NIGHTMARE (1964)
Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 83 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Freddie Francis
Cast: David Knight, Moira Redmond, Brenda Bruce, Jennie Linden, George A. Cooper, Irene Richmond, Clytie Jessop
When she was tens years old young Janet (Jennie Linden, Old Dracula) saw something unbearable, her mentally unstable mother stabbing father to death. Now six-years later her mother has been institutionalized at the nearby sanitarium and Janet is returning home from boarding school, accompanied by her schoolteacher Ms. Lewis (Brenda Bruce, Peeping Tom). At home she is greeted by the chauffeur John (George A. Cooper, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave) and housekeeper Mrs. Gibbs (Irene Richmond, Dr. Terror's House of Horrors) absent is her guardian caretaker Henry (David Knight, The Devil’s Agent) who is away on business. In his place we have the lovely Grace (Moira Redmond, A Shot In The Dark) whom Henry has a hired as a companion to the teenager to calm the troubled ward.
Special Features:
When she was tens years old young Janet (Jennie Linden, Old Dracula) saw something unbearable, her mentally unstable mother stabbing father to death. Now six-years later her mother has been institutionalized at the nearby sanitarium and Janet is returning home from boarding school, accompanied by her schoolteacher Ms. Lewis (Brenda Bruce, Peeping Tom). At home she is greeted by the chauffeur John (George A. Cooper, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave) and housekeeper Mrs. Gibbs (Irene Richmond, Dr. Terror's House of Horrors) absent is her guardian caretaker Henry (David Knight, The Devil’s Agent) who is away on business. In his place we have the lovely Grace (Moira Redmond, A Shot In The Dark) whom Henry has a hired as a companion to the teenager to calm the troubled ward.
Upon arriving home Janet experiences nightly terrors, be they real or imagined, of a eerie woman in white (Clytie Jessop, The Innocents) who bares a distinctive scar on her face. The woman appears to her around the dark corridors of the sprawling house, sometimes even appearing as a corpse that's been stabbed to death. The encounters strain the young woman's already frayed sanity, causing her to slice open on her own wrist with a shard from a broken mirror. She survives but soon after Henry returns, when he introduces Janet to wife the teens is shocked to realize that she appears to be the spectral woman who has been haunting her! Janet goes off the deep end and plunges a knife into her heart killing the women.
The film plays with whether Janet’s issues are in her head … or is there a more sinister or perhaps even supernatural afoot within the home, not unlike Paranoiac, In the aftermath Janet is sent to the asylum, just like her mum. With Henry's wife now dead he marries caregiver Grace, which is very convenient to say the least. Things are not exactly marital bliss for the newlyweds however, things get off to a rocky start with Grace beginning to suspect Henry is running around with another woman - or worse yet, attempting to drive her mad or maybe even murder her.
It's a wonderfully twisty post-Diabolique thriller with gorgeous black and white cinematography that oozes Gothic atmosphere at every turn. Nightmare has twists to spare, and just when you think you might have it figured out it turns and surprises you with another turn that offers delightfully deserved comeuppance when all is properly revealed. This is one of my favorite 60s Hammer psycho-thrillers, given top-notch direction by Freddie Francis (Girly) from a solid screenplay by Hammer's Jimmy Sangster (Horror of Dracula), and benefitting from a fantastic cast, especially the performances of Moira Redmond and Jennie Linden as women both driven to the brink of insanity, with Linden being the more sympathetic of the pair and Redmond being more of hard-edge woman who feels scorned. If you a fan of other Hammer psycho-thrillers like Paranoiac and Shadow of the Cat this is a must-see little thriller that's quite wonderful with its Gothic chills and delirious frayed ends of sanity
Audio/Video: Nightmare (1964) arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory in 1080p HD framed in 2.35:1 widescreen, sourced from a new 2K scan from the interpositive. A terrific image that feels quite filmic with a lush layer of fine film grain that carries with it some fantastic depth and clarity. black levels are deep and inky looking and the grayscale is layered giving it some nice depth. The cinematography by John Wilcox (Casino Royale) is quite haunting and translates well to HD.
Audio comes by way of uncompressed English DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono with optional English subtitles. A solid presentation that has some slight minor hiss underneath but is otherwise very clean. Dialogue is always clear and the score from Don Banks (Torture Garden) is handled quite nicely by the uncompressed track.
