Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

TinsHeadline Touches You

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Wizard-8 This is an interesting Hammer movie, being that it's essentially divided into two stories. The first involves a young woman being driven mad by nasty schemers, and the second story involves those schemers being given their just desserts. Both stories are executed fairly well, I guess, with good performance, atmospheric direction, and some striking black and white photography. But to me at least, both stories were kind of unsurprising. If you have read your share of EC Comics or seen shows like "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", much of what happens will come as no surprise at all. And they best told this sort of story, because this is really a short story; even at just 82 minutes, you can feel the padding. Not an awful movie by any means, but it probably won't be very surprising to many viewers.

GusF An extremely effective Hammer thriller from the pen of Jimmy Sangster. It may not be the level of his best work for the studio but it's only one notch down from that. It has a very strong script with many great twists and turns, though it loses some points for reusing much the same major twist from his masterpiece "Taste of Fear". On the bright side, it was used far more effectively than in "Paranoiac" and "Fear in the Night" (which is basically an unacknowledged remake of the far, far superior "Taste of Fear"). It does, however, have a few minor pacing issues. Freddie Francis, Hammer's best director after Terence Fisher, does some of his best work here. I adored the black and white cinematography. I don't think that the film would have worked nearly as well in colour. The film has many beautiful shots, highly memorable visuals and a wonderfully creepy atmosphere.When it comes to the acting, Jennie Linden may not be on the same level as the original choice Julie Christie but she's still very effective as the vulnerable and much abused scapegoat Janet Freeman. Considering the character disappears from the film in the second half, I suppose that she could be viewed as a false protagonist with Grace Maddox, played wonderfully by Moira Redmond who graced - no pun intended - Bray Studios for the only time on this occasion. Out of the rest of the film's small supporting cast, Brenda Bruce and George A. Cooper particularly stand out. While she does not have a single line, Clytie Jessop is suitably intimidating and memorable in the crucial role of the Woman in White. David Knight is not as strong as he could be as Henry Baxter but he has good chemistry with both Jennie Linden and Moira Redmond, which is the most important thing when it comes to his performance.One of the best Hammer films that I've seen this year. After a few lacklustre films and trashy guilty pleasures, it has restored my faith in my favourite film studio!

spacemonkey_fg Title: Nightmare (1964) Director: Freddie Francis (Dracula has Risen from the Grave) Cast: Jennie Linden, David Knight, Moira RedmondReview: Hammer Studios didn't just make movies about vampires, frankensteins creature and the mummy. Nope they also once in a while ventured into the territory of the suspenseful psychological thrillers. In my opinion these guys really suceeded in doing it! Nightmare is about this young girl named Janet who has been screwed in the head after she saw her own mother killing her father on the day of her birthday. So naturally the girl starts to experience horrendous nightmares of her mother repeatedly stabbing her father in the chest. And her mother continues to haunt her nightmares for years to the point where she cant even be in school anymore and has to be taken away to her legal guardians home. There she will try to grasp a bit of normality once again and calm down her nightmares...or will she? This movie was awesome! OK, first things off. Its fairly obvious that these guys were imitating Hithcocks style of directing. This movie came out just a few years after Hitchcocks Psycho did and it was just trying to ride on the tails of the popularity that Hitchcock had given to psychological thrillers. But so bleeping what? They did it right! I'm of the mind that if your going to imitate something you might as well do it the best way possible. And Freddi Francis did it with this here film.The movie looks great. Freddie Francis has been known for filling his movies with beautiful scenes with lush and vivid colors (just see Dracula Has Risen From the Grave to understand what I mean) but here even though the film is in black and white, the movie looks incredibly beautiful. The house is perfectly illuminated to evoke dark feelings of fright. To chill you to the bone, hallways are filled with shadows and streaks of light...scenes only lit by the soft flame of candlelight. Perfectly eerie illumination that really helps makes the movie all that more nerve wrecking.Standing true to its title, the film is filled with Nightmare-like sequences. Often times we will dwell into Janets mind and see the horrible nightmares that are tormenting her. Some of the sequences involving Janets vision were truly horrifying. There's this show stopping sequence in which Janet is seeing a lady in a long white dress and a scar on her face walking down a hallway that is incredibly creepy as hell! Anyhows, keeping its faithfulnes to Hitchcocks methods the film has a few twists and turns around the ending that end up being quite good. I enjoyed every second of them! The characters in the film (as they are in many of Hitchcocks films) are not squeaky clean perfectly honest people. I loved that about Hitchcocks films, how often times he would portray people as being really evil and not the "Leave it to Beaver" perfection that was seen back in those days. And here in Nightmare its no different. These characters are real scumbags and they will show their true colors by the end of the film.This movie doesn't have any major stars, but they deliver great performances non the less. In fact the fact that I had never seen any of these actors before really helped in creating a tense mood. I had no idea what to expect from these characters.All in all a really good suspenseful psychological thriller that will certainly not disappoint those in the mood for a good spooky mystery. Highly recommended.Rating: 5 out of 5

bensonmum2 I recently wrote a review of Hammer's Paranoiac and, for the most part, I feel like I could change the name and delete references to Oliver Reed and post it as an original review for Nightmare. Oh, sure, there are differences between the two when you start talking about specific plot points, but the general theme is the same. Like Paranoiac, Nightmare is the story of a young woman who is either going insane or being driven insane as part of a fiendish plot. The girl has visions of a woman roaming the halls of her house. When she follows the woman, she inevitably finds her lying on a bed with a knife stuck in her chest.If Nightmare excels at anything it's acting and atmosphere. The cast of non-Hammer regulars is wonderful. I've read that Jennie Linden was a last minute replacement to fill the role of the insane young woman. She's wonderfully believable in one of her first roles. I doubt that someone with considerable experience could have pulled it off so convincingly. As for atmosphere, I've always been of the belief that solid atmosphere is essential for an effective horror/thriller. And director Freddie Francis creates some very effective atmosphere. Everything from the sets to the cinematography to character reactions appears to have been designed to wring every last drop of atmosphere out of the script.I couldn't be happier with the recently released eight-movie Hammer Horror Series. While most fans will surely purchase the set for the better known Frankenstein, Dracula, and Werewolf movies, I hope that most are as pleasantly surprised by the lesser known B&W Hammer films as I am.