Nightmare (1981)

Country of Origin: USA
Year of Production: 1980
Running Times: 89m (Australia - as Schizo)/91m (Norway)/92m 43s (UK)/97m (USA)/100m (Australia - as Nightmare)
Length:
Format:
Colour Format: Technicolor
Ratio: 1.85:1
Sound:

DIRECTION

Directed by: Romano Scavolini

PRODUCTION
Copyright: ©MCMLXXXI [1981] Goldmine Productions Inc.
Production Companies: A Goldmine Productions presentation
Executive Producer: David Jones
Producer: John L. Watkins
Florida Producer: William Milling
Associate Producers: Chris Cronyn, Bill Paul
Production Supervisor: Simon Nuchtern
Production Manager: Carl Clifford
Florida Crew Unit Manager: Mik Cribben

SCRIPT
Written by: Romano Scavolini

DIRECTOR
Assistant Director: Michael Sweney
Florida Crew 2nd Assistant Director: Stephanie Rogers
New York Crew 2nd Assistant Director: Chuck Miller
New York Crew Continuity: Claudia Obata

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Gianni Fiore
Florida Crew 1st Assistant Camera: John Harhay
Florida Crew 2nd Assistant Camera: Jamie Stoney
New York Crew 1st Camera Assistant: John Harhay
New York Crew 2nd Camera Assistant: Gianmaria Majorana
Florida Crew Gaffer: Louis Yantzen
New York Crew Gaffer: Robert Lechterman
Florida Crew 2nd Electric: Randy Davis
New York Crew 2nd Electric: John Thomas
Florida Crew Key Grip: Robert Zimmerman
New York Crew Grip: Bob Zimmerman
New York Crew 2nd Grip: Bill O'Leary

EDITING
Editor: Robert T. Megginson
1st Assistant Editor: John Murray
2nd Assistant Editor: Philip Stockton
Florida Crew Location Editor: Joe Zwick
Post Production Services: August Films Inc.
Color by: Technicolor

MUSIC
Music: Jack Eric Williams
Music Supervisor: Murri Barber
Assistant to the Composer: Kenneth Fuchs
Score Realized and Performed by: Das Ersatz Mobienband
Music Recording: Sound Mixers

SONGS AND ADDITIONAL MUSIC
Main theme, "Necessary Evil"
Music and lyrics by Jack Eric Williams
Sung by Those Northern Women
Edition St. Agnes Eve, and Goldmine Productions (ASCAP)

ShowWorld Music, "Dancing Close To You"
Music and lyrics by Ted Daryll
Performed by The Daryll-Barber Band
Stovepipe Music Ltd. (ASCAP)
courtesy Turbine Film

Gatsby's music, "Just Another Night"
Written and performed by Lonnie Griffis
Goldmine Productions (ASCAP)

SOUND
Florida Crew Sound Mixer: Mike Russell
New York Crew Sound Mixer: Mike Russell
Florida Crew Boom Operator: Robbie Anderson
New York Crew Boom Operator: Jim Hebron
Sound Effects: Alex Pfau
Dubbing Director: Peter Fernandez
Assistant Sound Editor: Wendy Caplin
Re-recording Mixer: Jack Cooley, Magno Sound Inc

COSTUMES AND MAKE-UP
Florida Crew Make Up: Robin Stevens
New York Crew Make Up: Jo Hansen

SPECIAL MAKE UP
New York Crew Special Make Up Effects: Edward French
Special Make-up Effects Consultant: Tom Savini [uncredited]

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: Les Larrain
Florida Crew Special Effects: William Milling
Florida Crew 1st Special FX Assistant: Cleve Hall
Florida Crew 2nd Special FX Assistants: Steve Sleap, Walt Barrows, David Donoho, Anita J. Baldwin
New York Special FX Assistants: Daryl Ferucci, Chris Doggett

TITLES AND OPTICALS
Titles: Abacus Inc
Opticals: Dynamic Effects Ltd

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Florida Crew Art Director: Gary Olson
New York Crew Art Director: Jan Foster
New York Crew Assistant Art Director: Bill Bilowit
Florida Crew Props: Shelley Boucher

OTHER CREW
Production Accounting: Burt Schneiderman Ltd
Location Auditor: Gerrit van der Mere
Florida Crew Dialogue Supervisor: Bobbi B. Cooke
Florida Crew Office Coordinator: Bob Gallagher
New York Crew Prod. Office Coordinator: Ingrid Johanson
Florida Crew Public Relations: Jim Blair
Florida Crew Executive PA: Caroline Ashe
Florida Crew Production Assistants: Bruce Shaefer, Richard Belton, Barbara Reeves, Karen Patterson, Steven Reiss, Bob Kaye, David Johnson
New York Crew Production Assistants: Peter Zimmern, Ian Foster, Hannah Watkins-Noethiger, Jon Oshima, Ron Kiroche, William Lucas
New York Crew Caterer: Debra Griffin

LOCATIONS
Locations: Cocoa Beach, Florida, USA; New York City, New York, USA
New York Crew Location Manager: Robin Grey

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The producers gratefully acknowledge the invaluable help and cooperation of the following individuals and organizations, without whom this motion picture could not have been made: WFTY-TV - Channel 9 - Orlando, Florida; WOBO-TV - Channel 6 - Orlando, Florida; The Scott Family (Cocoa, Florida); Mrs Kathy Carroll; The Police Department, Cocoa, Florida; The Sheriff's Department, Brevard County, Florida; Cocoa Children's Community Theater; The New York Mayor's Office for Motion Picture and Television; The State of Florida Department of Commerce Division of Economic Development

