Butcher Block is a weekly series celebrating horror’s most extreme films and the minds behind them. Dedicated to graphic gore and splatter, each week will explore the dark, the disturbed, and the depraved in horror, and the blood and guts involved. For the films that use special effects of gore as an art form, and the fans that revel in the carnage, this series is for you.
Also known as Nightmares in a Damaged Brain, this 1981 slasher earned the distinction of being one of 39 persecuted Video Nasties. It also marked the one and only Video Nasty where the distributor served time in prison for refusing to release to trim a single second of the gore and violence; 18 months for distributing obscene material. It’s a unique slasher that almost forgets to be a slasher until the final act, with most of the narrative following schizophrenic George as he escapes his physician and heads off to his childhood home. Playing out like a psychological mystery melodrama for the much of the runtime, the carnage is mostly minimal save for the fantastic opening and the epic grand finale, and it’s easy to see why the gore ruffled a few feathers at the British Board of Film Classification.
The notoriety involved with being a Video Nasty isn’t the only controversy that overshadowed Nightmare, however, but the confusion over the film’s special effects as well. Early prints of the film and marketing material credited special effects master Tom Savini as the film’s special effects director. Posters for Nightmare even referenced Savini’s work on Friday the 13th and Dawn of the Dead.
The issue, though, was that Savini vehemently denied working on the film beyond a consultant capacity. He also happened to be too busy working on Creepshow at the time to pick up any other film projects at the time. He sued, unhappy with the director, Romano Scavolini, for trying to cash in on his professional name. While Scavolini has long since maintained that Savini did most of the gore effects, and photographs place him on set, later cuts have excluded Savini’s name in the credits. While the truth of who exactly handled what on special effects remains murky, Savini’s influence on the film is notable. On the other hand, though, as over the top and gruesome as the finale gets, it doesn’t really look like Savini’s work.
Who did handle the gore and makeup effects, and corroborated Savini’s side of events, was artist Ed French (Sinister 2, The Midnight Meat Train). Prosthetics were handled by Les Larrain, and the film also marked the first credit for special effects artist Cleve Hall (Re-Animator, TerrorVision). In other words, the special effects were still in good hands regardless of the misuse of Savini’s name for the sake of publicity.
Whereas most movies that graced the persecuted Video Nasties list were far too tame and owed a lot to its marketing and cover boxes for earning its reputation, Nightmare is one that makes no question that it deserved its rank. The opening nightmare sequence only gives the barest glimpse of the utter bloodbath that reigns down at the end. Nightmare breaks the horror taboo of killing children, but it also takes it a step further by involving the goriest of familicides on celluloid. From a slasher standpoint, Scavolini takes his time to get the plot moving, but rewards views with a creepy stalker slasher final act and one insane ending. It’s a shame that it’s been overshadowed and underseen.