The Movie:

Directed by Don McBrearty in 1983, American Nightmare was actually shot entirely on location in Toronto using various seedy backdrops to nice effect. Originally released on VHS back during the horror boom of the eighties by Media, the film sees new life on DVD courtesy of Scorpion Releasing, who have done their best to give this ugly little duckling of a slasher movie the special edition treatment.

The story, scripted by John Sheppard, begins in a fleapit motel room where a hooker named Tanya (Alexandra Paul) is in bed, topless, as her 'john' comes over to her. We assume they're going to get it on, but nope, her companion (who we never see) comes up to her with rubber gloves on and promptly hacks her up with a blade so that he can leave with a tape of some sort. Shortly after we meet Eric (Lawrence Day), a popular musician who is out to try and track down his sister, Isabelle. Well, he tracks her down to the fleapit motel where we just saw Tanya get cut up. Turns out she's been using an alias and that she was also working at a local strip club (Yonge St. landmark The Zanzibar served as the location). He gets some information from a cross dressing male prostitute named Dolly (Larry Aubrey) and then heads out to see what he can see.

As Eric continues to investigate what has happened to his sister, he starts to fall for one of her stripper coworkers and has to deal not only with some grumpy cops lead by Sgt. Skylar (Michael Ironside) but also with his own father, who is puzzlingly nonchalant about his daughter's disappearance. Meanwhile, whoever killed Eric's poor sister has apparently enjoyed that first taste of blood and is more than happy to slice and dice a few more dancers should the opportunity present itself.

Produced by Paul Lynch, a prolific television director who also directed Prom Night, McBrearty's film features a couple of fairly effective murder set pieces but seems far more concerned with sleaze than with scares. Not only is the film padded with a few strip scenes but there's an incestuous subplot, plenty of action taking place in and around a porno movie/book store, and loads of gritty, grimy locations like dingy warehouses and the aforementioned fleapit hotel. Throw in countless strippers, a transvestite hooker and just a generally thick air of unpleasantness and, yeah, this one gets really sleazy really quickly. If this doesn't make it the most effective horror movie ever made, it does at least ensure that it's an interesting watch. Those with an affinity for seventies and eighties Times Square footage, when that part of Manhattan was at its worst, will no doubt appreciate seeing the now squeaky clean Yonge Street corridor as it once was.

As far as the performances go, Lawrence Day isn't the most charismatic leading man to ever hit the silver screen but he does a fine job with what's been handed to him. He gets a little melodramatic during the big twist at the end and looks more than a little out of place during some of the seedier location footage shots, but for the most part he's alright. Ironside is fun to watch as always and if he isn't as intense here as he has been in other Canuxploitation movies like Scanners and Visiting Hours his presence in the film is welcome. Lenore Zann shows up here as a dancer named Tina and is charming enough in her part as well, while Larry Aubrey provides some goofy comic relief throughout the movie as the high maintenance transvestite hooker.

If the movie isn't perfect it gives the audience pretty much everything they could want out of a movie like this - sex, nudity, violence, gore and sleazy locations that, combined with the gritty 16mm photography, make this an interesting time capsule of sorts. Toronto, like New York City, has been cleaned up considerably since this movie was made, and this movie offers a chance to see it as it was. On top of that, it's also pretty entertaining, if occasionally for puzzlingly bizarre reasons.

Video:

American Nightmare arrives on DVD from Scorpion Releasing in a fullframe transfer taken from elements that were not in the best of shape (a tape master provided by the licensor was the only usable source available). Colors fade, things occasionally look a little soft and some scenes are a bit on the murky side. Mild print damage is present throughout and detail isn't particularly strong. With that said, this is perfectly watchable so long as you go in with your expectations in check. The fact that the disc is nicely authored helps with this as there are no problems with compression artifacts or macroblocking to report. Will this picture blow you away? Nope, but to Scorpion's credit they seem to have done as well as can reasonably be expected with what elements were available to them.