BA_Harrison Some old school friends each win a free weekend at Camp Paradise, the place where they all used to go on vacation together when they were younger. While there, a superhuman, growling man-beast bumps them off one-by-one (except for the couple making love outside… he kills both of them at the same time).On the slasher horror checklist, this one ticks all the boxes and then some: you got a group of horny teenagers in a remote woodland retreat, multiple kills, lots of gratuitous female nudity (all the girls gets their clothes off at some point), mullets, an old man who warns the kids "you're all going to die!, a flashback scene, an Indian burial ground and an ancient curse.So why the low rating? Well, there is not one ounce of originality in the whole thing, the kills occur mostly off-screen and are relatively gore-less (the kid having his arm torn off and the cop losing his head being the notable exceptions), the acting is atrocious (the OAP sheriff winning my award for worst performance), and a lot of the action is way too dark (except for some of the night-time woodland scenes which are back-lit with a 10000w blue lamp that can be seen from outer space).At the end, it should come as no surprise to anyone as to who has been behind the killings.3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for the party scene, which sees our happy campers making merry to some of the worst music imaginable. Those wild and crazy kids.

lost-in-limbo "Twisted Nightmare" won't pull out any surprises as it's a deranged, if run-of-a-mill camp-based slasher, but it does have some interesting novelties ranging from the fact it was filmed around the same time as "Friday the 13th Part 3" (to only be released a couple years later) and that in was shot in the same area as that film too. Those would remember the barn of doom (and again it seems to hold some sort of attraction).A group of old friends are mysteriously invited back to Camp Paradise, but no one has been there since the strange death of Matthew (a simple kid who was picked on by them). His death was unexplainable as he was turned into a scorching human torch and the body was never found. So the friends are together again along with Matthew's sister, but not too soon one-by-one the group start getting picked off.For being a low-end slasher it has its recycled conventions, but it was a competently done (on the technical side) for what it is. A quickie, but well delivered slasher that reminded me of a cheaper version of woodland slashers "The Burning" and "Madman". The killer is pretty much in the same mould as "Madman" --- an unstoppable scruffy brute that's disfigured and who likes to growl. The story is old-hat (despite an interesting back-story about how the campsite is cursed) with a sluggish beginning before getting on with things before leading onto a insanely predictable revelation, the forced dialogues are lame and the acting for most part is bad (leaden or ripe). However it does bestow a healthy body count throws about the nudity quite freely and has its nasty moments. Junky and cheesy, but entertaining. Director Peter Hunt uses the locations rather well, but it seems to work better during the night sequences with the cat and mouse chases between the bulky killer and self-obsessed victims. There are some atmospheric touches with beaming blue lighting and mist, but even then the vision can become quite murky and editing rather jerky (like the first death sequence). The death scenes are hit or miss, some coming off while others not so. Moments do become laughable, like the use of slow-motion. The music is an unhinged, but mangled mixture sounding ominous but then breaking into something sunny and bright.

Coventry Strictly speaking in terms of 80's slashers, "Twisted Nightmare" really isn't as bad as some of my fellow reviewers make it out to be. Admittedly the plot is overly simplistic, the pacing is a bit slow and the acting performances are humiliatingly bad, but there are also a handful of good aspects. The body count, for example, is quite high (around 12) for a low-budget slasher and practically all the female cast members go topless. And yes, they're all quite pretty. The murder sequences are also reasonably gruesome and the set pieces are guaranteed to be good as well, since the film used the exact same sets as one of the earlier "Friday the 13th" sequels. Two years after her brother died in a horrible camping accident, Laura and all of her high school friends return to the Camp Paradise site where they used to spend all their holidays together. The site is build on an ancient Indian burial ground, however, and Laura's mentally retarded brother died because he wandered off in the barn all by himself and spontaneously caught fire. On their first night already, some members of the group encounter a savage and forceful beast that clearly intends to slaughter the entire gang. Luckily the script doesn't elaborate too much on the whole Indian curse/desecrated burial ground aspect, because I'm quite allergic to Indian spells and gibberish after too many movies like "The Dark Power", "Poltergeist" etc… In fact, the script doesn't elaborate too much on anything. With all the butchering going on, there isn't much time left for plot development, tension building or surprise twists. The only sub plot centers on the "rescue attempt" of the local Sheriff who looks approximately 105 years of age. The acting performances are hilariously bad! Especially the beefcake Asia guy and the arrogant mustache bloke easily rank among the worst slasher victims in 80's horror history. "Twisted Nightmare" honestly isn't a complete waste of time. It's reminiscent to decent slashers like "The Burning", "Night of the Demon", "Madman" and it features a really cool axe-through-back-of- the-head kill.PS: the cover illustration on the IMDb page is NOT from "Twisted Nightmare", but from some David DeCoteau flick about an Aztec Mummmy

reptilicus I found this movie way back on a shelf in my closet. I had to blow the dust off the video box to read the title. With our curiosity aroused my wife and I sat down to watch it. When it was finished she made me promise to clean out the closet more often!Among the slasher sub-genre this is a forgotten film; and perhaps we'd all be better off if it stayed that way. It is certainly disjointed enough to seem like a dream and there are plot points which we think will be important but which are forgotten immediately after they are introduced. The film begins with an American Indian Medicine Man being burned at the stake by Cavalry troops for allegedly practising black magic. He vows to return from the dead for revenge. Flash forward 200 years (give or take a decade) to some college pals returning to a campsite where they spent a summer holiday a few years before.Now here is where the plot gets going. The retarded brother of one of the kids was burned to death in an accident, after which the group all went their separate ways; apparently through a collective feeling of guilt. Hardly has night fallen before someone starts getting rid of the visitors one by one in increasingly gory ways. Is it a resurrected Indian spirit? Has the burned boy come back from the dead? Does the dead boy's sister know more than she is saying about what is happening? Will you hit the fast forward button on the remote? Only the answer to the last question is obvious!The plot is so full of holes even the minimal gore cannot save the plot. In fact the few bloody moments are photographed so dark you can barely see what is happening. The "tearing an arm out by the roots" scene was done much better, and clearer, in the equally obscure Bigfoot movie NIGHT OF THE DEMON.This one is for lovers of obscure movies only . . . and even they will come away from it scratching their heads in disbelief.