Scream Factory give yet another Hammer production it's proper love with a well-stocked edition, beginning with a fantastic Audio Commentary with film historian Bruce Hallenbeck that was a treat to listen to. There are also a handful of new and vintage featurettes on the disc, first among the new stuff is the new 16-min Sleepless Nights – an interview with author/film historian Kim Newman seated on his basement love seat which is draped in the now quite familiar windmill quilted blanket, talking about the film, Sangster's script and how it compares to other Hammer thrillers of the era. Slice and Fright – a new interview with author/film historian Jonathan Rigby, running about 16-min he gets into the film's screenplay and production, a peculiar original title and plenty more.
At 16-min Reliving the Nightmare includes interviews with actress Julie Samuel, continuity person Pauline Wise and focus puller Geoff Glover, it's an interesting piece with the cast and crew discussing director Freddie Francis's technical prowess and demanding nature on set, and some cool bits of trivia like the fact that Christie Julie was originally cast in the film before dropping out.
Archival extras include the 27-min Nightmare …in the Making with actress Jennie Linden, writer Jimmy Sangster and art director Don Mingaye, hosted by author Wayne Kinsey, the 14-min Jennie Linden Remembers which features the actress discussing her entire career;, the 14-min
Madhouse: Inside Hammer’s Nightmare with film historians Jonathan Rigby, Kevin Lyons, Alan Barnes and John J. Johnson, plus a 1-min Theatrical Trailer that looks like it was video sourced and 3-min Still Gallery.
The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a reversible sleeve of artwork featuring both the original illustrated movie poster and a new illustration by Mark Maddox. The new artwork is alright, to be honest not a huge fan of most of the new artwork for the Hammer films from Scream Factory. Some of that is be because it sort of looks like painted photoshop, not a fan of it, but that has a lot to do with how much I love the original, vintage illustrations. The new art is also featured on the first-print slipcover and on the Blu-ray disc.
Special Features:
- NEW 2K scan from the interpositive
- NEW Audio Commentary with film historian Bruce Hallenbeck
- NEW Sleepless Nights – an interview with author/film historian Kim Newman (16 min)
- NEW Slice and Fright – an interview with author/film historian Jonathan Rigby (16 min)
- NEW Reliving the Nightmare – including interviews with actress Julie Samuel, continuity person Pauline Wise and focus puller Geoff Glover (16 min)
- Nightmare …in the Making – including interviews with actress Jennie Linden, writer Jimmy Sangster and art director Don Mingaye, hosted by author Wayne Kinsey (27 min)
- Jennie Linden Remembers – the full interview with actress Jennie Linden (14 min)
- Madhouse: Inside Hammer’s Nightmare featuring interviews with film historians Jonathan Rigby, Kevin Lyons, Alan Barnes and John J. Johnson (14 min)
- Theatrical Trailer (1 min)
- Still Gallery (3 min)
- NEW Audio Commentary with film historian Bruce Hallenbeck
- NEW Sleepless Nights – an interview with author/film historian Kim Newman (16 min)
- NEW Slice and Fright – an interview with author/film historian Jonathan Rigby (16 min)
- NEW Reliving the Nightmare – including interviews with actress Julie Samuel, continuity person Pauline Wise and focus puller Geoff Glover (16 min)
- Nightmare …in the Making – including interviews with actress Jennie Linden, writer Jimmy Sangster and art director Don Mingaye, hosted by author Wayne Kinsey (27 min)
- Jennie Linden Remembers – the full interview with actress Jennie Linden (14 min)
- Madhouse: Inside Hammer’s Nightmare featuring interviews with film historians Jonathan Rigby, Kevin Lyons, Alan Barnes and John J. Johnson (14 min)
- Theatrical Trailer (1 min)
- Still Gallery (3 min)
Nightmare (1964) is one of my favorite Hammer psycho-thrillers, it's right up there with Paranoiac (1963), which was not so coincidentally also directed by Freddie Francis (Tales from the Crypt) from screenplay by stalwart Hammer alum Jimmy Sangster. Another must-own Hammer thriller gets a wonderful Collector's Edition Blu-ray from Scream Factory - here's hoping we get a Hammer 4K UHD set from them in the future - would love to upgrade these gorgeous transfers with Dolby Vision HDR 10!
Screenshots from the Scream Factory Blu-ray:
