lost-in-limbo Not to be confused with Peter Walker's 1974 British shocker of the same title, the early 80s "Frightmare" was a cheesy low-budget supernatural slasher made the more interesting for it having Jeffrey Combs taking on his first main role. Other than that it was an unmemorable drawn-out fare, which sadly had a fun macabre premise which had shades of "Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things", "The House of Seven Corpses", "Theatre of Death" and "One Dark Night" but the execution while proficient was stodgily drab with little imagination. Although some atmosphere did find its way in, especially with the fog machine getting a good workout within its shadowy foundation. After the death of a legendary horror actor, a group of film students steal his corpse from the crypt and go about fooling around with it within the house where the actor had made some of his best pictures. However they didn't count on the actor's corpse coming back to life to exact revenge on them. Ferdy Mayne's histrionically high maintenance turns as horror icon Conrad Radzoff is full of Grand Guignol as he comes back as a vengeful corpse reliving his glory horror days. In murderous impulses, he starts getting migraines (well that's what it looks like)… actually he's using mind control as he goes knocking off the obnoxiously detestable bunch of characters which featured the likes of Scott Thompson, Luca Bercovici and Nita Talbot as the actor's selfish wife. These were a rowdy bunch you cheered, when they succumb to their grisly fate. Of the lot, Bercovivi and Comb's deaths were the picks. The offbeat script (namely with those live interactive moments) is disjointed and gets a bit repetitive, but it had an amusingly diabolical sense of humour to go along with its cheap jolts and crazy low-rent special effects. A silly, slipshod b-horror movie."Let's call it a wrap".

Backlash007 ~Spoiler~ Frightmare is a cheesy horror romp from my favorite decade: the 80's. It's about an aging horror icon named Conrad Radzoff who is very much modeled after the look of Christopher Lee and the attitude of Bela Lugosi. He dies from a stroke and, in accordance to his wishes, gets a lavish funeral in which he will play his final role (he's even buried in his Dracula costume...like Lugosi). After the funeral some devoted young fans want to pay their respects to their favorite fright star. How do they do this you ask? By breaking into his crypt and stealing his corpse for a farewell party. Talk about having no respect for the dead. Clearly this is not a sympathetic bunch of characters and they get what's coming to them. In this film, you're actually supposed to root for the monster I believe. Conrad is soon revived (with no real explanation) and starts bumping off the teens in formulaic fashion. The pace is a little slow and some of the death scenes are really silly but I expected that. I also expected bad acting but was pleasantly surprised in that regard. 80's horror fans will recognize a few principal cast members. Ferdy Mayne, who plays Conrad, was in such classics as Howling II and Night Train to Terror. Luca Bercovici and Scott Thomson were both in the 3-D vehicle Parasite, not to mention that Bercovici directed Thomson in the epic Ghoulies. And, last but not least, there is a very early appearance by a young Jeffrey Combs. That's actually the reason why I rented this film. Unfortunately he's not the hero of the piece. So unless you're a Combs devotee or just love 80's schlock, you probably won't dig Frightmare.

pumaye Not really bad this peculiar mix of teen slasher and 30's horror movie, with good direction, creepy atmosphere, Jeffrey Combs in one of his earliest role, and a very good lead in the role of the old horror star returning from the grave to punish his fans (well, they have stolen his body and made fun of his corpse, so they deserve their fate). To search, find and enjoy

Evolvist Look, this movie is obscure, brilliant, and a classic that should sought out by any means necessary. I suppose the powers that be have decided that it will forever be relegated towards the bargin bin; nevertheless, we could only pray for the chance to see this one on DVD. I would say that it even beats the great Phatasm. If you like a dark movie, with plenty of spooky imagery, look for this one and see how an 80s horror movie is suppose to be.