Nightwish is an obscure eighties horror effort; and I'm not surprised it never hit the mainstream; there's a hell of a lot of ideas in this film, and really that's the problem; it just bites off far more than it can chew and tries to do too much - the result is just a big gory mess. The plot would appear to take some influence from A Nightmare on Elm Street at first glance; but with all the additional nonsense that gets added in, by the end of it I wasn't really sure exactly where writer-director Bruce R. Cook got his inspiration from. Anyway, the plot focuses on a group of people researching dreams. They go to an old mansion where, allegedly, there have been some paranormal goings-on. It's not long after arriving at the house that the group finds that there are indeed some evil forces at work and pretty soon members of the group are being possessed, while others are hallucinating and nobody is really sure what is reality and what is just their imagination. I wasn't sure either because it's all so confusing!
First of all, I've got to give this film some credit for the atmosphere; 'the old house' is a popular location because it brings with it a certain malevolence; and the director really capitalises on that well. Unfortunately, he doesn't match this with his plot and special effects. The special effects are a rather mixed bunch; some of it quite gory and realistic, while at other times the effects are ridiculous and look like something you'd find on a Saturday morning kids show. Once we actually get to the house, the plot rather just goes out of the window and instead we focus on the basic premise; which just involves the characters hallucinating and stuff. I really can't say any of this stuff is interesting and the only really well done sequence that occurs during the main bulk of the movie is a part that sees some of the main characters tortured. I started to care less and less about the film the further it went on and was so bored by the end that I really didn't care about the awful conclusion. Overall, Nightwish could have been decent; but due to poor handling it isn't.
First of all, I've got to give this film some credit for the atmosphere; 'the old house' is a popular location because it brings with it a certain malevolence; and the director really capitalises on that well. Unfortunately, he doesn't match this with his plot and special effects. The special effects are a rather mixed bunch; some of it quite gory and realistic, while at other times the effects are ridiculous and look like something you'd find on a Saturday morning kids show. Once we actually get to the house, the plot rather just goes out of the window and instead we focus on the basic premise; which just involves the characters hallucinating and stuff. I really can't say any of this stuff is interesting and the only really well done sequence that occurs during the main bulk of the movie is a part that sees some of the main characters tortured. I started to care less and less about the film the further it went on and was so bored by the end that I really didn't care about the awful conclusion. Overall, Nightwish could have been decent; but due to poor handling it isn't.