humor is thrown to the wayside.” 10K Bullets
“The kill scenes, while not entirely over-the-top, are certainly bloody, and there are even a couple of plot twists thrown in for good measure: one I saw coming from a mile away, and another I wouldn’t have predicted in 100 years. If you’re a fan of ‘80s horror films, odds are you’ll enjoy Nightmare Man, a movie that starts off crazy and gets more insane with each passing minute.” 2,500 Movies Challenge
“There’s definitely a market for Nightmare Man. Blythe Metz and Tiffany Shepis fill out their roles nicely, largely meeting expectations. The dollar store effects and haphazard production values are a problem I may have been willing to overlook, if the dialogue had been tighter with a more finely tuned plot.” DoBlu-.com
“Nightmare Man revels in its grim efficiency, only occasionally flirting with some sights and sounds that might be enough to win converts to the sub-genre. My issues with it involve its narrative construction – I’m not a big fan of films that center on the “is she or isn’t she” crazy narrator – and the fact that it never quite settled into embracing its magical surrealism enough to sell the bloody sizzle.” SciFiHistory
“The actors are competent, eh… mostly, but the script abandons them at times such as when friends are killed off, those surviving don’t seem to be too emotionally affected. With its predictability early on, despite any flaws, it was on its way to being a mediocre at best slasher flick […] but the sudden plot twist out of left field sank my opinion of the movie even lower.” Toxic Fletch
YouTube reviews:
Trailer:
Cast and characters:
Blythe Metz … Ellen, Luciano Szafir … William aka Bill, Aaron Sherry … Nightmare Man, Jack Saalfield … Ed, Tiffany Shepis … Mia, Johanna Putnam … Trinity, James Ferris … Jack, Victor Kanefsky … Officer Val, Alice Glenn … Officer Kan, Richard Moll … Captain McCormack, Gwen Davis … Officer Simmons, Robert Donavan … Doctor Evans.
Country of origin:
United States
Filming locations:
Big Bear Lake, Big Bear Valley, San Bernardino National Forest, California
Budget:
$250,000 (estimated)
Technical specs:
1 hour 29 minutes
Aspect ratio 1.85: 1
Film facts:
The Nightmare Man was edited and co-produced by Rolfe’s father, Victor Kanefsky whose career began in the ’70s when he edited genre movies such as Ganja & Hess (1973) and Joel M. Reed’s Blood Bath (1975) and Blood Sucking Freaks (1976).
