Nightmare

The legendary British Hammer Studios perhaps spent most of their time exploiting classic horror stories through numerous sequels (EIGHT entries in the "Dracula"-series, SEVEN misadventures of Baron "Frankenstein") and serving up other grotesque monster-mash movies, but they also produced a handful of genuinely convoluted psychological thrillers in the likes of "Diabolique" and even Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho". These obscure films (apart from "Nightmare", there's also "Hysteria", "Paranoiac" and "Fanatic") may not be very popular by today's standards, because they're not that bloody and don't have highly recognizable names in the casts, but their scripts are extremely engaging and often give insightful information regarding the darkest corners of the human mind. "Nightmare" is basically another simplistic story about greed and conspiracy, but the imaginative elaboration – courtesy of Hammer regulars Freddie Francis and Jimmy Sangster – makes it a compelling mystery oozing with a Gothic atmosphere. The intro alone is quite petrifying, as it shows an uncanny lady luring her own daughter into a morbid asylum. We then learn this is a recurring dream young Janet suffers from ever since, on her eleventh birthday, she witnessed how her mother killed her father with a kitchen knife. Since Janet's fear of inheriting her mother's mental illness becomes uncontrollable, her teachers at the boarding school decide to sent her back to the parental home under the supervision of the family's attorney Henry Baxter and the charming young nurse Grace. Back at the estate, someone deliberately intends to push the emotionally vulnerable young girl over a mental edge by carefully re-enacting the events of that traumatizing night. Whoever it is attempting to harm Janet; they may succeed but they will also be punished for it! Jimmy Sangster neatly divided his screenplay into two equally strong chapters, one revolving on the conspiracy against poor Janet and the other focusing on the well-deserved downfall of the villains. Especially the second half of the film is terrific, since it's dealing with a fairly new and innovative theme. Usually in these psychological thrillers, the screenplay just builds up towards one complex climax, but there's two in "Nightmare". The plot twists and red herrings are cleverly executed and there are several moments of genuine suspense. The film also benefices from a superb black and white photography as well as excellent locations, like the old country house and the aforementioned images of the eerie asylum. The acting performances are a bit wooden, though. David Knight fails to impress and Moira Redmond is unable to carry the film on her own as soon as the other female lead – Jennie Linden – disappears from the set. Highly recommended to the more experienced Hammer fan.

Jimmy Sangster's screenplay for "Nightmare" is an excellent contemporary (early 1960s) thriller with Gothic touches. However, the script falters about halfway through when the young heroine Janet, who has been driven almost out of her mind by a series of terrifying events, is removed from the action of the story.

Instead of centering the action of the second half on characters sympathetic to the heroine who might take up her cause, identify the conspirators and bring them to justice - as happens in, for example, "Psycho" - the script reveals to the audience who the conspirators are, and then, until the final scene, makes them the center of the action.

It is asking a lot of an audience to identify with those whose machinations have brought about the committal of a sympathetic heroine, and this may well explain why the second half of "Nightmare" is less gripping than the first - especially as the plot of the second half is a variation on what has gone before, this time with an unsympathetic character experiencing terrifying events. This part of the screenplay also stretches credibility, since it seems unlikely that an antagonist with an alert and cunning mind would not detect a plot which is dividing him from his female accomplice.

The real strength of "Nightmare", however, is in director Freddie Francis' visual flair. A former cameraman/director of photography, using black and white 'scope and obviously influenced by his work on Jack Clayton's "The Innocents", he succeeds in creating a real sense of fear and isolation around his vulnerable heroine.

He achieves this by using the expanse of the 'scope frame, often surrounding Janet with shadows or, in daylight, setting her in a frame devoid of anything or anybody reassuring. For example: when Janet travels home from school, the railway station is almost deserted; we do not see the departing train from which she has presumably just alighted. There are no other cars on the road as she is driven home. As they pass the asylum she dreads, there are no signs of human activity within the grounds. Once back home she is dwarfed by the mansion "High Towers" she has become heir to, and her isolation is compounded by her home being located in remote snow-covered countryside.

Janet's isolation is social as well as physical; ostracized at boarding school in the early scenes, and clinging to a grotesque doll and a small transistor radio, she is never seen with anyone her own age (mid-teens). Her only friend at the school is a sympathetic teacher. At "High Towers" the guardian she dotes on, Henry Baxter, is at least twice her age - as are her other household companions.

