Linkshoch Wonderful Movie

VividSimon Simply Perfect

Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Michael_Elliott Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1982) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Billy became an orphan at the age of three when his parents were killed in an accident. He went to live with his Aunt Cheryl (Susan Tyrrell). Fourteen-years after the accident the aunt is still watching and caring for Billy (Jimmy McNichol) but when he starts to show interest in another girl and in moving away it causes the aunt to slowly breakdown into madness.BUTCHER, BAKER, NIGHTMARE MAKER is a film that i had heard about long before I actually got a chance to see it. I had heard some pretty crazy things about the picture but in all honesty, nothing you read can prepare you for what an incredibly strange picture that you're going to see. I've seen a lot of very weird and very surreal movies in my life but there's really not another picture out there like this one. Is that a good thing? Probably so because this thing is just so out there in so many ways.It's hard to label this film but it's certainly not a slasher as some have labeled it. To me it fits in with the "hag" movies from the 1960s like WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? as you've pretty much got an incredibly strange older character who is beyond anything you've ever seen. Tyrrell certainly steals the picture as the bizarre aunt who is constantly pouring out this strange sexuality towards her nephew. The entire performance is just so out there yet it's never over-the-top or campy. It's hard to even say if it's a great or bad performance. It's just so original, so different and so strange that it's hard to believe what you're watching.Another thing that really stands out is the Detective Carlson character played by Bo Svenson. There's a murder that happens early in the picture that Carlson is investigating and his main goal is to pen it on Billy who he think is a homosexual. This character has a certain hatred of gay people that is rather striking to see. Look, I know this type of thing was different in 1982 than it is today but the hatred shown here is still pretty eye-opening and shocking. The way the homophobic attitudes hang throughout the film and play into the story just adds a touch of craziness.For the most part the performances are good. As I said, Tyrrell is just something else. Svenson is excellent in his role as he plays the part extremely tough and unlikeable. You've got a nice performance by Julia Duffy as the girlfriend and McNichol is good in his role as the adult Billy. Britt Leach adds good support as does Steve Eastin. You'll also notice Bill Paxton in an early role. As weird as this movie is, there's no question that there are some major flaws with the picture. The timing isn't all that good and I'd argue that there's not enough tension throughout the picture. The middle portion of the picture also really drags in spots as the story never really progresses as it should. With that being said, BUTCHER, BAKER, NIGHTMARE MAKER is just so strange that it's impossible not to recommend it.

Stephen Abell This is a truly bad film though it had a hypnotic effect on me... I just couldn't stop watching. This is an awesome film in its alarming subject matter. As a youngster, Billy Lynch is left with his Aunty Cheryl as his parents take a trip into the city. There's an accident and Billy's parents are killed so for the next fourteen years his Aunt takes care of him and brings him up. Then one day his Aunt kills a handyman who she claims tried to rape her. Billy affirms her story, though Detective Joe Carlson doesn't believe them. It's in the course of his investigation that things begin to unravel for Billy and Aunt Cheryl.There are plenty of twists and turns in the story which keeps the viewer entertained and interested. Though it's the earnestness of the acting from Bo Svenson's portrayal of the over-the-top testosteroned bullish boor of a man in Detective Carlson that makes this humorous and enthralling. I have known people who are homophobic, to the point of brutishness, but this character could be the archetype.Then there's the wonderful Susan Tyrell who's maniacal and lunatic portrayal of Aunty Cheryl is skin-crawlingly bizarre and creepy.As the film progressed and grew more florid I was surprised to see Julia Duffy and, one of my favourite actors, Bill Paxton appear. Julia Duffy does a good job as Billy's love interest Julia and is one of the main characters that aren't too unnatural. One of the strongest and realistic characters in the movie is that of the homosexual Coach Tom Landers. When viewed in respect to the homophobic actions of Carlson I thought we'd get to see more of Landers. It is actually a shame that we don'tThis film is bad enough, weird enough, crazy enough, and strangely entertaining enough to be a cult film. If you have time to spare and like a film to fascinate and delight then this is one worth a watch. I loved it...

