American Nightmare (2002)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Gripping story with well-crafted characters

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

AMERICAN NIGHTMARE is a poor straight-to-video horror flick from 2002 made on a tiny budget. Most of the running time is made up of padding consisting of characters sitting around on sofas in what looks like the coffee bar from FRIENDS. Occasionally there are cut-away sequences in which women are stalked and slashed by a mystery killer with a connection to the past of our protagonists. It's one of those cheesy little films which looks and feels rough around the edges and is only one step up from a base-bottom indie in terms of budget. There's a lot of nudity in the form of gratuitous showering and the like and some cameoing scream queens such as Brinke Stevens.

Seven friends meet in a favorite café before getting dressed for a Halloween party. Commemorating the massacre of four college students the previous year; host Caligari(Chris Ryan)of a dusk to dawn pirate radio show called "American Nightmare" invites listeners to call in and reveal their deepest and worst fears. The friends dare each other to call Caligari as they listen to the broadcast before going off to their fun night festivities. Also listening is the psycho responsible for the killings the year before. As the friends go their separate ways, they are taunted by sinister calls to the radio show. With fears at a feverish pitch the night becomes long and dangerous.Not the best, nor the worst of flicks...but interesting enough. Some of the acting may be over-the-top; but the message is there. A person's own fears can be fatal. Starring are: Debbie Rochon, Kimberly Grant, Johnny Sneed, Kristin McCollum, Kenyon Homes and Rebecca Stacey. And being a former air personality myself, I was impressed like hell with Ryan, who actually is on the air in Dallas.

When I read the back of the DVD case, I thought that it sounded really interesting... so... I had my mom throw it into the pile of movies in the "4 for 20 dollars" section at Blockbuster. When we got home and popped in the movie... twenty minutes into it, we found ourselves turning to each other going "this sucks. Let's put in something else." I'll admit, a few of the lines from the friends at the café made us smile a little bit. But come ON, at least get some decent actors! Every once in a while in a movie, if the acting is bad and the movie isn't going at a painfully slow pace and actually seems interesting, I can gut it out and get a few laughs at how they're over(or under)doing their lines. But I can only take so much. Crying scenes looked like the actors were having hysterical fits of laughter, there was no delivery for their lines... amateur doesn't even come close to the acting in this film.Anyone who came on here saying that this film was good had to have been on some REALLY good drugs while they were watching the movie. It's the most pointless thing I've ever had the displeasure of watching. DO NOT WATCH OR BUY THIS MOVIE!!!!!

This film didn't knock me off my chair or anything, but it did hold my attention, and, towards the end, even had me speculating about how it might end, which, for me at least, is a clear indication that the plot has some depth to it. Nevertheless, though, the plot does drag in some places, as the serial killer and her victims get into a rather drawn out cat-and-mouse game, which is not very suspensefully depicted in the film.For the most part the acting is believable but there are some weak links, particularly in the very last scene (why wasn't that cut?!) The soundtrack/score is noteworthy and supports the macabre mood of the film well.Particularly noteworthy is the skillful use of lighting in the film for the purpose of supporting the story-line.All in all an enjoyable film.