Nightwish (1989) Reviews

• Truly unique

  blindganger2003-05-25

  One of the most under rated campy films of the 80's. This film obviously influenced many episodes of X Files. Especially considering Carter cast two lead actors from the movie in the X Files. The video is grainy and washed out. The laser disc is a tiny bit better (but still full frame). If a nice transfer comes out on dvd I am sure it will age with grace. One of the best paranoia films of all time. You really don't know what's going to happen one minute to the next. Give it a try!

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• Did I dream this one? No.

  lost-in-limbo2008-09-26

  That was totally screwed-up!? What this junky cheaply made b-grade production covers ranges from the premise looking into subconscious dreams, paranormal activity and Extra-Terrestrial involvement. Oh man everything (done in a very uncertain tone) but the kitchen sink in chucked into this one! The concept is original and strange, but it never truly comes together leaving the continuity being a complete jumble of unrealized ideas and far-fetched twists. It's illogically questionable, but maybe it's supposed to be so due to the bewilderingly tricksy context and one of those twisted endings. Love or hate it. But I found it rather effective. How to give an outline of the story without revealing too much. Tough one. But here goes. A couple of grad students along with their professor head to an abandoned cabin to record and study some paranormal/otherworldly disturbances that plague the area. Not too long the indescribable occurrences begin to take its toll on the group. It's silly, wild and campy (just look at those gooey, rubbery make-up FX and colourful optical special effects). Even then a dread-like atmosphere smothers proceedings and the growing paranoia is exceptionally pitched, as it's so hard to tell what's real or just hallucinations due to the genuine nature. As each others fears are conjured up. Trying to unsettle and overcome their senses. Amongst the sequences are some gruesomely icky deaths and titillatingly erotic inclusions. Writer/director Bruce R. Cook erratically puts it together with some professional tinge and inserts few unusual imagery and experimental lighting composition, but at times it did drag. All talk (mainly uncanny babbling), little headway up until the last half-hour. The elastic script has some witty pitch black humour abound, but also random scientific theories. The off-kilter score is vibrantly rich and served up is a credible theme song of the same title. There's a curious cast on hand. Straight performances between quirky ones. Jack Starret is deliciously malevolent and glassy (like out of some sort of mad scientist) as the professor with a hidden agenda. The beautifully magnetic leads Alisha Das and Elizabeth Kaitan are soundly good. Robert Tessier is enjoyable, but it's a testosterone imposing Brain Thompson ("the highway is mine!") that's a complete blast. A fascinatingly nightmarish head trip in to the weird, which doesn't pull out any stops.

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• One of the Most Original Movies

  CMRKeyboadist2006-01-13

  When you think of a bizarre movie usually titles like "Videodrome" or "Lost Highway" will pop up in your head. This movie goes right up there as a weird one. This movie is so bizarre that you can watch it over and over and still not fully understand what's happening. A group of college students and their professor head out to an old abandoned mansion in an area that has been haunted for years. Also, there is talk of alien lifeforms. There reason for going to the house is to invoke whatever supernatural lifeforms they can. This all becomes someones worst nightmare very quickly. I really loved this movie and find myself watching it over and over again. I also really wanted to give this movie a 10 out of 10 but the acting is just atrocious at times except for Brian Thompson as Dean and Robert Tessier. The special effects in this movie are well done also mixing up gore and just bizarre imagery. This movie literally feels like a nightmare. People tend to complain about the continuity of the movie but the director wanted to have continuity problems because the movie is suppose to play off like a dream. Anyway, a great movie and highly recommend to anyone looking for something different (really different). 9/10 stars

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• General praise for an unexpectedly fine movie

  Patguy1998-10-16

  A strange and unnerving film, Nightwish moves among horror movie conventions the way The Player moves among genres. Never quite comprehensible, the movie follows its own associative logic while pretending to become, at various times, an alien invasion film, a mad scientist film, a ghost story, a beast-from--beyond-perhaps-it's-Satan-himself movie, and uncountable others. The acting is quirkily good, the writing witty, and the off-balance nature of the scenes allow the film to move between eeriness, gross-out horror, humor and an even odder element of eroticism--the latter supplied mostly by the lovely Alisha Das, whose character at times seems to treat the proceedings like an especially elaborate session of unnatural foreplay.

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• LOVE THIS HORROR/SCI-FI FLICK!!!

  JimSthers2001-12-16

  This movie is awesome, it has likable characters, is well acted, the cast (especially the 2 girls ) is atractive, there is nudity, gore and enough plot and special effects to keep you more than interesting. this movie is about a group of college students and their professor investigating alien phenomena in an abandoned and huge mansion where they are terrorized by ghosts and their own professor, and aliens.

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