NIGHTMARE WEEKEND (1986)

NIGHTMARE WEEKEND (1986)

Tagline: Two Days And Nights Of Relentless Terror. Who Will Survive?

(Horror, Sci-Fi, Balls To The Wall) [R]

Note: This movie went straight to video, so I don’t think it got an MPAA rating. It definitely would have been an [R]. 

You didn’t feed the dog…sure I’ll be glad too. 

In this one, a scientist named Edward is working on some behavioral modification experiments in a secluded mansion that involve a metal ball going into the subject’s mouth and making it docile. The scientist’s assistant Julie is trying to force human trials and takes the entire project over forcefully by testing on 3 girls that will be the first human trials. Meanwhile Edward’s daughter Jessica is falling in love with some random dude that works for Julia and just happens to have a hand-made puppet guardian named George. This puppet has access to “Apache” which has the power to control electronic devices, cars, and the metal balls I mentioned earlier. 

First off, you can tell right off the bat you are in for some nonsense when the opening song plays. I mean this thing sounds like the lead-in for a romantic kiss on “Love Boat”. It’s pretty hysterical. On top of that, if IMBd is to be believed (which often it’s not when it comes to comments and reviews), the On-Line Producer actually said this thing may be the worst movie ever made. Well fortunately for him, even according to IMDb it’s not. It even probably has a cult following out there, but this thing is loaded with craziness, and apparently part of that was the fact that the script had been rewritten twice and the final script was written by someone with zero “real” film experience. 

The acting in this is about as terrible as it gets and really there is no saving grace here. Dale Midkiff plays the lead actor Ken and even though he’s terrible in this, he actually went on to a very successful movie career and is still acting. He is probably most famous for LOVE POTION NO. 9 and THE CROW: SALVATION. This one also stars Andrea Thompson as Linda, but she isn’t in the movie very much. She is most noted for being in the TV series BABYLON 5. Debra Hunter who plays the lead female Jessica Brake could have easily been a huge 80’s actress, but only appears in this film. Just her demeanor reminds me of a lot of actresses in b-movie horror flicks at the time. We also get a heavy dose of Debbie Laster who plays Julie in this, but she was only in 2 movies ever. 

If you do decide to watch this thing just know that pretty much everyone in this movie had someone dub over their voice after production. So if it comes across as really shaky even on top of the bad acting, that definitely didn’t help. The cinematography is hopelessly messed up as is the editing, lighting, and pretty much everything else. 

Some really whacky things about this movie are the fact that nearly everyone seems to want to have sex with people they either just met or don’t know at all. Apparently, when a ball goes into your mouth, it not only makes you super aggressive and starts turning you into a jacked-out zombie, it also does your eye make-up and lipstick at the same time. The fight choreography is beyond goofy and almost everything in this movie seems to have nearly zero reason for happening even on a sci-fi “let’s stretch our imaginations from here to Wyoming” level. 

In the 80s we got a lot of mind-blowing epic horror flicks that were epic and mind-blowing because they were so entertaining it was almost hard to fathom. This movie is pretty terrible, but it’s oddly watchable once or twice. Definitely not something you want to take in more than twice I don’t think though. Because of all that, this one lands at a 3 out of 7, but be warned…this movie while watchable, does still have all the elements it takes to full-blown suck. It’s kind of like when you see a car wreck and you shouldn’t look, but you have to see what kind of crap is going to happen next. 

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