Leofwine_draca This is a real oddity of a film, dealing with insanity and family madness in the vein of all those '60s shockers starring Bette Davis, such as WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?. This film features a barnstorming central performance from Susan Tyrrell as an absolute nutter of an aunt, who has sexual designs on her own nephew and who bumps off anyone who gets in the way. Tyrrell hams it up and screams and shouts with relish, shearing off her hair at one point to make her look even more wacky; this is an extreme physical performance and as such, Tyrrell is very disturbing in the part. You can't imagine anyone else playing it just like her. Is the actress mad too? You'd think so on the strength of her acting here.The first hour of the plot is very slow and sedate with only a bloody knife murder to recommend it to horror fans (the subsequent blood-on-beast shots, apparently a pathological trigger for psychopaths, gained it a notorious 'video nasty' classification and a subsequent banning in the UK). Director William Asher was more at home with goofy '60s flicks like MUSCLE BEACH PARTY and he seems at home when dealing with small-town American life as he does here. However, the last twenty minutes of the film add a Grand Guignol punch to the proceedings as things become extremely over the top and the film turns into your typical slasher fare. People are stabbed, shot to pieces, impaled on pokers and have their limbs lopped off; there's also a pickled head in a jar which is always a fun plot ingredient for the horror film. Gore fans are sure to get their money's worth in this bloody climax which makes up for the slow-moving first hour.Compared to Susan Tyrrell, the rest of the cast are a little dull; certainly the young male lead seems wooden in comparison. There is one sympathetic male character, a basketball coach played by Steve Eastin, but he's hardly in the movie. B-movie fans may spot Bo Svenson, star of the original WALKING TALL; here he's another enforcer-of-the-law, except this time in the shape of an extremely nasty and homophobic small-town detective. My money's on Svenson as the real villain of the film; at least Tyrrell has madness as an excuse. Film fans may also spot Bill Paxton in a very small role as a bully; hell, this was even before his bit part in THE TERMINATOR! As for the film, well, it certainly packs its punch and delivers a powerful climax; at least it achieves some moments of true horror, and the same can't be said for many an inferior imitator.

BA_Harrison Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (AKA Night Warning AKA The Evil Protégé) opens with a great car accident that results in the driver's head being pulverised by a log falling from the back of a lorry, and his blood-spattered wife screaming helplessly as the vehicle careers off the road and over a cliff; it's an excellent start to what proves to be one of the better official Video Nasties, a macabre psycho killer thriller that benefits from a delightfully twisted plot, lots of gruesome murders, and fine performances, especially from Susan Tyrell and Bo Svenson, doing what they do best, playing a complete loony and a bigoted cop respectively.Tyrell is 'Aunt' Cheryl, who has raised Billy (Jimmy McNichol) since the age of two, after his parents were killed in the aforementioned car crash. Billy is now 17, and is looking forward to attending Denver University with his girlfriend Julia (Julia Duffy), but Cheryl has grown a little too attached to her nephew over the years and is determined to do whatever is necessary to make him stay with her.Svenson's narrow-minded detective, Joe Carlson, appears on the scene after Cheryl kills a man who she claims tried to rape her. Carlson's investigation leads him to suspect that Billy killed the man and that his aunt is covering for him, but the detective couldn't be further from the truth: Cheryl is barking mad and this isn't the first time she has killed... and it won't be the last! As Cheryl spirals out of control, she drugs Billy to keep him under control, hacks a couple of people to death with a machete, and bludgeons Julie with a meat tenderiser, throwing her in the basement where the poor girl discovers the remains of Cheryl's first victim, including his severed head preserved in a pickle jar. On top of all this violence, the plot also introduces elements of homophobia and incest, and throws in a sex scene for Billy and Julie, thereby getting in its quota of nudity.Even if all of this death and deviancy had somehow managed to escape the BBFC's attention during the Video Nasty era, the provocative image on the video cover was guaranteed to make them sit up and take notice: it depicted a gore-drenched Tyrell, top open to expose her bloody cleavage. Copies were seized, the film was banned, and has remained unavailable in the UK ever since—a shame, 'cos it really deserves better.