AaronCapenBanner Freddie Francis directed this psychological suspense thriller that stars Jennie Linden as a young woman named Janet sent home from her boarding school after repeatedly waking up screaming from nightmares where she sees her mother stab her father to death, which really happened. Her guardian Henry(played by David Knight) and nurse Grace(played by Moira Redmond) try to help her, but Janet ends up in the asylum like her mother, though as it turns out, she is betrayed by those she trusted in an elaborate plot, which in turn boomerangs on them... Marginal film has effective direction and performances, but an overly complicated plot that ultimately doesn't ring true.

Woodyanders Sweet young Janet (well played by the fetching Jennie Linden) saw her mother brutally kill her father when she was only eleven years old. Janet now has nightmares about the horrific incident. Is she destined to go crazy just like her dear old mom? Or is something more sinister going on? Director Freddie Francis, working from a wickedly clever and compelling script by Jimmy Sangster, does his usual bang-up job of maintaining a steady pace and creating a truly eerie atmosphere (the bravura opening nightmare sequence is especially creepy and unnerving). Moreover, Linden makes for a strong and sympathetic troubled heroine; she receives excellent support from Moira Redmond as kindly nurse Grace, David Knight as her suave lawyer guardian Henry, Irene Richmond as protective escort Mary Lewis, Brenda Bruce as cheery housekeeper Mrs. Gibbs, George Cooper as loyal butler John, Clytie Jessop as the mysterious woman in white, and Isla Cameron as Janet's insane mother. John Wilcox's beautifully crisp black and white cinematography, Don Banks' lush moody'n'spooky orchestral score, and one whammy of a genuinely startling surprise twist ending further enhance the overall sound quality of this solid and satisfying thriller.

Steamcarrot After Psycho proved a hit, Hammer were only too happy to jump on the bandwagon and do their own psycho-thrillers which, to be honest, all had similar story lines involving, insanity, driving people to insanity, impostors, family solicitors, pots of cash waiting to be inherited etc etc etc and as many twists and turns that could possibly be put into the story. Nightmare is one of the, if not the, best of this Hammer sub-genre. A young girl witnesses her mother stab her father to death on her birthday and, not surprisingly, this leads to a breakdown and to nightmares, with the girl believing that she is going the same way as her mother i.e. buying the one-way ticket to the asylum. But is she? As always, nothing is as it seems. Admittedly you can usually spot the twists coming but it doesn't matter here. The look of the film is fantastic. A clean, crisp black and white that director Freddie Francis makes full use of and at times his visuals alone set your spine tingling. The opening scene of the film as the young girl walks down the darkened corridors looking for the voice that is calling her is one of Hammer's most haunting set pieces and a great start to the film. Where this film differs from the others is at the half-way point the focus switches from the young girl to two of the other up-to-now minor characters and the young girl doesn't appear too much afterwards. This doesn't jar as much as you might expect, as Francis paves the way by dropping hints and enticing the viewers with possible plots before this happens. The end of the film, although not totally unexpected is certainly satisfying. Yet another minor Hammer classic that's guaranteed to get your bumps goosed!

The_Void I've been a fan of Hammer horror for a while, and have only recently discovered this whole new side of theirs. Hammer have become synonymous with fun horror films, but their serious little black and white flicks show that they're certainly not limited to doing just what we know they're good at! Like Freddie Francis' Paranoiac a year earlier, Freddie Francis' Nightmare works through it's thick macabre atmosphere, tight plotting and great acting performances. The film is also very paranoid, which helps you to get under the skin of the plot and into the heads of the characters. The film starts off following young Janet. Janet's mother stabbed her father to death on her birthday many years ago and has spent her life in an insane asylum ever since. Janet is now having horrible dreams of her mother, and fears that she may go the same way...but after being sent home, her problems really start. The plot for this film is odd because once we reach the half-way point, it makes a full turnaround and we begin following two of the smaller characters from the first part of the film.The second half of the story is definitely more interesting than the first, so the switch is a good thing as far as I'm concerned. This film appears to have been an obvious influence on Pete Walker's exploitation flick 'Frightmare', as the two follow pretty much the same theme. Hammer's version of the story is far better, though. The ensemble cast here are excellent, with everyone giving a terrific performance. Jennie Linden is convincing as the young girl being terrified by her dreams and more than does justice to the role. The greatness of the plot can be summed up by the fact that I often find myself giving low ratings to Hammer's black and white films, simply because I love to see the colours that Hammer do so well. This film is so professionally handled, however, that the lack of colour doesn't harm the film at all - and actually helps it. The atmosphere would never be the same in colour, and the colours are made up for anyway by the wonderful use of lighting. On the whole, this isn't one of Hammer's most important films - but it is a very good one, and I highly recommend it! Just one thing to note...it's not recommended that you watch this film with a headache - there's a lot of screaming!