"Nightmare In A Damaged Brain" really interested me, but perhaps not in the way that the distributors would have liked it to. This early eighties "video nasty" is considerably different from others of its genre because of its incredibly strange tone. The very first scene depicts a screaming George gazing upon a woman's severed head at the foot of his bed, and it doesn't get any less psychotic from there. The plot is full of holes and is so disjointed that it isn't just the constant scenes of violence that make for uncomfortable viewing at all. Considering that "Nightmare" seemingly attempts to have a medical/psychological feel to it, there isn't a lot explained about the character of George by the two psychologist characters. The medical scenes are the weaker parts of the film. Although it is far less of a cliché than many of the video nasty craze, Nightmare's downfall is its attempts to be intelligent and iconic. The medics are shallow and unintelligent, one even ridiculously explaining that George is "Simply not dangerous" when he very brutally murdered his parents as a child. Among the weak aspects of the film is its fickle direction. Rarely have I seen a film maker try as hard as Romano Scavolini to master so many sub genres of horror. The suspense/stalker theme is perhaps the one he pulls off most effectively, while others are all to no avail and come across too clearly as blatant ripoffs. Even people who haven't seen The Shining will sneer at the door chopping scene, whilst the children running and hiding from the masked George is essentially a frame by frame remake of the climax of "Halloween". There are even hints of "The Omen" in places. "Nightmare" is not quite a slasher movie, not quite a psychological thriller and has an incredibly weak screenplay, but it is not a lost cause. Fans of shock horror won't be disappointed by the intense graphic scenes and there is even a credible twist at the end, whilst the comparison between the young George and CJ is nicely told and could easily have been a subplot from a more sophisticated thriller. The shocking end sequence which shows George's childhood flashback in full is deeply disturbing. Overall, Nightmares In A Damaged Brain is watchable, but its impact is curbed by the frustratingly frequent shift in tone.
Review of Nightmare
