Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Caryl It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

hwg1957-102-265704 Nightmare is a film of two halves, with Jennie Linden as Janet highlighted in the first and David Knight and Moira Redmond as Henry and Grace in the second part. The plot is the same for both halves, the use of fear to get someone to commit murder. Opinions vary but I think the first half is better mainly because the second half doesn't really hold water. How did the Gibbs and Mary Lewis discover what had been done to Janet and who did it? And if what Henry and Grace did was criminal so too was what they did. The ending seemed far fetched.The acting is good from British stalwarts like Brenda Bruce, George A. Cooper and Moira Redmond and particularly in the first half the suspense and fear are well portrayed. It is shot in lovely black and white and in wide screen that shows how perfect B & W photography was to eerie subjects. There are daytime scenes that just as creepy as the night scenes. A treat to look at throughout the film. As an entry in Hammer's suspense (as opposed to monster) films it is well worth viewing.

GusF An extremely effective Hammer thriller from the pen of Jimmy Sangster. It may not be the level of his best work for the studio but it's only one notch down from that. It has a very strong script with many great twists and turns, though it loses some points for reusing much the same major twist from his masterpiece "Taste of Fear". On the bright side, it was used far more effectively than in "Paranoiac" and "Fear in the Night" (which is basically an unacknowledged remake of the far, far superior "Taste of Fear"). It does, however, have a few minor pacing issues. Freddie Francis, Hammer's best director after Terence Fisher, does some of his best work here. I adored the black and white cinematography. I don't think that the film would have worked nearly as well in colour. The film has many beautiful shots, highly memorable visuals and a wonderfully creepy atmosphere.When it comes to the acting, Jennie Linden may not be on the same level as the original choice Julie Christie but she's still very effective as the vulnerable and much abused scapegoat Janet Freeman. Considering the character disappears from the film in the second half, I suppose that she could be viewed as a false protagonist with Grace Maddox, played wonderfully by Moira Redmond who graced - no pun intended - Bray Studios for the only time on this occasion. Out of the rest of the film's small supporting cast, Brenda Bruce and George A. Cooper particularly stand out. While she does not have a single line, Clytie Jessop is suitably intimidating and memorable in the crucial role of the Woman in White. David Knight is not as strong as he could be as Henry Baxter but he has good chemistry with both Jennie Linden and Moira Redmond, which is the most important thing when it comes to his performance.One of the best Hammer films that I've seen this year. After a few lacklustre films and trashy guilty pleasures, it has restored my faith in my favourite film studio!

AaronCapenBanner Freddie Francis directed this psychological suspense thriller that stars Jennie Linden as a young woman named Janet sent home from her boarding school after repeatedly waking up screaming from nightmares where she sees her mother stab her father to death, which really happened. Her guardian Henry(played by David Knight) and nurse Grace(played by Moira Redmond) try to help her, but Janet ends up in the asylum like her mother, though as it turns out, she is betrayed by those she trusted in an elaborate plot, which in turn boomerangs on them... Marginal film has effective direction and performances, but an overly complicated plot that ultimately doesn't ring true.

Scarecrow-88 A teenage girl has an awful recurring nightmare of being trapped in an insane asylum cell with her sick mother who murdered dear old daddy on the poor child's birthday. Janet deeply fears of not only winding up at an asylum like in her nightmares, but the possibility of inheriting mother's murdering ways. Wishing to return home after staying at an all-girls private school, Janet(Jennie Linden, who is indeed excellent as the traumatized girl)is haunted by this woman with a slight scar on her face. Always trying to get away from her, this constant image of the woman laid on her back with a knife protruding from the chest lies at the heart of Janet's slow descent into madness. It all leads to the death of Janet's doctor, Henry's(David Knight)wife when she is a spitting image of the woman that haunts her nightmares.There's much more to this story than meets the eye, however, as we see that someone close to Janet was using her trauma as a weapon.Through Freddie Francis' startlingly eerie, moody B&W photography, we see the nightmarish realm Janet's trapped in. It doesn't end there as the film takes a detour that can be a bit jarring at first, but comes together by the end. "Nightmare" is one of those films which starts out one place then takes the viewer into a totally different direction. This film is a lot of fun.