Nightmares (1983)

Anthology of four horror tales with a supernatural twist based on urban legends.

Director:

Joseph Sargent

Writers:

Christopher Crowe, Jeffrey Bloom

Stars:

Cristina Raines, Joe Lambie, Anthony James

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Cristina Raines	...	Lisa the Wife (segment "Terror in Topanga")
Joe Lambie	...	Phil the Husband (segment "Terror in Topanga")
Anthony James	...	Store Clerk (segment "Terror in Topanga")
Clare Torao	...	Mori the Newswoman (segment "Terror in Topanga") (as Clare Nono)
Raleigh Bond	...	Norman, a Neighbor (segment "Terror in Topanga")
Robert Phelps	...	Newsman (segment "Terror in Topanga")
Dixie Lynn Royce	...	Little Girl (segment "Terror in Topanga")
Lee Ving	...	William Henry Glazier (segment "Terror in Topanga") (as Lee James Jude)
Emilio Estevez	...	J.J. Cooney (segment "The Bishop of Battle")
Mariclare Costello	...	Adele Cooney (segment "The Bishop of Battle")
Louis Giambalvo	...	Jerry Cooney (segment "The Bishop of Battle")
Moon Unit Zappa	...	Pamela (segment "The Bishop of Battle") (as Moon Zappa)
Billy Jayne	...	Zock Maxwell (segment "The Bishop of Battle") (as Billy Jacoby)
Joshua Grenrock	...	Willie (segment "The Bishop of Battle")
Gary Carlos Cervantes	...	Mazenza (segment "The Bishop of Battle") (as Gary Cervantes)

Storyline

A collection of short stories. In one a woman who leaves her house late at night to drive to the store while a killer is loose encounters some problems. In the second an arcade whiz kid's obsession with a game leads to deadly consequences. In the third a small town priest loses his faith and decides to leave town, but in the desert is stalked by a mysterious black pick-up truck. In the final story, a family's problem with a rat is larger than they think.

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Plot Keywords:

anthology | close up of eyes | close up of eye | close up of lips | close up of mouth | 

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Taglines:

Four of your worst NIGHTMARES come true.

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 September 1983 (USA)

Also Known As:

Terror in Topanga

Filming Locations:

The Rock Store - 30354 Mulholland Highway, Cornell, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$6,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$590,616, 5 September 1983, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$6,670,680

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One three features directed by Joseph Sargent that debuted in the year of 1983. The other two titles were both tele-movies: Memorial Day (1983) and Choices of the Heart (1983).

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Goofs

Episode: Bishop of Battle When J. J. Cooney starts playing the head arcade game, a scene shows his score raising from 380 to 470 points. As he progresses in the game, another scene shows his score raising from 1740 to 1830 points. However, when J. J. reaches level 13, the scene shows his score at just 100 points. A few scenes later, we can see his (presumably normal) score raising from 10390 to 10510 points. At this point, however, the highest score of 89462 points looks quite hard to be beaten.

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Quotes

Zock Maxwell (segment "The Bishop of Battle"): JJ. Don't you get it? Thirteenth level doesn't even exist. It's just a scam to get suckers to spend their money.
J.J. Cooney (segment "The Bishop of Battle"): It exists. I heard some kid out in Jersey made it twice.

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Connections

Referenced in Video Violence (1987)

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Soundtracks

I Don't Care About You
(uncredited)
Performed by Fear

User Reviews

For those not afraid of the 80's

For those not afraid of cheapo 80's television horror comes Nightmares. Essentially this was the remainder of the filmed episodes of Universals anthology series "The Darkroom", you know, the short lived one that was on ABC in the early eighties, had James Coburn as the host. Oh well, I tried. Anywho, the 4 story movie was very "un-scary" to most, but entertaining enough to sit through if you enjoy speculative fiction type stories. Of course the staple memory from this movie is the segment with E.Esteves called "The Bishop of Battle". After TRON failed to bag box office reciepts in the upper millions, I guess Universal thought they could do better with a video game nightmare story replete with computer graphics. Must have worked for this film as mentioning this segment, jars memories even in this day. Trivia bit: Eighties icon Moon Unit Zappa makes a guest appearance in the film, see if you can spot her.