NIGHTMARE SYMPHONY (2020)
Label: Reel Gore Releasing
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 78 Minutes
Audio: English (with some parts in Italian) & Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Domiziano Cristopharo and Daniele Trani
Cast: Frank LaLoggia, Antonella Salvucci, Poison Rouge, Halil Budakova, Antonio Tentori, Hasan Lushi, Nexhmije Selca, Oltion Budakova, Lumi Budakova, Merita Budakova, Florim Kleqka, Ilmi Hajzeri, Blin Budakova, Irene Baruffetti, Federico di Pasquale, Pietro Cinieri, Lina Budakova
In Nightmare Symphony (2020) film director Frank (Frank LaLoggia) is newly arrived in Italy to complete editing on the seemingly doomed horror film titled A Peacock's Tale. He argues with the screenwriter (Antonio Tentori) who is unhappy with how the finished film is not representative of his script and a producer who is more interested in turning profit than his artistic vision. Only his co-editor Isabell (Antonella Salvucci, The Music Box) seems to have his back when it comes to the film. Frank is also plagued by violent nightmares, and those involved in the film production are being butchered by a mysterious figure wearing a Peacock mask, which is perhaps an homage to the owl-masked killer in Stage Fright, and wearing white gloves instead of the traditional black. It also seems that Frank is losing his grip on reality and the lines between reality and cinematic fiction are blurring.
The movie is a low-budget homage to the films of Lucio Fulci, even the artwork for the film is a variation on The Cat In The Brain artwork, and the title is a variation on the alternate title of Fulci's film, Nightmare Concert. It opens with a razor-blade murder that feels lifted straight out of Fulci's nipple-shredding shocker The New York Ripper, and despite the modern setting the film has some tasty 70's giallo vibes by way of retro fashion choices, evocative
cinematography, and some gory and vicious kills. It's pretty low-budget stuff but you can feel and quite often see the filmmakers love for the Italian violent and sexy Italian horror sub-genre bleeding through, which I appreciated. There's a lot of cool stuff happening here, we get decent amount of nudity by way of the attractive Salvucci in a dual-role, a mysterious stalker (Merita Budakova, Virus Extreme: Contamination) who lingers around Frank, and I loved having Frank LaLoggia, director of The Lady In White, basically playing himself - they even stitch in some behind-the-scenes footage of his film Fear No Evil into it. It's certainly an imperfect film and the Cat In The Brain pastiche didn't maintain my enthusiasm to the end, but I appreciated what they were going for, and the gore and sleaze of it propped it up quite a bit.
Reversible Artwork
Audio/Video: Nightmare Symphony (2020) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Reel Gore Releasing framed in 1080p HD widescreen (2.35:1). This was shot on digital and the low-budget film looks solid in HD with accurate looking colors and no compression or artifcating issues, plus detail looks pleasing throughout, with good clarity and depth. Audio options on the disc are English (with some parts in Italian) & Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo with optional English subtitles. The tracks are clean and well-balanced, dialogue discernability is never an issue and the retro-synth score by Antony Coia (The Obsessed) sounds great, as does the tasty main title theme compsoed by Italian movie music icon Fabio Frizzi.
Extras on this release start off with a new 14-min Interview with director Domiziano Christopharo. The director speaks of how he is not a fan of remakes and reboots, but how the movie is an homage to Italian Giallo films and specifically the work of Lucio Fulci, an din particular The Cat a The Brain aka Nightmare Concert, and how independent filmmaking has it's share of limitations but is also quite freeing. He also gets into how he met screenwriter Antonio Tentori, of how his friendship with director Frank LaLoggia evolved into him starring in this film. Towards the end he touches on shooting the film over a period of 10 days in Italy, Kosovo and Switzerland, co-directing with Daniel Trani, and having to solve problems in creative ways,
We also get a 6-min Interview with screenwriter Antonio Tentori - Tentori was the screenwriter for Fulci's Cat in the Brain and talks about his various collaborations with director Domiziano Christopharo, dissecting the story of this film a bit (better told that the film itself), identifying the film as neither a remake or sequel to Cat In The Brain, but a new interpretation with nods to Fulci's other works. He is also complimentary of Fabio Frizzi's tasty giallo score, and towards actor LaLaggia and Antonella Salvucci, as well as co-director Daniel Trani
The disc extras are finished up with 9-min of Behind-The-Scenes Bloopers, both Theatrical and Teaser Trailers, and the option to listen to the Original Soundtrack featuring Antony Coi/Fabio Frizzi in uncompressed DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo, which runs about 42-minutes. The single-disc release arrives in a Red Keepcase with a Reversible Sleeve of Artwork, both featuring attractive illustrated artworks.
Special Features:
- NEW! Interview with director Domiziano Christopharo (14 min)
- Interview with screenwriter Antonio Tentori (6 min)
- Behind-the-Scenes Bloopers (9 min)
- Original Soundtrack (DTS-HD MA 2,0) (43 min)
- Teaser Trailer (2 min)
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min)
Screenshots from the ReelGore Releasing Blu-ray:
