Review of Nightmare (2007) by Jonathan B — 31 Jan 2008

Okay, this was a Lifetime made-for-tv movie, so I wasn't expecting AAA acting or screenwriting. For such an obviously limited budget, the movie works surprisingly well. The central premise is very interesting - something I'm quite interested in myself anyway, but as with all on-the-cheap movies, there are some glaring problems that could probably have been fixed with more money and more experienced filmakers at the helm.

There is the old plot-device guy, who essentially appears out of the blue to warn Molly of Badness Afoot and basically explain a lot of what bad script-writing failed to do and Haylie Duff, whilst clearly doing her best here, just isn't much of a screen presence.

Then theres the blandly handsome boyfriend/roomie - whom Molly sleeps with pretty much immediately for almost no reason but for another of those tired plot devices, The Lover In Trouble. Unnecessary and not very believable unless little Molly is some kind of nymphomaniac.

Some parts were pretty disturbing, but only on an intellectually surface level and the whole time you can't quite shake the nagging notion of how much better this could have been if it had been a legitimate movie with a 100 million dollar budget.

A nice little TV chiller, but don't expect a full cinema experience.