In addition to traditional Gothic trappings (heroines wandering dark corridors in flowing night-dresses, candlelight illumination, door handles seen turning slowly and ghostly nocturnal figures) Freddie Francis endows several everyday objects with fearful connotations - Janet's doll, her transistor radio that forever blares out fast jazz, and above all, a birthday cake with lighted candles. The latter becomes a powerful image of dread, since it was on Janet's eleventh birthday the horrific event occurred that started the cycle of nightmares and fear of inherited insanity.

"Nightmare" has a particularly bleak atmosphere: most of the action is set during a harsh winter, the dialogue has virtually no humor and the ending - which should give the audience a sense of satisfaction - is grimly downbeat. This is probably because in achieving justice for Janet, her sympathizers have virtually duplicated the methods of the conspirators and brought about a similar result - a gruesome death and a woman on the edge of madness.

Highly recommended viewing.

When was an eleven year-old child, Janet witnessed her insane mother stabbing her father to death on their bed. Six years later, Janet (Jennie Linden) is a wealthy teenager outcast in a boarding school afflicted by dreadful nightmares and fearing to have inherited her mother´s insanity. After a series of nightmares, her teacher Mary Lewis (Brenda Bruce) brings Janet home and she is welcomed by the family chauffeur John (George A. Cooper), by his wife and housekeeper Mrs. Gibbs (Irene Richmond) and by the beautiful nurse Grace Maddox (Moira Redmond), who was hired as a companion by her guardian Henry Baxter (David Knight). However Janet continues to have nightmares with a woman (Clytie Jessop) with a scar on her face and wearing a white shroud wandering in the house and stabbed on her parents´ bed. After trying to commit suicide, two doctors and Henry summon Janet to the living room to decide whether she should go to an asylum. When Henry brings his wife to the room, Janet sees the woman with scar and stabs her to death. She is sent to an institution and soon a diabolical plot is disclosed. What will happen next?

"Nightmare" is an underrated and unknown thriller by Hammer, with a great story of greed and insanity. The plot is predictable but also engaging. The black and white cinematography and the camera work are magnificent. Jennie Linden never convinces as a teenager but the rest of the cast is excellent. The hysterical behavior of women on the 60´s is annoying but a reality in those years. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Cilada Diabólica" ("Devilish Entrapment")

Young Janet (Jennie Linden) saw her insane mother stab her father to death when she was a little girl. Years later she's still traumatized by it and is afraid she'll become insane like her mother. Her guardian Henry (David Knight) and nurse Grace (Moira Redmond) try to help her but she starts going mad...

This turns out to be nothing more than a reworking of the French film "Diabolique"--but it's pretty good. I have to admit I was actually surprised by one or two events that I should have seen coming. The film is shot in moody black & white (and Hammerscope) which helps immensely. Also there are good performances--especially by Knight and Redmond. This was a strange movie for Hammer--it wasn't shot in color and had no monsters. Still it works. Recommended. I give it a 7.

Freddie Francis' Nightmare is one of those lesser-known movies from Hammer Films which usually finds itself lumped together in box sets dominated by their more popular Dracula, Frankenstein and The Mummy series. It's obscurity is slightly unfair, as this black-and-white psychological horror-come-slasher unravels itself cleverly and with a healthy dose of style. Written by Hammer regular Jimmy Sangster, Nightmare conjures up a fair share of creepiness despite its age, and often feels somewhat Hitchcockian in its execution.

Janet (Jennie Linden) is a young girl attending boarding school. At night, she is plagued by nightmares of when she witnessed the stabbing of her father at the hands of her deranged mother. As her mental state worsens, she is sent back home to her guardian Henry Baxter (David Knight) and assigned a nurse Grace Maddox (Moira Redmond). Soon after arriving, Janet starts to have visions of a woman she has never seen before with a huge scar on her cheek. Essentially a movie broken into two parts, the second act cannot be summarised without giving away a spoiler.

The visuals are rather bland - Hammer tended to churn out movies quickly and cheaply to serve as a starter for the main event in cinemas - but the black-and-white photography gives the film a Gothic, and almost noirish, sense of style. While Knight is enjoyably smug, the rest of the cast fail to make any real impression, with the pre- Women in Love (1969) Linden extremely lucky to find herself cast after a number of preferable choices, including Julie Christie who chose to make Billy Liar instead, were unavailable. But the film's flaws are to be expected - it is a quickie B-movie after all - and it makes the most of its limitations. The plot's mystery is engrossing and the pacing is odd yet intriguing, and I would recommend Nightmare to any fan of British horror.