The Nesting (1981)

A writer suffering from agoraphobia rents an isolated house so she can concentrate on her writing. She doesn't know that the house is a former brothel, and is inhabited by the ghosts of dead prostitutes.

Director:

Armand Weston

Writers:

Daria Price (screenplay), Armand Weston (screenplay)

Stars:

Robin Groves, Christopher Loomis, Michael David Lally

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robin Groves	...	Lauren Cochran
Christopher Loomis	...	Mark Felton
Michael David Lally	...	Daniel Griffith
John Carradine	...	Colonel LeBrun
Bill Rowley	...	Frank Beasley
David Tabor	...	Abner Welles
Patrick Farrelly	...	Doctor Webb
Bobo Lewis	...	Catherine Beasley
June Berry	...	Saphire
Ann Varley	...	Gwen
Cecile Liebman	...	Helga
Ron Levine	...	Leland LeBrun
Bruce Kronenberg	...	Young Abner
Jim Nixon	...	Young Frank
James Saxon	...	Earl

Storyline

Gothic mystery writer Lauren Cochran leaves New York to move into an eerie Victorian mansion, once a brothel haunted by the ghost of a madam Florinda Costello. The ex-brothel is the scene of several gore killings, witnessed by Lauren. With John Carradine.

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Plot Keywords:

ghost | prostitute | agoraphobia | female nudity | psychotherapy | 

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Taglines:

What's outside brings terror. What's inside means death.

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

May 1981 (USA)

Also Known As:

Massacre Mansion

Filming Locations:

Armour-Stiner House, Irvington, New York, USA

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min 99 min (heavily cut)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Final film of Gloria Grahame.

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Connections

Referenced in Ban the Sadist Videos! Part 2 (2006)

User Reviews

Where the cuckoos come to roost

The Nesting is an open-ended supernatural thriller featuring a convincingly neurotic writer with a bad case of agoraphobia (among other things) who decides to rent a house she finds out in the country that looks suspiciously like the one featured on one of her book covers. At times the film is a reasonably intelligent thriller but it has a tendency to err on the side of goofiness. Many of the characters, despite being likable, are incredibly over the top (the Colonel, handyman Frank, etc) and quite often characters are brought into a scene solely to die because there aren't enough victims on-hand.

The film's ambiguity is largely owed to the fact that the ghost scenes only seem tooccur when the writer is nearby and the others seem to die right after the encounter. That and a later reference would almost suggest that the thing could have been in her head although the attacks look like they're being carried out by an invisible, supernatural assailant.

The writer's character is relatively dull, as are her two apparent romantic interests. Other characters are humorously colorful and bring a lot more to the production but the protagonist really seems to exist to do little other than unconvincingly act scared by various phenomena (oddly not done as well as the agoraphobia, but clever camera-work helped with that) and to unravel a mystery that never quite gets compelling.