STUNTS
Florida Crew Stunts: Kevin O'Neil

CAST

starring
Baird Stafford (George Tatum)
Sharon Smith (Susan Temper)

and introducing
C.J. Cooke (C.J. Temper)

Mik Cribben (Bob Rosen)
Danny Ronan (Kathy)
John Watkins (man with cigar)
William Milling (Paul Williamson)
Scott Praetorius (young George)
William S. Kirksey (George's father )
Christina Keefe (George's mother )
Tammy Patterson (Tammy Temper)
Kim Patterson (Kim Temper)
Kathleen Ferguson (Barbara)
William Paul (Steve)
Tommy Bouvier (Joe)
Candy Marchese (jogger)
Geoffrey Marchese (Tony Walker)
Michael Sweney (Burt Daniels)
George Kruger (Chief Cotter)
Ray Baker (real estate agent)
Lonnie Griffis (Gatsby's singer)
Tara Alexander (woman in booth)
Danielle Galiana (Show World dancer)
Carl Clifford, David Massar (hospital attendant)
Mary Lee Parise, Randy Arieux, Craig Cain, Mark Davis, Ken Thomas, Robert Tenvooren, Susan Webb, Frank Rothery, Scott Trotter (police officers)

An unbalanced psychiatric patient is inexplicably released from hospital and, suffering terrible nightmares of the time he murdered his father and decapitated his father's lover, starts killing again almost immediately. He targets a family living near the coast and in particular takes an interest in their obnoxious, practical joke playing son. (Full Synopsis)

Netherlands
Video Distributor: Video For Pleasure

UK
Video Distributor: World of Video 2000

USA
Theatrical Distributor: 21st Century Film Corporation
Video Distributor: Continental Video; New Star Video; Planet Video; Platinum Video; Tapes of Terror

Australia
Rating: R

Germany
Rating: banned

UK
Rating: X; banned (60 seconds that were cut from the theatrical version that was awarded an X certificate. The video release was subsequently banned during the 'video nasties' furor and remains unavailable in the UK to this day. Even so, the video was still heavily cut, possibly missing as much as five minutes of material.)

USA
Rating: unrated (uncut version); R (cut version)

1982
May
20: UK - Video Trade Weekly carries the story of how video distributors World of Video 2000 had staged a publicity stunt - with their infamous brain-in-a-jar prop - outside a hospital in Surrey. The police are eventually called in to confiscate the brain.

1983
June
30: UK - video trade magazines publish a list of 52 titles issued by the Director of Public Prosecutions that it believes could be liable for prosecution. Nightmare (under its UK title Nightmares in a Damaged Brain) is one of them.

October
Day Unknown: UK - police raid the offices of April Electronics who are distributing the film in the UK under the auspices of their subsidiary, World of Video 2000.

1984
February
1: UK - The trial of David Hamilton-Grant, Malcolm Fancey and Roger Morley of April Electronics begins.
3: UK - Hamilton-Grant, Fancey and Morley are found guilty of distributing material 'likely to deprave or corrupt' under the terms of the Obscene Publications Act. Hamilton-Grant is sentenced to 18 months in prison while his colleagues receive suspended sentences and fines. April Electronics is liquidated.

August
6: UK - another list of potentially actionable titles - this time numbering 62 - is issued by the Director of Public Prosecutions. Nightmare is still among them.

September
23: UK - the British press report that David Hamilton-Grant has had his sentence reduced to 12 months with six months suspended.

October
15: UK - yet another DPP approved 'hit-list' of 'nasties' is published. This time there are only 43 title, but Nightmare is not one of those let off.

1985
February
Day Unknown: UK - early in the month, Mike McNamara, a video dealer from Vauxhall in London, is acquitted after another 'video nasties' trial, though the jury agrees that Nightmare, along with Don't Go In the Woods (1981), is "obscene."

May
Day Unknown: UK - in the final week of the month, Stockport video trader Dennis Bintcliffe is convicted of distributing obscene material, the titles cited including Driller Killer (1979), Snuff (1974) and Nightmare.

December
1: UK - the final DPP 'video nasties' list is published. Nightmare, having been there from the very beginning, is still hanging in there.

1986
September
29: UK - Video Business magazine runs a news article on a police raid on a video outlet in London. The owner, Anthony Clayton-Roberts, was found to have four illegal videos - Nightmare being one of them - secured in a safe on his premises which he was routinely renting to customers.

The dream you can's escape ALIVE!

If you were terrified by Dawn of the Dead and Friday the 13th you must see Nightmare!

Someone left the door to HELL open...

Blood Splash
Dark Games - working title
Flucht aus gnadenloser Holle - German title
Nightmares in a Damaged Brain - UK video title
Scavolini's Nightmares in a Damaged Brain - title on UK prints
Schizo - Australian video title

SEE ALSO
When a Stranger Calls (1979)

FOOTAGE INCLUDED IN
Terror on Tape (1983)

PERIODICALS

Is It Uncut? 6 pp.30-31
review

BOOKS

Hoffman's Guide to SF, Horror and Fantasy Movies 1991 - 1992 p.265
credits, review

Horror and Science Fiction Films III p.196
credits

OTHER SOURCES

screen
credits

axe murders, children, decapitations, dreams, gore, insanity, nightmares, pranks, psychiatric hospitals, schizophrenia, slashers, video nasties

Last Updated: 23 October, 2009