'Nightmares' also known as 'Stage Fright' is a trashy Australian slasher from the early 80's. Drenched in pure sleaze with plenty of kills and nudity, the movie has an oddball approach with its erratic editing, uneven pacing, and stiff acting performances. However, the central mystery simply doesn't work as it's obvious from the start who it is, and the kills all felt very much the same and therefore lacking any imagination whatsoever, despite being nicely shot.
The plot = A young girl Cathy accidently causes the death of her mother in a car accident. Several years later she has changed her name to Helen (Jenny Neumann) and joins a theatre company as a stage actress, while still suffering from the trauma of her past, her fellow cast mates start getting killed one by one.
From a production standpoint its decent with some effective camerawork and a fantastic score by Brian May that adds a nice eerie mood to the flick and the theatre itself gives an unsettling atmosphere, but other than that the movie fails completely flat as the plot is very wonky and the storytelling itself is very poorly handled, lacking any real tension and doesn't manage to sustain interest throughout.
The acting like I already said is pretty awful from most involved, Jenny Neumann gives a strange and very off-kilter performance as Helen and Gary Sweet was quite likeable as the male lead. Other than that, the rest of the cast ranges from hammy to awful.
Overall only check this out if you're a fan of 80's slashers or bad movies in general, other than that there's not a lot to enjoy here.