Samantha (Sarah Elizabeth Withers) stumbles down a deserted city street, talking on her phone, upset with whatever conversation she’s having. She stops in front of a rundown movie theater that has her name on the marquee as a star in the movie that’s Now Showing. Confused, she approaches the ticket stand to find a ticket punched for her. She goes inside and sits down to watch the movie, shocked to find it is truly about her and her last few moments of life. It turns out, she’s not alone, as several other strangers soon gather there and watch movies about their own lives, all hosted by a strange man known only as The Projectionist (Mickey Rourke). Five strangers, five tales, and this is how we enter the world of the Nightmare Cinema.
As an anthology horror film, Nightmare Cinema does a pretty good job over its two-hour running time in keeping the viewer interested. Some of the stories are better than the others, and I found the first half more compelling than the second, especially the first tale (“The Thing in the Woods”) featuring Samantha that starts as a slasher but turns into something else entirely. And the tale (“Mashit”) involving the priest and the nun fighting an ancient, demonic spirit is really good, too, most certainly because It Goes There, unafraid to take that step over the horror line (you’ll know it when you see it). The other tales, featuring a bizarre plastic surgery, a musically gifted teen haunted by ghosts from his near-death experience, and the odd account of the woman with her weird kids and paranoid world, are all decent in their own rights, but simply didn’t grab me as hard. I would have put the stories in a different running order, starting with the “The Thing in the Woods” and ending with “Mashit,” but I’m just a guy who writes crappy blog reviews, not a producer or director.
Even though it isn’t perfect, it is enjoyable, scary in bits, and it never once flags. Maybe there was one story too many in here, but I couldn’t tell you which one I would cut. Plus, it’s great to see genre veterans like Joe Dante (“Mirari” segment), David Slade (“This Way to Egress” segment), and Mick Garris (“The Projectionist” and “Dead” segments) get to stretch their legs a little and make some cinema. We’ve been denied their talents for far too long. And the other two directors (both of my favorite segments) are powerhouses in their own right, featuring Alejandro Brugues ("The Thing in the Woods" segment) and Ryuhie Kitamura ("Mashit" segment). The talent behind the camera shows and Nightmare Cinema turns out to be a fun, if not essential, anthology horror experience.
★★★☆