The plot is a scientist has
created a way to alter the minds of animals by turning things in to spherical
balls which is ingested by the animals. His assistant a Miss Clingstone wants
to test this on humans and sell it to another person. The Spherical balls turn
people in to what the synopsis calls Mutantoid Zombies. A subplot of the film is a romance between
the scientist’s daughter and a bloke called Ken helping Miss Clingstone.
So, nothing outlandish about the
plot and nothing that sounds awful when you consider I have watched many a bad
SYFY channel film.
This film is a low budget
independent film distributed on Video by Troma entertainment and at least Troma
can hold their head up that they did not make this film.
Troma do make low budget B movies
but they also distribute many films too. What surprised me in my research was the
movies they have distributed. Some of the films they distribute date back to
the 1930s even though Troma only started in the 1970’s but one that really
stood out for me that they distributed was the Studio Ghibli film MY NEIGHBOR
TOTORO. I know what you’re thinking but
Disney/Pixar distributed that film and yes they did but before they did Troma Films, under their 50th St. Films
banner, distributed a dubbed version of this film in the United States theaters
in 1993 and then on VHS and laserdisc in the United States in 1994 and on DVD
in 2002. However as happens in the
industry the rights to the dubbed film expired in 2004. As Disney does they bought the rights and
created a new dubbed film and released it again in 2006.
But back to
NIGHTMARE WEEKEND, this film is badly lit and badly dubbed and the reason for
the bad lighting, filming and dubbing will be explained but first I want to
discuss the characters of this film.
So the first one is Ken played by Dale Midkiff you may remember him from PET
CEMETERY as the father, he was also
in the TV series THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN and FLIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD or as I
like to call it Zombies on a Plane. Anyway, he is quite well known and this is
one of his first leading roles.
Ken seems to be a bad guy at the start and as the
movie progresses the line becomes blurred, but it is not clear at the end what
side he is on. After the opening of the
film he does wear white and gets involved with the scientist’s daughter Jessica.
Miss Clingstone if the villain of the film. She appears to be played as a wicked
stepmother so over the top and wants to be with Ken but also seems to be wanting
the scientist and treats Jessica and a maid in the way a classic fairy tale
step mother would.
Jessica is the scientist’s daughter. She is
incredibly naive for an 18 or 19-year-old, she is so naïve that she does not
know what her feelings are and has to ask her computer called George to explain
her feeling and what love is.
The other characters are all there just to have sex and be killed or turned
into Mutantoid Zombies so nothing really to be said about them they are all
pretty one dimensional.
The film starts with a darkly lit scene of 2 blokes trying to break in to
the scientist’s home to steal the computer program and then we see a hand
puppet, I’m not joking there is a hand puppet working a computer which is alerting
him to the possible break in. I was
shocked when I saw this green lipped and green haired hand puppet. And it is a
major character in this film his name is George.
George creates a spherical ball and it shoots towards one of the guys
climbing up the building and smashes his face and kills him instantly. We are
less than 5 minutes in the film and a hand puppet has killed someone.
We get the titles with a very 80’s song which I have to say is very catchy
and is in the opening and closing of my Vlog below.
Jessica tells her friend she is going home and can’t join her for some
experiment that her friend will be doing at the weekend. Jessica’s friend gets a limo with two other
girls, they head to the scientists house.
None of them see each other until the very end of the film. The house isn’t that big.
Nothing happens for the next 55minutes of this film except for sex between the
girls in the limo and blokes they met at the Stag pub near the house. One of the blokes having sex in the Stag is actor
Robert Burke he has sex with a girl on the pinball machine while others watch, thankfully
the girl seems in to this while Ken and Jessica and others watch them,
otherwise it would be like THE ACCUSED where Jodie Foster’s character was raped
on a pinball machine.
There is no character development during this entire film, there is nothing
likeable about any of the character or sympathetic about any of them, if anything
Jessica is ridiculously childlike for her age.
As I have said nothing happens in this film during the first hour of any
substance, this movie is an hour and 24 minutes long and at the hour mark while
the girls are all having sex with blokes they picked up at the Stag. Miss Clingstone
starts having the computer called Apache create multiple spherical balls to
change the girl’s personalities. These
balls also kill the blokes before turning the girls including the maid into Mutantoid
Zombies that then kill anyone else still alive and attack Jessica who finally
sees her friends.
Meanwhile Ken has picked up some money from a buyer for the computer program
for Miss Clingstone and is waiting for her at the airfield. But he is in love with Jessica after a very
silly romance story during the film. He
is not going to give her the money. When
Miss Clingstone arrives at the airfield and gets out of her car, the Zombie
maid steps out the back of the car and slits her throat, the next part is so
hard to see I can’t see what happened to Ken, the only thing I know is George
is saying warning must protect Jessica and the film ends on a shot of Jessica
screaming.
The film is poorly lit. So much so you cannot see what is happening a lot
of the time, the sex scenes are badly lit but you can see the silhouettes of
what people are doing during the sex scenes, I’m not sure if this was to get
the film a lower rating or not and the gore in the film is very minimal so nothing
that could have made this a video nasty.
One of the online producers for this film posted a user review explaining the
reasons this film does not make sense and feels like a soft-core porn film. He posted
the following on IMDB.com
As you can see if this poster on IMDB is to be believed and I feel he is,
the reason for the confusing and badly filmed movie is the French writer and
porno director and to many producers trying to control the film. As they all say too many cooks spoil the
broth and that is so true of movies too.
Would I recommend this?
No, it is an awful film, what do you think? … OF COURSE NOT it is so bad,
and I feel the title should have been my first clue as it was a nightmare
weekend when I watched this and now I have written a review and filmed my first
Vlog, So thanks for the inspiration to tell people to avoid this movie. Do I think it is the worst film ever made?
No, I have seen much worse. It is
just bad, sadly not the so bad it’s good type of film.
Well remember what I always say folks… be careful what you watch.
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