Nightmare Circus (1974)

User Rating:

2.0/10   

Director:

Alan Rudolph

Writers:

Alan Rudolph (writer)
Roman Valenti (writer)

Release Date:

August 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Captive young girls... chained... abused... by a Madman!

Plot:

Three showgirls on their way to Las Vegas have car trouble and are stuck all night out in the desert...

Plot Keywords:

Mutant | Psychopath | Nevada | Madman | Whipping

Cast

Andrew Prine	...	Andre
Manuela Thiess	...	Simone
Sherry Alberoni	...	Sheri
Gyl Roland	...	Corrine
Sheila Bromley	...	Mrs. Baynor
Gil Lamb	...	Mr. Alvarez
Al Cormier	...	Sheriff Stanford
Chuck Niles	...	Derek Moore
Jennifer Ashley	...	Flower Child
Laura Campbell	...	Laura
Sonja Dunson	...	Sonja
Karen Fredrik	...	Karene (as Karene Fredrik)
Lin Henson	...	Lin
Jolene Lontere	...	Crazy Girl
Jeane Manson	...	Jean (as Jean Manson)

Also Known As:

Barn of the Naked Dead (USA) (reissue title)
Terror Circus

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:R

Company:

CMC Pictures Corp.

Trivia:

Star Andrew Prine has been quoted as saying, "This is the only movie I ever regretted making".

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Making the Cut: A Look Back at the Centerfold Girls (2009) (V)

Terrible exploitation garbage

Well, I actually thought that this film would be about zombies, but instead the lacklustre plot follows a deranged young man who keeps women locked up in his barn in order to use them for some kind of circus trick. The film is yet another entry in the already full to the brim seventies exploitation cannon, and while a lot of these sorts of films are very good - this one has very little going for it. The film is, frankly, boring, and since the plot has very little in the way of originality; this film makes for very miserable viewing because you know that nothing is going to come of it. There's another sub-plot involving the young man's father who has been mutated by radiation. This is potentially interesting, but it's not handled well at all and not even that manages to change the tedium of the rest of the film. The acting is horrible as well, and director Alan Rudolph isn't able to get anything out of his cast. Films like this really need to be rather 'nasty' to succeed, and that's one of the most annoying things about this film; it all feels very tame, and therefore its pointless watching. Overall, Barn of the Naked Dead is a film that fully deserves its terrible reputation, and I recommend not watching it.