violentcop5 Reviews

Nightmare (1956)

Inferior remake of "Fear in the Night"

[24 October 2008]

Maxwell Shea remade his own film; the cheap Noir thriller "Fear in the Night" as 1956's "Nightmare" with a bigger budget and an A-list cast, yet the film follows the formers structure so closely you wonder what was the point. The two films are basically the same movie yet where they differ "Fear in the Night" comes out the superior, its hokey plot felt more at home with its low-budget and it was nicely complimented by an effective dark atmosphere, also the films conclusion and hallucination/dream scenes were sharper and more creatively shot . The one thing "Nightmare" has over the original is in the cast, 'Noir' staple and the always great Edward G Robinson, takes the role of the protagonist cop brother in-law (which was fairly flat in the original) and injects it with the warmth and vitality that is expected from him. Kevin Mcarthy has played the 'average man pushed to hysteria' role before but for good reason; he does it well, his performance is preferable to Deforrest Kelly's big eye-balled take on the same character. Even though its neck and neck with the original "Nightmare" comes out short, which doesn't make it a bad film, I just wouldn't recommend it if you've seen the original, but if you haven't there are some cheap B-movie thrills to be fond in the A-list surroundings.

Fear Itself (2008–2009)

Give it a chance.....

[11 July 2008]

Come on fellows give it a chance, the series is only five episodes in and reviewers are already calling it the worst horror anthology to grace the TV! Thats not very fair. Personally, i was always worried about Masters of Horror moving to NBC, MOH was hit and miss, the first season; quite excellent in my book, the second besides Gordon's and Rob Schmidt's episodes was mediocre, the only thing making it watchable at most times was blood and tits, 'Fear Itself' has none of those simple fall backs going for it and i have to say its been holding up better than the latter season. 'The Sacrifice' and 'Eater' are fantastic, 'Family Man' and "Spooked' have their flaws but were entertaining, 'In Sickness and in Health' well, that one was horrible. I've been pleasantly surprised so far but if the rest of the episodes suck, ill be the first to admit it bites the big one but wait till the damn seasons over before you claim its the worst of the worst. I'm staying positive and looking forward to the rest of it before the verdicts out.

p.s.i will admit that title theme is the most horrible thing I've ever heard, i miss the MOH riff, oh well.