Nightmare Cinema (2018)

Nightmare Cinema (2018) The price of admission is your life. Five strangers (there are actually six) are lured into an abandoned movie theater. Once inside, on the screen, the group of spectators watch, witnessing a series of projections showing them their deepest fears and darkest secrets through five tales, five short films that reflect their own lives. Behind them, the Projectionist wants to capture their souls to complete his collection… That’s the picture! The stage is set. And the projectionist is… Mickey Rourke!

I really liked actresses Elizabeth Reaser in the fourth segment and Annabeth Gish in the fifth. We also see Richard Chamberlain in the part directed by Joe Dante. As for Patrick Wilson, we also see him in the fourth part, but we don’t recognize him, as most of the characters are distorted in this part of the film. So, according to Wikipedia : On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 59 out of 100, based on 8 reviews, indicating “mixed or average reviews”. Dennis Harvey, writing for Variety, gave the film a favorable review, calling it “an uneven but entertaining collection of scary tales”.Mixed, average or uneven… that’s fair enough!

The first horror short turns to humor. A comic horror film with a little spider invasion was pretty cool to see. Except for arachnophobes, of course!

The second is a story of plastic surgery, somewhat reminiscent of the French film “Le miroir à deux faces (1958)”.

The third is a story of possession. Schoolgirls are possessed by a demon who urges them to commit suicide.

The fourth story “the calendar” is in black and white. A woman waiting for a doctor’s appointment experiences disturbing changes in reality.

And fifth and last: a teenage piano prodigy dies, but comes back to life. As in all anthologies, there are some good stories, and some not so good. Some are gory, darker, creepier and more dramatic. There’s some disturbing, some very disturbing, some fun, some really scary stuff. I loved the idea of cinema attracting people. But I’m not convinced by the rest.There are things I really loved and hated about each story. So, let’s say we’re far from a masterpiece. I hesitate to give it two or three stars.

It’s clearly better than the trash that is Chilling Visions – 5 Senses of Fear (2013) and Little Deaths (2011). It’s probably as good as The ABCs of Death 1 (2012) and 2 (2014). These films are all less good than the fairly good Southbound (2015).And in any case, it’s still significantly worse than Creepshow 1 (1982) & 2 (1987). On the other hand, it’s on a par with Creepshow 3 (2006). It’s clearly not as good as the first two seasons of Creepshow, but probably on the same level as the third season. In short!You’ve got my opinion! Make your own. 2,5

My Rating